Potravnov, A. L., Khmelnik, T. Yu. HISTORY OF THE QUARRYING OF SHOKSHA QUARTZITE FOR THE SARCOPHAGUS OF NAPOLEON // Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2020. Vol. 42. No 8. P. 85–92. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2020.558


Russian history

HISTORY OF THE QUARRYING OF SHOKSHA QUARTZITE FOR THE SARCOPHAGUS OF NAPOLEON

Potravnov
A. L. 		Regionavtica project
Khmelnik
T. Yu. 		Regionavtica project
Keywords:
Shoksha porphyry
sarcophagus of Napoleon
Shoksha
quartzite
Onega lake
Buyatti
Leuzon Le Duc		 Summary: The article is devoted to studying the history of mining Shoksha quartzite-sandstone (quartzite) for the manufacture of Napoleon’s sarcophagus in Paris. The authors compare the memoirs of the French writer Louis-Antoine Leuzon Le Duc, which is actively used as the main source of information on this topic, with information from archival documents and a number of other published materials of the XVIII–XIX centuries. A number of previously unpublished documents are being put into scientific circulation: the text of the Highest Permission for the extraction of red porphyry, fragments of correspondence related to the preparation for obtaining a permit for the extraction of stone, reports on quarrying in kind, on violations during the extraction of stone, on examination porphyry blocks prepared for loading onto a ship, fragments of correspondence on the issuance of a foreign passport to Ivan Buyatti, etc. As a result of the analysis of information known to the authors, they, with a high degree of reliability, reconstruct the history of the manufacture of quartzite for Napoleon’s sarcophagus, which turns out to be very different from previously published versions. The conclusion is drawn about the many inaccuracies, distortions and errors in the memoirs of Leuson Le Duc, which translates these memoirs into the category of a work of art, rather than a source of documentary information. In addition, an explanation of the discrepancy in the data on the quantity of Shoksha porphyry exported from Russia contained in various sources is proposed.



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