NOTICE.
The reign of the Emperor Napoleon will be forever memorable for the influence which he has had on the destinies of a great people and on the status in Europe, where he has changed all the political connections.
A collection of medals has been struck to consecrate the memory of those times, but because since 1815 it has become extremely rare, I have undertaken to copy it in a composition which imitates bronze. I have taken every care to arrange these medals in the greatest order possible, and less common information which has been given me has put me in a position to give imteresting notes about them.
In the medals of this collection it is almost always only the reverse which illustrates events; the other side shows an effigy of the emperor, and almost always the same one. Since it would have been useless to give the same portrait many times, I have reproduced only those which show some differencce from each other.
3. Battle of Castiglione, Combat of Peschiera. (H744)
The Battle of Castiglione was fought on the fifth, the Combat of Peschiera the following day. The two warriors defeated by a single one allude to the two Austrian armies, of the Tyrol and of Italy, defeated in these two actions.
4. Battle of Millesimo. (H734)
Hercules holds in one hand one of the heads of the Hydra of the Erne and places his right foor on her tail; his left foot is placed on the torch with which he must burn the heads of this monster, which are reborn as often as the hero eliminates them. Allusion to the armies which Austria sent, one after the other, and which were all alike defeated.
6. Capitulation of Mantua. (H781)
7. To Vergil.
Struck to commemorate the monument which was erected in Mantua to his honor.
8. Crossing the Tagliamento and taking Trieste. (H788)
The crossing took place of the sixteenth of March, and the occupation of Trieste on the twenty third.
9. The signing of peace. (H811)
Medal struck on the occasion of the Treaty of Campo-Formio, concluded on the seventeenth of October.
10. reverse of the preceding.
13. Conquest of Upper Egypt. (H896)
Head of Isis.
14. reverse of the preceding.
15. Egypt conquered. (H879)
Bonaparte, in ancient dress, passes between Pompey's column and the obelisk called Cleopatra's needle.
16. reverse of the preceding.
20. Another on the same subject.
21. Battle of Marengo. (B38)
It took place on the fourteenth of June.
22. Another on the same subject.
23. General Desaix. (B44)
He decided the success of the Battle of Marengo by reaching the battlefield with his division. Here are his last words: "Go tell the First Consul that I die with the regret of not having done enough to live in posterity."
24. Quai Desaix. (B68)
Honoring his memory.
25. To Bonaparte, rebuilder of Lyon.
By virtue of the 1793 decree of the Convention, Bellecour Place was entirely destroyed. The First Consul ordered its reestablishment in 1800 when he was joining the Army of Italy. and upon his return, after the Battle of Marengo, he placed the first stone, on the twenty ninth of June.
26. The national column. (B61)
Lucien, Minister of the Interior, placed the first stone for it on the ruins of the Bastille, on the eleventh anniversary of July 14, 1789.
27. Constitution of the year VIII.
28. Honors given to Turenne. (B71)
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29. The attempt of 3 nivose. (B76)
Medal struck on the occasion of the happy preservation of the First Consul from the attempt on his life by the explosion of the infernal machine on December 24.
32. Another on the same subject. (B107)
34. Another on the same subject. (B199)
Justice, holding a balance and a caduceus, returns to earth.
35. The three Consuls. (B218)
Medal struck on the occasion of the general peace.
36. Reestablishment of religion. (B213)
The eighth of April. The concord between France and the Court of Rome was sanctioned by the legislature, which passed various laws related to the organization of religion.
37. reverse of the preceding.
38. Expedition of discovery by Capitain Baudin. (B72)
This expedition, which had for its object a voyage of discovery around the world, sailed from LeHavre on October 19.
39. Organisation of public education. (B214)
40. Orbis viro.
A medal struck to commemorate the reestablishment of order in the Swiss Republic through the mediation of Napoleon.
43. Negotiations broken off with England.
The English leopard tears up a scroll.
44. Conquest of Hanover. (B271)
45. First assembly of the Great Council of the Canton of Vaud.
A medal struck upon the pacification of the Swiss when Napoleon took the title of Mediator of the Helvetic Confederation.
46. reverse of the preceding.
47. The Venus di Medici. (B280)
A medal presented by M. Denon to Napoleon at the time of his visit to the museum.
48. reverse of the preceding medal.
49. The schools of pharmacy. (B264)
This medal commemorates the reestablishment of the school, in accordance with the law of April 11.
50. Fortune the Preserver. (B275)
Invocation of Fortune during the preparations against England.
52. The Napoleon Museum. (B367)
The hall of the Laocoon.
53. Institution of the Legion of Honor. (B310)
This medal commemorates the organization of the Legion of Honor, instituted by a decree of 19 April 1802. In a completely military ceremony Napoleon, seated in an elevated chair in the Invalides Church, made the first distribution of this cross of honor, which soon all the sovereigns of Europe gloried in wearing.
54. The School of Mining of Mont-Blanc. (B471)
This medal commemorates the establishment of a school of mining in the Department of Mont Blanc.
55. Distribution distribution of crosses at the camp of Boulogne. (B318)
56. [reverse] Oath of the Army of England.
57. Construction of 2000 boats. (B319)
Hercules enchaining the English leopard.
58. Invasion of England. (B364)
This medal would have been made public after the success of the enterprise against England.
59. Napoleonic Code. (B291)
A code is one of the monuments which mark a period in the history of nations. The Napoleonic Code was the work of the greatest legal experts and the object of the longest discussions in the State Council. It was finished in 1804. On March 24 of the same year the legislature decreed that there would be raised in the hall where it met a statue of Napoleon, to witness the public recognition of the new code. This statue is represented by the following medal. This one represents the statue of Pallas.
60. reverse of the preceding.
61. The coronation of the Empereur. (B326)
62. The consecration in Notre Dame by the pope, Pie VII. (B350)
Napoleon concluded a concordat with Pope Pius VII. Consistent with everything he had done, he though that upon assuming imperial poewer it would give a sanction to that event by having it consecrated by the head of the church and of the state religion. The pope arrived, it was questioned whether the ceremony should be held at Rhiems, at the Invalides Church, or at Notre Dame in Paris; the affair was discussed in council. The holy ampule had been broken during the commotions of the revolution; thus Reims had lost its claim to that ceremony. The Invalides Church has a military connotation which might give the impression that Napoleon was emperor only of the army. The sanctity, the gothic look, the antiquity of the Church of Notre Dame decided all the votes in its favor.
63. Feast given by the city of Paris to the Emperor and to the Empress on the occasion of the coronation. (B358)
64. reverse of the preceding medal.
65. Festivities of the coronation. (B359)
66. for reverse the Emperor and Josephine.
67. Pope Pius VII visits the Medal Mint. (B409)
68. Distribution of flags to the army. (B357)
When Napoleon was elevated to the imperial dignity he adopted the eagle as the emblem of the empire and gave the army new standards. The ceremony took place on the Field of Mars on December 5. This event, which was in appearance only an empty ceremony, was really a new pact between the army and the sovereign which it had adopted; it came to deposit at the steps to the throne the homage of its republican glory and its old ensigns riddled with bullets and [covered] with glory, to take up new ones to which they promised equal success.
69. The Medal Mint reestablished. (B380)
70. Establishment of the Central Society for Vaccination. (B400)
The usefulness of vaccination had been recognized in France, but it had been used only after persuasion and only sometimes by doctors trained in it. The Faculty, to make better appreciated this discovery, which did it so much honor, decided it had to centralize that work and consequently formed a society especially occupied with means of spreading that discovery. The medal which consecrates that event represents the god of health protecting beauty.
72. Another on the same subject. (B420)
73. Monument to Desaix. (B426)
Desaix, as sensitive as he was brave, often repeated while looking at the tombs of the Arabs in the desert, that the aspect of the desert was of death for the living and of peace for the dead. When it was a question of settling on a place for the tomb of that hero, Napoleon thought to fulfil the intention of the sensitive being of whom he cherished the memory by choosing the church of the monastery of Mont St, Bernard, the most elevated and most silent of inhabited places in Europe. He had a magnificent tomb erected there and placed the first stone in a funeral ceremony which was held with all the dignity due to the hero for whom it had been ordered and to him who had ordered it for him. It was held on June 14, anniversary of his death.
