The Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre

Arlette Jouanna is one of the finest historians writing about early modern France today, but apart from academic specialists of the period, she is virtually unknown in the Anglophone world because virtually none of her work has previously been translated into English. Thus, the recent publication by the Manchester University Press of an English translation of her book, The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, is a real cause for celebration. Not only will this book bring her scholarship to a much wider leadership around the globe, but it will also help resolve one of the most difficult tasks for all historians of early modern France: how to explain satisfactorily the events that made up the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres in 1572.

Above all, Jouanna's account examines all the available primary sources for the reader in a systematic way. And this, in my view, is her primary contribution. Anyone wishing to continue further research on Saint Bartholomew's Day now can start here and find all the primary and principal secondary sources in one place.

This excellent book offers both a thorough re-evaluation of the primary sources for the Massacre and a careful assessment of the secondary works.
Adding to the value of the book is Joseph Bergin's highly readable translation. This should become the first book that anyone with a scholarly interest in St. Bartholomew's Massacre will read.

Arlette Jouanna is one of the finest historians writing about early modern France today, but apart from academic specialists of the period, she is virtually unknown in the Anglophone world because virtually none of her work has previously been translated into English. Thus, the recent publication by the Manchester University Press of an English translation of her book, The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, is a real cause for celebration. Not only will this book bring her scholarship to a much wider leadership around the globe, but it will also help resolve one of the most difficult tasks for all historians of early modern France: how to explain satisfactorily the events that made up the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres in 1572.

Above all, Jouanna's account examines all the available primary sources for the reader in a systematic way. And this, in my view, is her primary contribution. Anyone wishing to continue further research on Saint Bartholomew's Day now can start here and find all the primary and principal secondary sources in one place.
This excellent book offers both a thorough re-evaluation of the primary sources for the Massacre and a careful assessment of the secondary works.
Adding to the value of the book is Joseph Bergin's highly readable translation. This should become the first book that anyone with a scholarly interest in St. Bartholomew's Massacre will read.

Arlette Jouanna is one of the finest historians writing about early modern France today, but apart from academic specialists of the period, she is virtually unknown in the Anglophone world because virtually none of her work has previously been translated into English. Thus, the recent publication by the Manchester University Press of an English translation of her book, The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, is a real cause for celebration. Not only will this book bring her scholarship to a much wider leadership around the globe, but it will also help resolve one of the most difficult tasks for all historians of early modern France: how to explain satisfactorily the events that made up the St. Bartholomew's Day massacres in 1572.

Above all, Jouanna's account examines all the available primary sources for the reader in a systematic way. And this, in my view, is her primary contribution. Anyone wishing to continue further research on Saint Bartholomew's Day now can start here and find all the primary and principal secondary sources in one place.
This excellent book offers both a thorough re-evaluation of the primary sources for the Massacre and a careful assessment of the secondary works.
Adding to the value of the book is Joseph Bergin's highly readable translation. This should become the first book that anyone with a scholarly interest in St. Bartholomew's Massacre will read.
'This is a career-capping tour de force. Jouanna's mastery of primary and secondary sources in many languages allows her to weave together, on the one hand, a compelling narrative of the political and diplomatic history of Saint-Barthélemy as event with, on the other, insights from recent scholarship about religious violence and the cultural history of the period. This timely and important book sets a very high bar. It is sure to be the standard account of this still-controversial subject for a long time.'


Winner of the American Historical Association's 2014 J. Russell Major Prize

Arlette Jouanna is Professor Emerita of History at the University of Montpellier-III, France|Joseph Bergin is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Manchester, Fellow of the British Academy and Correspondant Étranger, Institut de France.