Aux pays de Napoleon: L'Egypte. Ouvrage illustre de nombreuses gravures et panoramas en phototypie.
Grenoble, (France): Jules Rey, 1913. 4to. (4), [9-158 pp. Illustrated from photographs, engravings, portraits, facsimiles, etc., plates, including frontispiece. History of Napoleon's military campaigns in Egypt and Syria, 1798-1801, and his occupation of the former country. Later sheep (rubbed, front joint cracking from spine ends), leather title labels on spine and upper board. Fragile joints, else very good, all of the documents and other added illustrations very good. (9873). Item #63108
Richly extra-illustrated with 30 autographs, letters, documents, portraits, prints, and a plan of the city of Alexandria, most described below, as they appear through the text:
(1) Bonaparte, Napoleon (1769-1921; French statesman and military leader, Emperor of the French, 1804-1814). Military order to General Rampon, signed 13 Messidor 1798 (July 1st), in Egypt, the day Napoleon arrived there with his army; (2) Barras, Paul (1755-1829; Leader of the Directory, 1795-1799). Document signed; (3) Barras, Paul. Document signed, 1799; (4) Plan of the cities of Alexandria vetus, and New Alexandria or Scanderia; with the old and new ports: also Lower Egypt and the Bay of Aboukir (21 x 33 cm., on a sheet 34 x 43 cm.), London: Engraved & published Novr. 5th, 1798, by John Luffman 1801, hand-colored; inset of Bay of Aboukir includes brief description of the Battle of the Nile (July, 1798). OCLC locates three copies (Library of Congress, Cambridge, British Library), the National Library of Australia also holds a copy; (5) Kleber, Jean-Baptiste (1753-1800; commanded a division under Napoleon in Egypt, leading the victory at Mt. Tabor, left in command in Egypt on Napoleon's return to France in 1798, assassinated there in 1800). Letter signed, from Alexandria, 1798; (6) Leclerc, Charles V.O. (1772-1802; brother-in-law to Napoleon and general in command of a division and corps in Germany, 1798-1801, oversaw the disastrous campaign in Saint-Domingue, 1801-1804, and died there of yellow fever). Document signed, 1797, concerning the "safety of his holiness" after the French occupation of Rome; (7) Sartelon (Commissary-General and paymaster for Napoleon in Egypt). Document signed, in Egypt, to Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842), Chief Surgeon of the French army there; (8) Kleber, Jean-Baptiste, and Nicolas-Antoine Sanson (1756-1824; chief engineer for Napoleon in Egypt). Document signed, by Kleber as commander-in-chief of the French army in Egypt, and by Sanson as commander-in-chief of engineers, 1799; (9) Kleber, Jean-Baptiste. Document signed as commander-in-chief of the French army in Egypt, 1799; (10) Smith, Sir Sidney (1764-1840; Commodore in the British campaign against Napoleon in Egypt, instrumental in defeating the army he left behind, eliciting Napoleon's assessment "That man made me miss my destiny"). Autograph letter signed to the flagship in Egypt, 1801, thanking the admiral for ammunitions and other aid; (11) Clarke, Henri Jacques, Duc de Feltre (1765-1818; charismatic Franco-Irish general and Napoleon’s chief topographical officer, Minister of War under Napoleon, 1807-1813). Letter signed from Paris, 18l6, the year he was promoted to Marshal; (12) Berthier, Louis-Alexander (1764-1815; chief of staff to Napoleon in Egypt, a Marshal from 1804). Document signed, as “Chef de L’Armee,” undated, but mid 1790s; (13) Kleber, Jean-Baptiste. Autograph note signed, as division commander, to General [Guillaume Philibert] Duheme [i.e., Duhesme], requesting they meet at headquarters, 1795; (14) Bessieries, Jean-Baptiste (1768-1813; Chef de Brigade in Egypt, winning distinction at Acre and Aboukir, promoted to Marshal in 1804). Letter signed to a brigade commander, on the Moselle, 1794; (15) Rampon, Antoine-Guillaume (1759-1842; commanded a division in Egypt). Autograph note signed, 1820; (16) Carnot, Lazare (1753-1823; French politician, engineer, Member of the Directory 1795-1797, Minister of War, 1800). Document signed as Minister of War, 1800; (17) Cambaceres, Jean-Jacques (1753-1824; Minister of Justice in 1799, co-author of the Napoleonic Code). Document signed as Minister of Justice, to the Minister of Finance, 1799; (18) Andreossy, Antoine-Francois (1761-1828; commanded the French flotilla on the Nile during the Egypt campaign, later a division commander and diplomat). Document signed as an artillery division commander, 1802; (19) Saint-Hilaire, Etienne Geoffrey (1772-1844; French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition," member of Napoleon's scientific expedition to Egypt in 1798). Autograph note signed, 1826. (20) Kleber, Jean-Baptiste. Signature and seal from a wrapper; (21) Kleber, Jean-Baptiste. Letter signed to General [Francois-Severin] Marceau (1769-1796; army commander killed on the Rhine in 1796) as a division commander on the Meuse, 1796; (22) Kleber, Jean-Baptiste. Note signed in Egypt as commander-in-chief of the French army, 1800; in addition, there are a number of extra portraits and prints bound in, one of the prints picturing the assassination of Kleber in 1800.
