While Napoleon is often remembered as a military and political genius (in his early years at least) I do believe there was a more intellectual side about Napoleon. Perhaps not intellectual, but at least administrative. Napoleon was famous for coordinating logistics that made it possible to feed massive amounts of men, and so he was able to use his mind in that regard. For instance, as you mentioned, he wrote the famous Code Napoleon, though many debate to what extent he was actually involved in writing it. And Napoleon reorganized Paris's streets so that the even numbered houses were on one side and the odd numbers on the left.

Regarding intellectual pursuits, Napoleon did write a few short pieces as you've said. When he was a young up and comer he wrote a political pamphlet, Le souper de Beaucaire, based on a conversation he had with four merchants. In this pamphlet a young army officer overhears several people derisively talking about the French Revolution and stands up to them, countering their arguments and lambasting them for their lack of faith.

But most telling for me regarding his intellectual pursuits was the expedition to Egypt he launched early in his career. Egypt was considered a mysterious place for many Europeans but almost all recognized the great intellect that Egyptian civilizations held. Napoleon, upon invading Egypt, brought with him a group of 160 scholars and scientists, known as the Savants, whose sole purpose was to study Egypt and compile all they learned into a single publication, the Description de l'Égypte.

This publication in my mind cements Napoleon's status as an intellectual. Napoleon, rather than view Egypt as a military target, also saw it as a source of knowledge and information. That's why he brought civilian scientists and scholars with him to study Egypt. Far from a military brute, he clearly understood the intellectual potential Egypt held and brought people to exploit it. He even went so far as to study the Quran in order to better understand Egypt and its people. The publication of the French studies in Egypt enlightened Europe and provided a source of knowledge and learning for Europe on a land that so far had remained a far-away mysterious and ancient world. For me this signifies Napoleon's commitment to intellectual pursuits. The publication of the Description de l'Egypte wasn't to gain political, diplomatic, strategic or tactical advantage, it was merely to educate all of France and Europe as to what he and his men had learned about Egypt.