Imperial City. Rome, Romans and Napoleon, 1796-1815 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by Tommaso Astarita Georgetown University Imperial City. Rome, Romans and Napoleon, 1796-1815. By Susan Vandiver Nicassio. (Welwyn Garden City, UK: Ravenhall Books, Linden Publishing Limited. 2005. Pp. 255. $34.95.) This book is evidently intended for a broad readership intrigued by the recreation of a picturesque and occasionally dramatic past. The author surveys the life of the inhabitants of Rome in the extraordinary decades when the Eternal City experienced traumatic events such as the short-lived Jacobin Republic of 1798, the restoration of papal government, the French hegemony in Italy, absorption into the French Empire in 1809, and the fall of Napoleon's reign in 1814-15. The book does not pretend to offer any particular analysis of these events; rather, they serve as the background for a skillful evocation of what life in Rome was like at that time. The look of the city, the character and social organization of its inhabitants, their daily and ordinary experiences, are recreated with the help of travelers' accounts, occasional vignettes of specific well-documented individuals, memoirs, and some visual sources. Though the striking developments of those years receive attention, the emphasis is on what the ordinary lives of ordinary Romans were like, and on how they survived the disruptions caused by the French. A first chapter recounts the overall historical narrative of these decades. Then follow chapters on the city and its appearance, the society and mores of the Romans, the "joys" and "sorrows" of their lives (from marriages and popular entertainments to violence and dirt), the features and feasts of the Catholic ritual year, and the economy, education, and work. Two late chapters more closely track the deteriorating relationship between French occupiers and resisting Romans, which mirrored the increasingly bitter fight between Napoleon and the papacy. A final chapter surveys the restoration of papal government and ends the book with an overview of the fate of Napoleon's family, many of whom ended up in Rome. The book is enjoyable to read, and its larger story and individual vignettes are often captivating. None of it adds up to much in the way of interpretation, although Professor Nicassio affects a tone of nostalgia for the happiness of old-regime life, which appears for instance in a constant—and eventually, to this reviewer, grating - sarcasm toward reform attempts: suffice it to say that the Jacobin Republic is almost always referred to as the "Ridiculous Republic," an epithet apparently used at the time, but obviously far from an unbiased one. Even when writing an engaging book for a general audience, a professional author ought to be more careful with her facts and editing. The book is quite simply riddled with errors and typos. There are many instances in which little facts or details are repeated, sometimes in the same few pages (e.g., pp. 45-46); many, many of the numerous terms and expressions in Italian, French, or Latin are misspelled; often the same foreign names or words appear with different spellings [End Page 977] even in the same two or three lines (e.g., in the "cast of characters," p. 10, where the name of one of Napoleon's brothers-in-law is also misspelled, or on pp. 99-100), or events are dated to different years (such as the death of Napoleon's mother, pp. 226 and 232); and the bibliography, which includes a useful introductory essay, is filled with misspelled names of authors and mistaken titles, including one of the classics on the topic, David Silvagni's La corte e la società romana (a single footnote on p. 160 includes five typos in Italian names and titles). The book has no full index (only proper names); a few quotes have no references, and many of the pretty illustrations are not identified or credited. Then, there are errors of fact: the dates of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (p. 17) and of the Treaty of Amiens (p. 27) are off by one year...