Roma Felix – Formation and Reflections of Medieval Rome (Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West)

After the Roman empire fell, medieval Europe continued to be fascinated by Rome itself, the 'chief of cities'. Once the hub of empire, in the early medieval period Rome became an important centre for western Christianity, first of all as the place where Peter, Paul and many other important early Christian saints were martyred: their deaths for the Christian faith gave the city the appellation 'Roma Felix', 'Happy Rome'. But in Rome the history of the faith, embodied in the shrines of the martyrs, coexisted with the living centre of the western Latin church. Because Peter had been recognised by Christ as chief among the apostles and was understood to have been the first bishop of Rome, his successors were acknowledged as patriarchs of the West and Rome became the focal point around which the western Latin church came to be organised. This book explores ways in which Rome itself was preserved, envisioned, and transformed by its residents, and also by the many pilgrims who flocked to the shrines of the martyrs. It considers how northern European cultures (in particular, the Irish and English) imagined and imitated the city as they understood it. The fourteen articles presented here range from the fourth to the twelfth century and span the fields of history, art history, urban topography, liturgical studies and numismatics. They provide an introduction to current thinking about the ways in which medieval people responded to the material remains of Rome's classical and early Christian past, and to the associations of centrality, spirituality, and authority which the city of Rome embodied for the earlier Middle Ages. Acknowledgements for grants in aid of publication are due to the Publication Fund of the College of Arts, Humanities, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences at University College Cork; to the Publication Fund of the National University of Ireland, Dublin; and to the Office of the Provost, Ohio Wesleyan University. Cover -1 Half Title 4 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Contents 8 List of Figures 10 List of Tables 14 List of Musical Examples 15 Introduction 16 PART I: ARTICULATING THE CITY: COMMUNITIES, CONGREGATIONS, CULTS AND PROCESSIONS 26 1 Rome of the Martyrs: Saints, Cults and Relics, Fourth to Seventh Centuries 28 2 Building for Bodies: The Architecture of Saint Veneration in Early Medieval Rome 66 3 Life after Death: The Afterlife of Sarcophagi in Medieval Rome and Ravenna 96 4 Gendered Spaces: The Placement of Imagery in Santa Maria Maggiore 112 5 Roman Processions of the Major Litany (litaniae maiores) from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century 128 6 Art and Socio-Cultural Identity in Early Medieval Rome: The Patrons of Santa Maria Antiqua 154 7 Sacred Memory and Confraternal Space: The Insignia of the Confraternity of the Santissimo Salvatore (Rome) 174 PART II: READING THE CITY: ENVISIONING, INTERPRETING AND IMITATING MEDIEVAL ROME 204 8 Dating Medieval Mural Paintings in Rome: A Case Study from San Lorenzo fuori le mura 206 9 ‘Ut Domus Tali Ornetur Decore’: Metamorphosis of Ornamental Motifs in Anagni and Rome 222 10 Fact and Fiction in the Mirabilia urbis Romae 250 11 Juniors Teaching Elders: Columbanus, Rome and Spiritual Authority 268 12 Ireland and Rome in the Seventh Century 292 13 Three Coins in a Fountain 302 14 Authority and Care: The Significance of Rome in Twelfth-Century Chester 322 Index 348 Edited By Éamonn Ó Carragáin And Carol Neuman De Vegvar. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.