medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
She does seem highly improbable, and perhaps she is really the powerful
senatrix of the tenth century, Marozia Theophylact or her mother Theodora,
since records were sketchy at the time and there were many popes in and out.
I have several rather interesting medieval manuscript copies of Pope Joan
giving birth as well as a deacon reaching up under the infamous chair.
The road between the Lateran and the vatican, via the Collusium, where Joan
allegedly gave birth and where there once stood a statue of a woman pope
with a baby until 1455 when Nicholas V widened the road, is forbidden for
popes to travel on because of the legend of Joan. There is a little shack
thing that i have a picture of which marks the spot where she allegedly gave
birth, and for the longest time there was supposed to have been a bust of a
woman pope (well I'm sure it included her head and shoulders too...) in the
cathedral of Siena with all the other papal busts until it was turned into
another pope within the last few hundred years, but I don't remember which
pope ordered her bust changed.
That book was supposed to be made into a movie a few years ago, but I havent
seen anything else about it. The author is contactable by email, as I spoke
with her once and she was very nice. I can dig up the email as well as other
pope joan information if you'd like.
Wendy Reardon
[log in to unmask]
PS--Sometimes I think I would have liked to pull a Pope Joan...just to see
if i could get away with being pope...but at 32 i'm too old to get started.
But if I have a daughter someday....mwahahaaa!!!!
( ----- Original Message -----
From: "Werner Robl" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 5:26 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Pope Joan
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> As regards pope Joan, see also the bibliographic references in:
> http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/j/Johanna_pae.shtml
>
> Best
>
> Werner Robl
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christopher M. Mislow" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 8:25 PM
> Subject: [M-R] Pope Joan
>
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear Fellow List Members,
>
> I am in the midst of reading an historical novel by Donna Cross about the
> life (legend?) of the only female pope, Pope Joan, in the Ninth Century.
> The cover reproduces a photograph of the _stella [sic] stercoraria_ (from
> Cesare D'Onofro's _La Papessa Giovanna_) which, insofar as I have been
able
> to discern, is a latrine-line chair with a hole in the bottom, located in
> St. John Lateran from the 10th-16th centuries, on which new popes had to
> sit, and beneath which the lowest cleric reached his hand to verify the
> pope to be a man.
>
> Two questions, one of language, the other of Church history. First, is
the
> phrase _stella stercoraria_ a corruption? I have seen _sella stercoraria_
> and _sedia stercoraria_; but, while I was aware of the Dog Star, Dung Star
> is a new one on me<g>.
>
> Second, is there any accepted consensus on the actual use of this chair?
> The only reference to "stercoraria" I was able to find in the on-line
> Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, seems implicitly to disclaim it. That
> entry states that "[t]he _stercoraria_, or red marble throne on which the
> popes sat" derives it name from the anthem _De stercore erigeus pauperem_
> sung during the ceremony of papal enthronement.
>
> --Christopher
>
> **********************************************************************
> To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
> to: [log in to unmask]
> To send a message to the list, address it to:
> [log in to unmask]
> To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
> to: [log in to unmask]
> In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
> [log in to unmask]
> For further information, visit our web site:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
>
> **********************************************************************
> To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
> to: [log in to unmask]
> To send a message to the list, address it to:
> [log in to unmask]
> To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
> to: [log in to unmask]
> In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
> [log in to unmask]
> For further information, visit our web site:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
>
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|