Liber Pontificalis

Liber Pontificalis
"The Book of Pontiffs"
A page from a 16th-century copy of Liber Pontificalis. A page from a 16th-century copy of Liber Pontificalis.
Also known as	Liber episcopalis in quo continentur acta beatorum pontificum Urbis Romae; Gesta pontificum; Chronica pontificum
Author(s)	largely anonymous, but contributors include Martin of Opava
Ascribed to	Jerome for the first chapters up to Damasus I
Language	Latin
Date	started in the 3rd century as list of bishops; continued as biographical series at various stages between the 6th and 9th century, and between c. 1100 and the 15th century.
First printed edition	J. Busæus, Anastasii bibliothecarii Vitæ seu Gesta. Romanorum Pontificum (Mainz, 1602).
Genre	biography of the popes
Period covered	from St. Peter (1st century) to the 15th century.

The Liber Pontificalis (Latin for 'pontifical book' or Book of the Popes) is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II (867–872) or Pope Stephen V (885–891), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) and then Pope Pius II (1458–1464). Although quoted virtually uncritically from the 8th to 18th centuries, the Liber Pontificalis has undergone intense modern scholarly scrutiny. The work of the French priest Louis Duchesne (who compiled the major scholarly edition), and of others has highlighted some of the underlying redactional motivations of different sections, though such interests are so disparate and varied as to render improbable one populariser's claim that it is an "unofficial instrument of pontifical propaganda."

The title Liber Pontificalis goes back to the 12th century, although it only became common in the 15th century, and the canonical title of the work since the edition of Duchesne in the 19th century. In the earliest extant manuscripts it is referred to as Liber episcopalis in quo continentur acta beatorum pontificum Urbis Romae ('episcopal book in which are contained the acts of the blessed pontiffs of the city of Rome') and later the Gesta or Chronica pontificum.

Authorship

During the Middle Ages, Saint Jerome was considered the author of all the biographies up until those of Pope Damasus I (366–383), based on an apocryphal letter between Saint Jerome and Pope Damasus published as a preface to the Medieval manuscripts. The attribution originated with Rabanus Maurus and is repeated by Martin of Opava, who extended the work into the 13th century. Other sources attribute the early work to Hegesippus and Irenaeus, having been continued by Eusebius of Caesarea.

In the 16th century, Onofrio Panvinio attributed the biographies after Damasus until Pope Nicholas I (858–867) to Anastasius Bibliothecarius; Anastasius continued to be cited as the author into the 17th century, although this attribution was disputed by the scholarship of Caesar Baronius, Ciampini, Schelstrate and others.

The modern interpretation, following that of Louis Duchesne, is that the Liber Pontificalis was gradually and unsystematically compiled, and that the authorship is impossible to determine, with a few exceptions (e.g. the biography of Pope Stephen II (752–757) to papal "Primicerius" Christopher; the biographies of Pope Nicholas I and Pope Adrian II (867–872) to Anastasius). Duchesne and others have viewed the beginning of the Liber Pontificalis up until the biographies of Pope Felix III (483–492) as the work of a single author, who was a contemporary of Pope Anastasius II (496–498), relying on Catalogus Liberianus, which in turn draws from the papal catalogue of Hippolytus of Rome, and the Leonine Catalogue, which is no longer extant. Most scholars believe the Liber Pontificalis was first compiled in the 5th or 6th century.

Because of the use of the vestiarium, the records of the papal treasury, some have hypothesised that the author of the early Liber Pontificalis was a clerk of the papal treasury. Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1788) summarised the scholarly consensus as being that the Liber Pontificalis was composed by "apostolic librarians and notaries of the viii^th and ix^th centuries" with only the most recent portion being composed by Anastasius.

Duchesne and others believe that the author of the first addition to the Liber Pontificalis was a contemporary of Pope Silverius (536–537), and that the author of another (not necessarily the second) addition was a contemporary of Pope Conon (686–687), with later popes being added individually and during their reigns or shortly after their deaths.

