Candidarsi a un impiego in età napoleonica. Riflessioni a partire da una ricerca in corso

The principle of career pathways based on merit, brought in by the French Revolution, was also asserted by Napoleon. Though opposed to the concept of favour, merit remained an ambiguous term, conceived both as an individual and a hereditary feature. The analysis of a corpus of almost seven hundred applications for employment, produced by three hundred candidates, allows us to examine on which elements they based their rhetorical strategy – be it education, service, kinship, sufferings, or family burdens – by observing the Napoleonic administration through the perception held by those who wanted to be employed.