The work of the French priest Louis Duchesne (who compiled the major scholarly edition), and of others has highlighted some of the underlying redactional motivations of different sections, though such interests are so disparate and varied as to render improbable one popularizer's claim that it is an "unofficial instrument of pontifical propaganda." Although quoted virtually uncritically from the 8th to 18th centuries, the Liber Pontificalis has undergone intense modern scholarly scrutiny. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II (867–872) or Pope Stephen V (885–891), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) and then Pope Pius II (1458–1464). The Liber Pontificalis ( Latin for 'pontifical book' or Book of the Popes) is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. Romanorum Pontificum (Mainz, 1602).įrom St.
Busæus, Anastasii bibliothecarii Vitæ seu Gesta.
Started in the 3rd century as list of bishops continued as biographical series at various stages between the 6th and 9th century, and between c. Jerome for the first chapters up to Damasus I Largely anonymous, but contributors include Martin of Opava Liber episcopalis in quo continentur acta beatorum pontificum Urbis Romae Gesta pontificum Chronica pontificum Jerome, who since the ninth century was viewed as the original author of the Liber Pontificalis