Content

The Liber Pontificalis originally only contained the names of the bishops of Rome and the durations of their pontificates. As enlarged in the 6th century, each biography consists of: the birth name of the pope and that of his father, place of birth, profession before elevation, length of pontificate, historical notes of varying thoroughness, major theological pronouncements and decrees, administrative milestones (including building campaigns, especially of Roman churches), ordinations, date of death, place of burial, and the duration of the ensuing sede vacante.

Pope Adrian II (867–872) is the last pope for which there are extant manuscripts of the original Liber Pontificalis: the biographies of Pope John VIII, Pope Marinus I, and Pope Adrian III are missing and the biography of Pope Stephen V (885–891) is incomplete. From Stephen V through the 10th and 11th centuries, the historical notes are extremely abbreviated, usually with only the pope's origin and reign duration.

Extension

It was only in the 12th century that the Liber Pontificalis was systematically continued, although papal biographies exist in the interim period in other sources.

Petrus Guillermi

Duchesne refers to the 12th-century work by Petrus Guillermi in 1142 at the monastery of St. Gilles (Diocese of Reims) as the Liber Pontificalis of Petrus Guillermi (son of William). Guillermi's version is mostly copied from other works with small additions or excisions from the papal biographies of Pandulf, nephew of Hugo of Alatri, which in turn was copied almost verbatim from the original Liber Pontificalis (with the notable exception of the biography of Pope Leo IX), then from other sources until Pope Honorius II (1124–1130), and with contemporary information from Pope Paschal II (1099–1118) to Pope Urban II (1088–1099).

Duchesne attributes all biographies from Pope Gregory VII to Urban II to Pandulf, while earlier historians like Giesebrecht and Watterich attributed the biographies of Gregory VII, Victor III, and Urban II to Petrus Pisanus, and the subsequent biographies to Pandulf. These biographies until those of Pope Martin IV (1281–1285) are extant only as revised by Petrus Guillermi in the manuscripts of the monastery of St. Gilles having been taken from the Chronicle of Martin of Opava.

Early in the 14th century, an unknown author built upon the continuation of Petrus Guillermi, adding the biographies of popes Martin IV (d. 1285) through John XXII (1316–1334), with information taken from the "Chronicon Pontificum" of Bernardus Guidonis, stopping abruptly in 1328.

Boso

Independently, the cardinal-nephew of Pope Adrian IV, Cardinal Boso intended to extend the Liber Pontificalis from where it left off with Stephen V, although his work was only published posthumously as the Gesta Romanorum Pontificum alongside the Liber Censuum of Pope Honorius III. Boso drew on Bonizo of Sutri for popes from John XII to Gregory VII, and wrote from his own experiences about the popes from Gelasius II (1118–1119) to Alexander III (1179–1181).

Western Schism

An independent continuation appeared in the reign of Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447), appending biographies from Pope Urban V (1362–1370) to Pope Martin V (1417–1431), encompassing the period of the Western Schism. A later recension of this continuation was expanded under Pope Eugene IV.

15th century

The two collections of papal biographies of the 15th century remain independent, although they may have been intended to be continuations of the Liber Pontificalis. The first extends from popes Benedict XII (1334–1342) to Martin V (1417–1431), or in one manuscript to Eugene IV (1431–1447). The second extends from Pope Urban VI (1378–1389) to Pope Pius II (1458–1464).

Editions

The Liber Pontificalis was first edited by Joannes Busaeus under the title Anastasii bibliothecarii Vitæ seu Gesta Romanorum Pontificum (Mainz, 1602). A new edition, including the Historia ecclesiastica of Anastasius, was edited by Fabrotti (Paris, 1647). Another edition, editing the older Liber Pontificalis up to Pope Adrian II and adding Pope Stephen VI, was compiled by Fr. Bianchini (4 vols., Rome, 1718–35; a projected fifth volume did not appear). Muratori reprinted Bianchini's edition, adding the remaining popes through John XXII (Scriptores rerum Italicarum, III). Migne also republished Bianchini's edition, adding several appendixes (P. L., cxxvii–cxxviii).