74. La Ligurie réunie à la France. (B422)
In May of 1805 the Emperor went to Lombardy to have himself crowned king of Italy. He had hardly arrived in Milan when a deputation from the senate of Genoa accompanied by the doge came to request from him that Liguria be placed under the protection of France and to unite that state to the empire. That event, consecrated by this medal, took place on June 4.
75. The schools of medicine. (B467)
In 1805 new regulations led to a reorganization of the school of medicine; the professors wanted to establish the date with a medal.
76. Closing the camp of Boulogne. (B430)
England, worried by the fear given her by the the assembling of the army called English on the coast at Boulogne, and by the display of an infinite number of boats, built or assembled there to effect a debarcation, required Austria to make a diversion by bringing her troops to the frontiers of France and threatening the Rhineland. At this hostile movement, which Napoleon had perhaps expected, he had his troops march into the Rhineland, announcing that he was going to command it in person.
77. Address on the bridge over the Lech. (B432)
The Emperor joined his army at Oxburg and reviewed it on the bridge over the Lech; he addressed the army with that military eloquence which so eminently distinguished that great captain; the army took an oath to win and kept their word.
78. Capitulation of Ulm and of Memmingen. (B433)
The taking of Ulm was one of the most glorious events in the life of this hero, who had already obtained so many trophies. It took place on October seventeenth; thirty thousand men laid down their arms.
79. Taking of Vienna and of Presburg. (B443)
The redoubtable and numerous army of Vienna had been dismembered by the great number of prisoners which had been made. Napoleon, not giving it the time to reform and marching immediately upon Vienna and Presburg, surprised these two defenseless capitals. Vienna was occupied on November thirteenth and Presburg at almost the same time.
80. Recovering the standards in Inspruck. (B442)
General Ney took Insbruck; his divisions found in the arsenal flags which the Tyrolean regiments had taken from the armies of the republic; their enthusiasm became emotional, and they retrieved them with a religious feeling. The Emperor wished that such a piously military event be consecrated by a medal. There is a coin struck during the Roman Empire when Germanicus, having defeated these same peoples, commanded by Arminius, retook the standards captured from Varus by that redoubtable chief of the Germans. It was believed that a parallel circumstance after eighteen centuries could not be commemorated in a more interesting manner than by an exact copy of the ancient coin.
81. Battle of Austerlitz. (B445)
The Battle of Austerlitz is one of those events which eminently belong to history because they can decide the establishment of one empire and the destruction of another. Russia and Austria had united their forces to contest with Napoleon the sceptre of Charlemagne, but valor triumphed over numbers. The medal which consecrates this event represents the sceptre of Charlemagne, to which are added the wings of victory. This battle took place on 20 frimaire (2 December); it is the last where the republican calendar was used; this calendar had been created by a decree of the Convention on 5 October 1793 and was abolished by the senatus consultum of 9 September 1805, effective on 1 January 1806.
82. The three emperors. (B446)
This medal reminds posterity that these three princes assisted in person at the Battle of Austerlitz. One side represents Francis II and Alexander I and on the other side, under the following number, Napoleon I.
83. reverse of the preceding.
84. Interview of the two emperors. (B452)
Francis II, wishing to prevent the evils associated with his defeat, preferred a personal interview to long drawn out diplomatic negotiations; he proposed it to Napoleon, known for never having rejected proposals for peace after a victory. It took place at Urchitz, a village near Austerlitz, on December 4.
85. Deputation of the mayors of Paris to Shoenbruun [sic]. (B453)
On December 11 a deputation headed by M. Dupont was sent by the prefect and the mayor of Paris to congratulate the emperor on his success; it was received in the Palace of Schoenbrunn, summer residence of the emperor of Austria, two miles from Vienna.
86. reverse of the preceding. It refers to the affair of October 8 at Vertingen, where Prince Murat defeated and made prisoner twelve battalions of Austrian grenadiers, with their artillery and baggage.
87. Peace of Presburg. (B455)
The treaty of peace which was signed twenty days after the interview at Urschitz was commemorated by a medal representing the ancient temple of Janus in Rome, closed in times of peace.
