Donna Woolfolk Cross Libros

Mujer de genio y talento, la joven Juana de Ingelheim no se conforma con las costumbres imperantes en la sociedad medieval. Instruida por sus padres en el arte de las letras y la medicina, Juana adopta la personalidad de su hermano muerto para ingresar en el monasterio de Fulda, donde se inicia en la vida monacal. Allí, convertida en el hermano Juan, la joven destaca como un excelente escolástico. Enviada a Roma, pronto se verá inmersa en la compleja trama de intrigas políticas y amorosas que envuelve a los estados pontificios. Superando todos los escollos, Juana es elegida papa el año 855 con el seudónimo de Juan Anglico, la única mujer que ha ocupado el trono papal. Aunque considerada en la actualidad un personaje legendario, la existencia de la papisa Juana fue reconocida durante largo tiempo por la Iglesia católica, para posteriormente ser negada a partir del siglo XVII. Leyenda o verdad histórica, esta novela —que ocupó los primeros puestos de ventas en Alemania durante varios meses— reconstruye con trazos nítidos el retrato vivo de una mujer extraordinaria, una heroína apasionada cuya ambición no fue el poder sino el conocimiento.

Uprostred krutej zimy roku 841 pohanská žena dedinského kňaza v Ingelheime privedie na svet dievča menom Johana. Vyrastá s dvoma bratmi; starší z nich ju tajne naučí čítať a písať. Také vedomosti sú totiž aj po vláde osvieteného cisára Karola Veľkého vo Franskej ríši výsadou mužov...

One of the most controversial women of history is brought to life in Donna Woolfolk Cross's tale of Pope Joan, a girl whose origins should have kept her in squalid domesticity. Instead, thru intelligence, indomitability & courage, she ascended to the Roman throne as Pope John Anglicus. The time is 814, the place is Ingelheim, a Frankland village. It's the harshest winter in living memory when Joan is born to an English father & Saxon mother. Her father is a canon, filled with holy zeal, capable of unconscionable cruelty. His piety doesn't extend to his family, especially females. His wife, Gudrun, is a young beauty to whom he's attracted beyond his will. He hates her for showing him his weakness. Gudrun teaches Joan about her gods & is repeatedly punished for it by the canon. Joan grows to young womanhood with the combined knowledge of the warlike Saxon gods & Church teachings as her heritage. When her brother John, not a scholarly type, is sent away to school, Joan, who was supposed to be the one sent to school, runs away & joins him in Dorstadt, at Villaris, the home of Gerold. She falls in love with him. Their lives interesect repeatedly even thru her Papacy. She's looked upon by all who know that she's a woman as a "lusus naturae," a freak of nature. "She was... male in intellect, female in body, she fit in nowhere; it was as if she belonged to a 3rd amorphous sex." The status of women in the Dark Ages was little better than cattle. They were judged inferior in every way & necessary evils in the bargain. After John is killed in a Viking raid, Joan sees opportunity to escape the fate of her gender. She cuts her hair, dons her dead brother's clothes & goes into the world as a young boy. Gerold is away from Villaris at the time of the attack & comes home to find his home in ruins, his family killed & Joan missing. After the attack, Joan goes to a Benedictine monastery, is accepted as a man of great learning & eventually makes her way to Rome. Cross tells in an Epilogue that she wrote the story as fiction because it's impossible to document Joan's papal accession. The Catholic Church has done everything possible to deny this embarrassment. Whether or not one believes in Joan as Pope, this is a compelling story, filled with all kinds of lore: the brutishness of the Dark Ages, Vatican intrigue, politics, favoritism & the place of women.--Valerie Ryan (edited)