Napoleon's penis was allegedly amputated during an autopsy shortly after his death in 1821. Since then it has passed through several owners, including A. S. W. Rosenbach, who exhibited it in New York City in 1927. It was purchased by John K. Lattimer in 1977, and is still owned in his family. It was described as similar to a "piece of leather or a small, shriveled eel". [1]
Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean after losing the Battle of Waterloo. [2] He died on the isle on May 5, 1821. [3] After his death, an autopsy was conducted and some have claimed that François Carlo Antommarchi, the doctor conducting the autopsy, cut his penis off, [2] [4] along with several other body parts. [5] It is unclear whether the cut was intentional or accidental. [3] Some state that Antommarchi may have been bribed to cut it off by Napoleon's chaplain as revenge for Napoleon calling him "impotent". [6] Napoleon's biographer, Philip Dwyer, calls the claim that Antommarchi cut off the penis "highly fanciful". [7]
The alleged penis passed into the possession of Napoleon's chaplain, who smuggled it out of St. Helena to his home on Corsica. It remained in the priest's family until 1916 [1] [8] when Maggs Bros. Ltd., a bookselling company based in London, [3] purchased it. In 1924, A. S. W. Rosenbach, a Philadelphia-based bookseller, purchased it. [2] [4] [5] [9]
The penis went on display in 1927 at New York City's Museum of French Art. A reviewer present at the exhibition from Time described it as similar to a "maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace". [10] Others present considered it to look like a "piece of leather or a shriveled eel". [1] Rosenbach sold the item to a collector named Donald Hyde, whose wife gave it to John F. Fleming after Hyde's death. Fleming was a bookseller who had been close to Rosenbach. Another collector purchased it and attempted unsuccessfully to sell the penis at an auction through Christie's. [3] After the auction, James Comyn was reading an affidavit about Eric LeVine, a collector of items relating to Napoleon, and instead of calling the item a "penis" euphemistically referred to it as a "certain part". [11] A urologist and artifact collector named John K. Lattimer purchased the item in 1977 for $3,000 (equivalent to $15,084in 2023) and it is currently owned by his daughter. She has been offered at least $100,000 for it. [2] [4] [5] [10]
The preserved penis was described by Judith Pascoe in The New York Times as "barely recognizable as a human body part" and its authenticity is unclear. [8] [5] A documentary that aired on Channel 4, Dead Famous DNA, described it as "very small" and measured it to be 1.0 inch (2.5 cm). [4] It is not known what size it was during Napoleon's lifetime. The item's current owner has allowed ten people to see it and it has never been recorded on camera. [4]
Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of successful campaigns across Europe during the Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815.
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector. The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and a person who collects books is often called a bibliophile but can also be known as an bibliolater, meaning being overly devoted to books, or a bookman which is another term for a person who has a love of books.
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An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book that is no longer being published. The term can apply to specific editions of more popular works, which may then go in and out of print repeatedly, or to the sole printed edition of a work, which is not picked up again by any future publishers for reprint.
The Icelandic Phallological Museum, located in Reykjavík, Iceland, houses the world's largest display of penises and penile parts. As of early 2020 the museum moved to a new location in Hafnartorg, three times the size of the previous one, and the collection holds well over 300 penises from more than 100 species of mammal. The museum also holds 22 penises from creatures and peoples of Icelandic folklore.
Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach was an American collector, scholar, and dealer in rare books and manuscripts. In London, where he frequently attended the auctions at Sotheby's, he was known as "The Terror of the Auction Room." In Paris, he was called "Le Napoléon des Livres". Many others referred to him as "Dr. R.", a "Robber Baron" and "the Greatest Bookdealer in the World".
The Rosenbach is a Philadelphia museum and library located within two 19th-century townhouses. Established as a testamentary gift in 1954. The historic houses contain the donated collections of Philip Rosenbach and his younger brother Dr. Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach.
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Hans Peter Kraus, also known as H. P. Kraus or HPK, was an Austrian-born book dealer described as "without doubt the most successful and dominant rare book dealer in the world in the second half of the 20th century" and in a league with other rare book dealers such as Bernard Quaritch, Guillaume de Bure and A.S.W. Rosenbach. Kraus specialized in medieval illuminated manuscripts, incunables, and rare books of the 16th and 17th centuries, but would purchase and sell almost any book that came his way that was rare, valuable and important. He prided himself in being "the only bookseller in history...to have owned a Gutenberg Bible and the Psalters of 1457 and 1459 simultaneously," stressing that "'own' here is the correct word, as they were bought not for a client's account but for stock."
Charles Edwin George Bayntun, more commonly known as George Bayntun was an English bookseller, bookbinder, and collector.
During the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, it was customary to cast a death mask of a great leader who had recently died. A mixture of wax or plaster was placed over Napoleon's face and removed after the form had hardened. From this impression, subsequent copies were cast. Much mystery and controversy surrounds the origins and whereabouts of the most original cast moulds. There are only four genuine bronze death masks known to exist.
Robert King Stone was an American physician and professor at Columbian College Medical School, the predecessor to George Washington University School of Medicine. He was considered "the dean of the Washington, D.C. medical community".
Sara Patricia Pascoe is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Taskmaster for Channel 4 and QI for BBC Two.
Reverend Richard Boys MA was a Church of England clergyman and author, most notable for his tenure as Chaplain on St. Helena at the time of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile there. A controversial figure during his time there, he also played a part in the mystery surrounding Napoleon's death mask.
François Carlo Antommarchi was Napoleon's physician from 1819 to his death in 1821.
Clisson et Eugénie, also known in English as Clisson and Eugénie, is a romantic novella, written by Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon wrote Clisson et Eugénie in 1795, and it is widely acknowledged as being a fictionalised account of the doomed romance of a soldier and his lover, which paralleled Bonaparte's own relationship with Eugénie Désirée Clary.
Gabriel Wells was a noted bookseller, historian and author. He was one of the most important antiquarian booksellers in America and Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. He was president of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association in 1930.
Moses Polock was a Jewish-American publisher and the first bookseller in the United States who dealt exclusively in rare books. At the time of his death, he was the oldest bibliophile in the country.
The Museum of French Art was an art museum in New York City, associated with the predecessor organizations to the current New York non-profit French Institute Alliance Française. It exhibited art in New York as part of a broader effort to popularize French art in the United States. The museum was active from 1911 to at least the 1930s.
Louisiana Historical Society, established in 1835, is a historical society in Louisiana charged with documentation and protection of colonial records. According to its website, it is the oldest historical organization in the state.
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