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THIS MONTH'S BOOK
BARRELL John, The Spirit of Despotism: Invasions of Privacy in the 1790s
How was the social and cultural life of Britain affected by the fear that the French Revolution would spread across the channel? In this [...] engagingly written and profusely illustrated book, John Barrell, well-known for his studies of the history, literature, and art of the period, argues that the conflict between the ancien régime in Britain and the emerging democratic movement was so fundamental that it could not be contained within what had previously been thought of as the 'normal' arena of politics.
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200 YEARS AGO
On 6 March, 1806, further measures were taken in terms of Press censorship. Napoleon wrote both to Monsieur Lavalette, Director of the Post and (more specifically) Director of the censorship office (Correspondence n°9931), and to Joseph Fouché, Police Minister (Correspondance n°9932), to complain about the way in which politics was treated in the newspapers. For Napoleon, it was a question of putting "a curb on the newspapers" which counter-productively published alarmist reports of Russian troop manoeuvres. Napoleon then wrote to Talleyrand informing him of his decision that: "the articles in the Moniteur should be written by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. And after I have spent a month reviewing the quality of these reports, the only discussion of politics I shall allow in the other newspapers will be the republication of the articles from the Moniteur." (Correspondance n°9933).
It was Napoleon and not Fouché who played the key role with respect to press censorship. The emperor had already written to the police chief on 28 April, 1805 (Correspondence n°8649): "Reform of the press is soon to take place; because it is simply too foolish to have newspapers which […], either by wickedness or ineptitude, hawk all the rumours perfect for alarming commerce… » Censorship thereafter became ever more stringent, with the newspapers being forced to submit their accounts to the police.
10 March, 1806, death of the legal specialist François Denis Tronchet (1726-1806). Having trained as a lawyer, Tronchet became famous for being one of the defense counsels for Louis XVI. On becoming a member of the Cour de Cassation after the Coup d'Etat of 18 Brumaire, he was made a member of the commission appointed to draw up the Code Civil and in which he played a key role…
For further information, see Tronchet's biography here on the site.
And also:
On 7 March, 1806, a funeral service of great pomp took place at Notre-Dame Cathedral "for the warriors who had died at the Battle of Austerlitz. The façade and the interior were draped in black crepe." (Gazette de France, 8 March).
On 9 March, 1806, a new hairstyle hit the streets of Paris, the Vespasian: "a wig maker, having noticed that the emperor Vespasian had the hair at the back of his head cut very short, decided to have his own hair shaved in the same way, but this time right up to the level of his ears. He thus started a trend which was in the end useful since it dealt the frequent problem that overly high coat collars would rub against the wearer's hair, causing it to stick up."
Journal des Dames et des Modes, 10 March, 1806
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150 YEARS AGO
On 8 March, 1856, an article was published in the Moniteur Universel regarding the construction by the architect Victor Baltard (1805-1874) of the "Halles centrales" (the famous Parisian trade fresh-food market), which the author Emile Zola was famously to describe as the "Belly of Paris" (1873). The "Halles centrales", the work for which began in 1851, were completed in 1857, and they "gave a fine example of of the immense possibilities which can be derived from the use of iron and steel in large public buildings." "The surface covered is to measure 30,000 m2. And if you include the wide service roads which surround and also cross the site, you get a commercial surface of 60,000 m2."
(The Moniteur Universel, 8 March, 1856, p.270)
For details of the area today, click here.
For details on Baltard here on the site, visit the following links.
Baltard Pavilion
The Halles covered food market - Baltard Pavilion
Saint Augustin Church
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On 8 March, 1856, a new production of Bellini's two-act opera Norma (1831) opened at the Théâtre impérial des Italiens in Paris. The star of the show (despite being at the end of a thirty-year career) was title-role soprano soprano Giulia Grisi (1811-1869). (Moniteur universel, 8 March, 1856)
Giulia Grisi, (1811-1869), born in Milan, grew up in a family of musicians. Her father was a soldier in the Napoleonic armies of Italy, her mother was soprano, and she was the niece of famous Consulate- and Empire-period contralto "La Grassini", in other words Josephina (or Giuseppina) Grassini (1773-1850) who sang before Bonaparte in Milan 1800 after Marengo and became one of his mistresses. Rossini and Bellini spotted Giulia as a young and talented soprano in 1828, and although she played Adalgisa in the premier, she was the first to play the role of Norma in France. It was for her that Bellini wrote the role of Elvira in I Puritani (The Puritans). She ruled the opera world for more than thirty years. In 1856 she became the common-law wife of the great 19th-century tenor Giovanni Matteo Mario (1810-1883).
For full details on La Grisi, see here.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 360, 3 - 9 March, 2006
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© this Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon.
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THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
SNIPPETS
Napoleonic sugar bowl online
WEB SITES
- Wellington's Spies and codebreakers, Sir Colquhoun Grant and General George Scovell.
Go to the Napoleonic directory and select 'History' in the web sites scroll bar menu.
WHAT'S ON
- Fairs:
The 13th International Napoleonic Fair, St Albans, UK
National Living History Fayre, Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, near Royal Leamington Spa, UK
- Re-enactments:
Napoleon at Golfe-Juan 2006: 11th re-enactment of the emperor's landing
- Conferences and Talks:
Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, 1750-1850, Atlanta, 2006
- Exhibitions:
Napoléon an intimate portrait, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
"Battle in a sittingroom." The Austerlitz wallpaper, Museo Napoleonico, Rome, Italy
In the Service of Napoleon. The Dutch in time of War 1792-1815, Delft, Netherlands
Napoleon on Campaign, the emperor's bivouac, at the Arc de triomphe de l'Etoile, Paris, France
Napoleone e il Piemonte. Capolavori ritrovati, Alba, Italy
- Entertainments:
Thursdays at the Museum of Florida History, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Got a problem with the letter? Try the home page: http://www.napoleon.org<<
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