The Conversion of Herman the Jew: Autobiography, History, and Fiction in the Twelfth CenturySometime toward the middle of the twelfth century, it is supposed, an otherwise obscure figure, born a Jew in Cologne and later ordained as a priest in Cappenberg in Westphalia, wrote a Latin account of his conversion to Christianity. Known as the Opusculum, this book purportedly by Herman, the former Jew may well be the first autobiography to be written in the West after the Confessions of Saint Augustine. It may also be something else entirely. In