FRONDE. Jean-François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal of RETZ (1613- - Lot 212

Lot 212
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600 - 800 EUR
FRONDE. Jean-François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal of RETZ (1613- - Lot 212
FRONDE. Jean-François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal of RETZ (1613-1679). Period manuscript, December 14, 1654; cahier petit in-fol. of 27 pages. Period copy of the famous letter of Cardinal de Retz to the archbishops and bishops of France, written from his Roman exile after his spectacular escape from the prison of Nantes. Champollion-Figeac, in the "Complément de la vie du cardinal de Retz" which follows the new edition of the Memoirs of the Cardinal of Retz, in 1837, specifies that it was published clandestinely at the time but was immediately condemned to be burned by the hand of the executioner, and seems to no longer exist. The first editors of the Memoirs of the Cardinal of Retz published one, but on May 22, 1655, "although similar in some ideas and a few sentences to the one of December 14, 1654, but not the same piece" probably composed by some of the cardinal's friends in Port-Royal. "But the real letter of the Cardinal of Retz, that of December 14, had been so carefully deleted that it would be lost to history today without the copy, unique until now, which is in the historical collections of the Manuscript Department of the King's Library. We therefore probably have here the only known copy in private hands.
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