The Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu ranks with the confessions of Saint Augustine and Jean-Jacques Rousseau as one of the most revealing expressions of an individual’s sense of identity in all literature. It is also one the least appreciated outside of France, in part because of Richelieu’s popular image as a tyrant, in part because the history is unfamiliar to English-speaking readers, in part because historians have not yet considered the work closely. Leading scholar Paul Sonnino has now filled an essential gap with the first comprehensive translation of one of the most famous works on early modern statecraft. This unique volume is the only edition in any language based on a comparison not only of all the known manuscripts but also of some that are virtually unknown, clearly distinguishing between the two principal revisions; and the first to include the continuation of the “Succinct Narration,”which has been almost entirely overlooked in past analysis of the work as a whole. It is thoroughly annotated with detailed notes that describe the characters and events, providing readers with the history of the period. Sonnino’s clear and incisive introduction demonstrates how a brilliant and practical seventeenth-century statesman could explain his service to an eccentric king, his merciless ministry, and his alliances with Protestants before a God who was an integral part of his belief system. The result is a fundamental treatise about the state, power, and political intelligence from an iconic figure at the conjunction of political practice and political theory.

本書は、冷徹な独裁者の裏に潜むリシュリューの「魂の独白」です。国家理性という非情な論理と信仰が同居する精神構造は、ルソーの告白録に匹敵する文学的深みを備えています。権力の極致に立った人間が、歴史の審判を前に自らをどう定義したかを問う、究極の自己探求の書といえるでしょう。 狂気的な王への忠誠と苛烈な外交の背後にある、圧倒的な知性の煌めきに戦慄します。政治の実践と理論が火花を散らす生々しさは、権力という営みの美しさと残酷さを同時に突きつけます。孤独な巨星の思考回路に触れるとき、読者は統治の本質に激しく魂を揺さぶられるはずです。