Mazarin, l'Italie et la France : nouveaux éclairages et paradigmes historiographiques persistants

This essay discusses three books recently published in French on Cardinal Mazarin, two of which focus on how his Italian origins might have affected his career in France and the ways in which he choose to govern. The paper investigates the historiographical frameworks within which the trajectory of Mazarin is understood in these new publications and it questions the narratives that cast him as a key figure in the development of absolutism and suggest that he worked tirelessly to enable the personnel reign of Louis XIV. [Publisher's text]