642 Salimbene de Adam
the minister general, Friar Elias of Cortona (d. 1253),
much against the advice of his father. He studied and led
the itinerant life of a Franciscan friar, perhaps spying on
what he saw in his travels for the PAPACY. From 1239 to
1241, he studied Scripture, THEOLOGY, and singing at
Lucca. It was there that he met the emperor FREDERICKII.
In 1241 he was at SIENA, where he encountered the ideas
of JOACHIM OFFIORE. In November of 1247, he was in
Parma while the town was besieged by Frederick II. He
was sent by the city to the pope at LYONto beg for help.
Thereafter he continued his travels from town to
town and carefully wrote about what and whom he saw
in his Chronicle.At Tarascon he met the Franciscan min-
ister general John of Parma (d. 1288) and received autho-
rization to preach in public but was ordered to live at
GENOA. After he arrived there early in December 1248, he
was ordained a priest but left almost immediately for
FRANCE in February 1249. He traveled to AVIGNON
and Lyon, where he again joined John of Parma and
returned to ITALYthrough SAVOY, GENOA, Parma, and
FERRARA, where he settled for seven years between 1249
and 1256 and began to write full time. In 1260, when
the prophecies of Joachim of Fiore were not fulfilled,
he abandoned his Joachite convictions and resumed his
travels across northern and central Italy from 1261 to
1287, and finally settled at Reggio Emilia.