Overview

Continuing from the year 817, reached in his ""The Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes"", Raymond Davis deals with the remaining ten biographies of the ""Liber Pontificalis"" down to 886, when compilation ceased. The 9th-century biographies, as a semi-official papal chronicle, are one of the most important sources for Italian history. Major themes preoccupying the popes of this period and their contemporary biographers were relations with the Carolingian and Byzantine Empires. In respect of the former, the popes were determined to maintain freedom of action while the Western emperors were concerned to exercise some influence in Rome. In the case of the Eastern Empire, the popes wished to maintain their independence, established in the previous century, yet to assert primacy over the Byzantine Church; hence their concern both to have their right to decide between claimants to the See of Constantinople acknowledged and to assert jurisdiction in territory disputed between East and West. Rome itself was under threat, and the Saracen invasion of 846 forms a high-point of the narrative. For all their problems, the popes continued building and richly endowing churches, and the descriptions of objects of precious metal, silks and other textiles are of importance to art historians.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jr. Raymond Davis
Publisher:   Liverpool University Press
Imprint:   Liverpool University Press
Volume:   20
Dimensions:   Width: 14.70cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 21.00cm
Weight:   0.509kg
ISBN:  

9780853234791

ISBN 10:   0853234795
Pages:   360
Publication Date:   01 February 1995
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

Preface Introduction The Manuscripts of the Liber Pontifical is for the lives from A.D. 817 onwards Texts and commentaries Abbreviations The Lives of the Ninth-Century Popes 100 Paschal (817-824): introduction translation 10 1 Eugene 11 (824-827): introduction translation 102 Valentine (827): introduction translation 103 Gregory IV (828-844): introduction translation 104 Sergius 11 (844-847): introduction translation 105 Leo IV (847-855): introduction chronology and summary translation 106 Benedict III (855-858): introduction translation 107 Nicholas (858-867): introduction chronology of life translation 108 Hadrian 11 (867-872): introduction translation Addendum: Life 108 in MS Parisinus 2400 (there are no lives numbered 109-111) 112 Stephen V (885-891): introduction translation Glossary Bibliography Index of Persons and Places Map of Rome in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries at end of volume

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Author Information

Raymond Davis read Greats at University College, Oxford, where he subsequently took a BPhil degree in the Later Roman empire and wrote his Doctoral thesis on donations to churches during the fourth and fifth centuries recorded in the Liber Pontificalis. He is now Honorary Senior Research Fellow of Queen’s University, Belfast, and having taken early retirement, he lives and works in Oxford, continuing to specialise in the Later empire and to delve ever deeper into his favourite text.

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