NAPOLEON'S FIRST ITALIAN CAMPAIGN: 1796-1797

1-202520

The finest qualities of old world, 19th-century bookmaking resurface in the creation of this book. Full, leather binding with gilt stamping encases this oversize 14x10-inch volume. Marbled endpapers, silk ribbon page marker, and heavy, gilt edged archival pages.

Includes over 40 commissioned maps, 50 full-color Rocco paintings, artifact photos, numerous sketches, two appendices featuring over 40 primary uniform illustrations that served as sources for Keith Rocco's work.

Napoleon received command of the Army of Italy while serving under the French Revolutionary Government known as The Directory. Napoleon's appointment has long been impugned by various anti-Bonaparte historians as being the result of his courtship and marriage to Josephine rather than as an award of merit.

Phipps convincingly dismisses these myths largely by refuting the 'memoirs' of Director Paul Barras, an often used but scurrilous source. Napoleon's sudden rise can mostly be attributed to his resolve on October 5th, 1795, where, on duty in Paris, he led the suppression of an armed Royalist mob with the famous 'whiff of grapeshot,' directing artillery fire that clattered down the streets of Paris, bloodily repulsing the insurrection. Napoleon, in essence, had saved the Directory with his decisive response to the crisis.