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A DIGITAL LIBRARY HISTORIC EVENT
This week, our digital library has again been updated. We have added a number of never-before published academic works - three theses and one dissertation -, produced by doctoral and Master's students who have benefited from a Fondation Napoléon research grant.
And this is but the first wave: seventy students have received Fondation Napoléon study grants since the programme's inception. And from this date onwards, high-quality scholarly works will be freely available for consultation and download by anyone, anywhere.
While we're on the topic, we are delighted to note that the Fondation Napoléon digital library has proved a roaring success, receiving several thousand visits per month, with over half of the hits coming from outside Europe. A real sign of Napoleonic culture spreading across the world, you could say...
Happy reading, and the very best week to you all.
Thierry Lentz
Director, Fondation Napoléon
NAPOLEON.ORG
Digital Library: four theses from Fondation Napoléon study grant awardees
The latest additions to the Fondation Napoléon digital library are three doctoral theses and one Master's dissertation from four of the Fondation Napoléon's research grant awardees.
- Loïc Levent, Les officiers de l'armée du Consulat et de l'Empire, 1800-1815. Etude d'un échantillon représentatif
- Anne Sandrine de Luca, La noblesse du Premier Empire français : l'identité nobiliaire réinventée
- Richard Moles, D'un Empire à l'autre, la gendarmerie maritime en France de 1804 à 1870
- Clémence Zacharie, Le Sénat du Consulat et de l'Empire, constituant secondaire
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PAINTING OF THE MONTH
War. The exile and the rock limpet, by Joseph Mallord William Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner's work was often inspired by the Anglo-French conflicts of the Napoleonic period. Numerous paintings depicting the Battle of Trafalgar (including one commissioned by King George IV) followed between 1806 and 1838. It was during the 1840s, following the Retour des Cendres in 1840, that the figure of Napoleon re-emerged, to take his place in the painting enigmatically known as War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet.
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WHAT'S ON
"1810" conference
The date for the Fondation Napoléon/Souvenir Napoléonien "1810" conference is fast approaching and will see some of the world's leading experts on the Napoleonic period arrive in La Courneuve to discuss the events and importance of the year "1810". Participants include Rafe Balufarb ("1810, la fin de la féodalité européenne?"), Emmanuel de Waresquiel ("Fouché contre Napoléon"), Annie Jourdan ("Les prix décennaux: la plus ambitieuse initiative culturelle de Napoléon") and Jacques Garnier ("Vers un changement de stratégie militaire"). The closing date for registration is likewise fast approaching: all registration forms must be received by 20 May.
1810 concert
Although music played an important part in the religious marriage ceremony of 2 April, official reports of the event are remarkably quiet on the matter. Through painstaking research and analysis, the musical programme for the ceremony has been reassembled. Audience members at the three concerts (organised by the Fondation Napoléon and directed by Peter Hicks) will, in the case of many of these pieces, hear for the first time since 1810 the music that Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie-Louise of Austria listened to at their wedding. Tickets are of a very limited availability and registration is essential.
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La Nuit des Musées 2010
The Europe-wide museum night rolls around once again, and we here at the Fondation Napoléon have put together a list of a few Napoleonic-themed visits that may be worth your time and interest. All events described below are listed as free at the time of press.
15 May: Nelson Museum, Great Yarmouth (UK)
From 5.30pm until 10pm, the Nelson Museum in Great Yarmouth, on the North Norfolk coast, will offer 18th century dancing demonstration, whilst visitors to the museum will also get to have a go at some games that sailors played whilst on board ship. A visit around the museum, which features the current exhibition, "The Nelson Touch: Inspirational Leadership", is also free for the evening.
14 May: Royal Armouries Museum, Fort Nelson (UK)
As part of the nationwide Museums at Night event, the Royal Armouries Museum at Fort Nelson presents an action-packed evening of after-dark activities, running from 6pm until 9pm. As well as torchlight tours of the tunnels & ramparts and live lantern-lit performances by actors, visitors will also have the unique chance to see the Fort aflame as the flash and roar of massed historic guns, cannon and mortars sear into the night!
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NAPOLEONIC NEWS
AFP: Russia planning new museum to mark bicentennial of Napoleon's defeat
Russia will spend nearly 60 million euros to build a new museum celebrating the 200th anniversary of Russia's 1812 victory over French emperor Napoleon, vice premier Alexander Joukov said Wednesday 17 March.
"I hope that it will be a collection ... at the level of the best museums in the world," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.
Some 2.38 billion Rubles (59 million Euros, 81 million Dollars) are to be spent on the museum by 2012. Joukov said that the museum would include exhibits of many items from the era that are currently stocked in the warehouses of the History Museum on Moscow's Red Square.
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PRESS REVIEW
"An Extraordinary Rendition", by Norman MacKenzie
The May 2010 edition of History Today (UK) features an article on the extraordinary rendition of Napoleon Bonaparte following his surrender to the British authorities in 1815. In it, Norman MacKenzie analyses the legal minefield in which the British government found itself following Napoleon's peaceful surrender, the issues surrounding his captivity and the occasionally farcical legal wranglings that took place as Napoleon's fate was decided.
Prohibiting Plunder...: Napoleonic France and the Musée Napoléon
The Oxford University Press USA blog features an excerpt from Wayne Sandholtz's recent book, Prohibiting Plunder: How Norms Change, which traces the history of war plunder and its regulations. The excerpt featured focuses on plunder in Napoleonic France and the role of the Musée Napoléon.
