Ravenna was founded during the reign of Augustus (31 b.c.– a.d. 14), immediately to the north of the port Classe, which took its name from the Roman fleet (classis) that was stationed there. Ravenna and Classe were surrounded by marshes, which provided a defensive barrier that greatly increased their strategic importance, and when, around 401, the emperor Honorius was faced with the threat of a Visigothic invasion, he moved the capital of the western Roman Empire from Milan to Ravenna. Ravenna remained untouched by the Visigoths and the Huns, who invaded Italy in 408 and 450, respectively, and whose attention...

The LPR contains a Life of each bishop of Ravenna from the founding of the episcopate by St. Apollinaris to Agnellus’s time. Agnellus attempts to include, at a minimum, the date and place of burial and the length of the reign of the bishop. In many of the Lives, the following information is provided when known: national or civic origin; a physical and/or spiritual portrait; information about the election and/or ordination; artistic or architectural patronage done by the bishop or during his reign; historical events and natural phenomena; exegetical and exhortatory passages, miracle stories, and other narratives. Within a Life,...

In two passages, Agnellus describes how he has researched his work:

Prologue:… that I might reveal to your ears not only what I have seen of their deeds, but indeed what I have heard, those things which our elders have reported to me.

c. 32: I, Agnellus, also known as Andreas … have composed this above-mentioned pontifical book from the time of blessed Apollinaris and after his death lasting almost 800 years and more. And when I found out what they certainly did, these deeds were brought to your attention, and what I heard from elders and old men I...

While Agnellus often speaks of “putting pen to parchment,” indicating that he thought of the work as a written composition,¹ he includes many phrases and passages that imply that he is reading the LPR aloud to a group of Ravennate clergy and citizens, and that he is writing the work at their request.² Furthermore, Agnellus refers many times to the “elders” who have provided him with information; these statements are generally taken to mean that oral tradition was one of his sources. The references to orality are somewhat unusual in form, and are moreover somewhat ambiguous. For example, much of...

Agnellus is somewhat unusual among medieval authors in that he seems to have had a genuine, perhaps even professional, interest in art and architecture. This personal angle has captured the attention of modern art historians. Agnellus is looked upon as an unusually reliable recorder of such things, and the passages in the LPR about Ravenna’s monuments, objects, and topography have been extensively cited and analyzed. As with other information, the way Agnellus describes or mentions art and architecture depends on the reasons that they are included in the text and what his sources were. The terms he uses to describe...

The LPR is known to us from two manuscripts. One, in the Bibliotheca Estense in Modena (Cod. Lat. 371 X.P.4.9), dates to shortly after 1413 and contains the entire text that we know. The other, in the Vatican Library (Vat. Lat. 5834), dates to the mid-sixteenth century and breaks off in the middle of the Life of Peter II (c. 48). In addition, starting in the tenth century Agnellus’s Lives of two saintly bishops of Ravenna, Severus and Peter Chrysologus, were copied into lectionaries and catalogues of saints.¹ Editions of the text of the LPR include:

Bacchinius, Benedictus, ed. Agnelli,...