The (Medieval Texts in Translation) book of pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna

Structure and Genre

STRUCTURE AND GENRE The LPR contains a Life of each bishop of Ravenna from the founding of the episcopate by St. Apollinaris to Agnellus’s time. Agnellus attempts to include, at a minimum, the date and place of burial and the length of the reign of the bishop. In many of the Lives, the following information is provided when known: national or civic origin; a physical and/or spiritual portrait; information about the election and/or ordination; artistic or architectural patronage done by the bishop or during his reign; historical events and natural phenomena; exegetical and exhortatory passages, miracle stories, and other narratives. Within a Life, information is generally provided in the following order: origin, portrait, ordination, historical events, patronage, miracles, sermonettes, date and place of burial, length of reign. However, this sequence is not very precisely fixed, and there are great disparities in the amount of information included in the Lives. Three literary genres—serial biography, hagiography, and sermon —contribute almost equally to the composition of the LPR. All three types of literature had close and specific connections with bishops: while the two former were often written about bishops , the latter was often written by bishops. Agnellus’s combination of these three genres displays his inventiveness with respect to his subject matter. The Roman Liber pontificalis and the genre gesta episcoporum The LPR is generally classed with a group of histories of episcopal sees or monasteries that has been defined as the genre gesta  episcoporum et abbatum (deeds of bishops and abbots).1 This genre became popular in the Carolingian period and consists of works of serial biography, that is, institutional biographies of each bishop or abbot of a particular locality, in order of their tenure. Lists of church leaders were provided as part of historical works from as early as the fourth century and continued to exist throughout the early Middle Ages.2 What distinguishes all of the works grouped in the genre gesta episcoporum is that they are modeled on the Roman Liber pontificalis.3 The first codification of papal Lives occurred in the early sixth century.4 Around  the series was brought up to date and continued thereafter after the death of each pope. The papal Lives contain a variety of different types of information, depending on how soon after the reign of a given pope they were written and how much information the author(s) had. From even the earliest Lives, information in certain categories is provided for every pope: national origin and parentage, length of reign, emperor(s) or king(s) in whose reign they lived, death or martyrdom, church regulations promulgated, number of ordinations, burial place and date, and length of time that elapsed before the next pope. From the Life of Silvester on, detailed information about patronage is     . See esp. Sot, Gesta episcoporum, gesta abbatum, for a detailed analysis of the genre. . In Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, for example, lists are given for Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. . The fundamental analysis of the Roman LP was published by Louis Duchesne, along with his authoritative edition of the text. Excellent recent discussions of the LP are found in Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil :– and :–; Davis, Book of Ponti ffs and Ninth-Century Popes, and Noble, “A New Look at the Liber Pontificalis.” .The following notes on the early history of the LP are derived from Davis, Book of Pontiffs, ii–xv, and Berschin, Biographie und Epochenstil :–. For an excellent and comprehensive study of episcopal lists and their significance in early medieval Italy, see Picard, Souvenir. It is interesting to note that it was in the early sixth century that an interest in episcopal lists began to manifest itself in other cities in Italy, such as Milan, Ravenna, and Aquileia. This was possibly due to the influence of the early LP, but it is also the case that at this time these cities were all claiming to be metropolitan or patriarchal sees, and, on the model of Jerome’s Chronica, they knew that patriarchal sees all possessed episcopal lists; see Picard, Souvenir, . It is therefore also possible that the LP was first produced in order to emphasize Rome’s preeminent status. given. Lives that were written soon after the reign of their subjects often contain, in addition, historical narrative, personal information about the pope, and descriptions of natural phenomena. In order to have had access to these various types of information...