200 YEARS AGO
Holland and the Continental System
Napoleon's decree from Berlin on 21 November, 1806 forbade all British goods and commerce entering the continent. However, this blocking system failed to have the asphyxiating effect Napoleon had hoped for, particularly in Holland where relations with Britain remained strong and the close proximity facilitated commercial exchanges. Stanislas de Girardin noted in 1807 that "the kingdom [of Holland] is at war with England, but if we did not know it, we would not think it. Trade is as it is in times of peace and a great quantity of English goods is being sold here." Napoleon even went as far as to describe Holland as "an English province." 1808 saw all Dutch goods liable to be of British origin forbidden from entering France whilst the treaty signed by Napoleon and Louis on 19 March, 1810, ceded certain Dutch territories to France (including Zeeland and the Brabant) to enable France to better enforce the blockade and enjoined Louis to equip and arm nine ships of the line and six frigates to aid France in its policing. This last article was to prove a sticking point, and Napoleon wrote to his brother on 12 May, 1810, expressing his displeasure:
"I would dearly like to lift the measures in place prohibiting trade between Holland and France, but you must execute the treaty that you have agreed with me; [...] you must begin to act and provide me with nine ships by July. Know that I am counting on these nine ships and that this article of the treaty is obligatory." [Letter from Napoleon to Louis Napoleon dated 12 May, 1810, Corréspondance de Napoléon Ier, Second Empire edition, n° 16,467]
Louis Napoleon's "brother kingdom" of Holland (of which he became king in 1806), although part of the greater Napoleonic system (see Thierry Lentz's Nouvelle Histoire du Premier Empire, vol. I: Napoléon et la conquête de l'Europe), was independent of the French Empire and remained frustratingly beyond Napoleon's direct control. Such a state of affairs was never likely to last long, regardless of the two rulers' blood bond, and so it proved. Napoleon's patience finally ran out, and the Kingdom of Holland was annexed to the French Empire on 10 July, 1810.
150 YEARS AGO
Egyptology: the Temple of Edfu discovered
In 1860, Auguste Mariette discovered and subsequently carried out excavation work on the Temple of Edfu.
"M. Auguste Mariette, the famous archaeologist, writes from Egypt to inform us that he has just uncovered an immense palace of granite, a few steps from the Great Sphinx. He believes that it is the palace of Chephren, who lived around 3600 B.C. [Chephren, also known as Khafre, was a member of the fourth dynasty, which is actually believed to have lasted from 2650 - 2480 B.C.], and who constructed the great pyramid. We have discovered seven superb statues of these princes in the sand-covered palace." (Moniteur universel, 9 May, 1860)
It was in 1850 that Auguste Mariette arrived for the first time in Egypt, were he took up his position as a simple conservation officer at the Musée Egyptien du Louvre, in Alexandria. He wasted no time in learning more about the country's fascinating history and made a number of extraordinary discoveries during his time there. On 12 November, 1851, he discovered the site of the Serapeum in Memphis and uncovered the entrance to the Hapi necropolis. Upon his return to France in late 1854, he was named assistant-curator at the Musée Egyptien. By October 1857 he was once again on his way back to Egypt, on Ferdinand de Lesseps' request, and on 5 July, 1858, he was named prefect overseeing the excavation works of Egyptian antiquities. In May 1859, he founded the Institut Egyptien and one year later he discovered the Edfu temple. He continued to excavate and by the time of his death in 1881 he had begun a further thirty digs across Egypt. As a veritable ambassador for the Egyptology discipline, he was present on many official visits and presented the richness of Egypt's archaeological sites at a number of Universal Exhibitions.
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks & Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 541, 7 - 13 May, 2010
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
Easter opening times
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 1.30pm-6pm
Thursday: 10am-3pm
(Closed Monday and Friday)
FONDATION NAPOLEON ON THE WEB
Each week we offer you a "mystery" link to somewhere on napoleon.org. Click on the link to discover a part of the website you might not have visited before...
Statistic of the week:
Russia is preparing to spend 59 million Euros (2.3 bllion Roubles) on the creation of a museum commemorating the Grande Armée's retreat from Russia in 1812. The project should be completed within two years.
The Fondation Napoléon's triumvirate of Napoleonic websites:
- Napoleon.org
- Napoleonica. La Revue
- Napoleonica. Archives Online
The best of the month:
- Book of the month
- Painting of the month
- Objet d'Art of the month
- Article of the month
MAGAZINE
Press review
- AFP: Russia planning new museum to mark bicentennial of Napoleon's defeat
- Prohibiting Plunder...: Napoleonic France and the Musée Napoléon
- History Today May 2010
EVENTS
On now and coming up
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
Conference
- Fondation Napoléon/Souvenir Napoléonien "1810" conference, La Courneuve, France [08/06/2010 - 09/06/2010]
Full details
Concert
- Bicentenary concerts commemorating the marriage between Napoleon and Marie-Louise, Paris, France [08/06/2010 - 10/06/2010]
Full details
Commemorations
- Annual May Ceremony in the British Cemetery, Elvas, Portugal [14/05/2010]
Full details
Festivals
- La Nuit des Musées 2010, various, Europe [14/05/2010 - 15/05/2010]
Full details
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