Festival presentation
“The last love, an English witness who sheds new light on Napoleon on St Helena and the cinema on the Napoleonic epic” (“L’ultimo amore, un testimone inglese che getta nuova luce su Napoleone a Sant’Elena e il cinema sull’epica napoleonica) will be the theme of the “Tre serate con Napoleone” 2022.
These events will take place in the cloister of Santa Caterina at the Real Collegio di Lucca [Royal College of Lucca] on Monday 22, Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 August 2022 at 9.30 pm, with free admission.
They are proposed by the association Napoleone e Elisa: da Parigi alla Toscana, in partnership with the summer activities of the project “Da Parigi alla Toscana: il gusto di vivere al tempo di Napoleone ed Elisa” [From Paris to Lucca: a taste for life at the time of Napoleon and Elisa], conceived by Roberta Martinelli, part of the “Vivi Lucca 2021” programme of the Municipality of Lucca. These events were produced with the contribution of the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Foundation and in collaboration with the Souvenir Napoléonien.
Professors Peter Hicks, professor of history and head of international relations at the Fondation Napoléon in Paris, Pier Dario Marzi, a film expert, and the Italian film director Orlando Forioso are the guests of the three evenings.
Peter Hicks’s talk
On Tuesday 23 August, at 9;30pm the Real Collegio di Lucca [Royal College of Lucca] will host a lecture by Peter Hicks, International Affairs Manager at the Fondation Napoléon, on “Four Englishmen visiting Napoleon on Elba, 1814”,
“At the end of his career (1814-1815), Napoleon had to meet an increasing number of British people. Politicians, sailors, doctors, soldiers, administrators… the list is long. Only on Elba did 61 people come to see him, all sent by the British crown. On the voyage to exile on St Helena, on Northumberland, Napoleon recalled in his reflections 4 (“left-wing” we would say today) members of Parliament who regarded Napoleonic France as a model to be followed, at least in its onsulat version. These British politicians were Viscount Ebrington, Mr George Granville Venables Vernon (Lord Holland’s cousin, the ‘leader of the party’ of the Left), his friend John Nichols Fazakerly and the very young Frederick Sylvester North Douglas. Another British visitor to Napoleon on Elba, hitherto forgotten by historians, was the Catholic nobleman George Silvertop (1775-1849), a landowner from the county of Northumberland. At St Helena (in March 1817), Napoleon confessed to his physician, Barry O’Meara, that the conversation with Silvertop had prompted him to attempt a return. This conversation sheds light on this new witness to Napoleon on Elba, on Napoleon’s alleged ‘political disengagement’, on his attitudes, his thoughts, his manipulation of British visitors, his inexhaustible capacity to imagine future possibilities.”
Detailled program of the 3 evenings (in Italian)
Contact – Ufficio stampa Progetto “Da Parigi alla Toscana: il gusto di vivere al tempo di Napoleone ed Elisa”, Anna Benedetto : 347.40.22.986; anna.benedetto.lucca@gmail.com