88. Cathedral of Vienna. (B461)
Here was chanted on 28 December a Te Deum in an act of thanks for peace.
89. Conquest of Venice by the Treaty of Presburg. (B460)
The City of Venice, occupied by the Austrians, was returned to the Kingdom of Italy on 26 December.
91. Conquest of Dalmatia. (B513)
United to France by the Peace of Presburg.
92. Conquest of Naples. (B516)
The occupation of Naples was another in the string of trophies of Austerlitz and the Peace of Presburg. This medal is an imitation of an ancient coin from that kingdom. The head of Vulcan is an emblem of Vesuvius. The French army entered Naples on the fifteenth of February, under the command of Joseph, who was named king sometime afterward.
93. Sovereignties given on February 16. (B553)
The Emperor adopted Eugene Beauharnais as his son and declared him king of Italy in default of legitimate and natural sons.
94. Marriage of the Prince of Bade. (B522)
With Stephanie de Beauharnais, niece of the empress.
95. Column of the great army. (B463)
This column, made from bronze cannon captured in the campaign of 1805, was raised in the Place Vendome as a monument to the glory of the great army; it is similar to that which Trajan had erected when he returned to Rome, conqueror of the Dacians.
96. The Arch of Triumph. (B557)
This monument, like the column to the honor of the French armies, related to the glorious campaign of 1805, was raised in the Carrousel, opposite the Palace of the Tuileries. Eight marble statues represent a soldier of each army, and and six bas reliefs indicate the principal doings of the campaign of 1805, the whole crowned by a triumphal chariot drawn by four horses brought from Venice. These horses are by themselves a special trophy. They decorated the front of the Temple of the Sun at Corinth and were brought to Rome under the Emperor Nero, to Constantinople by Constantine, to Venice by Doge Dandolo, and to Paris by Napoleon. The events of 1814 deprived the monument of the horses and bas reliefs.
97. Prince Eugene.
98. Confederation of the Rhine. (B534)
The Confederation of the Rhine, of which Napoleon was declared the protector, was signed in Paris on the twelfth of July by the ministers of the different princes who were members of it.
99. Battle of Jena. (B538)
This battle, which was so funereal for Prussia, was fought on the fourth of October.
100. Another on the same subject. (B537)
101. Another on the same subject. (B539)
102. Capitulation of the four Prussian fortresses. (B548)
After the Battle of Jena the governors of four fortresses, of which the inscription recites the names, were seized by a panic terror and surrendered almost without resistance. Magdeburg, an extremely strong place which had a garrison of twenty two thousand men, capitulated after a short bombardment.
103. Entrance into Berlin. (B546)
104. Alliance with Saxony. (B551)
Vitikind was created first duke of Saxony by Charlemagne; Napoleon wanted to recall that event on this medal, destined to commemorate the new alliance with Saxony.
105. reverse of the preceding medal.
106. Occupation of Hamburg. (B549)
107. The Great Sanhedrin.
A general assembly of Jews from all parts of Europe was convoked in Paris by a decree of Napoleon. It gathered on the twentieth of October under the name of Great Sanhedrin. Napoleon is represented receiving the tablets of the law from a Jewish rabbi.
109. Battle of Eylau. (B628)
110. Sojourn in Osterode. (B631)
He stayed there with his army after the Battle of Eylau, and by this manoeuvre he was compared to the great Fabius, surnamed the Delayer.
111. Deliverance of Dantzig. (B652)
By taking Danzig Napoleon liberated its commerce.
112. Battle of Friedland. (B632)
The Battle of Friedland, the bloodiest of this campaign, lasted twenty hours. Napoleon did not reach the battlefield until four o'clock. He immediately halted all attacks, drew back all the troops, made new arrangements, had the enemy charged. They were thoroughly defeated beneath the walls of Friedland.
113. The victories of June 14. (B633)
This medal was struck to commemorate the battles of Marengo and of Friedland, fought on the same day.
114. Occupation of three capitals. (B634)
In the campaign of 1807 Napoleon took over three capitals. To consecrate the memory of so great a success he had a medal struck which represents these three cities as three women.