Modern editions include those of Louis Duchesne (Liber Pontificalis. Texte, introduction et commentaire, 2 vols., Paris, 1886–92) and Theodor Mommsen (Gestorum Pontificum Romanorum pars I: Liber Pontificalis, Mon. Germ. hist., Berlin, 1898). Duchesne incorporates the Annales Romani (1044–1187) into his edition of the Liber Pontificalis, which otherwise relies on the two earliest known recensions of the work (530 and 687). Mommsen's edition is incomplete, extending only until 715. Translations and further commentaries appeared throughout the 20th century.

• Davis, Raymond. The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis). Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 1989. ISBN 0-85323-216-4. An English translation for general use, but not including scholarly notes.
  • Davis, Raymond. The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis). Second Edition. Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 2000. ISBN 0-85323-545-7. Stops with Pope Constantine, 708–15; contains an extensive and up to date bibliography,
  • Davis, Raymond. "The Lives of the Eighth Century Popes." Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 1992. From 715 to 817.
  • Davis, Raymond. "The Lives of the Ninth Century Popes" Liverpool: University of Liverpool Press, 1989. From 817 to 891.

See also

• List of popes

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Liber Pontificalis — (BOOK OF THE POPES).

A history of the popes beginning with St. Peter and continued down to the fifteenth century, in the form of biographies. The first complete collection of the papal biographies in the original form of the Liber Pontificalis reached to Stephen V (885-91). They were afterwards continued in a different style as far as Eugene IV (d. 1447) and Pius II (d. 1464). The individual biographies are very unequal in extent and importance. In most cases they exhibit a definite symmetrical form, which in the old Liber Pontificalis is quite uniform. These brief sketches give the origin and birthplace of the pope, the length of his pontificate, the decrees issued by him on questions of ecclesiastical discipline and liturgy, civil and ecclesiastical events, the building and renovation of Roman churches, donations to churches of land, liturgical furniture, reliquaries valuable tapestries and the like, transfer of relics to churches, the number of the principal ordinations (bishops, priests, deacons), the burial-place of the pope, and the time during which the see was vacant.

Historical criticism has for a long time dealt with this ancient text in an exhaustive way, especially in recent decades after Duchesne had begun the publication of his classic edition. In most of its manuscript copies there is found at the beginning a spurious correspondence between Pope Damasus and Saint Jerome. These letters were considered genuine in the Middle Ages; consequently, in those times St. Jerome was considered the author of the biographies as far as Damasus, at whose request it was believed Jerome had written the work, the subsequent lives having been added at the command of each individual pope. When the above-mentioned correspondence was proved entirely apocryphal, this view was abandoned. In the sixteenth century Onofrio Panvinio on quite insufficient grounds attributed to Anastasius Bibliothecarius in the ninth century the continuation of the biographies as far as Nicholas I. Although Baronius in great measure corrected this false impression, the earlier editions, which appeared in the seventeenth century, bear the name of Anastasius as the author of our book of the popes. The investigations of Ciampini ("Examen Libri Pontificalis seu Vitarum Rom. Pont. quæ sub nomine Anastasii circumferuntur", Rome, 1688), Schelstrate ("Dissertatio de antiquis Romanorum Pontificum catalogis", Rome, 1692), and other scholars, disprove any possible claim of Anastasius to the authorship of this work. The conclusive researches of Duchesne have established beyond a doubt that in its earlier part, as far as the ninth century, the Liber Pontificalis war gradually compiled, and that the later continuations were added unsystematically. In only a few cases is it possible to ascertain the authors.

