Table Of ContentTHE BOOK OF PONTIFFS OF
THE CHURCH OF RAVENNA
Thomas F. X. Noble
University ofNotre Dame
Paul Dutton
Simon Fraser University
Geoffrey Koziol
University ofCalifornia, Berkeley
Carol Lansing
University ofCalifornia at Santa Barbara
Barbara H. Rosenwein
Loyola University ofChicago
Agnellus of Ravenna
THE BOOK OF
PONTIFFS OF THE
CHURCH OF RAVENNA
Translated with an introduction and notes by
Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis
The Catholic University ofAmerica Press
Washington, D.C.
To my father
Copyright ©
The Catholic University ofAmerica Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standards for Information Science—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library materials, .-.
∞
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Agnellus, ofRavenna, Abbot, th cent.
m[Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis. English]
mThe book ofpontiffs ofthe church ofRavenna / Agnellus of
Ravenna ; translated with an introduction and notes by Deborah
MauskopfDeliyannis.— st ed.
mmmp.mcm.m—m(Medieval texts in translation)
mIncludes bibliographical references and indexes.
---(pbk. : alk. paper)
m.Bishops—Italy—Ravenna—Biography.m.Catholic Church.
Archdiocese ofRavenna (Italy)—Biography.mI. Deliyannis, Deborah
Mauskopf, –mII. Title.mIII. Series.
.
.’’—dc
CONTENTS
Preface / vii
Acknowledgments / ix
List of Abbreviations / xi
Maps / xii
Introduction/
Background /
Structure and Genre /
Written Sources /
Oral Sources and Orality /
Art and Architecture in the LPR/
Note on Editions and This Translation /
The Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna/
Prefatory Verses/ z Prologue/ z Apollinaris/ z
Aderitus/ z Eleucadius/ z Marcian/ z
Calocerus/ z Proculus/ z Probus I/ z
Datus/ z Liberius I/ z Agapitus/ z
Marcellinus/ z Severus/ z Liberius II/ z
Probus II/ z Florentius/ z Liberius III/ z
Ursus/ z Peter I/ z Neon/ z
Exuperantius/ z John I/ z Peter II/ z
Aurelian/ z Ecclesius/ z Ursicinus/ z
Victor/ z Maximian/ z Agnellus/ z
Peter III the Elder/ z John II the Roman/ z
vi
Marinian/ z John III/ z John IV/ z
Bonus/ z Maurus/ z Reparatus/ z
Theodore/ z Damian/ z Felix/ z
John V/ z Sergius/ z Leo/ z John VI/ z
Gratiosus/ z Martin/ z George/ z
Table of the Bishops of Ravenna /
Glossary of Artistic and Architectural Terminology /
Bibliography /
General Index /
Topographical Index of Ravenna and Classe/
PREFACE
Since the sixteenth century, Agnellus of Ravenna’s Book of Pon-
tiffs of the Church of Ravenna (Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis, or LPR)
has been mined by historians and art historians for facts. Though
Agnellus is alternately praised for his openness and criticized for
his inaccuracy, what he says has generally been taken at face value,
after cross-checking against other historical texts and surviving
monuments. His reliance on hearsay and his use of invented dia-
logue have been seen as interfering with the facts, yet these prac-
tices were rooted in the literary traditions of his models and
sources. He employs a variety of narrative and descriptive styles
ff
derived from several di erent literary genres, and thus only when
the origin and context of each passage has been identified can his
“information”be understood.
Agnellus’s text was written in the s and s to demonstrate
two strongly held opinions. One of these was the apostolicity and
independence of the Ravennate archbishopric; the other was the
moral decline of recent bishops, and their erosion of clerical
ff
rights. These views a ected Agnellus’s presentation of individual
bishops, which often depend solely on the bishop’s treatment of
the clergy or his stance toward Rome: the lives of good bishops are
filled with miracles, while bad bishops are unrelievedly bad. Agnel-
lus’s vehemence stemmed from his experiences as a member of the
clergy in Ravenna at a time when the city had lost much of its for-
mer political importance.
Agnellus’s motives for writing also strongly influenced the
structure of the work. He modeled the LPR on the Liber pontificalis
(LP) of Rome to emphasize the equal importance of Ravenna to
vii
viii
Rome; categories of information from the Roman LPare routinely
provided by Agnellus, and descriptive language also imitates that
of the Roman prototype. However, the LPRalso contains two oth-
er types of text: hagiography and exegesis. In using, and in some
cases borrowing, material belonging to these three genres, Agnellus
also uses the language, style, and literary conventions proper to
each.
Agnellus is often criticized for his seemingly haphazard use of
information from his sources; many of these can be identified and
range from other literary texts to documents to inscriptions and
images from Ravenna. His text is at times personal, at times annal-
istic, erudite and colloquial, factual and miraculous, well docu-
mented and full of uncredited borrowing. Although the LPRseems
to be a random hodgepodge of information, this is actually the re-
ffi
sult of Agnellus’s di culty in knowing how to assign information
to the life of a particular bishop.
The LPR has always been particularly important to art histori-
ans because of the wealth of information it contains about the art
and architecture of Ravenna. And yet descriptions of monuments
are themselves literary conventions, and are often found within one
or other of the generic types of narrative already mentioned. The
ff
functions performed by monuments in each context a ect the way
they are described; even the words used to refer to and describe
ff
these monuments are a ected by these conventions, and yet they
are also influenced by Agnellus’s firsthand experiences.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the LPRis its success-
ff
ful integration of features taken from widely di erent literary gen-
res and sources. The formulaic entries of information characteris-
tic of gesta episcoporum, the narrative unit of the scene, used for
miracles as well as for historical events, and the rhetorical ques-
tions and direct exhortations taken from exegetical and sermonic
forms are all intermingled to produce some type of text for every
bishop of Ravenna. It is a work unlike any other known from the
early Middle Ages.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I was first introduced to Agnellus in Cecil L. Striker’s Ravenna
seminar at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee encouraged me to
work on the text for my doctoral dissertation, and both he and
James O’Donnell have been extremely generous with their time and
advice, both while I was writing the dissertation and especially af-
ter my graduation while I was preparing this volume for publica-
tion.
During the time that I have been working on the LPR,there has
been a surge of scholarly interest in Agnellus, and the “Agnellus
group” has been extraordinarily collegial. I am deeply indebted
ff
to Ruggiero Benericetti, Thomas Brown, Ann Mo att, Claudia
Nauerth, and Joaquin Martínez Pizarro, who have all been most
generous with their advice, their comments on my work, and their
own publications and materials.
Thomas Noble has gone well beyond his duties as series editor
for Catholic University of America Press in answering many ques-
tions, and I am very grateful for his enthusiasm for this project.
David McGonagle and Susan Needham of the press have been
helpful throughout the process of publication, and John Osborne’s
comments as reader were much appreciated.
ff
I would like to thank several others who have o ered various
types of assistance, advice, and support during the past several
ff
years. These include Ra aella Farioli Campanati, Florin Curta,
William Diebold, Diana Greenway, Thomas Head, Renata Holod,
Rand Johnson, Michael Lapidge, Traugott Lawler, Eric Owen,
Franca Pierpaoli, Leah Shopkow, Paul E. Szarmach, Susan Tegt-
meyer, Giordana Trovabene, and Augusto Vasina.
ix
