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THIS MONTH'S PAINTING
Officier de chasseurs à cheval de la garde impériale chargeant (Officer of the Chasseurs à Cheval of the Garde Impériale charging), by Théodore Géricault
It was at the Salon of 1812 that Théodore Géricault, a young painter fascinated by the spectacle of his time, exhibited this his first masterful painting. Géricault's inspiration for the work came from the simple street scene of a cart horse bolting, but he transformed it into a monumental equestrian portrait of Alexandre Dieudonné,. © CGFA
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200 YEARS AGO
On 10 May, 1806, the Université napoléonienne (Napoleonic university) was founded (the decrees of application were published in March 1808)
Ever since the founding of the Consulate, one of Napoleon's primary aims was to take public education in hand, faced with the rise of private educational establishments, both religious and lay. For the First Consul and later Emperor, «public education was the remit of the state». Not only was he keen to create secondary schools and colleges, he also wished to create a strong institution which bore his name. In 1806 it was decided that a sort of congregation of teachers should be formed and that this would take the name of University. This was in effect the return of the universities which had disappeared in France on 15 September, 1793, when the Convention created the specialist Grandes Ecoles such as the Conservatoire des arts et métiers and the Ecole des beaux-arts.
A project for legislation was proposed on 6 May, 1806: « Art. 1: A body shall be created, named the Imperial University, whose role will be teaching and public education throughout the empire. Art. 2.: Members of this teaching body will have special, temporary civil duties. Art. 3: The way in which the teaching body is organised will be enshrined in law by the Corps législatif at its session in 1810.» (Gazette nationale ou Le Moniteur universel, 7 May, 1806). Whilst the terms were deliberately imprecise, this law was in fact to create a university which would have a monopoly on teaching, which would include all educational establishments in the Empire, and which would have a teaching body which was entirely devoted to the institution.
When the application decrees were voted on 17 March, 1808, the new articles gave greater precision: «Art. 1: Public teaching throughout the empire is the exclusive remit of the Imperial University. Art. 2: No school or any other educational establishment may be created outside the Imperial University or without the authorisation of its governor. Art. 3: No one may open a school or teach publicly without being a member of the University or a graduate of its faculties. However, teaching in seminaries is to be run by the archbishops and bishops in the different dioceses .... Art. 38. All the University schools must take as their basis for teaching: 1) the precepts of the Catholic religion; 2) fidelity to the emperor, to the imperial monarchy, depositary of the happiness of the peoples, and to the Napoleonic dynasty, which preserves the unity of France and all the liberal ideas proclaimed by the Constitutions... ». The first Grand Master of the Imperial University was Louis Fontanes.
In May, 1806, restoration took place of what used to be called the Hôtel Beaujon (named after the financier who owned the building in 1773), but which is better known as Hôtel Elysée-Bourbon or Elysée Palace, bought by Joachim Murat, Duc de Berg et de Clèves: «The garden has also been restored to its initial state. This has been made bigger by giving back to it parts of the garden which had been removed.» (La Gazette de France, 8 May, 1806)
Erected in 1718 by the architect Mollet for Henri-Louis de la Tour d'Auvergne, comte d'Evreux, this town mansion was bought by Murat and his wife Caroline Bonaparte on 6 August, 1805. The house and English garden were in a parlous state, requiring a great deal of restoration and alteration: the chapel was turned into a ballroom and dining room and a new ramped staircase decorated with golden palms was built in the vestibule.
When he became King of Naples in 1808, Murat had to hand over his properties to the crosn and the mansion was renamed Elysée-Napoléon.
For more details click here.
150 YEARS AGO
1856, Pierre Larousse (1817-1875), published his Nouveau dictionnaire de la langue française (New Dictionary of the French Language). 752 pages long, this dictinoary was to sell 5 million copies in the period up to 1905, when the first version was superceded by the renowned Petit Larousse.
As an ex-school teacher and bookseller, Pierre Larousse had had first-hand experience of the difficulties caused by the multitude of dialects (Breton, Berrichois, Provençal, to name but three what could be almost described as separate languages) used in France at the time and realised (along with the great educationalists of the period) that the way forward could only be in the adoption and use in France of a single language. His first pillar in his educational edifice was a grammar of French entitled La Lexicologie des écoles (A lexicology for schools). The second was the dictionary. The last was the gigantic Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIX siècle, 17 volumes published from 1863 to 1876, (consultable at the Fondation) which in effect killed Larousse and which was to be completed by his nephew Jules Hollier.
One of the principal ideas which Larousse held onto throughout his life was the education of everyone. His dictionary was no exeception. In it, each of the definitions is accompanied a multitude of examples as an aid to comprehension: for Larousse a dictionary without examples was like a skeleton with no flesh on it.
For more on Pierre Larousse, click here.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 370, 5 - 11 May, 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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SOLEMN MASS IN HONOUR OF NAPOLEON AND THE SOLDIERS OF THE GRANDE ARMEE
On 6 May at the cathedral of Saint-Louis des Invalides in Paris, a solemn mass will be celebrated at 11am (please arrive before 10-45am) in memory of Napoleon (d. 5 May, 1821) and the soldiers of the Grande Armée. The officiant will be Mons. Patrick Le Gal, bishop to the French army.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
ON THE WEB
- Napoleonic images on the web site of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF)
Go to the Napoleonic Directory and select Museums in the web sites scroll bar menu
- Washington's National Library of Congress web presentation of Franco-American relations: France in America
Go to the Napoleonic Directory and select History in the web sites scroll bar menu
WHAT'S ON
Commemorations:
- Tolentino 815, Tolentino, Italy
- Plancenoit 2006: 8th Napoleonic Bivouac, Plancenoit, Belgium
- Pultusk 2006, Pultusk, Poland
- Jena 1806-2006 - Rendezvous in Thuringia The "Journées de Thuringe 2006" and the bicentenary of the Battle of Jena/Auerstädt
Exhibitions:
- Il tempo dell'Imperatore: gli orologi restaurati delle residenze di Napoleoni all'Elba, Elba, Italy
- Treasures of the Fondation, Mexico 2006, Monterrey, Mexico
- Napoléon an intimate portrait, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
- "Battle in a sittingroom." The Austerlitz wallpaper, Museo Napoleonico, Rome, Italy
- "Beauty celebrating power": Vincenzo Monti in the Napoleonic period, Milan, Italy
- Louis Napoleon: at the court of the first King of Holland, 1806-1810, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
- 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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