medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Boureau's book is definitely the place to go. For a shorter but serious
and sober evaluation see the text of "The Female Pope" by Rosemary and
Darroll Pardoe, on line at
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/PopeJoanHome.html.
Sean Field
At 09:09 PM 4/24/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and cultu
>
>The most recent study;
>
>Boureau, Alain The Myth of Pope Joan. Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane.
>400 p., 5 halftones, 2 maps. 6 x 9 2001
>
>Paper $22.50sp 0-226-06745-9 Spring 2001
>
>In the ninth century, a brilliant young woman named Joan disguised
>herself as a man so that she could follow her lover into the
>then-exclusively male world of scholarship. She proved so successful
>that she ascended the Catholic hierarchy in Rome and was eventually
>elected pope. Her pontificate lasted two years, until she became
>pregnant and died after giving birth during a public procession from the
>Vatican.
>
>Or so the legend goes--a legend that was fabricated sometime in the
>thirteenth century, according to Alain Boureau, and which has persisted
>in one form or another down to the present day. In this fascinating saga
>of belief and rhetoric, politics and religion, Boureau investigates the
>historical and ecclesiastical circumstances under which the myth of Pope
>Joan was constructed and the different uses to which it was put over the
>centuries. He shows, for instance, how Catholic clerics justified the
>exclusion of women from the papacy and the priesthood by employing the
>myth in misogynist moral tales, only to find the popess they had created
>turned against them in anti-Catholic propaganda during the Reformation.
>TABLE OF CONTENTS
>
>Boureau/Myth
>
>Contents
>Part I The Sex of the Popes: A Roman Story
>1 The Pontificals
>2 The History of a Chair
>3 The Popes between Two Stools
>
>Part II Joan Militant
>4 Joan the Catholic: Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries
>5 The Popess and Her Sisters
>
>Part III Death and Transfiguration of the Popess
>6 Joan at the Stake: Fifteenth-Seventeenth Centuries
>7 The Popess in Litearture
>
>Epilogues
>8 First Epilogue: Historiography of the Popess
>9 Second Epilogue: Joan's Body
>
>Subjects:
>
>CULTURE STUDIES
>GENDER AND SEXUALITY
>HISTORY: European History
>MEDIEVAL STUDIES
>RELIGION
>RELIGION: Christianity
>WOMEN'S STUDIES
>You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA,
>consult our international information page.
>
>File last modified on 04/17/2005.
>
> Questions about this title? email [log in to unmask]
>
>Tom Izbicki
>
>Thomas Izbicki
>Collection Development Coordinator
>Eisenhower Library
>Johns Hopkins
>Baltimore, MD 21218
>(410)516-7173
>fax (410)516-8399
> >>> [log in to unmask] 04/24/05 5:02 PM >>>
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>culture
>
>O Learned Ones:
>
>Today's newspaper (the Montreal Gazette) carries the remark that
>"writers who declare the legend [of Pope Joan] to be utterly without
>foundation have tended to be utterly Catholic in their outlook". Does
>anyone know what the current opinion of historians is about the basis
>of the story?
>
>Bernadette Filotas
>
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Sean Field
Assistant Professor
University of Vermont
Department of History
Wheeler House
133 S. Prospect
Burlington, VT 05405
802-656-4408
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