The Journey of an Archive from Italy to the World: The Papers of Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (1781–1824)

Gerassimos D. Pagratis

In searching for information on Marinos (Panagiotis) Doxaras (1755–1833), a Greek merchant from Venice who appears to have left no personal archive, an important discovery was made in the Special Collections Department of Princeton University’s Firestone Library: his correspondence with Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (Fig. 1). How did a Greek merchant from Venice establish a connection with de Beauharnais? How did their correspondence come to be housed at Princeton alongside de Beauharnais’s other documents? And finally, how did this archive serve as the basis for a significant research collection on Napoleonic Europe?

Marinos Doxaras, who lived in Venice from an early age and pursued his professional career there, was the son and grandson of prominent painters and military officers. Archival records indicate that, as a young man, he successfully established himself both as a banker and a merchant. His financial expertise, coupled with the privileged relationships he developed with the French after 1797, appears to have been the decisive factor leading Eugène de Beauharnais to appoint him as manager of his funds and investment advisor.

Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (1781–1824) is a historical figure considerably better known than Doxaras (Fig. 2). He was the son of Alexandre de Beauharnais, an aristocrat and general of the French Revolution who was guillotined in 1794 during the Reign of Terror. His mother, Joséphine, later became Napoleon’s wife in 1796. Through this connection, Eugène entered Napoleon’s inner circle of collaborators – a practice Napoleon often extended to members of his family. Eugène accompanied Napoleon on the Italian campaign in 1796 and later to Egypt. When Napoleon became King of Italy in 1805, he appointed Eugène as viceroy. A year later, he officially adopted him and arranged his marriage to Augusta of Bavaria, daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, a key ally of Napoleon.

Following Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, de Beauharnais’s marriage to the Bavarian princess provided a vital lifeline, enabling him to leave Italy and France and continue his life in Bavaria. In 1817, he received from his father-in-law the titles of Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstätt, and in the subsequent year he became the emperor’s banker. From 1822, his health declined, and he passed away two years later, at the age of forty-three.

The archive at Princeton comprises essentially the complete set of documents that de Beauharnais took with him in 1814 when he departed Italy for Bavaria. It encompasses approximately 30,000 documents covering two periods: (a) the Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814) and (b) the decade he spent in Bavaria (1814–1824).

The archive appears to have been transferred to Russia, where Maximilian, de Beauharnais’s son and the third Duke of Leuchtenberg, married the Russian aristocrat, Maria Nikolaevna. Their descendants remained in Russia until the 1917 Revolution, after which they returned to Bavaria.

Until 1934, de Beauharnais’s archive was located in Seeon, southern Bavaria. It was then transferred to London, when the family decided to sell it at auction through Sotheby’s. The auction was won by André de Coppet (1892–1953), a prominent American collector with a particular interest in Napoleonic and American history. De Coppet, a stockbroker, New York resident, and Princeton University graduate (1915), placed the collection on long-term loan to Princeton University in 1941, which ultimately became a donation. This acquisition did not comprise the entirety of de Beauharnais’s archive, as the Leuchtenberg family had begun selling portions of it in 1929. They also retained documents bearing Napoleon’s signature, believing that these items could command higher prices if sold separately.

De Coppet’s donation enabled Firestone Library to assemble a significant collection on the Napoleonic period (Napoleonana). Subsequently, 407 books from Napoleon’s personal collection were added to the archive. Napoleon, an avid reader and collector, had amassed a substantial library together with his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria. When he was arrested and exiled in 1815, Marie-Louise ensured that their books were transferred to Austria and incorporated into the Habsburg library. For a long time, the provenance of these books remained unclear.

In 1930, a Berlin bookseller, M. Breslauer, was invited to Vienna to appraise Archduke Rainer’s collection, where Napoleon’s books had ended up in whole or in part. It was through this appraisal that it was established that a substantial portion of Rainer’s collection –approximately 12,000 lavishly bound volumes – had originally belonged to Napoleon.

Under Breslauer’s management, Napoleon’s books were exhibited in Berlin and subsequently sold. Part of the collection was purchased by an English collector and later transferred to the French government, eventually arriving at the library of the Château de Malmaison. The remaining volumes exhibited in Berlin were sold to various collectors, some of which were acquired by a New York bookseller. It was through this channel that de Coppet discovered them and subsequently donated them to Firestone Library.

Through a combination of chance events and deliberate decisions, Princeton University’s Firestone Library acquired an extensive collection of archival materials and books on the Napoleonic era, with the de Beauharnais archive forming its cornerstone. The trajectory of this archive illustrates the broader fate of private collections, highlighting how owners’ decisions can lead to the dispersal or relocation of documents from the place where they were produced.

This case also exemplifies the impact of proactive collectors, particularly those with strong professional and educational backgrounds. De Coppet’s initiative reflects a pattern often observed among successful alumni of prestigious American universities: the tendency to contribute materially to their alma maters as a means of supporting scholarly endeavors and preserving historical legacies.

References

R. R. Palmer, «Special Collections at Princeton: VII. The Beauharnais Archives», The Princeton University Library Chronicle 3, n° 2, 1942, p. 45-51.

A. P. Clark, «The Andre de Coppet Collection of American Historical Manuscripts: A catalogue of an exhibition in the Princeton University Library, May 16 to June 30, 1955», The Princeton University Library Chronicle16, n° 4, 1955, p. 166-181.

M. Kerautret, Eugène de Beauharnais. Fils et vice-roi de Napoléon, Paris, 2021.

G. D. Pagratis, «Sulla presenza greca a Venezia prima e dopo il 1797: Le “molte vite” di Marinos Doxara (1755-1835)», Proceedings of the Conference: 12° Convegno internazionale: Venezia e il suo Stato da mar (Venice, 6-8 march 2025), forthcoming.

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