Ornamentalism in a European Context? Napoleon’s Italian Coronation, 26 May 1805
Ambrogio A. Caiani
Napoleon’s Italian Coronation has been neglected, or at best consigned to a footnote, in historical scholarship. The ceremony involved immense expenditure and thousands of participants, but its true importance lay the elusive—and somewhat confused—semiotic claims put forward by organisers. manner which events May 1805 were choreographed reveals much about how French imperialists viewed their nascent Empire relationship with northern citizen-subjects. argument here is inspired concept ‘ornamentalism’. While realities imperial brutality, cultural chauvinism economic exploitation conquered territories cannot be brushed under carpet, reverse side this coin also worthy further investigation. Nowhere more than satellite kingdom Italy did Napoleon seek promote collaboration local investment his supranational empire. He rewarded, honoured rallied Lombard Emilian officials order endow them sense that they belonged to, benefited from membership of, wider community. coronation Milan, on 26 1805, was an important experiment creation new hierarchies elite affinities. Its mixed, though significant, legacy continued, certain extent, Habsburg successors well into first half nineteenth century.
The English Historical Review|Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent)