Natalie Zemon Davis

… as the impostor; the historian Natalie Zemon Davis, who advised the filmmakers, told the story and explored why the impostor succeeded in The Return of Martin Guerre, first published in French in 1982 and in English in 1983. Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil’s musical Martin Guerre opened in 1996.

Natalie Zemon Davis served as the historical counselor for a movie version of the Martin Guerre story. Her services were not confined merely to ascertaining the authenticity of the props—something Hollywood studios were quite meticulous about—but extended to working with the actors on their characterizations…

…a 16th-century Italian miller, and Natalie Zemon Davis’s The Return of Martin Guerre (1983), a scholarly treatment of a famous true story about an imposter who took over the farm (and bed) of a substantial peasant in 16th-century France. Typically, microhistories featured central characters who were socially marginalized—exactly the sort…