Meanings
- rareuncountableThe study of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Like any theology, ‘Napoleonology’ is a form of study that aims at acquiring knowledge, but it suffers from one crucial limitation: it fails to explore its subject with due critical rigour.
2008, “The Scene of the ‘Crime’”, in John Brownjohn, transl., Napoleon & St Helena: On the Island of Exile, London: Haus Publishing, translation of St Helena by Johannes Willms, →ISBN, page 1074 more examples
We cited an instance: a certain profound student, eminent, dynamic and successful lawyer, who had the largest Napoleonic library in the South and was most accomplished in (sic) Napoleonology, or bibliography, could not secure a chair in a public school or college to teach Napoleonic history because he never went through a public school, nor a college, and had no diploma showing a regimented or categoried or set-down number of ‘credits’.
1939 December 26, “Degrees and Men”, in The Daily Herald, volume XLII, number 113, Biloxi, Miss., page four, column 2There is the same plea for what he calls a “credible Christology,” though in fact, given his interpretation of Jesus, there is no need for any Christology at all (just as, given every historian’s interpretation of Napoleon, there is no need for any specialized Napoleonology either).
1966 May 29, J. V. […] Casserley, “Who Is […] Bishop?”, in The Living Church, volume 152, number 22, page 8, column 2HELENOLOGY / (An attempt at the construction of a new science) /[…]/ 2. The sciences about one person, such as Shakespearology, Napoleonology, Pushkinology, Marxology, and so forth, study the contribution of the given person to history, literature, social thought, and so forth.[…]/ 3. As much as Being in itself is higher than its separate accomplishments, so Helenology is higher than Napoleonology, Marxology, and other disciplines devoted to the unique achievements of a single individual, since it is devoted to the very existence of the unique.
1995, Mikhail Epstein, “Ivan Soloviev’s Reflections on Eros”, in Ellen E. Berry, editor, Postcommunism and the Body Politic (Genders; 22), New York, N.Y.; London: New York University Press, →ISBN, page 25925 Nov 1900[…]Many thanks for Napoleon. I shall read it with pleasure at least for the sake of the sender [?] as I had it not. Nor did I intend to obtain it, because I was not favourably impressed by the notices of it I had seen in the papers. Nor has Napoleonology [?] been a favourite study with me. / Yours always very truly / John Williams
2005, Tony Williams, Humphrey Price, Uncle Jack, Orion Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 83
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with Napoleonology
Cite this entry
Napoleonology. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Napoleonology
“Napoleonology.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Napoleonology. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Napoleonology,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Napoleonology.
Source: Napoleonology on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.