MAZARIN, JULES, CARDINAL

born July 14, 1602, Pescina, Abruzzi, Kingdom of Naples [now in Italy] died March 9, 1661, Vincennes, Fr. original Italian in full Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino, or Mazarini first minister of France after Cardinal de Richelieu's death in 1642. During the early years of King Louis XIV, he completed Richelieu's work of establishing France's supremacy among the European powers and crippling the opposition to the power of the monarchy at home. Additional reading Mazarin's correspondence while minister was published by Adolphe Chruel, Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministre, 9 vol. (18721906); this monumental edition is supplemented by fragmentary publications, the most important of which are those of M. Ravenel, Lettres du Cardinal Mazarin la Reine . . . en 1651 et 1652 (1836), and the letters of the young Mazarin, translated from the Italian, as an appendix to Georges Dethan, Mazarin et ses amis (1968; The Young Mazarin, 1977). The Carnets, or notebooks, in which Mazarin wrote brief reflections and guides for his conduct at court and his relations with the Queen, have only been published in incomplete form by Victor Cousin in Journal des Savants (185456).Standard works on Mazarin include: Victor Cousin, La Jeunesse de Mazarin (1865); and especially Adolphe Chruel, Histoire de France pendant la minorit de Louis XIV, 4 vol. (187980), a monumental work; Histoire de France sous le ministre de Mazarin (16511661), 3 vol. (1882). Recent works of synthesis include: Mazarin (1959), a collective work with articles by Georges Mongrdien, Pierre du Colombier, Maurice Schumann, and Georges Dethan; Mazarin (1961), the catalog of the Exposition Mazarin of the Bibliothque Nationale; and Georges Dethan (op. cit.). The chief works in English are Arthur Hassall, Mazarin (1903); and James B. Perkins, France Under Mazarin, 2 vol. (1886).