Sources

Relation de la Bataille de Marengo (Relation of the Battle of Marengo) by Général Alex. Berthier. This short history of the battle of Marengo was written by the nominal commander of the French Army of the Reserve, Alexandre Berthier as a tribute to the acknowledged actual commander, Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of the French Republic. It has always been one of the most important primary sources on the battle, in spite of its numerous flaws (not least of which is the author's almost total ignorance of what Austrian units were doing what). The work included four maps, which were clearly prepared with much greater care than is typical for period battlefield maps. An interesting point is to compare the course of the Bormida river on these maps with its course in the much later 1:25,000 maps prepared by the Italian Istituto Geografico Militare. French, English.

Campagne de L’Armée de Réserve en 1800 (Campaign of the Army of the Reserve in 1800) by Capitaine Gaspar de Cugnac This two-volume history of the Campaign of the Army of the Reserve is essentially a collection of primary sources. It consists almost entirely of French correspondence, reports and returns, with a modest amount of narrative text written by Cugnac. The first volume covers events up the passage of the St. Bernard Pass, and the second volume covers events from there up to and including the battle of Marengo. The two volumes total about 1300 pages in length, and is by far the most important work for getting information about the French side of the campaign. Its only important limitation is in its almost exclusive focus on the French side – information about the Austrians must come from other sources. French (Complete), English (Partial – vol. 1, ch. 1 - 9).

Bonaparte vor Mantua (Bonaparte Before Mantua) by Viktor Hortig This work was published in 1903 as the dissertation of Viktor Hortig. It takes as its subject the operations of General Bonaparte against Wurmser’s first advance during the critical week from 28 July 1796 to 6 August 1796, culminating in the battle of Castiglione. The particular focus of the study is on the evolution of Bonaparte’s planning as the campaign developed, and it includes a series of five beautifully done color maps showing the detailed locations of the opposing armies at different points in the campaign. German, English (forthcoming).

Carta Topografica del Regno d'Italia 1:25 000 (Topgraphic Map of the Kingdom of Italy 1:25,000) by the Istituto Geografico Militare (Italy). This is a series of 1:25,000 maps published by the Italian government starting in the last decades of the 19th century. The maps in the series were repeatedly revised and re-published in the decades that followed. The large scale of these maps makes them suitable for battlefield research, although of course care must be taken when used for battles which occured decades before they were made. Typically they are best used in combination with period maps, which lack the topographic information and accurate scales of these maps. The online collection includes maps of the battlefields of Arcola, Caldiero, Bassano, Castiglione, Lonato, Fontaniva, Marengo, and Rivoli. Italian, English.

Carta Topografica del Regno d'Italia 1:200 000 (Topgraphic Map of the Kingdom of Italy 1:200,000) by the Istituto Geografico Militare (Italy). This is a series of 1:200,000 maps published by the Italian government starting in the last decades of the 19th century. The maps in the series were repeatedly revised and re-published in the decades that followed. These maps are too small-scale to represent battlefields well, but they are useful for the study of campaigns, although of course care must be taken when used for campaigns which occured decades before they were made. Although period maps must be used with them, there are no period maps comparable to these in terms of detail and comprehensiveness (period maps will typically either be much smaller-scale or cover a much smaller area). Currently only the maps for northern Italy are included here. Italian, English.

Histoire Régimentaire et Divisionnaire de l'armée d'Italie (History of the Regiments and Divisions of the Army of Italy) compiled by the editors of the Spectateur Militaire. Published in 1844, this is a compilatation of extracts of the regimental histories of the French regiments that cover Napoleon’s 1796-1797 Italian campaign. The histories vary widely in their degrees of detail. Some were clearly taken from journals of the campaign and contain day-by-day logs of where the unit was and what it was doing. Others are very unsystematic, providing great detail about some incidents while remaining completely silent about other matters. For all works, claims about the accomplishments of the units should be taken with a grain of salt (to say the least) and descriptions of enemy strengths and movements are completely unreliable. Used properly, however, the histories are an extremely useful research tool that can fill in many details missing from the accounts of the senior commanders. French, English (forthcoming).