2010 Reports

"La seconde ville de l'empire" : the educational network in Rome during the Napoleonic years

Sangalli, Maurizio

On 17th of May 1809, Rome is officially annexed to the French Empire. At that moment, Rome was already mentioned as ‘la seconde ville de l’Empire” (17th of February decree), and assigned to the ‘King of Rome’, that is the future child of Napoleon and Maria Luisa Habsburg-Lorraine. Since the 5th of July 1809, pope Pius VII was arrested and confined in Savona (Liguria), and the papal government completely dismantelled. The new province was divided into two departments, the first called Tevere and the second called Trasimeno. Finally, on 17th of April 1810, another decree suppressed the religious orders, except for the few-ones that were involved in the social field, such as hospitals and education. This is briefly the frame in which we are going to insert our observations about the Napoleonic attempt to re-build the educational Roman system.