![]() Cover art for the 2009 English translation | |
Author | Jacques Le Goff |
---|---|
Translator | Gareth Evan Gollrad |
Language | French |
Subject | Biography, medieval history |
Publisher | Éditions Gallimard (First edition) University of Notre Dame Press (English translation) |
Publication date | 23 January 1996 [1] |
Published in English | 15 January 2009 |
Media type | |
Pages | 952 pp (hardcover) |
ISBN | 978-0268033811 |
Saint Louis is a 1996 biography of Louis IX of France by historian Jacques Le Goff. The book received positive reviews for its historical detail, and was awarded the 1996 Grand prix Gobert by the French Academy. It was also a best-seller. [2]
The lengthy book contains three parts. The first section is a traditional narrative of Louis from his birth to his canonization, [3] while the second section is about the views of his contemporaries on him. The third section "locates Louis in both the spiritual and secular world of the day-to-day". [4] Le Goff discusses "contemporary views about the obligations and duty of the king, the nature of government and political power in thirteenth-century France, and contemporary religious practice." [5]
William Chester Jordan dubbed Saint Louis a "wise and ruminative study [...] his longest and most impressive book". He called the book's final question "a sincere warning against the naïveté that underlies so much of the lingering positivism of the historical profession." [6]
Gary Macy wrote that the three parts of Saint Louis "could easily stand alone as separate books [...] together they comprise perhaps the most complete historiographic study of one historical person every [ sic ] attempted." He wrote that the historian "sometimes delightfully if not historically, tells us what he feels about Louis, even if he doesn’t have evidence for that feeling. There are many repetitions, again something might expect in a study of such depth. Le Goff also seems to trust Joinville too much." However, Macy lauded the "detail and care of Le Goff’s careful study." [7]
Unlike Macy, Jennifer R. Davis claimed that "Le Goff is far from a credulous reader" of Joinville's account. She claimed that it is not a full biography of Louis as a king, centering more on his personality and the ideology surrounding his rulership than on his actual governance, but Davis called the second part of the book "a tour de force of source analysis". Davis also said that "his optimistic vision of historical biography is certainly worthy of historians' consideration". [3]
James M. Powell wrote that Le Goff "has given us a very personal account of St. Louis and has entered intimately into his life." He said the historian's picture of Emperor Frederick II was too dependent on Kantorowicz’s biography. However, Powell argued that "Louis lives and walks through these pages. What Le Goff has given us is more than a biography; it is a work of literature. [...] There is no chapter that does not contain information and ideas that deserve to be discussed further." [8] Thomas F. Madden of First Things called it "probably the most complete [history of Louis] available. [...] a work of importance, but casual readers may find other histories by William Chester Jordan and Jean Richard more appealing". [9]
Ellen E. Kittell wrote, "Le Goff has gone far beyond the mere biography of a canonized king; his history of St. Louis unfolds as the biography of France." Kittell criticized the translation but still lauded the book as "a standard against which other biographies will be measured." [4] Carol J. Williams claimed that M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, in The Making of Saint Louis (2010), is "generous in her recognition of the fundamental work of Le Goff". [10] Alexander Lee of referred to his biographies of Louis and Francis as landmarks, while still arguing that "his most dramatic contribution to scholarship was perhaps La Naissance du Purgatoire (1981)". [11]
Some reviewers were more moderate in their praise. Davis noted that there is controversy surrounding Le Goff's argument that the real Louis and the ideal models of conduct transmitted about Louis largely coincide. Jordan argued that the models obscure the view of the real Louis, comprising a refashioned ideal image. [3] In the London Review of Books , Alexander Murray praised Saint Louis as a "brilliant" biography. But Murray also stated that Le Goff "paints with a broad brush. [...] Blanche is ‘insufferable and frankly, odious’, Matthew Paris shows his ‘usual perversity’, Louis ‘held intellectuals in contempt’ (actually, he helped found the Sorbonne). This broadness of brush hides nuances which, exposed, would reveal that Louis’s reign has a long-term significance that Le Goff scarcely hints at." [12]
David Bachrach praised the second section of Saint Louis as the strongest, particularly Le Goff's treatment of Jean de Joinville's account. However, he said the historian misses opportunities to come to a closer understanding of Louis as an individual and ruler (e.g. "whether he was [...] innovative or conservative, a master of detail or delegator of authority"). Bachrach wrote that Le Goff "limits himself to stringing together series of events in which Louis played a role." [5]
The Annales school is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century to stress long-term social history. It is named after its scholarly journal Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, which remains the main source of scholarship, along with many books and monographs. The school has been influential in setting the agenda for historiography in France and numerous other countries, especially regarding the use of social scientific methods by historians, emphasizing social and economic rather than political or diplomatic themes.
Louis IX, commonly revered as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis VIII, he was crowned in Reims at the age of 12. His mother, Blanche of Castile, effectively ruled the kingdom as regent until he came of age and continued to serve as his trusted adviser until her death. During his formative years, Blanche successfully confronted rebellious vassals and championed the Capetian cause in the Albigensian Crusade, which had been ongoing for the past two decades.
Jean de Joinville was one of the great chroniclers of medieval France. He is most famous for writing the Life of Saint Louis, a biography of Louis IX of France that chronicled the Seventh Crusade.
Fernand Paul Achille Braudel was a French historian. His scholarship focused on three main projects: The Mediterranean, Civilization and Capitalism (1955–79), and the unfinished Identity of France (1970–85). He was a member of the Annales School of French historiography and social history in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a student of Henri Hauser.
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Jacques Le Goff was a French historian and prolific author specializing in the Middle Ages, particularly the 12th and 13th centuries.
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