Summary

Medal Conquete de Venise, Venice Restored to Italy, Issued by France,1805 AD
Artist: Jean Pierre Droz and Nicholas Guy Antoine Brenet
Minted by Paris Mint

Obverse Description

Laureate head of Napoleon facing right; around, NAPOLEON EMP ET ROI; on neck truncation in small lettering, DROZ FECIT.; below, DENON DIREXI / M . DCCC. VI. (with die crack)

Reverse Description

View of the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal of Venice; above, on the upper part of the field of the medal, a small Gondola, a Dolphin, and a Hydrus or Water Serpent, emblematic of the Adriatic sea and the numerous canals of Venice.; in exergue VENISE RENDUE / A L'ITALIE / XXVI . DECEMBRE / MDCCCV.; below exergue line in small lettering, BRENET F. DENON D.

Edge Description

Plain

Significance

"At Leoben, to induce Austria to treat for peace without the intervention of Great Britain, Bonaparte then offered her the possession of the Venetian dominions as an equivalent for the Netherlands, which Bonaparte had wrested from her; this she eagerly accepted, tempted by the hopes of thereby becoming a commercial, perhaps a naval power, in consequence of this accession of maritime territory.

It will therefore appear, whilst Napoleon was signing the peace of Leoben, that he was actually engaged in planning the destruction of Venice, one of the most ancient republics in the world, and Augereau was fixed on to carry this into effect. To bring about some excuse for this premeditated attack, a few inhabitants of the Venetian terra-firma, seduced by French emissaries, and no doubt irritated by French oppression, had been reduced to oppose resistance to the marauding parties of republican troops then desolating their hitherto peaceable homes: the opposition, however, soon became more formidable, and 40,000 peasants were not only in arms, but might also have cut off the retreat of the whole French army from Carinthia, if it had not been for the unfortunate treaty just concluded. " Laskey, p. 112-113

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