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THE LETTER THIS WEEK...
...is rather Russian in flavour: as well as our latest article of the month, in which Janet Hartley takes a look at the Russian populations' different reactions to Napoleon following his invasion, we also have details of a new exhibition - "In the service of the Tsars" - which has recently opened at Paris' Musée de l'Armée and which features two paintings of the Battle of Borodino from Von Hesse and Lejeune. Also taking place this weekend in London is the autumn meeting of the Friends of St. Helena, which will play host to a discussion on Napoleon's time on the island. Further down, we have a delicious looking recipe for mushroom purée as well as a link to an article on the Royal Navy records cataloguing project, which provides some fascinating details of the methods used by surgeons on board British ships and the medical (and social) problems they faced. Finally, rounding off the letter in our usual way are our 200 and 150 years ago texts: Marie-Louise sits for Antonio Canova, the British pursue their Transatlantic telegraph project, and an unfortunate farmer pays the price for forgetting his lantern.
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ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
"Napoleon in Russia: Saviour or anti-christ?", by Janet M. Hartley
With France gearing up for France-Russia year 2010 and the "In the service of the Tsars" currently taking place in Paris, we have selected a Russian-themed text for our latest article of the month. In "Napoleon in Russia: Saviour or anti-christ?", Janet Hartley, lecturer in International History at the London School of Economics, discusses the mixed responses of Russia's populations to Napoleon's great gamble on an invasion and the part they played in the eventual French catastrophe. The article first appeared in 1991 in the British history magazine History Today.
And on the other side, Christian Fileaux's "Le tragique incendie de l'ambassade d'Autriche" features as the French article of the month.
FONDATION NAPOLEON NEWS
Reminder: commemorative mass in honour of the Baron Gourgaud
As mentioned last week, a commemorative mass in honour of the Baron Gourgaud (1922-2010), honorary president and founder of the Fondation Napoléon, will be celebrated on Monday 18 October, 2010, at 10.30am. The ceremony will take place in the Saint-Louis des Invalides cathedral and is open to members of the public. All those wishing to attend are required to arrive before 10.15am.
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WHAT'S ON
"In the service of the Tsars", Paris, France
This autumn, as part of the France-Russia Year 2010, the Musée de l'Armée in Paris and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, are jointly presenting an exhibition dedicated to the history of the Russian Imperial Guard, and more broadly to the history of Russia. For over two hundred years, from the 1700s to the October Revolution in 1917, the history of the Russian Imperial Guard has been closely tied to that of Russia, not only in military terms, but also in the political, social and cultural fields, providing an accurate mirror image of its wealth and complexity. The exhibition features in particular two paintings of the Battle of Borodino, one portraying the combat from the French perspective, by Louis François Lejeune, and the other from the Russian perspective, by Peter Von Hesse.
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The Friends of St Helena: "Napoleon and his time on St Helena 1815-1821", London, UK
The autumn meeting of the Friends of St Helena society, to be held on 16 October from 11.45am, will be devoted to discussion of Napoleon and his time spent on the island. Speakers will include Martin Howard (author of Napoleon's Poisoned Chalice: the Emperor and His Doctors on St Helena), Paul F. Brunyee (author of Napoleon's Britons and the St Helena Decision), Sir Brian Unwin (author of Terrible Exile: the Last Days of Napoleon on St Helena) and Peter Hicks, International Affairs Manager at the Fondation Napoléon.
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NAPOLEON.ORG
Bon appétit! Mushroom purée
Poisoning cases due to the consumption of toadstools and other toxic mushrooms were unfortunately frequent in occurrence. Mushrooms were widely available from market stands or from individual street sellers, often down-and-outs or beggars who got by on the harvesting of these fungi and whose priority in collecting their produce was more often than not quantity over quality. Such were the dangers incurred from purchasing from these vendors that the authorities were obliged to introduce measures to combat the trade.
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PRESS REVIEW
Details of Royal Navy surgeons' treatment diaries published
The Independent online (UK) reports on the two-year cataloguing project of treatment diaries kept by Royal Navy surgeons between 1793 and 1880. Journal entries include an 87 inch long tapeworm vomited up by a twelve-year-old girl, a sailor who performed animal impressions in exchange for grog, and some inventive treatments carried out by the surgeons onboard the ships.
200 YEARS AGO
Marie-Louise sits for Antonio Canova
Following their April wedding and a honeymoon tour of the Empire's northern territories, Napoleon and Marie-Louise spent the summer and early autumn in Fontainebleau. By the middle of August, Marie-Louise's doctors were convinced that she was pregnant. Between 11 and 15 October, 1810, and with the pregnancy by now beginning to show, Marie-Louise sat for Antonio Canova – session in which Napoleon was present – for a statue that would become "Marie-Louise en Concorde" (external link in French). The official announcement regarding the pregnancy would not however be made until November.
150 YEARS AGO
The Transatlantic telegraph line project continues
On 17 October, 1860, the Moniteur Universel printed an update on the telegraph project to connect Europe with North America (see bulletin n° 464).
"In England," related the article, which originally appeared in the Journal du Havre, "work on the construction of the future telegraph line between Europe and America continues apace. Since the failure of the cable under the Atlantic in 1858 - although further attempts to lay an electric conductor along the Atlantic seabed will still be made - it has been decided that for the moment the line linking Northern Europe and North America will follow the continents. An overland route will thus almost exclusively be taken in order to electronically connect Great Britain and the new world. For added security, two different lines are being constructed which will eventually link, overland, the Atlantic Ocean and the extremities of California and the Pacific Ocean. The first of these lines, further to the north, will go via Kansas and Nebraska; the second will cross Missouri and Arkansas, to the south. The first, and maybe even the second of these lines, will be finished towards the end of 1861."
To market, to market...
On 18 October, 1860, the Moniteur Universel reproduced a tragic but nevertheless slightly absurd tale of the perils of night-time driving, originally printed in the Journal de la Nièvre.
"A most fateful accident occurred on Saturday night, the day of the foire de Nevers [a town in Burgundy], at the canal lock over the Pont de Loire.
Towards eight o'clock, Jaillet, a farmer from Saint-Parize, left the hôtel Saint-Louise with his carriage and horse and proceeded onto the Pont de Loire. Foolishly, he had not brought with him his lantern. His intended route was the Sermoise road [Sermoise-sur-Loire], second on the left after the bridge, but in a bout of fatal absentmindedness, upon crossing the bridge, he immediately turned left and onto the new embankment leading to the canal. Arriving before the lock which links the canal to the Loire, he realised that he had taken a wrong turn and sought to turn around; however, his attempt to reverse his horse proved so clumsy that the carriage, the horse and its driver rolled to the foot of the embankment from a height of several metres. Jaillet still had enough strength to extract himself from beneath the carriage. Looking to return to Nevers and seek out assistance but undoubtedly dazed by his fall, he once again took the wrong road and made straight for the lock, into which he plunged and was drowned."
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks & Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 556, 15 – 21 October, 2010
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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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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
At the fall of the First Empire, 35,000 of the 48,000 recipients of the Légion d'honneur were still alive.
(Quand Napoléon inventait la France, Paris, Tallandier, 2008, p. 392)
MAGAZINE
Just published
- 1809 - Thunder on the Danube, Napoleon's Defeat of the Habsburgs, Vol. III, Wagram and Znaim, by John H. Gill, with review by independent scholar Thomas Zakharis.
- The Waterloo Archive, Volume II: German Sources, edited by Gareth Glover, with review by independent scholar Thomas Zakharis.
Press review
- French History, vol. 24, n° 1, September 2010
- The Independent: details of Royal Navy surgeons' treatment diaries published
- Napoleonic Historical Society newsletter September-October 2010
- Project announced for Warsaw's Napoleonic monument
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.
Conferences
- Napoleonic Association Conference 2010, Southampton, UK [06/11/2010]
Full details
Exhibitions
- "In the service of the Tsars", Paris, France [09/10/2010 - 23/01/2011]
Full details
Talks
- The Friends of St Helena: "Napoleon and his time on St Helena 1815-1821", London, UK [16/10/2010]
Full details
Visits
- Souvenir Napoléonien Louis Bonaparte trip to the Netherlands, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [20/09/2010 - 24/09/2010]
- Souvenir Napoléonien St Helena trip, Jamestown, St Helena [30/05/2011 - 19/06/2011]
NAPOLEON.ORG
The best of the month:
- Book of the month
- Painting of the month
- Objet d'Art of the month
- Article of the month
NAPOLEONICA.LA REVUE
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