Joan of Arc: The Trial Transcript

Joan of Arc is the best-documented ordinary person of the Middle Ages, because her trial was recorded by notaries in daily sessions for three months. This is what the transcript actually shows: an illiterate nineteen-year-old facing seventy theologians, spotting the trap in the grace question, and giving answers that ruled out both the fraud reading and the hysteric reading, before a verdict that had been decided in advance. 0:00 The exception in the record 1:38 The road to Chinon 3:03 What she actually did 4:30 The trial 5:49 The answers 7:31 The ending 9:24 What the transcript settles 10:36 Next time Sources: the Latin condemnation record and French minutes of the Rouen trial (1431); the nullification proceedings of 1455-56 with witness depositions; the Poitiers examination as reported in the nullification testimony; standard scholarly editions and translations of the trial documents.