Further Reading
Ehrenkreutz, Andrew S. Saladin. Albany: State U of New York
P, 1972.
Gibb, H.A.R. The Life of Saladin: From the Works of Imad ad-Din
and Baha ad-Din. Oxford: Clarendon, 1973.
Lyons, Malcolm Cameron, and D.E.P. Jackson. Saladin: The
Politics of the Holy War. Cambridge and New York: Cam-
bridge UP, 1997.
Malcolm C. Lyons
SALIMBENE DE ADAM
(1221–c. 1289)
What we know of Fra Salimbene de Adam of Parma is
based entirely on the Chronicle, his only extant work.
In it Salimbene tells us that he was born to Guido de
Adam and Inmelda de Cassio, members of two well-
established families in Parma. He was christened Balian
of Sidon but was simply called Ognibene by his family.
In 1238 he entered the Franciscan order and was given
the name Salimbene by the last friar Saint Francis had
admitted to the order. During his novitiate, Salimbene
met Bernard of Quintavalle, the fi rst friar Saint Francis
had admitted to the order; and Elias of Cortona, the
order’s fi rst minister general.
After completing his novitiate at Fano, Salimbene
went to a convent in Lucca where he studied music and
fi rst saw the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II. From
there he moved to Siena, where he continued his study
of music and came into contact with the theories of
Joachim of Fiore through the work of Hugo of Digne.
From 1243 to 1247 Salimbene was in Pisa, where his
education in Joachism continued under Rudolf of Sax-
ony. Salimbene’s acquaintance with some of the most
distinguished people of his rime continued during his
trips to France in 1247–1248. At Provins he met the
Joachist Gerard of Borgo San Donnino. At Villefranche
and at Sens he met Giovanni di Piano Carpini, the
Franciscan provincial general of Germany and Spain,
who had been an emissary for Pope Innocent IV at the
court of the khan Guyuk at Karakoram in Mongolia. At
Hyères Salimbene heard the lectures of Hugo of Digne,
and at Auxerre he met Saint Louis of France. In 1248
he was ordained a priest at Genoa; later he was sent to
Ferrara, where he remained for seven years. He prob-
ably spent the years 1279–1285 in Reggio Emilia and
its province, where, in 1283, he began working on the
Chronicle. In 1287 he moved to Montefalcone, where
he died shortly after 1288.
Despite his close contact with several of the leading
thinkers of his time, and despite the opportunities to
study at several of the most important universities of
his day (he spent a week studying at the University in
Paris but left without the permission of his superiors),
Salimbene’s intellectual background is regarded by
scholars as superfi cial. His knowledge of the Bible was
thorough, as is shown by his extensive use of biblical
quotations throughout the Chronicle; but as scholars
have indicated, these quotations are used to support
statements which often have little if anything to do with
the Bible. Scholars concur that even when Salimbene
discusses issues about which he was knowledgeable
(such as the prophesies of Joachim of Fiore and the
relative merits and shortcomings of Elias of Cortona),
he is often subjective and biased.
Salimbene’s numerous acquaintances and travels
provided him with plenty of material for his Chronicle.
Besides narrating famous and less-known events in
Italy and France, the Chronicle also narrates personal
moments in Salimbene’s life and that of his family. The
Chronicle is regarded by scholars as historically accu-
rate for the most part, but its importance is not purely
historical. As Baird (1986) has shown, it is the earliest
account of the spread of Joachism within the Franciscan
order, as well as an important document of Franciscan
life in the thirteenth century and the extent to which
the Franciscan order had deviated from Saint Francis’s
original rule. Salimbene does not hesitate to reveal his
own worldly interests while narrating the worldliness of
his age. His narrative, however, also includes exempla of
spiritual piety; as seen in his characterizations of Saint
Louis of France, John of Parma (minister general of the
Francis can order), and even himself (Salimbene’s vi-
sions of the holy family are narrated in great detail). In
fact his extensive use of exempla gives the Chronicle a
narrative style that anticipates Boccaccio’s Decameron.
The exempla are an integral part of the Chronicle and are
used not only to illustrate a moral but also to produce
comic effects. Moreover, these exempla are rich in detail
making the characterizations both vivid and realistic
(Auerbach 1957).
In addition to vivid portraits of well-known and
lesser-known people of his time, Salimbene himself
often appears in the Chronicle, giving the work an au-
tobiographical dimension. He comes across as having
a great interest in worldly matters, and (as Baird notes)
he often expresses contempt for qualities he himself
is guilty of, indicating a contradictory or ambiguous
personality. Nevertheless, Salimbene’s candid and
uninhibited nature suggests that he is true to himself
throughout the Chronicle, even when his evaluation of
others (e.g., Elias of Cortona) is not as truthful.
The Chronicle has come down to us in a single
manuscript: (Vatican Latin 7260) of which the fi rst 277
folios are missing. The manuscript, written by Salim-
bene himself, narrates events from 1168 to 1287. The
years 1168–1212 are based on Sicardo of Cremona’s
Chronicle; and the historic events occurring from 1212
to 1283 (the year Salimbene began writing the work)
seem to have much in common with two chroniclesSALIMBENE DE ADAM