Le sacre de l'Empereur Napoleon, Paris, [1806], half green morocco

NAPOLEON

Le sacre de S.M. l'Empereur Napoléon, dans l'Eglise metropolitaine de Paris, le XI Frimaire An XIII, Dimanche 2 Décembre 1804. (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale), [1806]

large folio (632 x 458mm.), engraved title-page, engraved section-title to plates, 38 engraved plates, contemporary half green morocco, flat spine gilt, light foxing, binding rather worn

A lavish record of Napoleon and Josephine's joint consecration, held in December 1804 with Pope Pius VII coerced to attend, although Napoleon did not let him place the crown on his head; the Pope merely blessed it and Napoleon grasped it for himself. This event was not a coronation, it was a sacre, a consecration, and the presence of the Pope was meant to hark back to the consecration of earlier rulers such as Pepin and Charlemagne. Napoleon had needed the presence of the Pope to lend legitimacy to the proceedings, yet it was the Papacy that benefitted more from this display of its (still) central role in the world of European politics.