SIR JOHN MOORE, THE RETREAT AND THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA: THE CAMPAING IN THE WEST PENÍNSULA
W. HEATH - J. CLARKE - M. DUBOURG (LONDRES, 1815)
The collection, which compiles this famous episode of the Spanish War of Independence, is made up of a hundred seventy engravings. They were made with different printing techniques: steel, woodcut and copper engravings, lithographs and aquatints. The latter were the first ones dealing with a Spanish topic published in England. They come from France, the United Kingdom, Holland, Germany and Spain.
Some of these engravings represent the route followed by John Moore and his troops from his departure in Salamanca to his later retreat to Corunna; others depict the views of those small towns and cities that were part of the route followed by the troops. The collection also includes general maps and others related to those routes. The dreadful conditions of the retreat in O Cebreiro, scenes of the conflict, images of the confrontation between Moore’s and Soult’s troops in Elviña, portraits of soldiers and uniforms, amongst others, are also faithfully depicted in some of these engravings.
The collection also contains an important number of illustrated books (around twenty five) which deal with the Spanish War of Independence and the Galician campaign. They were edited in England, France, the United States and Spain by Robert Cadell, Archibald Constable, Engelin and Pochart, Charles Scribner´s Sons, Seeley, Longman,
Hurst, Rees & Horme, James Pott, Warren & Son, Domingo Puga, Joseph Johnson, John Bale and Danielsson, Redfield or Aquiles Ronchi and signed by well-known historians like Charles Oman, William Napier, Amade, Alexander Innes Shand, colonel Willoughby Verner, or George Alfred Henty, travellers like captain Basil Hall, writers who actually lived the war like lieutenant colonel Charles Steevens, or James Moore himself, Sir John Moore’s brother, who tried to defend John’s role in the retreat in his works.
Moreover of cartography documents, the collection contains an important number of newspapers from October 1808 to August 1809: “The London Chronicle”, “The Curier”, “The Edimburgh Advertiser”, “The Nacional Register”, “The Farmer`s Journal” and “Columbian Boston Centinel”. They gave first-hand news about the war in Spain and Portugal, whose content has an enormous testimonial value and allows us to learn about the military uprisings of both armies in depth.
From March, 8th to April 7th 2002, the Exhibition Centre Kiosco Alfonso in Corunna shows a part of the collection and publishes a catalogue with sixty-one images.
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