L'Histoire du cardinal de Richelieu

3 volumes in-folio; full red morocco, spine with six raised bands decorated with repeated monogram, triple gilt fillets à la Du Seuil framing the covers, floral ornaments in the corners, coat of arms in the center of the boards, inner dentelle, gilt edges.

412 x 256 mm.

Aubery. The History of Cardinal Richelieu by Sieur Aubery, Advocate at the Parliament and Royal Councils.Paris, 1660, 1 folio volume. Memoirs for the history of Cardinal Richelieu, collected by Aubery (and by Ant. Bertier).Paris, Antoine Bertier, 1660, 2 folio volumes.

Thus, 3 folio volumes Contemporary armorial binding.

First edition of both works by Antoine Aubery composed for the Duchess of Aiguillon, mother of Cardinal Richelieu and dedicated to “His Eminence Cardinal Mazarin”. Aubery recounts the entire life and career of Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642).

“Bishop of Luçon at twenty-one, he represented the clergy at the Estates-General of 1614; supported by the ‘devout’ party, he gained the favor of Marie de’ Medici, who had him appointed Secretary of State for War (1616). In 1620, he negotiated the reconciliation of Louis XIII and his mother. Cardinal (1622), he was called to the King’s Council in 1624 and quickly became its leader. His goal was to establish royal absolutism by breaking up cliques and regionalism. He curbed the nobility by banning duels (edicts of 1626) and sought to make it the guarantor of provincial order (assembly of notables, 1626–1627); he rid himself of rebellious nobles (Chalais, Cinq-Mars, de Thou). At the same time, he worked to reduce the Protestant party by obtaining the surrender of La Rochelle; after the sack of Privas (1629), he granted Protestants freedom of worship but suppressed their military guarantees (Pardon of Alès, 1629). Abroad, he undertook the struggle against the House of Austria.

After occupying the Valtellina (1624–1625), Richelieu allied with the German Protestants against the Habsburgs, captured Pinerolo and Saluzzo (1630). He reconciled Sweden with Poland (1629), thus enabling them to intervene against Austria. After the death of Gustavus Adolphus, he declared war on Spain (1635), took Breisach (1638), and conquered Portugal (1640) and Roussillon (1642). He implemented a strictly mercantilist economic policy and created monopoly companies. He built the Sorbonne and the Palais-Cardinal (today the Palais-Royal) and founded the French Academy (1635). An active architect of administrative centralization, he carried out useful financial, military, and legislative reforms (Michau Code)”.

Antoine Aubery, born in Paris on May 18, 1616, used to visit Messrs. Dupuy, de Thou, or de Vilevault to converse with the scholars who gathered there. For relaxation from his studies, he would read a few pages of Vaugelas’s Remarks. In addition to classical languages, Latin and Greek, he knew Italian, Spanish, and English, and was able to read books written in these three languages.

Lenglet tells us that this History of Cardinal Richelieu was written “from good memoirs.”

Only one other large-paper copy is cited by bibliographers, but bound later with the arms of the Duke of Maine; it included only the first History volume of the three present here. This volume alone was sold for 159 francs at King Louis Philippe’s sale and for €14,500 fifteen years ago (Paris, June 2, 2001).

Provenance: Guillaume I de Lamoignon, Marquis de Basville and Count of Launay-Courson, First President of the Parliament of Paris (1617–1677), with his coat of arms and monogram on the bindings, his printed ex-libris, and his crowned “L” stamp on page 3 of the three volumes; ex-libris of “Bibliotheca Lamoniana”; “Library Ragley Hall”; ex-libris “Radoulesco”; ex-libris “Sicklès”; ex-libris “Jacques Millot”; “P. Bérès.”