Charlemagne and Rome

Reviews / Votes

Story offers a stimulating work that, one hopes, will serve to incite others to think more critically and at length about the epigraphic cultures of the Latin-speaking West in Late Antiquity and its relationship to book production and historical memory. Her volume is magnificently illustrated and thoughtfully arranged. * Plekos 26, 2024 * This is an impressive work that serves as an important contribution to our knowledge of Carolingian culture and politics. This work will interest Carolingian specialists and those seeking to learn about the history of Saint Peter's Basilica and the papacy. It shows the value of considering both the physical form and content of texts, and it can serve as a model for other object biographies by demonstrating the wealth of insights that can stem from the focus on a single artifact. * Kelly Gibson, American Historical Review * Joanna Story's investigation is much more than a simple biography of a funerary inscription. [...] From an academic and methodological perspective, this multi-and even transdisciplinary investigation demonstrates the various ways in which a single object can be examined. It not only sheds new light on the relationship between the Franks and Rome, demonstrating the multidimensional nature of these ties, but also immerses the reader in the broader cultural history of Frankish society at the end of the 8th century. * Matthias Rozein, Le Moyen Age * Story has meticulously set the epitaph of Pope Hadrian I in its historical, textual, paleographic, and cultural context. The volume is richly illustrated with numerous color figures that enhance the arguments presented. Oxford UniversityPress deserves commendation for its exceptional production of this volume. Scholars interested in Charlemagne's reign, Carolingian culture, and palaeography will find this text an invaluable resource. * Ronald Stansbury, Fides et Historia * Charlemagne and Rome's examination of the epitaph of Hadrian shows just what rich possibilities lie in taking a medieval object and carefully, patiently, diligently working through the context in which that object was designed, seen, and used. When done well, as is emphatically the case here, it is remarkable just how gracefully such an approach can open new vistas on a familiar historical moment. * Sam Collins, Church History * In any case, the next time you are going to the Vatican in Rome, look up this book before you cross the threshold of St. Peter's Basilica. You will learn that the epitaph in the portico is such an amazing nexus of geological, ancient, medieval, and early modern history that you might linger, not bothering to enter the basilica at all. * Richard Matthew Pollard, Studies In Late Antiquity * Story' book provides a significant example of an interdisciplinary methodological approach applied to a quite problematic object: only an extensive use of all available sources allowed her to highlight the cultural context in which the epitaph was conceived, created, and then displayed. * Marco Aimone, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies *