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THIS WEEK IN THE BULLETIN
This week's bulletin has a very international feel to it. We bring you: a book published in Britain on French military tactics as book of the month; photographs of the recent act of remembrance on the Berezina in Bielorussia; the restoration of a Second Empire institution in Paris; the sumptuous exhibition of the symbols of Napoleonic power in Boston (with a nice interactive web feature); a regatta in Venice (with a painting by Borsato); the plague in Lisbon; the Suez canal in Trieste; and, back in Paris, a concert on a Cliquot/Cavaillé-Coll organ by great composer Saint-Saëns.
Enjoy!
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THIS MONTH'S BOOK
GRIFFITH Paddy, DENNIS Peter, French Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792–1815
It is not often that a book on military tactics can enthuse a layman, but this little gem gives a clear account of how the French army actually fought during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. With its clear illustrations and carefully written text, this book is perfect for the non-specialist who wants to understand the arcane of line and column.
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195th ANIVERSARY OF THE CROSSING OF THE BEREZINA
On Sunday 25 November, 2007, in the Studienka cemetery (80 km north-east of Minsk in Bielorussia), 195 years to the day of the famous crossing, the bodies of 223 soldiers from the huge multinational force which was the Grande Armée in Russia and one Russian soldier, discovered in 2005 (and identified by their uniform buttons) were reburied in the presence of French and Bielorussian officials and representatives from the Fondation Napoléon, the Souvenir Napoléonien and the Centre d'études napoléoniennes in Boulogne.
25 November 2007 © DR
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OFFICIAL INAUGURATION OF THE RENOVATED FONDATION EUGENE NAPOLEON
The Fondation Eugéne Napoléon was founded in the 12th arrondissement in Paris by the Empress Eugénie as an establishment for poor girls and named after her son, the Prince Impérial. It later became a girls' school, but this was to fall upon hard times, with the building almost becoming ruined. It was to be saved by the Mairie de Paris and French Catholic schools board. Wednesday 28 November saw the official inauguration of the newly refurbished building on the 150th anniversary of the founding. The new archbishop of Paris, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, and Paris mayor, Bertrand Delanoë presided and a concert was given by the new occupants, the children's choir, the Petits chanteurs à la Croix de bois.
Fresco from the chapel in the Fondation Eugène Napoléon © EPC
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EXHIBITION: SYMBOLS OF POWER: NAPOLEON AND THE ART OF THE EMPIRE STYLE, 1800-1815, AT THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON, USA
Napoleon appropriated emblems of power from antiquity, especially Egypt and Rome, and linked his reign with those of the great civilizations of the past. The exhibition, ”Symbols of Power”, is the first ever attempt to give a comprehensive survey of the decorative arts of the First Empire, giving examples of the iconography of the regime in virtually every visual medium. There are more than 190 exhibits —including furniture, silver, porcelain, bronzes, jewellery, textiles, wallpapers, metalwork, and painting— some of which highly significant works and others which have never been exhibited outside France. Visit also the Interactive part of the exhibition on the Museum of Fine Arts' website.
PhD DEFENCE
Stéphane Desrousseaux, winner of a Fondation Napoléon Research Grant (2002) successfully defended his PhD thesis on Thursday 29 November, 2007. For his thesis on “Money in circulation during the Napoleonic period”, he was awarded a distinction “très honorable à l'unanimité du jury”. We send him our heartiest congratulations.
200 YEARS AGO
On the anniversary day of the coronation and the battle of Austerlitz, 2 December, 1807, the city of Venice offered to Napoleon a sumptuous regata. The celebration was to be immortalised by the painter Giuseppe Borsato with a painting entitled: The Emperor presiding over the regatta in Venice, 2 December, 1807.
150 YEARS AGO
Suez Canal
Ferdinand de Lesseps launched a subscription on 5 November, 1857, to finance the building of the Suez Canal and then quartered Europe and the near east in search of support and investors. The Moniteur universel dated 1 December, 1857, recounted his visit to Trieste on 18 November, 1857, where he was received the the Austrian governor, the General Baron de Mertens and “the great and good” of Trieste.
Why not revisit our dossier on the Suez Canal?
Portugal
The Moniteur Universel dated 4 December, 1857, reported that the yellow fever epidemic in Lisbon was continuing unabated. In the period 9 September to 17 November, 1857, there had been 10,556 cases of contamination and 3,550 deaths. Amongst the measures taken in France to limit the spread, steamboats from Antwerp and Rouen would not longer harbour in Lisbon.
Music
On 4 December, 1857, the great composer and musician Camille Saint-Saëns gave a concert in the church of Saint Merry, in Paris (the church where he was organist from 1853 to 1857). The concert was to inaugurate the Cliquot organ (1781) recently restored by the renowned organ builders and restorers, Cavaillé-Coll. Saint Saëns played a fantaisie of his own composition, part of a sonata by Mendelssohn and a fugue in D by Bach. A retiring collection was taken in aid of the poor. (Moniteur Universel, 5 December, 1857).
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 436, 30 November - 6 December, 2007
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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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NB - Erratum
Last week's bulletin mentioned reprints of books by Gunther Rothenburg, but did not mention that the Professor had in fact passed away several years ago. Please accept our apologies for the oversight.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
WHAT'S ON
Conferences:
- Monarchy and Exile, London, UK
Exhibitions:
- Indispensable nécessaires, Reuil-Malmaisons, France
- Désiré's photographs of the Suez canal, Musée de la Marine, Paris, France
- Gustave Courbet's works, Grand Palais, Paris, France
- Empress Josephine's Malmaison Collection, Somerset House, London, UK
- At the court of Louis Napoleon, first King of Holland (1806-1810), Paris, France
- 1807-2007: 200 years of economic life and consular justice, Paris, France
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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