ROMAN BOOKS AND THE PAPAL LIBRARY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

What is it about?

This paper offers a fresh appraisal of the problems of existence, location and contents of the papal library, and of the associated problems of Roman script and roman book production in the early Middle Ages. It includes a discussion of the possible loss of Roman books originally written on papyrus, and of books in both Latin and Greek. The paper proposes that the apl library had a crucial function as well as a symbolic role in the early Middle Ages as a repository of othrodox and authoritative texts.

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Why is it important?

The paper fits into into prior research of the past decades on the importance of Rome as a source for texts elsewhere of the past decades, but offers a complete change of perspective in its focus on the circumstances under which books were produced and kept in Rome, especially before the second half of the ninth century. It also brings new hitherto ignored evidence into the discussion, and considers the material as well as the textual and palaeographical evidence,