Pacca, Cardinal

1756-1844. Son of Orazio Pacca, Marchese di Matrice, he was elected titular archbishop of Damietta, September 26, 1785. In 1809, Pope Pius VII excommunicated Napoleon and on July 6, the Pope and Cardinal Pacca were arrested, the former being sent to Savona, the latter, on August 6, 1809, to Fenestrelle until 1813. In that year, he was allowed to join the pope in Fontainebleau; influenced the pope to retract the agreement with Napoleon and was deported to Uzès in January 1814; freed at the fall of Napoleon in April 1814. Returned to Rome and organized a State Junta to govern in the name of the absent pope. He participated in the conclaves up to that of 1830-1831.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec1 BkXX:Chap9:Sec2 His arrest in 1809.

BkXXII:Chap2:Sec1 At Fontainebleau in 1813.

BkXXX:Chap1:Sec1 A candidate for the Papacy in 1829.

BkXXX:Chap4:Sec1 Supported as a Papal candidate by France.

 

Pacca, Tiberio

1786-1837. Nephew of the Cardinal, he was the second son of Giuseppe Pacca, Marquis of Matrice, and Maria Teresa Crivelli, a Milanese noblewoman. He entered the Roman prelature as referendary of the Tribunals of the Apostolic Signature of Justice and of Grace on May 18, 1809. Prisoner of state in 1809; together with his uncle the cardinal, he was deported to the fortress of Fenestrelle, in the valley of Chisone, near Pinerolo, now in the province of Turin.

BkXX:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Padua, Italy

The capital of Padova province, it stands on the Bacchiglione River, 40km west of Venice and 29km southeast of Vicenza.

BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 BkXL:Chap1:Sec1 BkXL:Chap7:Sec1 BkXLI:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand was there in September 1833. Monselice is south of Padua on the way to Rovigo and Ferrara. The Castello Cataio, near Battaglia Terme, is a crenellated manor house which at that time belonged to the Duke of Modena.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 Chateaubriand sight-sees in the city 20th September 1833.

BkXL:Chap6:Sec1 Lombardy-Venetia was part of the Austrian Empire in 1833.

 

Paestum, Italy

A city of Lucania in Italy, the site is near modern Agropoli on the Bay of Salerno, a ruin in a wilderness, with Doric temples that surpassed those of Athens. Originally called Poseidonia, the city of Neptune, it was founded by Greeks from Sybaris in the 6th c. BC. It became Paestum when it passed into the hands of the Lucanians in the 4th century. It was taken by the Romans in 273BC. In antiquity it was famous for its roses, which flowered twice a year, and its violets. Malaria eventually drove away its population.

BkXXIX:Chap1:Sec3 BkXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1

Its roses.

 

Paganini, Niccolò

1782-1840. An Italian violinist, violist, guitarist and composer, he was the first and one of the most famous violin virtuosi.

BkXXIX:Chap5:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned

 

Paisiello, Giovanni

1740-1816. An Italian composer, he served in St. Petersburg at the Court of Catherine II from 1776 to 1784. He was also briefly Napoleon’s maître de chapelle. He composed some 100 operas, church music, keyboard concertos, string quartets, and other works. His opera The Barber of Seville (1782) was so popular that for a time it hindered the success of Rossini’s work of the same name.

BkVII:Chap6:Sec1 The famous duet Pandolfetto graziosetto.

 

Pajol, Pierre-Claude (Pajot), General

1772-1844. He retired from the Imperial Army after a fine career, and became an industrialist. He took command of the National Guard in July 1830 and led the popular march to Rambouillet which forced Charles X to leave France. He later took command of the 1st Division and was made a Peer in 1831.

BkXXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Active on the 29th of July 1830.

BkXXXII:Chap14:Sec1 A supporter of Louis-Philippe.

BkXXXIII:Chap4:Sec1 Leader of the march to Rambouillet on the 3rd of August 1830.

 

Palais-Bourbon, Paris

Giardini began to work on the building in 1722, Lassurance continued the work, Aubert and Gabriel completed it in 1728. It was originally built for Louis XIV’s daughter, the Duchess of Bourbon, who gave her name to the palace. In 1764, it became the property of the Prince of Condé and he developed the building as it is seen today. From 1803 to 1807, Napoleon commissioned Poyet to build the façade, to complement that of the Madeleine which it faces, in the distance at the end of the Rue Royale. The portico of the façade is enhanced by an allegorical pediment sculpted by Cortot in 1842. Other allegorised bas-reliefs on the wings are the work of Rude and Pradier. The interior is rich with works of art; it is worth noting that Delacroix decorated the library here from 1838 to 1845 with the History of Civilisation, while also in this room, Houdon sculpted busts of Diderot and Voltaire. Formerly assigned to the Council of the Five Hundred, and then to the House of Deputies, today it holds the National Assembly.

