Primary source · Latin
The Liber Pontificalis (Book of the Popes)
Anonymous Roman compilers · compiled c. AD 530 (from earlier lists)
What this text is
The sixth-century compilation of papal lives built on the fourth-century lists — late but indispensable, preserving notices like Pope Mark's ordinance on the bishop of Ostia and his two basilicas.
Public-domain translations
Working translation (from the Latin)
He ordained that the bishop of Ostia, who consecrates the bishop of Rome, should use the pallium; and he built two basilicas — one on the Ardeatine Way, where he rests, and one within the city, by the Pallacinae. (Life of Mark)
Manuscript witnesses
Lucca, Biblioteca Capitolare 490 and the 7th–9th c. tradition
from c. 800The oldest carriers of the first recension; the work grew by accretion, pope by pope.
Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis
1886–1892The great critical edition, still standard.
Provenance
Rome; the serial biography of the bishops of Rome
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Le Liber Pontificalis: texte, introduction et commentaireLouis Duchesne, 1886–1892The foundational critical edition.
- The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis) to AD 715Raymond Davis, 3rd ed. 2010English translation with historical notes (Translated Texts for Historians).