Giovanna I d’Angiò, regina di Sicilia: stato della ricerca e prospettive di una nuova biografia

In 2001, Andreas Kiesewetter published an extensive contribution on the life of Joanna I in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, which remains the best work on this topic. This subject illustrates well one of the important aspects of Andreas' research, namely his perfect knowledge of the fourteenth century Southern Italy, of the administration of the Kingdom and of the Angevin dynasty. My paper is a tribute to Kiesewetter and his work, but it also intends to go beyond and propose guidelines for future research. The person of Joanna I, a queen considered by some as a victim of the wickedness of men and branded by others as a dissolute woman, undoubtedly deserves an exhaustive study. For this, it is necessary to proceed with a meticulous collection of sources concerning her administration. Examining Joan's long reign closely, we notice a series of different and variable contexts, but, in the long run, we note that it was she who led the Kingdom out of the economic and military crisis of the fourteenth century. All in all, it is a story of resilience. Though the queen certainly committed a series of errors, the most important of which was not accepting the papal election of Urban VI and, consequently, allying herself with Clement VII and Louis I of Anjou. A new biography of Joanna I could delve deeper into many aspects of her life and the history of the Kingdom. At the end of the paper I also proceed with a first census of the biographies of the kings and queens of the South, including both Sicily and the continent. This historiographical genre should definitely be revived, as it constitutes a means of creating a link between professional historians and the general audience.