‎RETZ, (J.F.P. DE GONDI) DE.‎
‎Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz, de Guy Joli et de la duchesse de Nemours; contenant ce qui s'est passé de remarquable en France pendant les premières années du règne de Louis XIV. Nouvelle édition, augmentée, ornée du portrait du Cardinal de Retz, et du fac simile d'une de ses lettres.‎

‎A Paris, Chez Etienne Ledoux, 1820. With portrait and facsimile. 6 volumes. (4), xxv, (1), 531, (1) pp.; (4), 515, (1) pp.; (4), 441, (1) pp.; (4), 448 pp.; (4), 506 pp.; (4), 496 pp. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, spines gilt in compartments, marbled boards, red and green labels with gilt lettering. Bourgeois & André 797. Important French autobiography and important historical account on the period of the Fronde. François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, (born September 1613, Montmirail, France-died August 24, 1679, Paris), one of the leaders of the aristocratic rebellion known as the Fronde (1648-53), whose memoirs remain a classic of 17th-century French literature.While still a student, he sympathized with the opposition to Cardinal de Richelieu, chief minister of Louis XIII from 1624 to 1642, who sought to weaken the power of the nobility. In 1643 Gondi was ordained a priest and was appointed coadjutor (acting deputy and successor-designate) to his uncle, Jean-François de Gondi, who was the archbishop of Paris.Gondi received the opportunity to play a major political role with the outbreak of the Fronde, a rebellion against the government of Anne of Austria (who was regent for her son, Louis XIV) and her chief minister, the Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin. Throughout the Fronde, Gondi worked primarily to advance his own interests, shifting his allegiance between the rebels and the government. During an interlude in the civil war he was persuaded to support the government's arrest of the powerful Prince de Condé in January 1650. But, reversing his position and that of his followers, he helped obtain the release of Condé and the temporary exile of Mazarin (February 1651). In an attempt to win his support, Anne nominated Gondi to the cardinalate on September 22, 1651. His nomination was accepted by Pope Innocent X on February 19, 1652, and from that time Gondi styled himself Cardinal de Retz. But his political maneuvering cost him his popularity in Paris, while the government mistrusted him and waited for revenge.After the end of the Fronde, and with the government victorious, and unable to gain favour with King Louis XIV, Retz lived away from court, on his estates or in his French abbeys. Claiming a religious conversion, he lived his last years in penance. Retz's Mémoires, written during his retirement, is an account of his life to 1655 and contains a description of his role in the events of the Fronde, portraits of contemporaries, and maxims drawn from his experiences.The Florentine banking family of the Gondi had been introduced into France by Catherine de' Medici; Catherine offered Jérome (Girolamo) de Gondi in 1573 the château that he made the nucleus of the Château de Saint-Cloud; his hôtel in the Faubourg Saint-Germain of Paris became the Hôtel de Condé in the following generation. The Gondi acquired great estates in Brittany and became connected with the noblest houses of the kingdom. François Paul de Gondi had little influence under Richelieu, used his later influence against Mazarin which in turn helped lead to the outbreak of the Fronde. ‎

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