Modern criticism deals chiefly with two points, the period in which the Liber Pontificalis, in its earliest part, was compiled, and the sources then available to the author of this oldest division of the Liber Pontificalis. Duchesne has proved exhaustively and convincingly that the first series of biographies from St. Peter to Felix III [IV (d. 530)], were compiled at the latest under Felix's successor, Boniface II (530-2), and that their author was a contemporary of Anastasius II (496-8) and of Symmachus (498-514). His principal arguments are the following. A great many biographies of the predecessors of Anastasius II are full of errors and historically untenable, but from Anastasius II on the information on the ecclesiastico-political history of the popes is valuable and historically certain. In addition, some manuscripts offer a summary of the earlier part of the Liber Pontificalis as far as Felix III (IV) whence the name "catalogus Felicianus"; consequently, the Liber Pontificalis must have been accessible to the author of this summary in a recension that reached to the above-mentioned Felix III (IV). This observation tallies well with the aforesaid fact that the biographies from Anastasius II on exhibit accurate historical information. Duchesne defended successfully this opinion against Waitz and Mommsen, who placed the first edition of the Liber Pontificalis in the beginning of the seventh century. To bear out this view they suppose that from the time of Anastasius II to that of the author a genuine and reliable historical source, since lost, was at his disposal. Since, moreover, they cannot explain the summary ending with Felix III (IV), as easily is done by the hypothesis of Duchesne, the latter's opinion meets with the general approval of historians, and has recently been perfected by investigators like Grisar. The first part therefore, to the death of Felix III (IV) i.e. to 530, should be considered a complete work, the compilation of some author who wrote shortly after the death of Pope Felix; later Biographies were added at different times in groups or separately by various authors.

The compiler of the first part made use of two ancient catalogues or lists of the popes taking from them the order of succession, the chronological data, and also certain historical notes; these lists were: (a) the so-called "Catalogus Liberianus", and (b) a list of the popes that varies in length in the manuscripts, and perhaps depends on the "Catalogus Liberianus" for the period before the middle of the sixth century. The "Catalogus Liberianus" is so called, because it terminates with Pope Liberius (352-66). It has reached us in the so-called Chronographus anni 354), an ancient manuscript that contains the valuable lists of the "Depositio martyrum" and the "Depositio episcoporum" In the "Catalogus Líberianus" there are already short historical notices of some popes (Peter, Pius, Pontianus, Fabianus, Cornelius, Lucius, Xystus, Marcellinus, Julius), which were taken over by the author of the Liber Pontificalis. For its list of the earliest popes the "Catalogus Liberianus" was able to draw on the papal catalogue given by Hippolytus of Rome in his "Liber generationis", though even this list is not the oldest list of popes. It is probable that from the beginning of the second century there was already a list of popes, which contained short historical notices and was afterwards continued. Eusebius and later chroniclers used such lists in their works [Lightfoot, "The Apostolic Fathers", Part I; "St. Clement of Rome", I (2nd ed., London, 1890), 201 sqq.; Harnack, "Gesch. der altchristl. Litt.", Part II: "Die Chronologie", I (Leipzig, 1897), 70 sqq.; Segna, "De Successione Romanorum Pontificum" (Rome, 1897)]. Such a catalogue of popes has reached us, as above stated, in the "Catalogus Liberianus", and forms a basis for the earliest recension of the work.

The compiler of the Liber Pontificalis utilized also some historical writings e.g. St. Jerome, "De Viris Illustribus"), a number of apocryphal fragments (e.g. the Pseudo-C1ementine Recognitions), the "Constitutum Silvestri", the spurious Acts of the alleged Synod of 275 bishops under Silvester etc., and fifth century Roman Acts of martyrs. Finally the compiler distributed arbitrarily along his list of popes a number of papal decrees taken from unauthentic sources; he likewise attributed to earlier popes liturgical and disciplinary regulations of the sixth century. The building of churches, the donations of land, of church plate and furniture, and many kinds of precious ornaments are specified in great detail. These latter items are of great value, since they are based on the records of the papal treasury (vestiarium), and the conclusion has been drawn that the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis in its earliest form must have been a clerk of the treasury. It is to be noted that the actual Liber Pontificalis that we have was not the only work of this kind. There existed a similar collection of papal biographies, executed under Pope Hormisdas (d. 523), of which a lengthy fragment has reached us (Fragmentum Laurentianum); it gives the end of the life of Anastasius II (d. 498) and the life of his successor Symmachus. The text of the early Liber Pontificalis (first half of the sixth century), as found in the manuscripts that exhibit the later continuations, is not the original text. Duchesne gives a reconstruction of the earliest text of the work. After Felix III (IV) the Liber Pontificalis was continued by various authors at intervals, each writer treating a group of papal lives. Duchesne recognizes a first continuation as far as Pope Silverius (536-7), whose life is attributed to a contemporary. The limits of the next continuation are more difficult to determine; moreover in its earliest biographies several inaccuracies are met with. It is certain that one continuation ended with Pope Conon (d. 687); the aforesaid summary ending with this pope (Catalogus Cononianus) and certain lists of popes are proof of this.

