French travelers of the past, who admired the choir of the Duomo of Siena, were struck by a strange bust in the middle of all those of the popes appearing on the central nave of the cathedral.
They knew from the notes of the famous
Nouveau Voyage d'Italie
by François Maximilien Misson that, among all these portraits made between 1497 and 1502, the one supposed to represent
"Pope Zacharias"
would in reality be that of
"Joannes VIII, femina de Anglia"
and that it was only changed to
“Papa Zaccaria”
at the time of the pontificate of Clement VIII in 1601.
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Misson, who made his “Grand Tour” between 1687 and 1690, was a Protestant traveler, famous in his time, who only took up a legend still very well established in his time according to which there was, in the 9th century, an English woman, with the first name of Joan, who would have ascended the throne of Saint Peter.
Also readBenedict XVI: the seven labors of a sovereign pontiff who did not like to govern
This “Popess Joan” will become famous throughout Christianity, because she would have been endowed with a very great education…
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