Abstract

This article considers the role and value of a hermit’s life in the Order of Friars Minor – which had come into contact with forms of solitary and anchoritic existence found in thirteenth-century Umbria – as well as female recluses of Franciscan inspiration, who mirrored in their complexity and variety the incidence of eremitic life among the Friars Minor. An analysis of the sources, together with the abundant historiography touching on the subject, suggests possible new directions for research, and confirms just how fruitful such further study may be.