BY JEAN GEORGE RÉMOND & COMPAGNIE (FL. 1783-CIRCA 1820), GENEVA, CIRCA 1804-1811

The scene on the cover depicts the Abduction of Helen after Guido Reni's painting, dated 1631, and now in the Louvre Museum. The painting was commissioned amidst diplomatic negotiations between the Spanish monarchy and the papacy of Pope Urban VIII. Although actually commissioned for the King of Spain by his ambassador to the Vatican, the papacy sought to control the artist's interpretation of his subject - the famous event that caused the Trojan War - by transforming it into a political metaphor alluding to the war between France and the Habsburgs.

This scene carries a strong political message still relevant in the context of the French Revolutionary Wars, which overran Switzerland in 1798, renamed the Helvetic Republic by Napoleon. In 1803 Napoleon's Act of Mediation re-established a Swiss Confederation that partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former tributary and allied territories of Aargau, Thurgau, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Vaud and Ticino became cantons with equal rights. But it was not until the Congress of Vienna of 1815 that Swiss independence was fully re-established and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality.