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Saint Joan of Arc bibliography

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Saint Joan of Arc Annotated Bibliography

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A word on Joan of Arc historiography

You will find in the below review of Mark Twain's biography of Joan mention that Twain has been accused of obsessing over little girls and thus his study of Joan of Arc is infatuation not art, a tainted, shall we say, yucky, take on her story. Not at all! Nonetheless, St. Joan somehow challenges the gender-obsessed 20th and 21st centuries. There is absolutely nothing to consider regarding that she was burned as a witch for having worn men's clothing. It had nothing to do with 15th century gender identity. She was a soldier, and soldiers wear pants and cutting her hair, if she did, was an act of prudence not some transgender identity. So we have today works, websites and popular conceptions of Joan as a modern, sexually unburdened, liberated woman. So when you go looking for information about Joan, look carefully, as the perspectives and agenda reveal themselves, such as non-religious, girl-power[1], or gay[2] perspectives.

So be careful.

In addition to author agenda and bias, the various biographies or histories, you will find many discrepancies in the facts and timelines provided. The problem is twofold:

  1. The record of the Trial at Rouen is subject to reasonable interpretation, as it was deliberately edited by the Court to put Joan in a bad light. The main stenographer was loyal the record, but even his manuscript was subject to change. Additionally, we have only copies of those transcripts, so those are subject editorial abuse, as well. This is not to say that the transcripts are false and ahistorical -- they are a uniquely complete testimony of an historical event. We just need to be careful with it.
  2. The various testimonies at the Trial at Rouen and the later Rehabilitation Trial may have conflicting eye witness testimony. That, too, is not irreparable as an historical record, it just means that the historian needs to make choices. More difficult, though, is that the timeline gets confusing as the testimony does not follow chronology. In other words, various witnesses may testify to the same event or moment, but their testimony is scattered across the record, not presented linearly.

So it is best to use various sources and compare them constantly, making up your own mind as to the most accurate.

Sources

working sources:

Current:

Early sources:

During her lifetime:

15th Century

16th Century

  • Histoire de Jeanne La Pucelle d'Orleans, by Edmond Richer, 1630

Vatican

Wikipedia

Other:

Bibliographies

I'm not yet sure of the perspective of the author of this site, but he has produced a useful bibliography with "comments" (annotations): https://joan-of-arc.org/ls_bibliography.html#joa_pernoud

Joan of Arc#Sources - Wikipedia

Links



Suggested Readings

Transcripts of Joan's Trials

Pernoud's REhabiliation Trial https://archive.org/details/retrialofjoanofa00pern

https://archive.org/details/trialofjoanofarc00dani Daniel Hobbins translation

https://www.amazon.com/Trial-Joan-Arc-Daniel-Hobbins/dp/067401894X > read review critical of HObbin's commentary lol

see review https://www.jstor.org/stable/30040603

Biographies

Miscellaneous

  1. ↑ See The trial of Joan of Arc : Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming (Archive.org)
  2. ↑ This essay seeks "gay icons" of Saint Joan: What Did Jeanne d'Arc Look Like?: "GLBT historians love to claim Jeanne as lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. I’m one of those who think she was a case of androgen insensitivity syndrome — burned at the stake in 1431 for her “crime” of flouting Catholic rules on gender and women’s clothing."
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