115. Conquest of Silesia. (B635)
116. Peace of Tilsit. (B640)
The period of the Peace of Tilsit may be regarded as the climax of Napoleon's glory; the vanquished sovereign, delivering himself to the trustworthiness of the conqueror, came without followers to Tilsit to finish the conferences begun on the river.
117. reverse. Heads of the three sovereigns: the Emperor Napoleon, the Emperor Alexander, and the King of Prussia.
118. The Great Duchy of Warsaw. (B653)
One of the conditions of the Treaty of Tilsit was the erection of the Great Duchy of Warsaw in favor of the king of Saxony. The medal represents the throne, the scepter, the crown which Emperor Otto sent to Boleslaus when he was made king of Poland.
119. The Kingdom of Westfalia. (B271)
By an article of the Treaty of Tilsit Hanover was erected into a kingdom in favor of Jerome, the youngest of Napoleon's brothers. The medal represents the type of the coins of Hanover, the arms of which are a free-running horse.
120. Marriage of Jerome, king of Wesrfalia, with the daughter of the king of Wurtemberg. (B662)
The marriage of Jerome Napoleon followed his nomination to the Kingdom of Westfalia.
121. Union of Etruria to France. (B721)
The interests of the Kingdom of Italy, of France, and particularly of Etruria demanded that the ports of Livorno and Florence make up part of this realm, the union was then resolved on, and this medal is devoted to the memory of it.
122. Simplon. (B688)
The medal struck to recall undertaking a route to cross this mountain.
123. Route from Nice to Rome. (B690)
A figure imitating the Route of Trajan on the coins of that prince. The route from Nice to Rome, begun in 1807, was intended to extend on the edge of the sea to Genoa, and from there to Lerici, where it would have joined the route from Florence to Rome.
124. The eagle crowned. (B674)
A medal alluding to the successes of 1807.
126. Battle of Sommo Sierra. (B756)
A medal struck to commemorate this battle and its happy result, which was the abolition of the Inquisition.
127. Entry into Madrid. (B757)
After the Battle of Sommo Sierra the Emperor advanced in forced marches upon Madrid and gave it only a few hours to capitulate.
130. Departure from Paris, 13 April. (B847)
131. reverse. Entry into Vienna, 13 May. The campaign of 1809 had more the air of a march than of a war; each stage of the army seemed to have been marked, the day of the arrival in Vienna announced in advance.
132. Battle of Essling. (B859)
At this battle a part of the army had crossed the Danube when a sudden rise of that river destroyed the bridge which had been built across it. The medal commemorates this event, which occured on 22 May.
133. Crossing the Danube, reverse of the preceding. The fierce attitude on the part of the army abandoned on the other bank and which had been obliged, after a great loss, to make a retrograde movement, helped deceive the enemy, imposed on it, and gave the time to reestablish the bridge; the army could then easily reunite.
134. The French eagles across the Raab. (B854)
Beauharnais, after various military chances, joined up with the great army beyond the Raab.
135. Battle of Wagram. (B860)
On the fifth of July the army crossed the Danube and immediately attacked the Austrians. The enemy yielded ground all day and did not stop until toward the evening, in a postion at Wagram. At that time the most terrible of battles began between two enormous armies, a battle which did not end until the evening of the following day. The enemy abandoned the battlefield on July 6.
136. Attack on Antwerp. (B870)
England, frightened by the success of Napoleon in Austria, finally thought to come to the aid of her allies by a frightening diversion and to halt his success by obliging him to come to the defense of his own territory. A fleet came to attack Antwerp on July 30 in hopes of obliging Napoleon to leave Schoenbrunn. A militia was raised in a few days, the port of Antwerp was closed to the English, and Napoleon remained at Schoenbrunn.
137. Napoleon at Schoenbrunn. Reverse of the preceding medal.
138. Medal struck on the occasion of the success of the campaign of 1809.
139. Paix de Vienne. (B876)
The courage of the French army at Wagram, the patriotic zeal of the French at the time of the attack on Antwerp, the confidence and coolness of the chief at Schoenbrunn decided the signing of the peace in Vienna.