BkXIV:Chap1:Sec2 Its outbuildings were used to house the new École Polytechnique from 1795-1805.

BkXXXII:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Palais-Royal, Paris

Jacques Lemercier’s Palais-Royal began its existence on a much smaller scale as the Palais Cardinal. After Cardinal Richelieu’s death, it was occupied by Anne of Austria and her two sons, Louis XIV and Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, hence its later name, Palais Royal. It was notorious for its prostitutes. In 1780, it was greatly expanded by Victor Louis with rows of two-story houses enclosing a courtyard and arcades of shops lining the interior garden. During the Revolution, Parisians called it the Palais Egalité and under the Empire, the Palais du Tribunal. After the restoration of the Bourbon family in 1815, it became the Palais Royal once again. A mob completely wrecked the palace in 1848 but it was later restored by Napoléon III.

BkIV:Chap3:Sec2 Its environs visited by Chateaubriand in 1786.

BkV:Chap12:Sec2 Chateaubriand met Mirabeau there, on the 17th June 1790.

BkIX:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand visited a gambling club there in 1792.

BkXIII:Chap4:Sec1 Visited by Chateaubriand in 1800.

BkXXIII:Chap11:Sec2 Associated with the Duc d’Orléans.

 

Palenque, Mexico

Site of the Mayan ruins in the foothills of the Tumbalá mountains of Chiapas Mexico.

BkVIII:Chap2:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Palermo, Italy

The principal city and administrative seat of the autonomous region of Sicily, Italy it is the capital of the Province of Palermo.

BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Its orange groves.

BkXXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand writes to the Duchesse de Berry there in 1833.

 

Palestrina, Madame

She was a member of the Roman nobility in 1828.

BkXXIX:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Palinurus

The steersman of Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid, who, lulled to sleep, was thrown into the sea and drowned.

BkXXXI:Chap1:Sec2 See Aeneid V:857-871.

 

Palissot de Montenoy, Charles

1730-1814. A French writer, he was an adversary of the philosophers and Encyclopaedists whom he ridiculed in his comedy ‘Les Philosophes’ 1760, and in ‘La Dunciade ou la Guerre des Sots’ his poem of 1764.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 Mentioned.

 

Palladio, Andrea

1508-1580. An Italian architect born in Padua, famous for his much-imitated classical designs, he created many villas, palaces and churches, including S Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

BkXXXVIII:Chap8:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Palladium, The

An image of Pallas Athene, said to have fallen from the sky at Troy. The safety of Troy depended on its preservation according to an oracle. It was stolen by Ulysses and Diomede.

BkXXI:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Palm, Johann Philipp

1768-1806. A German bookseller, in 1806 published a pamphlet (possibly written by Philipp Christian Yelin in Ansbach) entitled Deutschland in seiner tiefen Erniedrigung (‘Germany in her deep humiliation’), which strongly attacked Napoleon and the behaviour of the French troops in Bavaria. Napoleon had Palm arrested and handed over to a military commission with peremptory instructions to try and execute the prisoner within twenty-four hours. Palm was denied the right of defence, and after a mock trial on the 25th of August 1806 he was shot on the following day. It was to Palm that the poet Thomas Campbell was referring when he gave his famous (and possibly apocryphal) toast to Napoleon at a literary dinner. When this caused uproar, he admitted that Napoleon was a tyrant and an enemy of their country, ‘But gentlemen! He once shot a publisher.’

BkXXII:Chap 20:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Palma il Vecchio, Jacopo

1480-1528. A noted Venetian painter, he is referred to as Palma il Vecchio (Palma the Elder) to distinguish him from Palma il Giovane (Jacopo Palma II the Younger: 1544-1628), his grand-nephew.

BkXXXIX:Chap4:Sec1 Both painters are mentioned.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 Palma the Elder’s work in Padua.

 

Palma-Cayet, Pierre Victor Cayet, Lord of La Palme, called

1525-1610. A historian of the League, and a Protestant minister, he became a Catholic priest and was Professor of Hebrew at the Navarre College in Paris. He also wrote a version of the Faust legend published in 1603.

