Book Review: Paolo Bianchi - Lettres de la Grande Armée ... by Giorgio Miglavacca

In his foreword, Bianchi highlights the allure of the military postal history of the Napoleonic era: “The amazing excellence and system of the Grande Armée postal organisation is, for us, intelligible only through the lett ers, always including the text, which shows marks and manuscript notes and numbers.”

The nightmarish retreat is summed up by a lett er from Lieutenant Dupont who stated, “I myself who am back can’t work out how I got away because I spent two months eating only horse meat more raw than you can believe ... out of 350 men that left with our Regiment we barely returned from Moscow with 50 men.”

The book is richly illustrated and ends with some precious and well researched sections devoted to fi rst and second Grande Armée free franks handstamps (used or handwritt en on lett ers sent free of charge in observance of offi cial regulations), a list of postmarks of the Second Grande Armée and a complete bibliography. Equally most useful is the section providing an 18-page list of the postmarks of the Second Grande Armée, including related déboursé postmarks; and last – but not least – an exhaustive bibliography.

— Giorgio Migliavacca

Collectors Club Philatelist Volume 101, Number 5 317