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THIS WEEK'S LETTER
Top of the list this week is the book of the month for November, A Great & Glorious Victory - New Perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar, which is edited by Richard Harding. To accompany the description, we also have a short web-interview that serves as an introduction to the book. Next up, the latest section of Napoleon.org III to be highlighted is the Napoleonica digital resources search engine, an extremely useful tool that will seek out full-text online documents at the touch of a few buttons. Following closely behind is our latest recommendation from Napoleonica. La Revue, and in a respectable fourth-place, we have another interview for you. This time, Jacques-Olivier Boudon guides you through his new work on Jerome Bonaparte, which also happens to be book of the month for the French side of the website. Bringing up the rear is our look at events from 200 and 150 years ago. Finally, take a peek to the right and you will find our ever-so-useful magazine. There we have links to recently published books, details of the first edition of the Associazione Amici della Biblioteca Militare Italiana and issue n° 103 of First Empire and information on upcoming conferences and exhibitions.
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JUST PUBLISHED
Book of the month
A Great & Glorious Victory - New Perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar, Richard Harding
This month's book is the collection of essays presented at the international conference held in October 2005 in Portsmouth (UK) on the bicentenary anniversary of the battle Trafalgar. It offers some of the most up-to-date scholarship of the naval battle and includes articles by Admiral Rémy Monach (Grand Prix, Fondation Napoléon 2005), Michael Broers (Grand Prix, Fondation Napoléon 2006), Agustin Guimera and the Fondation's historian and chargé des relations internationales, Peter Hicks. We took the opportunity to ask Richard Harding a few questions about the collection:
Web interview with Richard Harding, editor of A Great & Glorious Victory - New Perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar
Why was this collection of essays published?
The bicentenary of Trafalgar produced an unusually rich output of research. Naval battles of the nineteenth century do not normally generate that kind of interest, but on this occasion scholars of many nations and with many different special research interests contributed to enriching our understanding of the battle. Equally important, this output reflects what the battle means people today. This collection of essays was a snapshot of the work as the year drew to a close and is representative both of the work done on the battle itself and on the impact of the battle in Britain and France at the time and later.
What does this collection of essays represent?
Click here to read the rest of the interview.
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NAPOLEONICA DIGITAL RESOURCES
Continuing our in-depth investigation of Napoleon.org III and its features, this week we are highlighting the Napoleonica digital resources search engine. All you have to do is type in a search keyword, decide on the language options and click search! This directory will then trawl through the various written text and document pages available on the internet (including Project Gutenberg and Google Books) and present you with the full-text document links that correspond with your search terms. Simple, quick and a real time-saver! You can even select a specific author if you know exactly what you are looking for. Try it with "Mémorial" to bring up Las Cases' journal from St. Helena or even "War and Peace", if you're looking for an electronic English version of Tolstoy's epic work. With access to nearly 2,000 documents, books and documents, it really is a fantastic weapon in your research armoury.
Click here to go to the digital resources page.
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INTERVIEW
Jacques-Olivier Boudon
The book of the month for the French side of the website is Jacques-Olivier Boudon's Le Roi Jérôme, frère prodigue de Napoléon. With this in mind, we offer you the translation of Emmanuelle Papot's short interview with the author.
Click here to read the interview and click here for information about the book.