After Conon the lives down to Stephen V (885-91) were regularly added, and from the end of the seventh century usually by contemporaries of the popes in question. While many of the biographies are very circumstantial, their historical value varies much; from a literary point of view both style and diction are, as a rule, of a low grade. Nevertheless they are a very irnportant historical source for the period covered. Some of these biographies were begun in the lifetime of the Pope, the incidents being set down as they occurred. The authors were Roman ecclesiastics, and some of them were attached to the papal court. In only two cases can the author's name be discovered with any probability. The life of Stephen II (752-7) was probably written by the papal "Primicerius" Christopher. Anastasius bibliothecarius perhaps wrote the life of Nicholas I (858-67), a genuine, though brief, history of this pope; this author may also have worked at the life of the following pope, Adrian II (867-72), with whose pontificate the text of this Liber Pontificalis, as exhibited in the extant manuscripts, comes to an end. The biographies of the three following popes are missing and that of Stephen V (885-91) is incomplete. In its original form the Liber Pontificalis reached as far as the latter pope. From the end of the ninth century the series of the papal lives was long interrupted. For the whole of the tenth and eleventh centuries there are only lists of the popes with a few short historical notices, that usually give only the pope's origin and the duration of his reign.

After Leo IX (1049-54) detailed biographies of the popes were again written; at first, however, not as continuations of the Liber Pontificalis, but as occasion offered, notably during the Investitures conflict. In this way Bonizo of Sutri, in his "Liber ad amicum" or "De persecutione ecclesiæ", wrote lives of the popes from Leo IX to Gregory VII; he also wrote, as an introduction to the fourth book of his "Decretals", a "Chronicon Romanorum Pontificum" as far as Urban II (1088-99). Cardinal Beno wrote a history of the Roman Church in opposition to Gregory VII, "Gesta Romanæ ecclesiæ contra Hildebrandum" (Mon. Germ. Hist., Libelli de lite, II, 368 sqq.). Important information concerning the popes is contained in the "Annales Romani", from 1044 to 1187, and is utilized, in part, by Duchesne in his edition of the Liber Pontificalis (below). Only in the first half of the twelfth century was a systematic continuation again undertaken. This is the Liber Pontificalis of Petrus Guillermi (son of William), so called by Duchesne after the manuscript written in 1142 by this Petrus in the monastery of St. Gilles (Diocese of Reims). But Petrus Guillermi merely copied, with certain additions and abbreviations, the biographies of the popes written by Pandulf, nephew of Hugo of Alatri. Following the lines of the old Liber Pontificalis, Pandulf had made a collection of the lives of the popes from St. Peter down; only from Leo IX does he add any original matter. Down to Urban II (1088-99) his information is drawn from written sources; from Paschal II (1099-1118) to Honorius II (1124-30), after whose pontificate this recension of the Liber Pontificalis was written, we have a contemporary's own information. Duchesne holds that all biographies from Gregory VII on were written by Pandulf, while earlier historians like Giesebrecht ("Allgemeine Monatsschrift", Halle, 1852, 260 sqq.) and Watterich (Romanorum Pontificum vitæ, I, LXVIII sqq.) had considered Cardinal Petrus Pisanus as author of the lives of Gregory VII, Victor III, and Urban II, and had attributed to Pandulf only the subsequent lives—i.e. those of Gelasius II, Callistus II, and Honorius II. This series of papal biographies, extant only in the recension of Petrus Guillermi, is continued in the same manuscripts of the monastery of St. Gilles as far as Martin II (1281-5); however, the statements of this manuscript have no special value, being all taken from the Chronicle of Martinus Polonus.

