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35. P. Davall (trans.), Memoirs of the Cardinal De Retz. Containing The Particulars of his own Life, with the most Secret Transactions at the French Court during the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin, 4 vols, (London, 1723).
Jean François Paul de Gondi (1613–79) was a churchman and active participant in the French civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century known as the Fronde.
His conflict with the royal minister Cardinal Mazarin was one of the factors which facilitated the violence of the Fronde. The defeat of the anti-royalist side saw him and many other frondeurs imprisoned. On escaping from custody, he travelled widely across Europe, and later settled into a comfortable internal exile in rural France.
The Memoirs are among the finest works of seventeenth-century French literature. The Memoirs are typical of other French works stolen from Marsh’s Library in that they were only ever stolen in English translation. This may tell us something about the thief himself, or the audience for which the books were stolen.
The fact that all four volumes of the Memoirs went missing testifies to the determination of the malefactor.
Citation:
35. P. Davall (trans.), Memoirs of the Cardinal De Retz. Containing The Particulars of his own Life, with the most Secret Transactions at the French Court during the Administration of Cardinal Mazarin, 4 vols, (London, 1723).,
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed May 15, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/437
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