Man Who Believed He Was King of France
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A01=Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri
appearance
Author_Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri
being
belief
biography
birthright
capetian line
cardinal
Category=NHDJ
dictator
divine right
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
essence
france
genealogy
germany
giannino di guccio
history
hundred years war
hungary
identity
impostors
imposture
italian renaissance
italy
king
lost heir
louis x
mercantile culture
merchant
monarchy
nonfiction
politics
pretender to the throne
quest
rome
royalty
switched at birth
territory
Product details
- ISBN 9780226145259
- Weight: 425g
- Dimensions: 14 x 22mm
- Publication Date: 15 Sep 2008
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Replete with shady merchants, scoundrels, hungry mercenaries, scheming nobles, and maneuvering cardinals, "The Man Who Believed He Was King of France" proves the adage that truth is often stranger than fiction - or at least as entertaining. The setting of this improbable but beguiling tale is 1354 and the Hundred Years' War being waged for control of France. Seeing an opportunity for political and material gain, the demagogic dictator of Rome tells Giannino di Guccio that he is in fact the lost heir to Louis X, allegedly switched at birth with the son of a Tuscan merchant. Once convinced of his birthright, Giannino claims for himself the name King Jean I of France and sets out on a brave - if ultimately ruinous - quest that leads him across Europe to prove his identity.With the skill of a crime scene detective, Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri digs up evidence in the historical record to follow the story of a life so incredible that it was long considered a literary invention of the Italian Renaissance.
From Italy to Hungary, then through Germany and France, the would-be king's unique combination of guile and earnestness commands the aid of lords and soldiers, the indulgence of innkeepers and merchants, and the collusion of priests and rogues along the way. The apparent absurdity of the tale allows Carpegna Falconieri to analyze late-medieval society, exploring questions of essence and appearance, being and belief, at a time when the divine right of kings confronted the rise of mercantile culture. Giannino's life represents a moment in which truth, lies, history, and memory combine to make us wonder where reality leaves off and fiction begins.
Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri is director of studies in medieval history at the University of Urbino and head of courses in methodology of historical research and the history of the Middle Ages. William McCuaig has translated more than a dozen books from Italian and French, including Chiara Frugoni's A Day in a Medieval City, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
