THE CONQUEST OF THE MEMORY. NAPOLEON, GALILEO AND THE ARCHIVES OF THE EMPIRE

The conquest of history. Napoleon, Galileo and the Archive de l'Empire - While Napoleon's empire was expanding across Europe, the Archives de l'Empire were implemented in Paris as central record office and as depository of documents for universal history. In 1809-1813, hundreds of thousands of folders were carried from conquered countries and satellites states to Paris. Among those were the Roman Inquisition's archival documents, including Galileo's trial. A project for the publication of the trial was then presented to the Emperor but never achieved. The article aims at contextualising the seizure of Galileo's trial by the Napoleonic government in the context of the creation of the Archives de l'Empire and of French politics and culture. The failure of the publication project thus appears as the result of Napoleon's changing agenda vis-a-vis pope Pious VII and the Roman Catholic Church and of the shifts in historical culture and history-writing practices of the time.