Cardinal Richelieu Receiving the Homage of Robert de Sorbon

This print by **Grégoire Huret**, dated 1642, depicts an allegorical and anachronistic meeting between Cardinal **Richelieu** and **Robert de Sorbon**, a theologian who died in 1274 and founded the college that would become the Sorbonne. Having obviously never been able to meet, the two men are here brought together in a symbolic composition celebrating Richelieu as a second founder of the institution: elected provost of the Sorbonne on 29 August 1622, he had its buildings and the chapel where he has rested since his death in 1642 — the very year of this engraving — rebuilt.