140. Reunion of the Roman States to the Empire. (B848)
This union was one of the results of the campaign of 1809.
141. Rome second capital. (B849)
As a result of the treaty of Vienna, Rome was declared the second capital of the empire.
142. Conquest of Illyrie. (B879)
The occupation of Illyria was another result of the Treaty of Vienna. A copy of an ancient coin of was used as the type of the medal which commemorates that event.
143. The medal for the decennial prizes. (B985)
144. Reverse, the Emperor.
146. Visit of the king and queen of Bavaria to the Medal Mint. (B939)
147. Visit of the grand duke of Wurtzburg to the Medal Mint. (B968)
148. Princess Eliza, sister of the Emperor, grand duchess of Tuscany. (B775)
149. The marriage of the Emperor. (B952)
150. reverse of the preceding medal.
151. Love carrying off the thunderbolt. (B959)
The Peace of Vienna and the marriage of the Emperor with Marie Louise had to put an end to any sort of war with Austria; it was with this intention that this little medal was struck.
152. Statue of Desaix. (B976)
Desaix, of whom Napoleon cherished the memory, returned to his mind every time there was a question of illustrating military glory, honor, and trustworthiness; he awarded him a statue in Victory Place (of which the medal is a copy). When it was uncovered the public found fault with its nudity. It was immediately covered up again to make some corrections to it. The events of 1815 occurred, and it is said that it was used in the casting of a statue of Henry IV.
153. The canal of the Ourcq. (B868)
Time of the beginning of the work, 15 August.
154. Orphants of the Legion of Honor. (B980)
It was during these quiet times that taking care of past times and of recompenses to be bestowed beyond the tomb to those who had contributed to his triumphs, Napoleon founded the establishments of Ecouen and St. Denis, where were to be educated and endowed the orphans of the brave men of every rank who died on the field of honor. This medal was struck to commemorate these honorable institutions.
156. The king of Rome. (B1091)
157. The baptism of the king of Rome. (B1125)
158. reverse. The good cities.
160. Battle of the Moscow River. (B1162)
September 7.
161. Entrance into Moscow. (B1164)
September 14.
162. The French eagle on the Borysthene. (B1158)
163. The French eagle on the Volga. (B1166)
164. Retreat of the army. (B1168)
On this medal Boreas is represented pursuing the god Mars, compressing in his arms a goatskin, from which burst forth winds and sleet. Dead horses, dismounted cannon, a deserted countryside indicate the disasters of the army.
165. Founding of the School of Fine Arts in Rome. (B1178)
An award medal, struck to commemorate the foundation of the School of Fine Arts at Rome.
166. reverse of the preceding medal.
168. Battle of Lutzen. (B1229)
Victory, still faithful, crowns the French army at Lutzen in spite of the lack of cavalry. May 2.
169. reverse of the preceding.
170. Battle of Wurtchen. (B1232)
This victory too is due to the great courage of the French infantry.
172. Napoléon in Berlin, gives their pay to the wounded. (B547)
173. reverse.
174. Denon. (B797)
175, reverse, the two colossal figures of Medinet Abou. M. Denon had an extremely interesting work published about the monuments of Upper Egypt, which he had thoroughly examined during the French expedition in that country. The reverse represents the two colossal figures of Medinet Abou; one of those figures is Memnon, who, according the the ancients gave forth a sound every morning when it was struck by the rays of the rising sun. The inscription alludes to that sonorous property.
176. Marie Louise. (B1030)
177. reverse. Marie Louise visits the Medal Mint.
178. Princess Pauline Borghese. (B771)
Second sister of the Emperor.
179. reverse. The three Graces, with this inscription in Greek: May she always reign over us.
180. Princess Caroline. (B773)
Third sister of the Emperor.
181. reverse, types of the ancient coins of Naples.
182. Queen Hortense. (B769)
Adopted daughter of the Emperor Napoleon and of Josephine; wife of Louis Napoleon, brother of the Emperor and King of Holland.
185. Golfe Juan. (B1590)
Medal which the 106th Regiment had struck on the occasion of the Emperor's coming ashore at Golfe Juan.
