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Jean-François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de RETZ

Memoires de Monsieur le Cardinal de Retz

Chez Jean-Baptiste Cusson, à Nancy 1717, in-12 (9,5x16,5cm), (4) 354pp. et (2) 359pp. et (2) 389pp., 3 volumes reliés.

First edition, one of the rarest of the eighteenth. Although Brunet announces this edition as having gaps, that of 1731 being the most complete old edition, these said gaps will never be solved in the old editions. Title pages in red and black. Headdress of Volume I with a slight lack, the upper joint split on 0.5cm. Headdresses of volumes II and III removed. Tail cap of volumes I, II removed, volume III with a lack.8 blunt corners. Some russet spots on page 1 of volume II. A square of old yellow paper laminated on the contreplat. Good copy overall.
Binders in full brown sheepskin contemporary. Back with nerves adorned with caissons. Title and volume pieces in brown morocco. Dotted fillet of framing on the splats with angular florets.
Paul de Gondi writes his memoirs at the request of his friends, during his exile, at the age of sixty (around 1675 - 1677), and composes the autobiography of a politician in an era of civil war. Sling. In addition to being a first-rate historical testimony, the work is among the literary monuments of the eighteenth century and memoirs and other autobiographies, with its alert and precise style, that of a man of action and intrigue in the remarkable intelligence and political ambition always awake (always ready to ally with who betrayed it the day before). His memoirs will constitute a revenge and his last spring of ambition. It was the monks of the abbey of Saint Mihiel who published the manuscript of the memoirs which they possessed, the cardinal had written most of it at home, but Madame de Caumartin, the instigator of these memoirs, to which they were dedicated, had also in her possession a more complete manuscript, but she never wanted to give. They were however discovered complete in the abbey to the Revolution, one pledge that Madame de Caumartin had finally sent them to the abbey of Saint Mihiel.

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