The Roman Liber Pontificalis and the Canonical Collections of Early Medieval Italy

The article analyzes the relationship between the first three versions of the Roman Liber Pontificalis and the canonical collections of the same period. Particular emphasis is placed both on the legal knowledge of the authors of the LP and on the value of these writings in connection to the coeval canonical collections that have been proven, or assumed, to have a Roman origin (Dionysiana, Avellana, and Mutinensis). The period considered is the sixth century, but exploratory essays have also been proposed for later centuries, from the ninth to the eleventh, which emphasize the LP's fortune as a normative source in the field of canonical law.