Conversion and Autobiography

Abstract

This article focuses on an autobiographical episode from the chronicle of the Franciscan friar, Salimbene de Adam of Parma (c. 1221–90). His entrance into the Order of the Brothers Minor, against the express wishes of his father who saw his last heir abandon the secular world, is depicted in the text as the crucial event of his life: in effect, a religious conversion. This article brings to the fore Salimbene’s ideal of individual agency and autonomy, which represents the central aspect of the autobiographical account of his conversion. It investigates the narrative strategies on which the author relied to navigate the thin line between self-assertion and the traditional monastic ideal of humility. In particular, the article highlights Salimbene’s potential for self-fashioning and his narrative departure from the influential model of St Francis’s conversion. It assesses the relation between human and divine agency in Salimbene’s self-narrative, and draws attention to the relevance of his case as part of the affirmation of the individual in late-medieval society.