On the other hand the series of papal lives written by the cardinal priest Boso (d. about 1178), has independent value; it was his intention to continue the old Liber Pontificalis from the death of Stephen V, with which life, as above said, the work ends. For the popes from John XII to Gregory VII Boso drew on Bonizo of Sutri; for the lives from Gelasius II (1118-19), to Alexander III (1179-81) under whom Boso filled an important office, the work has independent value. This collection, nevertheless, was not completed as a continuation of the Liber Pontificalis and it remained unnoticed for a long time. Cencius Camerarius, afterwards Honorius III, was the first to publish, together with his "Liber censuum", the "Gesta Romanorum Pontificum" of Boso. Biographies of individual popes of the thirteenth century were written by various authors, but were not brought together in a continuation of the Liber Pontificalis. Early in the fourteenth century an unknown author carried farther the above-mentioned continuation of Petrus Guillermi, and added biographies of the popes from Martin IV (d. 1281) to John XXII (1316-34); but the information is taken from the "Chronicon Pontificum" of Bernardus Guidonis, and the narrative reaches only to 1328. An independent continuation appeared in the reign of Eugene IV (1431-47).

From Urban V (1362-70) to Martin V (1417-31), with whom this continuation ended, the biographies have special historical value; the epoch treated is broadly the time of the Great Western Schism. A later recension of this continuation, accomplished under Eugene IV, offers several additions. Finally, to the fifteenth century belong two collections of papal biographies, which were thought to be a continuation of the Liber Pontificalis, but nevertheless have remained separate and independent collections. The first comprises the popes from Benedict XII (1334-42) to Martin V (1417-31), and in another manuscript to Eugene IV (1431-47); the second reaches from Urban VI (1378-89) to Pius II (1458-64). For the last popes in each case they exhibit valuable historical material. In consequences of the peculiar development of the Liber Pontificalis as a whole, it follows that, in order to obtain the full value of the historical sources used in the Liber Pontificalis, each particular life, each larger or smaller group of lives, needs separate critical treatment. The Liber Pontificalis was first edited by J. Busæus under the title "Anastasii bibliothecarii Vitæ seu Gesta. Romanorum Pontificum" (Mainz, 1602). A new edition, with the "Historia ecclesiastica" of Anastasius, was edited by Fabrotti (Paris, l647). The best of the older editions of the primitive Liber Pontificalis (down to Hadrian II),with edition of the life of Stephen VI, was done by Fr. Bianchini (4 vols., Rome, 1718-35; a projected fifth volume did not appear). Muratori added to his reprint of this edition the lives of later popes down to John XXII (Scriptores rerum Italicarum, III). The edition of Bianchini with several appendixes is found also in Migne (P. L., CXXVII-VIII). For a classic edition of the early Liber Pontificalis, with all the above-mentioned continuations, we are indebted to the tireless industry of Louis Duchesne, "Liber Pontificalis. Texte, introduction et commentaire" (2 vols., Paris, 1886-92). Mommsen began a new critical edition of the same work under the title "Gestorum Pontificum Romanorum pars I: Liber Pontificalis" (Mon. Germ. hist.); the first volume extends to 715 (Berlin, 1898).

On the plan of the Roman Liber Pontificalis, and in obvious imitation, Agnellus, a priest of Ravenna, wrote the history of the bishops of that city, and called it "Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiæ Revennatis". It began with St. Apollinaris and reached to about 485 (see AGNELLUS OF RAVENNA). This history of the bishops of Ravenna was continued, first by the unknown author to the end of the thirteenth century (1296), and afterwards to 1410 by Petrus Scordilli, provost of Ravenna. Other medieval chroniclers have also left collections of biographies of the bishops of particular sees, arranged on the lines of the Liber Pontificalis. Thus in 1071-2, at the order of Bishop Gundecharus of Eichstätt, the "Liber Pontificalis Eichstettensis" (ed. Bethmann in "Mon. Germ. hist., script.", VII, 242-50). Many medieval archiepiscopal and episcopal sees possess, under the title of "Gesta", histories of the occupants of these sees. Most of them offer very important original material for local diocesan history (for a list of them consult Potthast, "Bibliotheca historica medii ævi", 2nd ed., I,511, 514-6).