BkXXXII:Chap15:Sec1 A quotation from his Chronologie novenaire (1606).

 

Palmerston, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount

1784-1865. The British Statesman was Foreign Secretary 1830-1834, 1934-41 and 1846-1851. His foreign policy was markedly nationalistic. He was Liberal Prime Minister 1855-1858 and 1859-1865.

BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 Palmerston demanded the withdrawal of French troops from Belgium in 1832 when Louis-Philippe tried to assert French rights there.

 

Palucci, Admiral

He was a Field-Marshal and Naval Chief in Venice in 1833.

BkXXXIX:Chap8:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Palmyra

An ancient city of Syria on the northern edge of the Syrian Desert, it lay 150 miles north-east of Damascus. According to tradition, it was founded by Solomon. In the Bible it is called Tadmur (see 1 Kings 9:18). A prosperous caravan station in the 1st century BC, Palmyra became a Roman outpost and a major city-state within the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. The Emperor Aurelian defeated its rebellious Queen Zenobia and razed the city in 232. It was subsequently taken by the Arabs and sacked by Tamburlaine.

BkXXXV:Chap25:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Pamfili, see Olimpia

 

Pamisus, River

The Greek river, the modern Pirnatza, flows through Messenia, in the south-western Peloponnese, through the most fertile region of Greece.

BkXVIII:Chap6:Sec1 Referred to in Les Martyrs, Book XIII, and visited by Chateaubriand on his Levant Voyage.

 

Pan

In mythology, the Greek god of shepherds and their flocks, he has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, like a satyr. Pan is associated with the wilds of Nature.

BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Panat, Charles Louis Etienne, Chevalier de

1762-1834. French naval officer. In the Battle of Chesapeake Bay between the first division of De Grasse’s fleet and the British squadron he took an English frigate, and afterwards commanded a company of marines in the two assaults on Yorktown, where he was severely wounded. After 1783 he was promoted captain, created knight of Saint Louis, and made a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. In 1790 he took part in the first expedition to Santo Domingo, but, disapproving the principles of the French revolution, resigned and emigrated in 1792. He returned to Paris in 1800, and held during the whole of Napoleon’s reign the office of permanent under-secretary of the navy, which he exchanged at the restoration of Louis XVIII for that of secretary-general to the board of admiralty, with the rank of rear-admiral.

BkXI:Chap2:Sec1 Chateaubriand met him at Mrs Lindsay’s.

BkXI:Chap5:Sec1 His letter concerning readings from Le Génie.

 

Panckoucke, Charles-André-Joseph

1700-1753. A writer and publisher, he was the grandfather of Charles-Louis.

BkXVII:Chap2:Sec1 Madame Suard was his daughter,

 

Panckoucke, Charles-Louis

1780-1844. Son of Charles-Joseph Panckouke (1736-1798).

BkXIX:Chap2:Sec1 His publication of the Works of Napoleon, 1821-1822.

 

Pandours

Hungarian irregular foot-soldiers, taking their name originally from a Hungarian village, noted for their ferocity, and part of the Austrian Army.

BkIX:Chap7:Sec2 Mentioned, at Tournai, in 1792.

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec2 Mentioned.

 

Pangalo, Monsieur -G

He was a correspondent from Zea.

BkXVIII:Chap3Sec4 His letter of 1816.

 

Panormita, Antonio Beccadelli

1394-1471. Called Il Panormita (‘The Palermitan’), he was an Italian poet, canon lawyer, scholar, diplomat, and chronicler. He generally wrote in Latin. He was born in Palermo.

BkXL:Chap5:Sec1 His love of Livy’s works.

 

Pantagruel

He appears as a character in Rabelais’ works.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 Mentioned.

