The only available source for the exact words of Joan of Arc, compiled from the transcript of her trials and rearranged as an autobiography by Willard Trask.

The renowned prophet Nostradamus (Michel de Nostradame) was born on December 14, 1503 in St. Remy, Provence, France. Nostradamus came from a long line of Jewish doctors and scholars. His family had converted from Judaism to Christianity in 1502, as a result of persecution on the ascension of Louis the XII. After a classical education he studied medicine, herbalism and astrology. During Nostradamus' lifetime the Black Death (today known as the bubonic plague) wiped out over a quarter of Eur...

In 'Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jugurthine War,' Sallust presents a compelling examination of political intrigue and moral corruption in the late Roman Republic. The work is characterized by its concise yet impactful prose, a hallmark of Sallust's literary style, which combines historical narrative with deep psychological insight into his subjects. Through the lens of the Catiline conspiracy, Sallust not only chronicles the events leading to the attempted coup but also critiques the soc...

Long, long ago the land which we now call France was called Gaul. Gaul was much larger than France is to-day, although north, south, and west France has the same boundaries now as Gaul had in the far-off days of which I am going to tell you. What these boundaries are, many a geography lesson will have shown. But, lest you have forgotten, take a map of Europe, and you will see that on the north France has to protect her the English Channel, on the south she is guarded by the Mediterranean a...

With 23 illustrations. According to Wikipedia: "The Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549), published posthumously in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio. It was originally intended to contain one hundred stories covering ten days just as The Decameron does, but at Marguerite’s death it was only completed as far as the second story of the eighth day. Many of the sto...

The individual narratives brought together here reveal insight into the two hundred year struggle for possession of Jerusalem, in the words of two soldiers who participated first-hand in the bloody campaigns. Geffroy de Villehardouin (1150-1212?) was an appointed marshal of Champagne, France, whose "Conquest of Constantinople" recounts the controversial Fourth Crusade of 1204, against Eastern Christians in the Latin empire of Constantinople. Jean de Joinville (1224-1317) inherited the offi...

A condensed translation of the Variae Epistolae of Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator. According to Wikipedia: "Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank."

"The Prince & Other Writings" gathers Machiavelli's master work with the bulk of his other writing, organized into eight appendices. Machiavelli (1469-1527) became the pre-eminent political philosopher of his era with the release of "The Prince" (1532). In this treatise he examines the role of political power in shaping statehood. His rejection of idealism in favor of realism often enabled his notional ruler to act immorally in order to gain and maintain power. Now firmly situated within t...

THERE is no authentic picture of Jeanne. From her we know that at Arras she saw in the hands of a Scotsman a picture in which she was represented on her knees presenting a letter to her King. From her we know also that she never caused to be made either image or painting of herself, and that she was not aware of the existence of any such image or painting. The portrait painted by the Scotsman, which was doubtless very small, is unfortunately lost and no copy of it is known. The slight pen-...

First published in 1907. According to the Preface: "From the mediaeval Ladies' Book, of a kind that will be referred to in the following pages, to the very latest volume of Social England, or more aptly, perhaps, to the most local and frivolous Woman's World edited by an Eve in your daily paper, all the little repositories of ebbing gossip help immensely in the composition of a picture of the life of any period. They are not history; by the dignified historian of a few generations ago they...

There are volumes on the story of Saint Joan of Arc (even by famous Protestant authors), but can you imagine a better version than the documentation by one of the greatest Catholic authors of this century, Hilaire Belloc. In his characteristic style, Belloc carefully tells the complete story in the most compelling manner. A great story, a great saint, a great author. You won't be able to set it down, a Catholic treasure. Gold embossed cloth.