Original subtitles

JEREMY IRONS: On 26 May 1805, this square was jam-packed. The bells were ringing out across the city. (BELLS CHIME) And it would have been difficult to elbow your way through the yelling crowds as they jostled and shoved. (CHORAL MUSIC PLAYS) Then, Napoleon arrived on a four poster bed, carried aloft by clerics. He entered here, into the Duomo, Cathedral of Milan. The Emperor of France now desired to be the King of Italy, too. Now, this was the robe worn by Napoleon that day. And its train was held by General Berthier, one of Napoleon's most trusted and courageous of officers. Among the regalia he brought with him is his sceptre, the symbol of absolute power... ..but also something that was one of his favourites, The Hand of Justice, which stood for law. Now, he was particularly fond of this because his civil code has established the rules of family life, individuals and commerce that shaped French society as we know it today. He was a child of the Revolution and the civil progress it brought about. So, now, we were all equal before the law. But most importantly, the crown worn that day. Now this is an iron crown that has already graced the heads of the Lombard Kings, and it's regarded as sacred and is said to contain one of the nails from Christ's crucifixion. After Jesus Christ, Napoleon is the most famous man in history. Over 170,000 books have been written about him. But how was it that such an unlikely little lad became such a successful and powerful icon? An example for today's statesmen and even corporate managers. A model for future strategists and communicators. In Corsica, he'd been a precocious, lonely and irksome child, short and with a large head, often getting into fights, which he usually lost. As a young soldier in France, his poor command of the language didn't endear him to his colleagues, and even the woman he gave his heart to was unable to return his passion. Not much of a recipe for success, you'd think. And yet, he succeeded, perhaps as much, if not more, than any man in history. And even when it was all over for him, he spent his days in an awesome and uncompromising solitude. Napoleon, a brilliant military leader, but also a great social organiser and motivator, a man with the vision of a national unity, a creator of dreams, nourished on cultural energy, and the seductive power of art. Art that was his passion, that he financed, and lest it be forgotten, looted from the countries he conquered. 26 May 1805 was a Sunday. Napoleon was just 36 when he stepped inside this cathedral. The ceremony was a majestic affair. Original music had been composed for the occasion. Four orchestras accompanied the coronation. A specially-composed Te Deum was played for the first and last time, since the score, for more than 200 years, was presumed lost. # Dun-dun, dun-dun-dun # Dun-dun, dun-dun-dun... # To understand Napoleon, what better place to begin than Milan and the Braidense Library? An exceptional work is conserved here - La Description De L'Egypte, 23 massive volumes, the largest of them measuring a metre and a half. A publishing venture that lasted over a decade. They reveal a little-known characteristic of Napoleon that is fundamental to our understanding of the man - his obsession with books, science and art, an obsession that he'd carried from his youth. So, when his thoughts first turned to a military expedition in Egypt, he decided to invite 167 savants to join his army. Scholars, scientists, chemists, engineers, historians, architects, archaeologists and artists - the country's academy-educated cultural elite. They set off alongside illiterate soldiers whose knowledge stretched to little more than weaponry. Never before, a military expedition seen professors lined side by side with fighting men. Yet, despite all the difficulties, it was an opportunity to widen cultural horizons. Everyone wanted to travel to Egypt alongside the Napoleonic Army. One of the savants was Gaspard Monge, mathematician, the inventor of descriptive geometry and one of the expedition's older members. It's reported that before his departure, he had a huge argument with his wife, who told him, "You're too old for such adventures." Well, during the campaign in Italy, Monge was the man who carried away some Arabic typefaces from a palazzo of the Roman Curia, which were later drawn upon to make proclamations in Egypt. Imagine, if you will, 280 ships carrying 54,000 sailors and soldiers... ..arriving in the baking-hot Egyptian port of Alexandria on July 1 1798. Napoleon chose to land in the city founded by Alexander the Great, whose magnificent library had been the ancient world's largest until its demise, half way through the 7th century, AD. MAN: On the Giza Plateau, Napoleon made one of his most celebrated orations. "Soldiers, from the heights of these pyramids, "40 centuries look down upon you." The French overran the Mamluk troops with ease, and while the fighting raged all around them, the 167 savants sheltered in an infantry square. The moment the battle was over, the explorations began. (CHEERING) Down the Nile, travelled the savants, as far as Thebes and Luxor. The most important discovery came about by chance in the winter of the following year. During excavations in a place in the Delta called Rashid or Rosetta. A French officer stumbled upon a dark stone covered by inscriptions in different languages. It was to be the stone that allowed Jean-Francois Champollion to decipher hieroglyphic script in 1822. The key to unlock a long lost world had been found. European culture would change forever. By the end of the 19th century, trips to the Nile were all the rage, and filmmakers, like the Lumiere brothers, were not far behind. Egypt, after Napoleon, would never be the same. In reality, Napoleon's expedition had turned into a disaster. The English Navy sank the entire French fleet at the Battle of the Nile and overcame the French army on land. Napoleon escaped to Paris. But in the annals of history, the discovery of this ancient Egyptian civilisation and its monuments transformed the military catastrophe into an archaeological and historical triumph. Napoleon later wrote, "The months I spent in Egypt were the happiest of my life "because they were incomparably rich in fervour of idealism." Look at this picture. During that Middle Eastern campaign, Napoleon had found himself in Jaffa, Palestine, with his army stricken by the plague. A few years later, he would ask the painter Antoine-Jean Gros to depict that episode. And for the first time, perhaps, we see a modern myth in the making, the magical power of a great leader, who doesn't fear to touch the suppurating sores of an infected victim. LICIA SIRCH: (PIANO PLAYS) "Once upon a time in Paris, there lived a happy man. "He was an old man by the name of Vivant Denon." Now, these are the opening words of a book written by Anatole France at the end of the 19th century. That man, Denon, was with Napoleon in Egypt, and would become the first director of the Louvre Museum. Napoleon was just six years old when Denon made these sketches. He'd gone to visit the father of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, then, 81 years of age. He depicted him with his night cap on, his decrepit-looking face resembling that of a monkey. A major scandal ensued. Denon was a multitalented aristocrat, witty and well-read, an artist, writer and libertine. During the years of the Revolution, he would have ended up on the guillotine had it not been for his undisputed charm. The French were scandalised when he published a series of erotic drawings, but not the young general, Napoleon Bonaparte. They met in 1798, at a party held by the aristocrat Talleyrand, French Foreign Minister during the Revolution, another chameleon-like character who was able to adapt to each regime change. MAN: So, it was with that glass of lemonade, that Vivant Denon became Napoleon's go-to man in the world of art. The recently-concluded Italian campaign demonstrated how strategically important art had become as a weapon in his quest for power. Military operations on the peninsula had been a blinding success, a year of battles that had given birth to the myth