 

Paoli, Hyacinthe (Giacinto)

1702-1768. A Corsican patriot, he was the father of Pasquale. From 1733 he was the leader of the Corsican insurrection against the Genoese. He supported Neuhof in 1736. In 1739, defeated, he sought exile in Naples.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Paoli, Pascal (Pasquale)

1725-1807. A Corsican patriot, in 1755 he returned to Corsica from exile with his father in Naples, led a successful revolt against the Genoese, and was chosen president under a republican constitution. His capital was at Corte. In 1768, Genoa sold Corsica to France. Paoli fought brilliantly against the superior forces of the French, but in 1769 was decisively defeated and fled to England. James Boswell, who had corresponded with him and visited him in Corsica, introduced him into the circle of Samuel Johnson. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, Paoli was appointed (1791) governor of Corsica. Accused (1793) of counter-revolutionary activities and summoned to Paris, he proclaimed the independence of Corsica and solicited British aid. With the help of Admiral Hood the French were defeated (1794). The pro-French party was banished and the Corsican national assembly (consulta) declared the island a British protectorate and chose an English governor. Paoli, who favoured independence and who had hoped to be appointed viceroy, was disappointed when Pozzo di Borgo became chief of the Corsican council of state. Paoli went to England in 1795 and remained there until his death. After his departure the islanders rose against the British and in 1796 drove them out with French help.

BkXIX:Chap3:Sec1 Not Napoleon’s godfather, though Napoleon’s father had been of Paoli’s party.

BkXIX:Chap4:Sec1 A letter to him from Napoleon Bonaparte.

BkXIX:Chap5:Sec1 BkXIX:Chap5:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXIX:Chap6:Sec1 Recalled from England in 1789 at Mirabeau’s prompting.

BkXIX:Chap7:Sec1 Condemned by Napoleon for relinquishing power.

 

Papelotte

A farm on the field of Waterloo, it was defended by the Allies.

BkXXIII:Chap17:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Paramé

A town near to Saint-Malo and incorporated in it in 1967.

BkI:Chap3:Sec4 Mentioned.

 

Parcae

The Moerae, The Three Fates were the Three Sisters, the daughters of Night: Clotho, the spinner of the thread of life, Lachesis, chance or luck, and Atropos, inescapable destiny. Clotho spins, Lachesis draws out, and Atropos shears the thread. Their unalterable decrees may be revealed to Zeus but he cannot change the outcome.

BkXIII:Chap9:Sec1 BkXIV:Chap1:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 Catullus describes their white robes fringed with purple in poem 64.

 

Pardessus, Jean-Marie

1772-1853. A lawyer and historian he resigned in 1830 from the Court of Cassation.

BkXXXV:Chap24:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Paris

The capital of France on the River Seine, the earliest settlement was in Roman times. Its ancient name is Lutetia from the Latin word for mud, lutum. Caesar called it Lutetia Parisiorium, the mud-town of the Parisii. In the 6th century Clovis made it the capital of the Frankish Kingdom. It gained further importance and independence under the Capetians.

BkIV:Chap1:Sec3 BkIV:Chap8:Sec1 Chateaubriand’s hotel in 1786 and 1787 in the Rue du Mail, near the modern Place des Victoires, and the Bourse.

BkIV:Chap10:Sec1 BkIV:Chap11:Sec1 BkIV:Chap12:Sec1

BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 BkV:Chap1:Sec1 BkV:Chap2:Sec1 BkV:Chap4:Sec1

BkV:Chap5:Sec1 BkV:Chap6:Sec1 BkV:Chap7:Sec1 BkV:Chap8:Sec1

BkV:Chap9:Sec1 BkV:Chap10:Sec1 BkV:Chap12:Sec1 BkV:Chap13:Sec1

BkV:Chap14:Sec1 BkV:Chap15:Sec1 BkXXV:Chap1:Sec1

BkXXVI:Chap10:Sec1 This chapter written there. Chateaubriand returned to Paris from Berlin on the 26th April 1821 for the christening of the Duc de Bordeaux on the 1st May 1821 but did not resign his embassy until the 29th July, after the resignations of Villèle and Corbière.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec4 BkXXII:Chap13:Sec1 Its ancient Roman name in Northern Gaul was Lutetia.

BkVIII:Chap5:Sec2 Paris, Kentucky, in Bourbon County.

BkXIII:Chap3:Sec1 Mrs Lindsay lived in the hamlet of Ternes, part of Neuilly, beyond the Barrière du Roule, now Place des Ternes.

BkXIII:Chap4:Sec1 BkXIV:Chap1:Sec1 BkXIV:Chap5:Sec1 BkXV:Chap1:Sec1 This chapter and following chapters where indicated were written in Paris in 1837.

BkXIII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand lodged in the Hôtel d’Étampes at 372 Rue Saint Honoré, one part of which was a three storey block giving onto the Rue Saint Honore itself, and near to the Rue Neuve-du-Luxembourg, the present Rue Cambon.