Besides the learned Prolegomena to the editions of DUCHESNE and MOMMSEN, see DUCHESNE, Etude sur le Liber Pontificalis in Bibl. des Ecoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome (1st series, Paris, 1877); IDEM. La date et les récensions du Liber Pont. in Revue de quest. hist., XXVI (1879), 493-530; IDEM, Le premier Liber Pont., Ibid., XXIX (1881), 246-62; IDEM, La nouvelle édition du Liber Pont. in Mélanges d'archéoal. et d'hist., XVIII (1898), 381-417; GRISAR, Der Liber Pontif. in Zeitschr. für kath. Theol., XI (1887), 417-46; IDEM, Analecta Romana, I (Rome, 1899). 1 sqq.; WAITZ, Ueber die italienischen Handschriften des Liber Pont. in Neues Archiv. X (1885), 455-65 IDEM, Ueber den sogennanten Catalogus Felicianus der Päpste, ibid., XI (1886), 217-99: IDEM, Ueber die verschiedenen Texte des Liber Pont., ibid., IV (1879), 216-73; BRACKMANN, Reise nach Italien, ibid., XXVI (1901), 299-347; GIORGI, Appunti intorno ad alcuni manorcritti del Liber Pont. in Archivio della Soc. romana di storia patria, XX (1897), 247 sqq.; WATTERICH, Vitæ Pontif. Roman. (2 vols., Leipzig, 1862); LIGHTFOOT, The Apostolic Fathers. Part I: S. Clement of Rome, I (London, 1890). 303-25; FABRE: Etude sur le Liber Sensuum de l'Eglise romaine in BIBL. des Ecoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome, n. lxii (1st series, Paris, 1899); GLASSCHRÖDER, Des Lucas Holstenius Sammlung von Papstleben in Römische Quartalschr., IV (1890), 125 sqq.; IDEM. Vitæ aliquot Ponticum Sæc. XV, ibid., V (1891), 178 sqq.; IDEM, Zur Quellenkunde der Papstgesch. des XIV. Jahrhunderts in Historiches Jahrbuch, XI (1890), 240 sqq.; HARNACK. Ueber die Ordinationes im Papstbuch in Sitzungsber. der Akad. der Wiss. Zu Berlin (1897), 761 sqq.; MOMMSEN. Ordo et spatia episcoporum Romanorum in Libro Pontificali in Neues Archiv., XXI (1894), 333 sqq.; SÄGMÜLLER. Dietrich von Niem und der Liber Pontificalis in Hist. Jahrbuch. XV (1894), 802 sqq.; ROSENFELD, Ueber die Komposition des Liber Pontificalis bis zu Konstantin. Dissert. (Marburg. 1896); SCHNÜRER, Der Verfasser der Vita Stephani II 752-757) im Liber Pontificalis in Histor. Jahrbuch. XI (1890). 425 sqq.; POTTHAST, Bibl. hist. medii ævi, I, 737-9; DE SMEDT, Introductio generalis ad historiam eccl. critice tractandam (Ghent, 1876), 220 sqq.

Further reading

• Franklin, Carmela Vircillo (2017). "Reading the Popes: The Liber pontificalis and Its Editors". Speculum. 92 (3): 607–629. doi:10.1086/692789. ISSN 0038-7134. S2CID 164937976.
• McKitterick, Rosamond (2020). Rome and the Invention of the Papacy: The Liber Pontificalis. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-87258-4. OCLC 1157344076.

External links

• Anastasii Bibliothecarii Historia, de vitis romanorum pontificum a b. Petro apostolo usque ad Nicolaum I nunquam hactenus typis excusa. Deinde Vita Hadriani II et Stephani VI; full view of the 1602 editio princeps.
• Full text from The Latin Library until Pope Felix IV (526–530)
• Full text from Fontistoriche after Pope Felix IV (526–530) until Adrian I (772–795)
• Full Latin text of best reading of different manuscripts
• English Translation (Loomis, Louise Ropes 1916) until Pope Gregory I (590–604)