Canonized in 1297 as Saint Louis, King Louis IX of France (1214-1270) was the central figure of Christendom in the thirteenth century. He ruled when France was at the height of power; he commanded the largest army in Europe and controlled the wealthiest kingdom. Renowned for his patronage of the arts, Louis was equally famous for his choice to imitate the suffering Christ as a humbly attired, bearded penitent.

Armed with the considerable resources of the nouvel historien, Jacques Le Goff mines existing materials about Saint Louis to forge a new historical biography of the king. Part of his ambitious project is to reconstruct the mental universe of the thirteenth century: Le Goff describes the scholastic and intellectual background of Louiss reign and, most importantly, he discusses methodology and the interpretation of written sourcestheir composition, provenance, and reliability.

Le Goff divides his unconventional biography into three parts. In the first, he gives us the contours of Louiss life from birth to death in the usual context of family dynamics and genealogy, courtly and regional politics, and shifts in economic, social, and cultural life. In sifting through the historical accounts of the kings life, Le Goff determines that it is Louis IXs profound sense of moral and religious purposehis desire to become the ideal Christian rulerthat colors his every action from boyhood on; it is also, for Le Goff, what renders contemporary accounts problematic and what necessitates further scrutiny.

That dissection of sources occupies the second part. Le Goffs intention is to pare away the layers of homily and anecdote produced by the kings early biographers to discover the true St. Louis. Questioning whether St. Louis was merely the invention of his eulogists, Le Goff penetrates beyond the literary and hagiographical evidence to the human behind the legend. He brilliantly analyzes Louiss progression toward his unique self-creation and its subsequent mythologizing. In the third part, Le Goff highlights the contradictions within Louis and his historical image that previous chroniclers have elided and overlooked. In the end, he leaves us with the saint, rather than the king, with all the paradoxes embedded within that dual role.

A prolific medievalist of international renown, Jacques Le Goff (1924- ) is the former director of studies at the L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Among his honors is the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for History, bestowed in 2004 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences to Le Goff for fundamentally changing our view of the Middle Ages. He was also among the recipients of the 2007 Dan David Prize in recognition of contributions to his discipline. of Louis life from birth to death in the usual context of family dynamics and genealogy, courtly and regional politics, and shifts in economic, social, and cultural life. In sifting through the historical accounts of the kings life, Le Goff determines that it is Louis IXs profound sense of moral and religious purposehis desire to become the ideal Christian rulerthat colors his every action from boyhood on; it is also, for Le Goff, what renders contemporary accounts problematic and what necessitates further scrutiny. That dissection of sources occupies the second part. Le Goffs intention is to pare away the layers of homily and anecdote produced by the kings early biographers to discover the true Saint Louis. Questioning whether Saint Louis was merely the invention of his eulogists, Le Goff penetrates beyond the literary and hagiographical evidence to the human behind the legend. He brilliantly analyzes Louis progress toward his unique self-creation and its subsequent mythologizing. In the third part, Le Goff highlights the contradictions within Louis and his historical image that previous chroniclers have elided or overlooked. In the end, he leaves us with the saint, rather than the king, with all the paradoxes embedded in that role.