Napoleon tiara
The Napoleon tiara was a tiara that Napoleon Bonaparte gave to Pope Pius VII in June 1805 a few months after his imperial coronation . It was lavishly adorned with jewels, but intentionally too small and heavy to wear. The tiara was a symbolic restitution of jewels stolen during the Revolutionary Wars. But their shape and their images and inscriptions were at the same time a humiliation for the Pope. The painter Jacques-Louis David depicted Le Sacre de Napoléon as the tiara is held behind the Pope by a helper.
description
The tiara, which had the usual form of papal tiaras, was designed and manufactured by Henri Auguste and Marie-Étienne Nitot from the Chaumet house in Paris . The pad was made of white velvet. Above that there were three gold crowns, each adorned with flowers and leaves, enriched with rubies , emeralds and sapphires and framed by diamonds and pearls . In total, the tiara contained 3345 precious stones and 2990 pearls. It cost 179,800 francs .
At the top, under the diamond cross, the tiara wore a large emerald, the Pope Pius VI. removed from his tiara to pay for the war reparations required by the Treaty of Tolentino of 1797. The emerald (404.5 carats) was originally part of a tiara by Pope Gregory XIII. made by Cristoforo Foppa .
In the center of each hoop was a relief that glorified Napoleon. The civil constitution of the clergy , the Concordat of 1801 and the coronation of Napoleon were shown. On additional plates were inscriptions with Napoleon's military victories.
Annoyances and modifications
At his coronation, Napoleon promised the Pope to send him an altar, two carriages and a tiara. Only the tiara was delivered. Usually a tiara weighed between 2 and 5 pounds (0.91 and 2.27 kg). This weighed 18 pounds (8.2 kg). It was also too small to be carried comfortably. Some jewels and ornaments came from papal tiaras and insignia that had been destroyed and stolen by the forces of the Directory in 1798 when they invaded Rome, headed by General Louis-Alexandre Berthier , established the Roman Republic and Pope Pius VI. expelled. His successor Pope Pius VII was elected in exile in Venice in 1800 and was crowned with a paper mache tiara.
The Pope thanked the emperor for the tiara in a letter dated June 23, 1805 and announced that he would use it for the papal mass on the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul .
The original bas-reliefs in the middle of the maturity of each crown glorifying Napoleon were believed to have been removed by Cardinal Secretary of State Ercole Consalvi . They were replaced by inscriptions from the Holy Scriptures: Acts 20.28 EU at the top, Rev 11.4 EU in the middle and Ps 85.10 EU at the bottom.
During the uprising of 1831, the tiara was buried in the Vatican Gardens and was badly damaged as a result. It was restored in 1834. The size of the tiara was adjusted so that it was more comfortable to wear. It was used for the coronation of a number of popes, including Pius IX. It was last worn during the First Vatican Council in 1870. Except for the emerald and eight rubies, Pope Benedict XV. remove the gemstones and replace them with replicas made of colored glass. The jewels were sold to raise money for the victims of the First World War.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e de la garde Grissell, Hartwell (January-June 1896), " Notes and Queries " A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc. Eighth Series. London. 9: 9-10.
- ^ A b c Full text of "Napoleon and his coronation". Retrieved September 7, 2017 .
- ^ Vandiver Nicassio, Susan (2009). Imperial City: Rome under Napoleon . University of Chicago Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-226-57974-0 .
- ↑ a b Twining, Edward Francis (1960). A History of the Crown Jewels of Europe . BT Batsford. p. 380
- ^ The United States Catholic Magazine and Monthly Review . J. Murphy, 1846 ( google.com [accessed September 7, 2017]).
- ↑ CULTURE & POLITICS, ODDS & ENDS - PAPA RATZINGER FORUM. December 25, 2005, accessed September 7, 2017 .