As his nickname "prince musician" suggests, Antoine the I^st of Monaco, who ruled from 1701 to 1731, was an unexperienced music lover, not only sensitive to French or Italian harmonies. Like his ancestors, he taught his children the love of art in particular the love of music. His three daugthers were muscians, it was with the youngest, Marie-Pelline (1708-1726), which he did share this passion, practicing with her everyday. Harpsichordist emeritus, she will remain famous thanks to the great François Couperin, intimate friend of his father, as shown by several letters. In 1722 he dedicated to Marie-Pelline a composition,  a delicate musical portrait : "The Princess of Chabeüil, or the muse of Monaco".

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Henri IV enfant by the Monegasque sculptor François-Joseph Bosio (1768-1845) was one of the most reproduced work of the XIX^th century and consequently insures his prosperity. Reproduced in several materials and in many reduced-size copies, this prototype of the boy king, founder of the Bourbon dynasty, was firstly in the heart of political ambitions and later became an aesthetic reference of the French neoclassical sculpture. This article which establishes a chronological order of Henri IV enfant reproductions in marble, silver, bronze and plaster from 1823 to 1900, permits to discriminate the interpretations of artists through the several transformations of the original work.

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François-Joseph Bosio (1768-1845) was born in Monaco and lived in the principality until the age of seventeen. But it was in Paris, as a sculptor, that he won fame and glory. After his departure from the principality in 1785, he seems to have gradually adopted the French fatherland from which his orders came. However, after his death, his memory became an object of pride for the Monegasques. ln the context of the revival incarnated by the advent of Charles lll, the principality could only celebrate such a famous person. Driven by their patriotism, local writers, journalists, politicians and poets, each in their own way, commemorated a man who had to be connected to national history. Even today, while the memory of Bosio has declined in the memory of the French, he is still celebrated with flamboyance in Monaco.

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Eugène Süe, as well as Félicité Robert de Lammenais, Victor Hugo, Charles-Augustin de Sainte-Beuve and many others illustrious or simply famous men and women of the Second Empire and the Third Republic, princes Charles the third and Albert the first of Monaco were sensitive to the special charm of Maria Letizia Rattazzi-de Rute (formerly Mrs de Solms), grand-daughter of Lucien Bonaparte, with whom they shared some episodes of their existence. The letters and telegrams kept in the Archives of the Prince's Palace is intended to give an account of these.

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As New Orleans is celebrating this year the tercentenary of its foundation (1718-2018), the Principality of Monaco has renewed its links with the Crescent City. The Mayor of New Orleans paid a visit to Monaco the past year and was followed by a recent visit of H.S.H. Prince Albert II to New Orleans. This article highlights the origins of such links, through the figure of princess Alice de Monaco, born in New Orleans and second wife of Prince Albert I^st. The settlement of Alice Heine’s family in New Orleans dates back to the revolutionary era. It is rooted in the intense movement of people between France, the West Indies and the United States. The itineraries of the families Miltenberger, Dorfeuille and Heine emphasize several migratory waves that transformed New Orleans into a major port-city and melting pot for several generations of French-speaking migrants. Alice Heine’s maternal ancestors were French colonists that settled in Saint-Domingue and were headed to New Orleans after the revolutionary troubles that led to Haiti’s independence. Alice’s great-grandparents and grandparents found in New Orleans new opportunities for success. Her father Michel Heine, from French and German origin, arrived later on in New Orleans, in the context of the city’s booming trade in the 1850s. Alice was born in 1857 but she and her family had to put a brutal end to their American life and go back to France because of the Civil War (1861-1865).

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An early and irresistible attraction for the sea gives birth to Prince Albert I of Monaco's vocation of navigator. Contrary to what collective memory tends to remember, it is not limited to his scientific work and outstanding contribution to the progress of oceanography. The number and complexity of human activities related to the maritime domain arouse Prince's many initiatives.
The perils of the sea, in which he plays alternately the role of rescuer and undergoes the trials of the sinking, push him to try to create an International Maritime Association to fill the gaps in international law related to collisions and marine assistance. As soon as 1886, he became involved in a reasoned management of living marine resources. National and international regulations and legislative provisions are essential to avoid over-exploitation. Only scientific studies can lead to responsible legislation, all the more so if they are conducted in the framework of international commissions, such as those adopted in Geneva in 1908 for the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Sovereign of a littoral state, Prince Albert I promulgates about twenty sovereign ordinances and fits out the roadstead of Monaco with constructions and infrastructures in order to improve the natural configuration of the site.

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Exhibition prepared as part of the launching of "Explorations de Monaco" by H.S.H. Prince Albert II, presented at the Museum of Natural History of Funchal from 6 September 2017 to 7 January 2018.

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This notarial charter is a receipt established in 1547 attesting that the lord of Monaco has given a reward  to a fresco painter, Nicolosio Granello, for doing a very good job. As this receipt is the only known document which set out the name of an artist who has worked in the palace at that time, it has an obvious interest for dating and attributing the frescoes presently being restored. 

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