Memoires de Monsieur le Cardinal de Retz

First edition, one of the rarest of the 18th century. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary full brown sheep bindings. Spine richly decorated. Red morocco title labels, brown morocco volume labels. Head of spine of volume 2 split. One lack to the compartment at foot of volume I. Wormholes to upper board of volume II and to lower board. 3 corners slightly bumped. Small brown stain on 2 letters at leaf 89 of volume I. In volume II, from p. 265 to the end, 2 small wormholes to margin, 3 on the last leaves, and worming over a few centimeters on the pastedown. In volume III, one wormhole to margin at p. 113, then 2 from p. 119; from p. 215 to 238, small worming to lower right corner; then from p. 349 to the end 5 small wormholes to margin to the end. Overall with very fresh paper, a rather rare condition.
20th-century armorial bookplate of Jean Becarud, Director of the library, archives and foreign documentation of the Senate.
Paul de Gondi wrote his memoirs at the request of his friends, during his exile, around the age of sixty (circa 1675-1677), and composed the autobiography of a politician in an
era of civil war, the Fronde. In addition to being a historical testimony of the first order, the work ranks among the literary monuments of the 18th century and of memoirs and other autobiographies, through its lively, precise style, that of a man of action and intrigue with remarkable intelligence and political ambition always alert (always ready to ally himself with those who had betrayed him the day before). His memoirs would constitute a revenge and his last resort of ambition. It was the monks of the abbey of Saint Mihiel who published the manuscript of the memoirs they possessed, the cardinal had written the greater part of it while staying with them, but Madame de Caumartin, their instigator and the person to whom they were dedicated, also had in her possession a more complete manuscript, which she never wanted to give up. They were however discovered complete in the abbey during the Revolution, it is believed that Madame de Caumartin had finally sent them to the abbey of Saint Mihiel.