BkXIV:Chap2:Sec1 BkXIV:Chap6:Sec1 BkXVI:Chap1:Sec1 This chapter and following chapters where indicated were written in Paris in 1838.

BkXVII:Chap1:Sec1 Chateaubriand moved in mid-April 1804 to the present 31 Rue de Miromesnil.

BkXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 This chapter and following chapters where indicated were written in Paris in 1839. In 1621, Anne of Austria provided a residence for the Benedictines of the Deep Valley, called the Valley of Grace (Val de Grâce). On the birth of the future Louis XIV in 1637, she decided to put up a baroque-style church. This church, started by Mansart, was completed by Le Mercier, Le Muet, and Le Duc. There are many beautiful sculptures as well as some magnificent paintings. The dome and the cupola are exquisitely decorated. After the Revolution, Val de Grâce became a military hospital. The Jardin des Plantes is the main botanical garden in France, situated on the left bank of the Seine. The garden was originally planted by Guy de La Brosse, Louis XIII’s physician, in 1626 as a medicinal herb garden. It was originally known as the Jardin du Roi. In 1650 it opened to the public. After a period of decline Jean-Baptiste Colbert took administrative control and Dr Guy Crescent Fagon was appointed in 1693, surrounding himself with a team of brilliant botanists, The Comte de Buffon became the curator in 1739 and he expanded the gardens greatly, adding a maze, round a tall mound built up from public waste in the 17th century, the Labyrinth, which remains today. In 1792 the Royal Menagerie was moved to the gardens from Versailles. Bernard de Jussieu planted the famous cedar of Lebanon in 1734 on the hillside facing the Seine, having obtained it from Kew Gardens in London.

BkXX:Chap5:Sec3 The University of Paris (located partly in the college of the Sorbonne), dating back to the 12th century, was suspended during the Revolution and was re-opened by Napoleon in 1806.

BkXXII:Chap9:Sec1 Chateaubriand stayed in a house at 194 Rue de Rivoli, on the corner of the Place des Pyramides.

BkXXII:Chap11:Sec1 See the notes on the Jardin des Plantes above. The ‘tomb of the martyrs’ is Montmartre (Mons Martyrum according Parisian tradition)

BkXXII:Chap18:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap7:Sec1 BkXXIV:Chap16:Sec1 The Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile surmounts the hill of Chaillot at the center of a star-shaped configuration of 12 radiating avenues. It is the climax of a vista seen the length of the Champs Elysées from the smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in the Tuileries gardens, and from the Obélisque de Luxor in the place de la Concorde. In 1806, Napoleon I conceived of a triumphal arch patterned after those of ancient Rome and dedicated to the glory of his imperial armies. The structure was designed by Jean François Thérèse Chalgrin (1739-1811) and completed in 1836 during the reign of Louis Philippe. Engraved around the top of the Arch are the names of major victories won during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. The names of less important victories, as well as those of 558 generals, can be found on the inside walls. (Generals whose names are underlined died in action.) The sun shines beneath the arch at the start of May and in mid-August.

BkXXII:Chap 25:Sec1 BkXXIII:Chap12:Sec1 On 5 December 1804, Napoleon presided over a ceremony on the Champ-de-Mars, in Paris, during which new colours were allocated to the regiments. When he attempted to re-establish his empire (the Cent-Jours, March-June 1815), a similar ceremony of eagle distribution was organized. The ceremony took place once again on the Champ-de-Mars, which was renamed Champ-de-Mai, to recall the May (or liberty) trees planted during the Revolution. The ceremony, was, however, postponed from May 26th to 1 June. The results of the vote on the new Constitution (there was a massive abstention) were to be declared on that day.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec1 The Elysée Palace was built between 1718 and 1722. Owned at one time by Madame de Pompadour it was gifted to Louis XV at her death. Louis XVI set aside the house as a residence for Ambassadors Extraordinary in Paris; then in 1787 he sold it to his cousin, the Duchess of Bourbon. Bought by Murat it was gifted to Napoleon. Tsar Alexander of Russia moved into it during the occupation of Paris by the Allies, and the building was then placed at the disposal of the Duke of Wellington in November 1815. In 1816, it definitively became part of the Crown estates, and Louis XVIII granted it to his nephew, the Duc de Berry. In 1820, Louis Philippe took possession of the Palace, which thereafter became the residence of foreign State guests visiting Paris, until 1848. On December 12, 1848, the National Assembly issued a decree designating the ‘Elysée National’ as the Residence of the French President. Though subsequently used otherwise it is now the residence of the Head of state and seat of the Office of President.

