Website/Catalog  (2017)  Page(s) 67.  Includes photo(s).
 
Duchesse de Montebello  Gallica prior 1838.  Clear pale pink, beautifully formed blooms with a button-eye.  Long arching sprays of flowers. Medium bush. Very fragrant.

Article (magazine)  (2006)  Page(s) 71.  
 
ʻDuchesse de Montebelloʼ, either apportioned to the Gallica (Beales, 1985; Beales et al., 1998; Cairns, 2000) or to the Noisette (Dickerson, 1999) roses, resulted being grouped in the section Rosa. [i.e. Old European Garden Roses]

Book  (2006)  Page(s) 12.  
 
..We now suspect this is a hybrid between Old European rose and Noisette. All white Gallicas may trace some ancestry to the original Noisettes.

Book  (2005)  Page(s) 54-55.  Includes photo(s).
 
'Duchesse de Montebello' Laffay, 1824-1825.
Charpente: arbuste élevé (2 m), raeaux ployant souvent sous le poids des fleurs, très peu d'aiguillons
Feuillage: petites folioles arrondies et fines, vert clair.
Fleur: solitaire ou par 2 ou 3, petite, double, rosette et petit bouton vert au coeur.
Couleur: rosa pâle au centre, presque blanc sur le pourtour.
Parfum: très fort: ce ne sont pas forcément les roses les plus sombres qui sont les plus parfumées.
Laffay...classait cette rose parmi les "rosiers de Bengale", c'est-à-dire les Chine, peut-être parce que c'était le résultat d'essais visant à hybrider Roses de France et Chine....Elle est dédiée à Mme de Guehénec, seconde épouse du maréchal Lannes, duc de Montebello...

Magazine  (2002)  Page(s) 52. Vol 96, Part 2.  Includes photo(s).
 
Ingrid Verdegem.  The Duchesse de Montebello
To the joy of 'Old Rose Lovers', there are many roses still around that hark back to the early nineteenth century. Some of these are extremely rare, and the few remaining plants are jealously guarded in rosaria around the world.  Luckily, there are other old roses that remain hugely popular because they are so utterly reliable, disease-free and lovely that there has been a sufficient number of interested rose-lovers for nurseries to keep them in their collection. 
One of these is undoubtedly 'Duchesse de Montebello'.  Calling the flowers (with the usual epithets) 'dainty' and 'pink' is not doing it justice. Sheer perfection comes nearer to the mark.  The colour is such an intense clear, fleshy pink I can imagine your teeth would zing if you were to bite on a petal.  The button eye is pert and pale-green and not too big and in June the entire plant is literally smothered in bloom.   The foliage is the same pleasant yellowish green and in perfect proportion to the small flowers, which are ideal for a romantc wedding bouquet or a corsage.  Come to think of it, the entire plant looks like a huge bouquet, with all the supple branches bending outwards under the sheer weight of the flowers, and it certainly has the added bonus of a heavenly fragrance.  It never gets too big, say four feet at the most, and it loses all its spines very quickly, making it easy to prune, if that were ever necessary. 
I'll not venture to attribute it to a certain class with any certainty, as opinions (including those voiced at the time of introduction) differ widely.  Suffice it to say it looks comfortably like a Gallica, was called a Hybride de Bengale (we would say 'hybrid china') by the developer (Laffay) and introduced by L. Noisette in 1825.  Brent Dickerson classes it as a Noisette and still others call it an Alba.  Take your pick.
Let us rather turn the spotlight on the lady after whom the rose was named.......

Book  (2001)  Page(s) 396.  
 
Laffay, Jean
1826: 'Duchesse de Montebello' (HN)

Book  (Nov 1998)  Page(s) 18 (photo), 22.  Includes photo(s).
 
Praised among Gallicas for many reasons, not the least of which is its tendency to be the first of the family to bloom. Blossoms are soft pink, fully double, and fragrant...

Book  (Jul 1998)  Page(s) 148-9.  
 
Duchesse de Montebello, Laffay, 1824-1825. References to catalogues from 1825-1836. ..It is quite difficult to classify this rose. Some of its traits belong clearly to Gallicas, but Laffay himself presented it as a hybrid china (Rosier de Bengale) ..and a number of later authors have followed him to date. Sometimes it is equally classified as an Alba, even as Centifolia!

In his catalogue of 1841, Laffay describes Duchesse de Montebello as delicate pink, full, flat, medium-size, nice ("rose tendre, pleine, aplatie, moyenne, belle")

Book  (1997)  Page(s) 143.  Includes photo(s).
 
Laffay (France) 1829. Description and vital statistics... small, fragrant, fully double flowers of soft feminine pink...

Book  (1995)  Page(s) 76.  Includes photo(s).