One of my favorite corners of the internet and one that I have been visiting daily for years now, jeanne-darc.info is a great place for all things Joan of Arc. Danish Web designer, history enthusiast and artist Søren Bie is the man behind this wonderful website that's been online since 1997. That's right, 2022 is when this website will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its presence in the World Wide Web. Quite an achievement.
What makes it so special?
Over the years Søren has managed to present a great deal of the overwhelming amount of information there is on Joan, in a neatly organized archive that's easy to browse and pleasant to look at. His research doesn't stop at historical data, he's gathered a lot of information from a variety of different mediums: posters, audio, movies, all sorts of visual arts including video games. The "Multimedia" section of the website alone is a testament to how deep of a mark Joan left in popular culture all over the world.
Søren Bie's Art Boutique
As if jeanne-darc.info wasn't awesome enough, it also comes with a section called "Art Boutique". As it turns out our friend Søren isn't just a great web designer and a scholar of all things Middle Ages, he's also an incredibly gifted artist. In his web-shop, which he aptly registered as scriptorium.dk, anyone can purchase his handmade replicas of medieval miniatures, as well as stunningly well made typography posters. In 2020 I myself have purchased one of Søren's pieces, a replica of the miniature of Joan of Arc preserved at the Centre Historique des Archives Nationales in Paris (AE II 249). The work Søren does is so tasteful, so refined, and so loyal to the originals too, it's hard to believe he's not an actual artist from the Middle Ages stuck in the wrong timeline. His pieces hang so nicely on the wall, not to mention they make for a very sophisticated gift for the right person.
Head over to jeanne-darc.info and scriptorium.dk to appreciate more of Søren's work.
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