Régine Pernoud

Régine Pernoud (17 June 1909 in Château-Chinon, Nièvre – 22 April 1998 in Paris) was a French historian and archivist. Pernoud was one of the most prolific medievalists in 20th century France; more than any other single scholar of her time, her work advanced and expanded the study of Joan of Arc.

Career

In 1929, she obtained a baccalauréat universitaire ès lettres (BA) at the University of Aix-en-Provence. She moved to Paris where she entered the École nationale des chartes which she left in 1933 with a diploma as an archivist-paleographer. In 1935, she was awarded a doctorate in medieval history from the Sorbonne. Having grown up in an impoverished family, she worked in various professions (including as a teacher, a coach, and an archivist) while completing her university studies and while waiting for a post in a museum. She later became curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Reims, in 1947, at the Museum of the History of France in 1949, at the National Archives, and at the Centre of Joan of Arc (which she had founded in 1974 at the request of André Malraux).

She is known for writing extensively about Joan of Arc and the social standing of women in the Middle Ages (500 - 1500), e.g., on Robert of Arbrissel who in 1099 founded the double monastery - one with nuns, and one with monks - of Fontevraud, where he put a nun, Petronille de Chemillé, who was 22 years of age, in charge. She primarily did the work of a medieval historian, though she also published several popular works. She was a founding member of the learned society, the Académie du Morvan, in 1967.

She is the aunt of Georges Pernoud, the presenter of the TV series Thalassa.

Awards

She received the Grand Prize of the City of Paris in 1978 and in 1997 the Académie Française awarded her for her lifetime's work.