At Lyons, on the 13th of March, Napoleon had issued an edict dissolving the existing chambers and ordering the convocation of a national mass meeting, or Champ de Mai, for the purpose of modifying the constitution of the Napoleonic empire.
Not all the gorgeous display of the Champ de Mai (held on the 1st of June) could hide the discontent at the meagre fulfilment of the promises given at Lyons.
The Frankish assemblies, previously held in the month of March (champs de mars), but under Pippin deferred to May (champs de mai), came to be more numerous, and served the king of the Franks as a means of receiving the gifts of his subjects and of promulgating his capitularies.
In that year, however, Angelo Mai discovered in the Ambrosian library at Milan a palimpsest manuscript (and, later, some additional sheets of it in the Vatican), on which had been originally written some of Fronto's letters to his royal pupils and their replies.
This book was first printed from one MS. by Mai, Script.
