The Marvels of Rome

Written for the pilgrim and sightseer c.1143 by Benedict, a canon of St. Peter's, this is the best medieval guide to the city and an important source for the location of its medieval churches and ancient monuments. It narrates the early Christian legends that are connected with many of these sites; and documents the medieval sense of Rome's ancient grandeur. In the twelfth century the inhabited part of Rome, the abitato, as it was called, was a small city tucked into the bend of the Tiber R...