Alain Boureau

In The Lord’s First Night, Alain Boureau tackles one of the more persistent myths about the Middle Ages—that feudal lords enjoyed what is variously known as the droit de cuissage, the driot du seigenur, or the ius primae noctis, the right to sleep with his female vassals on their wedding night. (The focus here is on French versions of the myth.) Boureau looks at how nineteenth-century scholarly debates in France, in which cuissage became a proxy for the failings of the Ancien Regime, gave false credence to the myth through some shoddy scholarship. He then moves onto an examination of various forms of medieval serfdom/personal servitude to explain the development of the myth of cuissage with a particular focus on the early modern period.

The book is thus more a work of straight-up legal history than it is one which looks at the topic through a women’s or gender studies lens; the addition of such an angle may well have helped to strengthen the overall argument, although admittedly it would have been unlikely to find one in a work written by a French dude in the mid-90s. Boureau’s prose is often dense and the translation isn’t great, but potentially of interest to those working on legal history and/or medievalism.… (mer)

5155. The Myth of Pope Joan, by Alain Boureau translated by Lydia C. Cochrane (read 25 Apr 2014) This book was published in French in 1988 and in English in 2001. It covers in very great detail the extensive writing on Pope Joan, who is usually said to have reigned for over two years around 854. But she was never mentioned in any written record till about 1260 when one Jean de Maily said he had heard of her. After that it was usually accepted that she existed, until about 1450 when her existence was questioned. Today it is generally agreed she never existed. This book expatiates at great length on the vast literature pertaining to her, much of which discussion was erudite and of little interest. In general I was convinced the author is right that the story is a myth, and most historians now agree.… (mer)

Según cuenta la leyenda, la usurpación del trono terrenal de Pedro por parte de una mujer obligó en sucesivas ocasiones, con el fin de impedir semejante ultraje impostor en lo venidero, a comprobar mediante un tacto testicular que el sexo del elegido se correspondía con tan alto honor. Para ello, y según la fábula, se utilizaba una silla perforada, como las antiguas sillas romanas de los baños que quizá utilizaran los papas en su descanso, que permitía la curiosa exploración. Las dos frases (no sé cuál será correcta, o si lo será alguna de las dos, lamentablemente tengo en desuso mis conocimientos de latín) que abren este artículo están relacionadas con esta famosa silla. Esta historia dentro de la historia a lo largo de la historia ha tenido tantos detractores como seguidores, y tantas "pruebas" que la acreditaban como que la desacreditaban. Hay varias versiones sobre la existencia de la Papisa, y aún más explicaciones de por qué pudo surgir el mito.… (mer)