The Early Modern Invention of Late Antique Rome
How Historiography Helped Create the Crypt of the Popes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19476389 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicola Denzey Lewis (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 91-109 |
| Publication date | 2018-03-28 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archiv für Religionsgeschichte (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1436-3038 • E-ISSN: 1868-8888 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/arege-2018-0007 |
| OpenAlex | W2797480895 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
At some point in late antiquity, most scholars believe, Christians reversed the powerful valence of death pollution and considered corpses and bones to be sacred. The rise of the ‘Cult of the Saints’ or ‘cult of relics’ is widely accepted as a curious social phenomenon that characterized late antiquity. This paper argues that although present elsewhere in the late Roman Empire, no such ‘corporeal turn’ happened in Rome. The prevailing assumption that it did – fostered by the apologetic concerns of early modern Catholic historiography – has led us to gloss over important evidence to the contrary, to read our own assumptions into our extant textual, material, and archaeological sources. As a ‘case study’, this paper considers the so-called ‘Crypt of the Popes’ in the catacombs of Callixtus, which is universally presented unproblematically as an authentic burial chamber attesting to an age of persecution and the strength of Catholic apostolic succession. This paper argues, by contrast, that the chamber is not what it seems; it is, rather, a case of early modern historiographical artifice masquerading as late antique Roman Christianity
Ancient history · Antique · Archaeology · Art · Christianity · Cult · Early Christianity · Extant taxon · Historiography · Late Antiquity · Literature · Roman Empire · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Byzantine Studies and History · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |