Napoleon’s edition of civil code sold for 400,000 euros

PARIS: Napoleon´s signed edition of the civil code, a leather-bound collection of laws introduced under his reign, was sold at auction for nearly 400,000 euros ($433,000) on Thursday in Paris, its sellers said.

The civil code was one of Napoleon´s proudest achievements, bringing together the nation´s laws in one place for the first time covering everything from property to family rights. Created in 1804, it is considered one of the world´s most important legal innovations and a modified version remains in place in France today.

Put on sale at the Tajan auction house in Paris with a guide price of 100,000-200,000 euros, “it was sold for 395,000 euros (including fees)”, Tajan said in a statement. The French state is a frequent purchaser of rare and important historical documents and memorabilia, with the objects then handed over to national museums for public display.

Tajan said there were a total of four copies made of the edition sold on Thursday, two of which already belong to the French National Library (BnF). Napoleon transformed French institutions during his brief time in power from 1799 and briefly ruled over much of Europe following his blood-drenched wars of conquest.

The civil code remains one of his enduring contributions to French life alongside the main high-school exam, the baccalaureate and the modern bureaucracy. Before his death in exile on the Atlantic island of St. Helena, Napoleon is said to have remarked: “What nothing will erase, what will live forever, is my civil code.”