BkXXIII:Chap18:Sec2 The Luxembourg Palace was built (1615-1631) for Marie de Médicis, the widow of Henri IV, by Salamon de Brosse. It remained a royal palace until the Revolution. After a spell as a prison it became the seat for the Directory, Consulate, Senate and Chamber of Peers. It is now the seat of the French Senate, the Upper House.

BkXXV:Chap11:Sec1 In 1820, the Opéra was in the Rue de Richelieu on the site occupied today by the Square Louvois.

BkXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 A play on words. The Elysian Fields with their ghostly shades are also the Champs-Élysées with their tree-shades.

BkXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap8:Sec1 The Chateaubriands had lodgings at 18 Rue de l’Université from the start of 1822 to October 1824, though as Foreign Minister Chateaubriand himself stayed at the Ministry (1821-1854) at 24 Rue des Capucines.

BkXXVIII:Chap5:Sec1 The Chateaubriands lodged on the first floor of the Hôtel de Beaune, 7 Rue de Regard, from October 1824 to May 1826.

BkXXXIV:Chap13:Sec1 The Rue des Prouvaires joined the Rue Saint-Honoré at the Rue Rambuteau, before the old Les Halles was built in 1860. The ‘conspirators’ met at no 12, a house owned by Larcher.

BkXXXV:Chap4:Sec1 The Courtille was an extension of the Faubourg du Temple in the Belleville direction. Outside the gates, it was known in the eighteenth century for its dance halls and cabarets. Later it was known for the Carnival celebrations at Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday) and on the following morning of Ash Wednesday.

BkXXXV:Chap11:Sec1 The Dance of Death painting in the Cemetery of the Innocents dates from 1425, and was subsequently reproduced in woodcuts in 1485 by Guyot Marchand.

BkXXXVI:Chap1:Sec1 The Rue d’Enfer is now the Avenue Denfert-Rochereau, named in 1879 for the Colonel who directed the resistance of Belfort in 1870.

BkXXXVI:Chap6:Sec1 Its river, the Seine, is mentioned.

BkXXXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 The Treaty of Paris of 1814 restored France’s borders to those of 1792. The Treaty of 1815 following Waterloo reduced France to its 1790 borders.

BkXLI:Chap2:Sec1 The Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique was situated on Boulevard du Temple from 1764, was renamed in 1795, rebuilt in 1805. In the 1860s the theatre was rebuilt nearby, adjacent to Boulevard Sebastopol, where it still stands as the Theatre de la Musique.

BkXLII:Chap1:Sec1 On the 13th-14th April 1834 riots in support of the Lyon insurgents were viciously suppressed, including a massacre in the Rue Transnonain (north of the present Rue Beaubourg).

BkXLII:Chap3:Sec1 In 1794 part of the Convent of the Canonesses of Saint Augustine, on the Rue de Picpus, was used as a communal grave for victims of the Terror. Under the Consulate it became a private cemetery.

BkXLII:Chap4:Sec2 The monastery of Saint-Pélagie near the Jardin des Plantes was used as a prison during the Revolution. Madame Roland wrote her Memoirs there. It was later used as a debtors’ prison and for those violating the censorship laws.

 

Parisienne, La

This song, written by the poet and dramatist Jean-Francois Casimir Delavigne (1793-1843) in 1830, and set to music by Daniel Auber rivalled the Marseillaise in popularity.

BkXXXIV:Chap15:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Parma, Italy

A medieval city of Etruscan origins in the region of Emilia-Romagna, In 1847, after Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma’s death, it passed to the Bourbons, the last of whom Charles III was stabbed in the city (in 1854) and left it to his Widow, Luisa Maria of Berry. On September 15, 1859 the dynasty was declared deposed, and with the plebiscite of 1860 the former duchy became part of the unified Kingdom of Italy.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 The Chateaubriands were there in September 1828.

 

Parmentier, Pierre

d.1794 Executed during the Terror.

BkX:Chap8:Sec2 His name appears on the death warrant exhibited, and he was executed with Chateaubriand’s brother.

 

Parnassus

The mountain, in Phocis, Greece, was sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Delphi is at its foot where the oracle of Apollo and his temple were situated. Themis held the oracle in ancient times.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec3 BkXVIII:Chap3Sec5 BkXXIII:Chap14:Sec1

BkXXX:Chap11:Sec2 Mentioned.

