Chronicler of the Genevan Reformation Jeanne de Jussie was born in Jussy-l’Eveque, near Geneva, in 1503. She attended school in Geneva and entered the Convent of St. Clare there in 1521, where she soon became the official ecrivaine (writer and record keeper). She is best-known for her lively chronicle of the turbulent years leading up to Geneva’s adoption of the Protestant Reformation in 1536. In addition to events in her own convent (including a visit by Marie Dentiere, author of the Epistre tresutile [1539]), Jussie narrates struggles for power between Geneva and Savoy, Geneva’s alliance with the Swiss cantons of Bern and Fribourg in 1526 (the Combourgeoisie), the expulsion of the bishop in 1533, and the arrival of Reformer Guillaume Farel in 1534. Her story culminates in her convent’s departure from Geneva and resettlement in Annecy in
1535. Jussie became abbess in 1548 and died in 1561. Her convent remained in Annecy until its dissolution in 1793. Jussie’s chronicle was first published in 1611 by the Freres Du Four in Chambery as Le levain du calvinisme, although John Calvin, who arrived in Geneva in
1536, does not appear in the text. It was published nine times from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, including translations into Italian and German. A modern critical edition was published in 1996.
Carrie Klaus
See also Convents; Literary Culture and Women; Religious Reform and Women.
Bibliography
Primary Work
Jussie, Jeanne de. Petite chronique. Edited by Helmut Feld. Mainz: von Zabern, 1996.
Secondary Works
Backus, Irena. “Les clarisses de la rue Verdaine / The Poor Clares of the Rue Verdaine.” In Le guide des femmes disparues (Forgotten Women of Geneva). Edited by Anne-Marie Kappeli, 20-39. Geneva: Metropolis, 1993.
Lazard, Madeleine. “Deux s*urs ennemis, Marie Dentiere et Jeanne de Jussie: Nonnes et Re-formees a Geneve.” In Les Reformes: enracine-ment socio-culturel. Edited by Bernard Chevalier and Robert Sauzet, 239-249. Paris: Editions de la Maisnie, 1985.
Roth, Henri. “Une femme auteur du 16e siecle: Jeanne de Jussie.” Revue du Vieux Geneve 19 (1989): 5-13.
World History
