In The Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes Raymond Davis continues from the year AD 715, where his Book of the Pontiffs (revised edition, Liverpool, 2000) stopped, and deals with the next nine biographies from the Liber Pontificalis of the Roman Church down to AD 817. This was the period which saw much of Italy shake off what was left of Byzantine control, the development of the tempo ral sovereignty of the papacy, the collapse of the Lombard kingdom and the involvement of the Franks in Italian affairs - the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor by Pope Leo III being the best known inci dent. Sources for this crucial century in European history are relatively plentiful from north of the Alps but far less so from Italy; and it is these biographies from Rome, compiled by contemporary writers as a semi official papal chronicle, which provide by far the most detailed account of much of the history from the Italian perspective. Politics apart, the biographies, with their details of donations made to churches in Rome, provide a wealth of information of great value to art historians.

About the Author
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.

Reviews
Anyone interested in the revolutionary developments of the 715 to 817 period...will welcome Davis's valuable work. * Catholic Historical Review *
Davis's Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes is more than just a translation; it is an invaluable contribution to the study of the early middle ages. * Ecclesiastical History *



Book Information
ISBN 9781846311543
Author Raymond Davis
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 378g