RETZ

Very rare first edition of Cardinal de Retz’s Mémoires, published in three volumes in Nancy by Jean-Baptiste Cusson in 1717, under the imprint “A Amsterdam, & se trouve A Nancy”. Title-pages printed in red and black. Jean-Baptiste Cusson was at the time printer and bookseller to H.R.H. the Duke of Lorraine. Although substantially incomplete when compared with the manuscript as it is known today, this edition marks the first appearance in print of one of the great autobiographical and political works of seventeenth-century France.

Edition forming part of the Petits Classiques françois collection, printed in 500 copies at the expense and under the care of Charles Nodier and the publisher with Didot l'Aîné typefaces.
Half dark blue morocco binding with corners, spine with five raised bands decorated with double cold-stamped compartments, small traces of rubbing on the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, corners slightly bumped.
Some light foxing.

Second edition. Rare counterfeit of the first edition of extraordinary rarity published in Nancy in 1717. This edition was also issued in Cologne by David Roger, who appears to be a fictitious publisher. Title pages in red and black, unlike the Cologne edition. It should be noted that the gaps in early editions of the Memoirs were never filled until 1836; they were caused partly by crossed-out passages and partly by leaves torn from the manuscript.
Contemporary full brown sheep bindings. Jansenist spines with raised bands. Red morocco title and volume labels. The spines are darker. Rubbing. A tiny wormhole at the foot of volume I, as well as on the upper joint at the head. Good copy.

Edition with some parts in first edition, definitive, rare; "more complete than the previous ones and the best that was given in the 18th century"... Tchemerzine V, 396. An engraved portrait by Thomassin at the frontispiece. This would be the only edition of the Memoirs cited by de Bure in his bibliography. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary full blonde calf binding, glazed. Spine with raised bands decorated with 4 fleurons. Title labels absent, the letters remaining visible; black calf volume labels, rubbed. Headcaps of volumes I and II worn, volumes III and IV frayed; tailcap of volume I partially missing. Joints of volume I cracked, cracked at head and foot for volume II and...