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The link to the Fondation Correspondance project in the previous letter was incorrect. This letter contains the correct link. Please accept our sincere apologies.
EDITORIAL
Some encouraging statistics: on 31 December 2001 there were about 2,600 of you signed up for the weekly news bulletin and, despite all the problem we had with the server changeover, about 150 new readers have signed up for the bulletin since the beginning of the year.
For your information, the site received slightly more than 1.3 million visitors last year, in other words, the same as in 2000. This double result is very heartening but also sets the measure of the responsibility which we bear towards you all. Rest assured then that this letter will continued to be written with passion with the aim of keeping everyone better informed about what's going on in the Napoleonic world.
To thank you for your continuing support, we are currently considering ways of giving special extras to readers of the letter, such as pre-publication offers and other advantages. These will be the subject of extraordinary letters, although we will take care not to start sending you Napoleonic 'spam'.
All the best.
Thierry Lentz
directeur de la Fondation Napoléon
THE FONDATION NAPOLEON's 2002 PROGRAMME
The Fondation Napoléon has decided to gather together and publish the entire correspondance of Napoleon I and to this end it created, on 1 February, 2002, a Publishing Committee for the Correspondance of Napoleon I.
This grand project, which often been dreamed of but never realised, will consist of the collection and publication of tens of thousands of letter either written or dictated by Napoleon. The Committee is on the one hand to undertake the comparison with their originals of all the letters already published (scattered in about 50 book published at different times and in different places) and on the other to approach the great archives and private collections for the complementary material.
Details concerning the members of the Committee and the partners in the project can be found on the Fondation Napoléon News page.
A FIRST: the Napoleonic e-book!
Very soon, the first Napoleonic e-books - notably Autour de l"'empoisonnement" de Napoléon, and Madelin's biography of Fouché - will available.
To keep up to date with this project, visit the web site of Nouveau Monde Editions.
THIS MONTH'S PAINTING
The Colossus, by Goya: the painter began this enigmatic painting in 1808 just when the Peninsular War was beginning. A giant walks, a crowd flees, the image of a country in chaos.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
9 February, 1802 (20 Pluviôse, An X), the new government of the 'Repubblica Italiana' (name coined by Napoleon during the talks at Lyons) was installed in Milan: Melzi chose Prina as the first minister of finance.
Giuseppe Prina (1766-1814), extremely competent and a tireless worker, was to become a key figure in the 'Repubblica Italiana': he organised the financial administration along French lines, created a new currency, stablised the national debt, undertook a cadastral survey, etc. However, the continually mounting military expenses caused his downfall. Angry crowds revolted (spurred on by Prina's rivals) and he was murdered by the mob, in Milan, 20 April, 1814.
Founded on 24 February, 1801 (5 Ventôse, An IX), the Internat des hôpitaux de Paris was an independant medical school setting faculty exams which was open to all those who passed an exam. The aim of the school was to provide personnel for the "hospices" (19th-century name given to hospitals). On 10 February, 1802 (4 Ventôse, An X) the school set its first entrance exam: of the 64 candidates, 24 were appointed. The degree was four years long.
The month of February was marked by Carnival celebrations, which took place throughout Paris almost every day: on 13 February, 1802 (24 Pluviôse, An X), "the number of mascarades and disguises was considerable. This was particularly the case for the Boulevard du Temple and the Rue Saint-Antoine where whole crowds were wearing masks. Of particularly note was a carriage pulled by four horses in which there were masked figures representing the older orders: the nobility, the clergy and the 'tiers état'. […] That evening the guinguettes (open-air cafés), cabarets, cafés and shows were full to bursting with people. […] There were two balls, one at the Veillée near to the Palais de justice and the other at the Hôtel de Longueville."
(Report of the Préfecture de police of 26 Pluviôse, An X).
THE BIBLIOTHEQUE M. LAPEYRE
The Bibliothèque M. Lapeyre - Fondation Napoléon, 148 boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris, is open to readers Monday, 1pm to 6pm, Tuesday, 4pm to 9pm, Wednesday, 1pm to 6pm, and Thursday, from 10am to 3pm.
(Metro - Miromesnil (lines 9 and 13); Public underground carpark - Haussmann).
LIBRARY NEWSFLASH: exceptionally, the library will be closed Thursday 7 March, 2002, but will open (also exceptionally) Friday 8 march, 2002 from 1pm to 6pm.
NAPOLEONICA.ORG: napoleonic primary source documents on line
The Fondation Napoléon's primary source site, napoleonica.org offers to researchers and enthusiasts alike a majority of the papers from the Napoleonic Conseil d'Etat (1800-1814), an album of sketches of the members of that Conseil d'Etat, and the correspondence between Napoleon and Bigot de Préameneu (of paramount importance for the religious and political history of France, 1800 to 1815), as well as a collection of 47 texts concerning the proclamation of the First Empire, brought together for the first time since 1804.
Wishing you a very enjoyable, Napoleonic, week.
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THIS WEEK:
- our Press Review bringing you information about articles published, snippets of information:
- The saga continues... ex-rue Richepance: the residents fight back!
- Rare Napoleonic postcards of the Russian Campaign
- A taiwanese web site on Napoleon
- Napoleon's Haitian guerilla war
AGENDA
- exposition: Jean-Baptiste Wicar (1762-1834)
- conference: The Society for French Historical Studies, 48th Annual Meeting
The monthly titles: in February,
- Book of the Month: Napoleone by Luigi Mascilli Migliorini
- In Pictures, The Colossus by Goya
- in the Reading Room, an article by Arie Ribon on the death of Napoleon
- In the Collectors Corner, the Franc: an 1806 five-franc piece
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