The Conversion of Kalila and Dimna: Raymond de Béziers, Religious Experience, and Translation at the Fourteenth-Century French Court

Abstract

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 8504 is a Latin translation of a group of animal fables known as Kalila and Dimna that were popular in Islamic lands. In the illustrations of lat. 8504, Burzuya, the narrator of the frame story, undergoes a previously unrecognized conversion to Christianity. I argue that this conversion scene is significant not only in itself but as the key to a new reading of the manuscript as a whole. Conversio, or a turning toward Christianity, marks the text, characters, structure, and many other aspects of this manuscript. Furthermore, I offer a suggestion about the identity of the translator of the text, Raymond de Béziers, and argue that an understanding of the history of interactions between the town of Béziers and the French crown is relevant to the focus on conversion in lat. 8504.