The Man Who Believed He Was King Of France: A True Medieval Tale
The Age
Saturday September 20, 2008
The Man Who Believed He Was King of France: A True Medieval Tale
Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri University of Chicago Press, $36.95 ACCORDING TO A 15th-century manuscript, in the 1350s Siennese merchant Giannino diGuccio claimed to be the King of France. He was visited by Cola di Rienzo, the Pope's regent in Rome, who spun him a story about how he was switched at birth with the Dauphin and began a career of travelling around Europe trying to drum up support for his claim that he was the son of King LouisX and Queen Clemence. The King of Hungary refused to believe him; elsewhere, in Aix-en-Provence, in Marseille and in Naples, he was imprisoned. No good came of him in the end, as might be expected, but he left behind an autobiography, a copy of which surfaced a couple centuries later.Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri's retelling of the story is based largely on this work and he has to deal with the question of whether Giannino was a real person, or whether the story is a fabrication like that of Pope Joan. There is enough evidence to suggest that there was such a person and that he made claims to the throne of France. But the story is opaque all the same. Falconieri's book is a fascinating window into the medieval mind; the translation reads very naturally and elegantly in English.
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