Many travellers in Lombard Italy during the sixth through eighth centuries wrote down inscriptions in ''syllogae'' (singular ''sylloge''), providing an important record of what was left of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

during the Lombard period. Generally written by

Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened ...

, the ''syllogae'' demonstrate that inscriptions were plentiful along the ''

via Flaminia The Via Flaminia or Flaminian Way was an ancient Roman road leading from Rome over the Apennine Mountains to ''Ariminum'' ( Rimini) on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and due to the ruggedness of the mountains was the major option the Romans ha ...

'' and in the city of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

.Everett, ''Literacy'', 243–44. The reasons for recording inscriptions varied. Some are interested solely in inscriptions on churches and Christian monuments. These, like ''Sylloge einsiedlensis'' from the time of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...

and Pope Hadrian I, often include itineraries of "the places of the saints" (''loca sanctorum''), for the benefit of fellow pilgrims, and reports of the liturgical practices of the '' Patria sancti Petri''. Others, like the ''Sylloge laureshamensis'', contain classical and pagan inscriptions with references to emperors, important personages, titles and offices. The author of the ''Laureshamensis'' traversed the peninsula between Rome and Ivrea, passing through

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the ...

, Piacenza,

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the c ...

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Sp ...

and

Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, ...

. He had a special interest in metrical inscriptions and his Piacentine collection he divided under the headings RITHM and METR, indicating

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...

ic and hexametric metre, respectively. The ''Sylloge centulensis'', from an eighth- or ninth-century manuscript of the monastery of

Corvey The Princely Abbey of Corvey (german: link=no, Fürststift Corvey or Fürstabtei Corvey) is a former Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastical principality now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was one of the half-dozen self-ruling '' princel ...

, compiled on a trip from Rome to Spoleto to Ravenna, records "what we might term Petrean poetry", a style lying between classical and medieval forms.Everett, ''Literacy'', 244. Pierre Riché referred to it as "a religious poetry in classical vocabulary and form" where "not even dogma escaped the laws of poetry". The seventh-century ''Sylloge turonensis'' concentrates on the monuments of Rome. Later examples include the ''Sylloge parisina'', the ''Sylloge virdunensis'' and the ''Sylloge wirceburgensis''. The surviving ''syllogae'' were first edited and studied by the archaeologist

Giovanni Battista de Rossi Giovanni Battista (Carlo) de Rossi (23 February 1822 – 20 September 1894) was an Italian archaeologist, famous even outside his field for rediscovering early Christian catacombs. Life and works Born in Rome, he was the son of Commendatore Ca ...

, who published them in the first part of the second volume of his monumental ''Inscriptiones christianae urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores'' (Rome: 1857, 1861–88).

Notes

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Sources

*Everett, Nicholas. ''Literacy in Lombard Italy, c. 568–774''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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Further reading