Description
Book SynopsisIn The Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes Raymond Davis continues from the year AD 715, where his Book of the Pontiffs (revised edition, Liverpool, 2000) stopped, and deals with the next nine biographies from the Liber Pontificalis of the Roman Church down to AD 817. This was the period which saw much of Italy shake off what was left of Byzantine control, the development of the temporal sovereignty of the papacy, the collapse of the Lombard kingdom and the involvement of the Franks in Italian affairs – the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor by Pope Leo III being the best known incident. Sources for this crucial century in European history are relatively plentiful from north of the Alps but far less so from Italy; and it is these biographies from Rome, compiled by contemporary writers as a semiofficial papal chronicle, which provide by far the most detailed account of much of the history from the Italian perspective. Politics apart, the biographies, with their details of donations made to churches in Rome, provide a wealth of information of great value to art historians.
Trade ReviewAnyone interested in the revolutionary developments of the 715 to 817 period…will welcome Davis’s valuable work. * Catholic Historical Review *
Davis’s Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes is more than just a translation; it is an invaluable contribution to the study of the early middle ages. * Ecclesiastical History *
Table of Contents
- Preface Introduction
- The Manuscripts of the Liber Pontifical is for the Lives from AD 715 onwards
- Texts and Commentaries
- Abbreviations
- The Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes
- 9l Gregory 11 (715-731):
- introduction
- translation
- 92 Gregory III (731-741):
- introduction
- translation
- 93 Zacharias (741-752):
- introduction
- Domuscultae
- translation
- 94 Stephen 11 (752-757):
- introduction
- translation
- 95 Paul (757-767):
- introduction
- translation
- 96 Stephen III (768-772):
- introduction
- translation
- 97 Hadrian I (772-795):
- introduction
- translation
- 98 Leo III (795-816):
- introduction
- The Chronology of the Life of Leo III
- The Catalogue of Donations in 807
- Omissions from the Catalogue of 807
- translation
- 99 Stephen IV (816-817):
- introduction
- translation
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index of Persons and Places
- Maps of Italy and of Rome
