Pope Joan

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a story that circulated widely in the middle ages about a highly learned woman who lived in the ninth century, dressed as a man, travelled to Rome, and was elected Pope. Her papacy came to a dramatic end when it was revealed that she was a woman, a discovery that is said to have occurred when she gave birth in the street. The story became a popular cautionary tale directed at women who attempted to transgress traditional roles, and it famously blurred the boundary between fact and fiction. The story lives on as the subject of recent novels, plays and films.

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Guests

• Katherine Lewis 6 episodes
  Honorary Professor of Medieval History at the University of Lincoln and Research Associate at the University of York
• Laura Kalas 2 episodes
  Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Swansea University
• Anthony Bale 3 episodes
  Professor of Medieval & Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Girton College

Reading list

• The Myth of Pope Joan
  Alain Boureau (trans. Lydia G. Cochrane) (University of Chicago Press, 2001) Google Books →
• Misconceptions about the Middle Ages
  Stephen Harris and Bryon L. Grisby (eds.) (Routledge, 2008) Google Books →
• Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe
  Valerie R. Hotchkiss (Routledge, 1996) Google Books →
• Heroes and Marvels of the Middle Ages
  Jacques Le Goff (Reaktion, 2020) Google Books →
• Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages
  Marina Montesano (Routledge, 2024) Google Books →
• Pope John VIII - An English Woman: Alias Pope Joan
  Joan Morris (Vrai, 1985) Google Books →
• Why Pope Joan?
  Thomas F. X. Noble (Catholic Historical Review, 2013)
• The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England
  Craig M. Rustici (University of Michigan Press, 2006) Google Books →

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Programme ID: m0027d6t

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027d6t

Auto-category: 940.1 (Medieval history)