All of the military figures and politicians represented in this extra-illustrated volume were involved in some way with Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt, with the exception of Generals Leclerc and Clarke who were intimately involved in the November, 1799, coup that boosted the future emperor into the role of France’s ruler. Generals Kleber, Sanson, Berthier, Bessieries, Rampon, and Andreossy all held important commands; Kleber, “undoubtedly one of the greatest generals of the French revolutionary epoch … as a second in command he was not excelled by any general of his time” (Encyclopedia Britannica); Sartelon was responsible for provisioning the army; Barras, Carnot, and Cambaceres helped lead the Directory through this period; Commodore Smith led the British forces to important land and sea victories, especially in Syria; and Saint Hillaire was one of the important members of the scientific efforts that were the expedition’s lasting contribution. Especially remarkable is the seven-item archive of Kelber autographs, including three as commander-in-chief of French forces in Egypt, more than have appeared at auction in the past 40 years (ABPC, 1976-2017, shows four sales during the period). The beautifully hand-colored plan of Alexandria is rare in trade with no copies recorded at auction for the past 40 years (ABPC, 1976-2017; RareBookHub).
Following his successes in northern Italy, 1796-1797, Napoleon pondered a move father east, furthering a decades old discussion of the possibility of annexing Egypt as a French colony, suggesting that such a move would protect French trade interests and undermine British influence there, particularly as potential disruptions to its commerce and access to India and the East Indies; in addition, France might establish scientific and other intellectual examinations of culture in the region. Although the military efforts eventually failed, the scientists who accompanied Napoleon's army discovered the Rosetta Stone, creating Egyptology as a field of study, and recorded many other important previously unknown aspects of life, history, archaeology, etc., concerning the Near East. The military expedition started off successfully with the occupation of Malta in May, 1798, and, eluding the British navy, landed successfully in Egypt in early July, routed the opposition, and established headquarters in Cairo by the end of the month. Despite the near destruction of the French fleet in the Bay of Abukir by Admiral Nelson and his fleet and persistent uprisings in the native population, Napoleon consolidated his power and had full control of Egypt in the fall. Early in 1799, the Ottomans sent several armies into the near east and Napoleon continued his offense there, chalking up wins in Jaffa, Haifa, and Mount Tabor, but was unable to take Acre after a two-months' siege, declared victory, and returned to Egypt to earn his greatest victory of the expedition, defeating local armies at Giza in late July. Having restored his reputation (an not particularly liking what he saw of the political situation either in Egypt or France), he returned home in late August, 1799, leaving Gen. Jean-Baptiste Kelber in command of the expedition forces. Kleber defeated his opponents, mostly local troops again, at the battle of Heliopolis in March, 1800, and then suppressed an insurrection in Cairo, but, in late June, he was assassinated by a Syrian student, Gen. Jean-Francois de Menou taking his place as commander. Following a disastrous battle of Alexandria in March, 1801, and siege of that city by the British, Menou capitulated, the terms allowing the French army to return to France.
Price: $15,000.00