The Return of Martin Guerre

Natalie Zemon Davis’s 1983 study reconstructs a sixteenth-century French imposture case in which Arnaud du Tilh lived as Martin Guerre, and examines how villagers judged his identity.

Martin Guerre: A French peasant who disappeared from his village and whose identity was later claimed by an impostor. His absence created the opening for Arnaud du Tilh’s return.
Imposture: The deliberate adoption of a false identity or social role to deceive others. Arnaud’s fraud depended on sustaining Martin’s identity in ordinary village life.
Jean de Coras's Arrest Memorable: Jean de Coras’s published account of the Martin Guerre case, first issued in 1561. It preserves the trial narrative Davis scrutinizes and interprets.
Natalie Zemon Davis: An American historian whose work examined early modern European society, culture, and gender. She reconstructed the case while explicitly distinguishing evidence from inference.
Women's history: The study of women’s lives, roles, and experiences across historical periods. Davis foregrounds Bertrande’s choices in a record largely shaped by male authorities.
Arnaud du Tilh: A man from the Languedoc village of Sajas who impersonated Martin Guerre. His successful performance makes the case a study of identity as well as fraud.
Eyewitness testimony: Evidence based on what a witness claims to have perceived directly. Villagers’ recognition of the returned man became evidence for and against him.
Early modern France: The period of French history from the late fifteenth century through the eighteenth century. The case unfolded within its rural social order and centralized legal institutions.
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: A French historian known for social and environmental histories of early modern France. His work on Montaillou exemplifies the village-scale history against which Davis’s approach can be compared.
Historical narrative: An account that organizes evidence about the past into a sequence and interpretation. The book makes visible how competing accounts shape the meaning of the case.

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