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200 YEARS AGO
Jet lag
After the meeting at Erfurt, Napoleon returned quickly to Paris before setting off for Spain on 29 October. On Thursday 3 November, Napoleon arrived in Bayonne having sprinted across France in under a week. At 3am, he wrote to Joseph: "I have just this moment arrived in Bayonne...I am a little tired." (Letter from Napoleon to Joseph dated 3 November 1808, correspondance n° 14430)
After spending the night in Bayonne, he continued on to Tolosa before taking command of the army at Vitoria on 5 November. Despite the preoccupation of operations in Spain, Napoleon still found time to send a letter to Murat in Napoli, expressing his displeasure at the manner in which he was informed of the capture of Capri: "A note from your minister of exterior relations informed me of the official capture of Capri; this is ridiculous. Capri was taken by my troops and I should have learnt of it from my own minister of war, to whom you should report. In this respect, care must be taken to avoid causing injury to me and the French army." (Letter from Napoleon to Murat dated 4 November 1808, Correspondance n° 14436)
150 YEARS AGO
Italian matters
Following the secret meeting between Napoleon III and the Piedmontese minister, Count Cavour, at Plombières (21 July 1858), the French emperor resolved to 'liberate' the Italian states from Austrian influence as part of his project to reunite France with Nice and Savoy. However, French intervention in Italy required the support, or at least the benediction, of Russia. The Prince Napoleon was sent to Warsaw to conduct secret preliminary meetings with Alexander II. The question remained however of how to follow up these meetings and get a man capable of conducting the discussions to St. Petersburg without arousing suspicion. The Prince Napoleon came up with the idea of Captain La Roncière Le Noury, who had commanded the warship Reine Hortense during the Prince's scientific expedition in the North Sea in 1856. Napoleon III was very satisfied with the suggestion and indicated so in his letter: "My dear Napoleon, - I am delighted with your discovery. Arrange matters so that he leaves shortly." (Letter from Napoleon III to the Prince Napoleon dated 31 October 1858)
Sources:
Ernest d'Hauterive, The Second Empire and Its Downfall, The Correspondence of the Emperor Napoleon III and his Cousin Prince Napoleon (tr. Herbert Wilson), New York: Books For Libraries Press, 1970
Louis Girard, Napoléon III, Paris: Fayard, 1986
Pierre de la Gorce, Histoire du Second Empire, vol. II, Paris: Plon, 1905
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks and Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 472, 31 October - 6 November, 2008
Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or in a specific project, by making a donation?
© 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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THE BIBLIOTHEQUE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
Half-term opening times: From Monday 27 October to Thursday 6 November 2008, the library will be open:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
1.30 pm - 6 pm
THE MAGAZINE
November's book of the month (English)
- Richard Harding (ed.), A Great & Glorious Victory - New perspectives on the Battle of Trafalgar
November's book of the month (French)
- Jacques-Olivier Boudon, Le Roi Jérôme, frère prodigue de Napoléon
Press Review
- Associazione Amici della Biblioteca Militare Italiana: Issue 1
- First Empire, issue n° 103, November / December 2008
WHAT'S ON
Conferences
- Portugal, Brazil and Napoleonic Europe, Lisbon (Portugal) from 4 to 6 December, 2008
Film
- Centro Romano di Studi Napoleonici: Napoleonic film week 2008, Rome (Italy) from 11 to 14 November, 2008
Exhibitions
- "Ben Weider Collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts", Montreal, Canada [Permanent]
Full details
- "Napoleon Bonaparte and Egypt", Paris, France [14/10/2008 - 29/03/2009]
Full details
- "Between the dagger and the cross", Paris, France [21/10/2008 - 11/01/2009]
Full details
- "From Pompei to Malmaison", Rueil-Malmaison, France [22/10/2008 - 26/01/2009]
Full details
- "Jerome Napoleon, king of Westphalia", Fontainebleau, France [10/10/2008 - 08/01/2009]
Full details
- "Paper Landscapes, a celebration of Napoleonic cartography", La Spezia, Italy [04/10/2008 - 11/01/2009]
Full details
- "Fine people. Luxury and Fashion at the Time of the Empire", Erfurt, Germany [14/09/2008 - 11/01/2009]
Full details
- "Spectacle of Power. Rituals in Old Europe 800-1800", Magdeburg, Germany [23/09/2008 - 04/01/2009]
Full details
- "Napoleonic side-arms of the Rocca d'Acquaviva", Acquaviva Picena, Italy [04/10/2008 - 31/12/2008]
Full details
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