BkXVIII:Chap9:Sec1 The Castilian spring sacred to the Muses was sited on Parnassus.

 

Parny, Évariste-Desirée de Forges-Parny, Chevalier de

1753-1814. A Creole poet (born Ile de la Réunion), he made his way to Paris to Paris via Pondicherry, arriving in 1786. Note his works Chansons madécasses (1787) and especially his Poésies érotiques  (1778), presaging Lamartine. He suffered financial difficulties.

BkII:Chap7:Sec1 Chateaubriand followed him at Rennes College.

BkIV:Chap12:Sec1 Chateaubriand met him in Paris.  A description of the man. Chateaubriand quotes from Poésies érotiques Book II, ‘La Racommodement’. He also refers to La Guerre des Dieux, a mock-heroic poem of 1799 tactless in its handling of Christianity.

BkV:Chap15:Sec1 His elegy for Charlotte de Villette.

BkIX:Chap2:Sec1 A verse adapted from Poésies érotiques celebrating Madame D’Egmont.

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 An adaptation of his verse to ‘Charmante Emma’. The Duc de Duras quickly remarried.

 

Parquin, née Louise Cochelet, Madame

1785-1835. The wife of Denis-Charles Parquin (1786-1845) an officer friend of Prince Louis-Napoléon. She was in the service of the Queen of Holland.

BkXXXV:Chap19:Sec1 BkXXXV:Chap20:Sec1 Her husband bought the Château of Wolfberg, at Ermatingen, where visitors to Queen Hortense often stayed.

 

Parry, Sir William Edward

1790-1855. The British explorer made three journeys in search of the North-west Passage (1819-20, 1821-23, 1824-25). In 1827 he tried to reach the pole by sledge from Spitsbergen.

BkIV:Chap13:Sec1 BkXXXIX:Chap8:Sec1 BkXLI:Chap1:Sec1 BkXLII:Chap18:Sec1 Mentioned.

BkXIX:Chap18:Sec2 Supposedly his men entertained themselves with plays, dances and masquerades while imprisoned in the ice.

 

Parthenon

Built 447-432 BC, it is the temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Athens.

BkVIII:Chap4:Sec2 Mentioned. Mount Cithaeron and Hymettus are mountains between Boeotia and Attica to the north of Athens.

 

Partouneaux, Louis, Comte

1770-1835. A Napoleonic General.

BkXXI:Chap7:Sec1 At the Berezina.

 

Pascal, Blaise

1623-1662. French mathematician, philosopher and inventor, born in Clermont-Ferrand.. His early work included the invention of the adding machine and syringe, and the co-development with Fermat of the mathematical theory of probability. Later he became a Jansenist and wrote on philosophy and theology, notably as collected in the posthumous Pensées (1670).

BkXI:Chap2:Sec2 Montlosier as a Pascal manqué.

BkXIV:Chap6:Sec1 Chateaubriand quotes from the Pensées: ‘Les rivières sont des chemins qui marchent, et qui portent où l'on veut aller.’

BkXXIX:Chap2:Sec1 See Pensées, the fragment entitled Human disproportion.

BkXXXVIII:Chap1:Sec1 See Pensées, ‘Man’s greatness comes from knowing he is wretched.’

 

Paskevich, Ivan Federovich, General

1782-1856. Later made Count of Erivan, and Prince of Warsaw, he was a Russian field marshal who had a distinguished early army career, fighting against Turkey, and France. On the outbreak of war with Persia in 1826 he gained rapid and brilliant successes which compelled the Shah to sue for peace in February 1828. He later suppressed the Polish revolt and gave the death-blow to Polish independence. He held the rank of Field-Marshal in the Prussian and Austrian armies as well as his own. 

BkXXIX:Chap13:Sec1 Mentioned.

 

Pasquier, Étienne

1529-1615. A French jurist and man of letters, he studied under Jacques Cujas and began his legal career in 1549. Always a confirmed advocate of Gallicanism, in 1565 he pleaded a famous case for the University of Paris against the Jesuits. In 1585 he became advocate general of a division of the Parlement of Paris. Pasquier’s most notable book, Recherches de la France, a learned work on French history and literature, reflected the tendency of the humanists to write in the vernacular rather than in Latin.

BkXIX:Chap14:Sec3 Chateaubriand quotes from his work.