Pope Joan
by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Was there a Pope Joan or was it just another of those good yarns whispered over firelight, shared as an urban legend, and become so rooted in popular imagination that even scholars of the later ages believed it without question?
There very possibly may have been--from what she writes in the author's note, the debate is still ongoing. She lists four scholarly sources arguing both for and against--I wish I could read them.
Side note: I have a very real fear that the world wide web will be the death of true scholarship. We're living in a world where anyone can say any crap they want to, publish it for the world to see, and never be asked to defend their theory against their peer group of experts. Are we descending into another dark age, where true scholars hide behind monastery walls (a.k.a. scholarly journals) and the general public is left to believe in magic, witches and homeopathic remedies?
Ms. Cross' book appears to be so well-researched it could almost be a scholarly article itself, except for the personalities and details she had to invent to make it a darn good book. She freely admits her deviations from historical accuracy in the author's note, and I get the feeling that if there were additional mistakes that a scholar caught and pointed out to her, she be grateful for the correction and add them into future notes. You got to admire that kind of writer!
I won't watch the movie based on this book. The book was too depressing by itself--I couldn't take more images of the violence, suffering and cruelty of the medieval world. Mental ones are bad enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment