The Franciscan order: global history from the margins

McClure, J. (2019) The Franciscan order: global history from the margins. Renaissance Studies, 33(2), pp. 222-238. (doi: 10.1111/rest.12391)

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Abstract

The Franciscan Rule dedicated its followers to wandering in the world as pilgrims and strangers, and they rapidly developed a precocious global network, yet the Franciscans’ contribution to global history is more complex than the story of their early global presence. Following a Rule of poverty, Franciscans voluntarily aligned themselves with the margins, refocusing concepts of distance and inverting landscapes of the strange and the familiar. Committed to becoming strangers wherever they found themselves, they developed a unique perspective on the world that enabled an ‘in oculis eorum’ (seeing as others). This article contends that the Franciscans’ socio‐religious commitment to their Rule of poverty which made them strangers in this world helps explain their particular perspective on the world and its people. Using the frameworks of Renaissance history and of the Franciscan institution it connects the Franciscans’ contributions to descriptions of the people of the world and their languages between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries and demonstrates that Renaissance projects not only focused upon the margins of classical texts in Europe, but a range of physical and metaphysical margins.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:McClure, Dr Julia
Authors: McClure, J.
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
Journal Name:Renaissance Studies
Publisher:Wiley
ISSN:0269-1213
ISSN (Online):1477-4658
Published Online:11 April 2018
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2018 The Society for Renaissance Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
First Published:First published in Renaissance Studies 33(2): 222-238
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

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