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Cambridge. St Catharine's College Library, MS 17

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Source
Cambridge Digital Library
Library
Cambridge. St Catharine's College Library
Shelfmark
  • MS 17
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • s. xvii ex. Final quarter of the seventeenth century
Language
  • Middle French
Title
  • Mémoires Secrets sur les Guerres de Paris
Agent
Description

  • St Catharine's College MS 17 is a seventeenth-century copy of the Mémoires of François de la Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac. The Mémoires describe the oscillations of war, and the political intrigues, during La Fronde, the wars that shook Paris during the 1640s and 1650s. Rochefoucauld was a leading figure in the rebellion against Louis XIV and Cardinal Richelieu. His Mémoires contain detailed descriptions of the leading noblemen, their victories, and ultimate defeat.

    Pirate Printing and Social Scandal:

    St. Catharine's College MS 17 is one of many manuscript copies of Rochefoucauld's Mémoires made in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-centuries. However, before the copying of these manuscripts, parts of Rochefoucauld's Mémoires had already been widely disseminated in a 1662 pirate edition, published illegally in Amsterdam by the Dutch publishing house Elzevir.

    The 1662 edition caused widespread social scandal and Rochefoucauld, who had only just been allowed to return to Court after a long exile (due to his wartime engagements and a severe injury) was shunned by Parisian society. His new status as a social pariah was mainly due to the satirical portraits of Madame de Longueville and Cardinal Retz found in the chapter titled 'Guerre de Paris' in the 1662 edition. Rochefoucauld denounced all association with the 1662 edition, but the publication was fiercely popular and several reprints were made in the succeeding years. Despite Rochefoucauld's adamant denouncement of the 1662 edition, the memoirs in the edition were not all of them apocryphal. The edition also contained chapters of what is generally recognized as Rochefoucauld’s Mémoires. Whether the controversial chapter 'Guerre de Paris' is apocryphal or authoritative is still uncertain and remains the subject of contention among historians.

    Raising Questions: The Discovery of MS 17:

    In his seminal work Œuvres de la Rochefoucauld, published in 1874, Henri Régnier strongly argues against the attribution of ‘Guerre de Paris’ to Rochefoucauld. Régnier’s edition is still the most accurate scholarly guide to the complex textual history of Rochefoucauld's Mémoires - in all its print and manuscript editions - and the main authority on the Gordian knot of Rochefoucauld's authorship. The recent discovery of St. Catharine’s College MS 17, however, raises questions about the textual history of the Mémoires of Rochefoucauld, as it calls for a reassessment of 'Guerre de Paris' and its status.

    Anni Haahr Henriksen, St. Catharine's College.

Place
  • Preferred form
    • France
    Original form
    • France
    Other form
    • France (Paris ? Fontainebleau ?)
    • France.
    • France (?)
    • Lieu de copie : France ( ?) : cf. Hans-Collas ― Schandel, p. 327
    • France ?
    • France -- 16e siècle
    • Frankreich
    • França
    • Francia
    • Frankrijk
    • Abbaye de Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire)
    • Abadia de Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire)
    • Abtei Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire)
    • Abbey of Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire)
    • Abadía de Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire)
    • Abdij van Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire)
    • Région de la Loire (Abbaye de Fleury ?)
    • Loire Region (Abbey of Fleury?)
    • Regió del Loira (Abadia de Fleury ?)
    • Región del Loira (Abadía de Fleury ?)
    • France (Abbaye de Fleury ?)
    • França (Abadia de Fleury?)
    • Francia (Abadía de Fleury?)
    • France (Abbey of Fleury?)
    • Frankreich (Abtei Fleury?)
    • Frankrijk (Abdij van Fleury?)
    • France (est : Lorraine ?)
    • França (est: Lorena?)
    • Ostfrankreich (Lothringen?)
    • Eastern France (Lorraine?)
    • Francia (este: Lorena?)
    • Lothringen
    • Lorena
    • Lotharingen
    • Lorraine
    • França (Borgonya?)
    • France (Burgundy?)
    • Francia (Borgoña)
    • France (Bourgogne ?)
    • Frankrijk (Bourgondië?)
    • France (Bretagne ?)
    • França (Bretanya?)
    • Frankreich (Bretagne?)
    • France (Brittany?)
    • Francia (Bretaña)
    • Frankrijk (Bretagne?)
    • France (ouest : Bretagne ?)
    • Western France (Brittany?)
    • França (oest: Bretanya?)
    • Francia (oeste: Bretaña?)
    • Frankrijk (westen) (Bretagne?)
    • Westfrankreich: Bretagne?
    • Bretagne
    • Bretanya
    • Bretaña
    • Brittany
    • Probably the Loire region
    • France: Auxerre or Brittany
    • France: Fleury. vicinity of Paris (Saint-Denis?) (Bischoff)
    • France: Ile-de-France (Sens?)
    • France: Fleury; Reims?
    • France (Southern France?)
    • France: Fleury
    • France: probably Auxerre
    • France: evidently Eastern France
    • Central- or southern France
    • France, Vienne
    • [France]
    • Paris (?)
    • France (Paris?) or Flanders
    • France (3rd part)
    • Strassburg (probably)
    • Paris (?) or Tours (?)
    • France (Normandy?)
    • Rouen (?) or Paris (?)
    • France: Champagne, Burgundy or Centre
    • Lyon or Luxeuil (?)
    • France (Besançon?)
    • France (Paris?)
    • France, Northern (probably)
    • Probably Eastern France
    • St. Denis near Paris (monastery) (?)
    • Tours (?)
    • France (possibly near the court)
    • Italy and France (illumination)
    • [Provence?]
    • France, East (?)
    • France, Northeast?
    • France, Pontigny (or Paris?)
    • France, North?
    • France, Paris?
    • France, Diocese of Limoges?
    • France, Auxerre or area
    • France, Burgundy?
    • France, Brittany or Paris?
    • France, Angers?
    • France, Normandy?
    • France, East?
    • France, Bourges?
    • France, Anjou?
    • France, Northwest?
    • France, Tours?
    • France (probably Paris)
    • France, Europe
    • SW France?
    • FR
    • [FR]
    • Frankreich (Angers?)
    • Frankrijk (?)
    • Gallia
    • Gallia (Frankrijk)
    • Gallia? (Frankrijk?)
    • Frankreich (I.)
    • Frankreich (III.)
    • Frankreich (III)
    • Frankreich (II)
    • Frankreich (I)
    • I./III. Frankreich
    • II. Frankreich
    • Frankreich (Ergänzung)
    • [Frankrijk]
    • see more
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    Biblissima authority file
Rights
  • Provided by Cambridge University Library. Zooming image © the Master and Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Unported License (CC BY-NC) This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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