1. MedievWorld1_fm_4pp.qxd

630 Rome

See also CRYPTS; OTTONIAN ART; PILGRIMAGE AND
PILGRIMAGE SITES;SUGER OFSAINTDENIS, ABBOT;SANTI-
AGO DECOMPOSTELA; VÉZELAY, CHURCH OF LA MADELEINE.
Further reading:Walter Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illu-
mination(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982);
Kenneth John Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Archi-
tecture, 800–1200,4th ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 1978); Otto Demus, Romanesque Mural
Paintingtrans. Mary Whittall (1968; reprint, New York:
H. N. Abrams, 1970); Lawrence Nees, Early Medieval Art
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); Andreas Pet-
zold, Romanesque Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams,
1995); Meyer Schapiro, Romanesque Art(New York: G.
Braziller, 1977); Rolf Toman, ed., Romanesque: Architec-
ture, Sculpture, Painting, trans. Fiona Hulse and Ian
Macmillan (Cologne: Könemann, 1997).

Rome The city of Rome was important throughout the
Middle Ages and early RENAISSANCE, though compared to
those of its long period as the capital of the Roman

Empire its population, size, and vitality, were diminished

considerably. The population might still have been

500,000 in the mid-fifth century, down from the figure of

one million 200 years before. Rome’s importance at this

point centered on the PAPACY and its court. After the

establishment of CONSTANTINOPLEand various sacks, in

410 by ALARICand in 455 by GAISERICRome’s history can

be divided into two periods. The first period included a

slow recovery and irregular growth from the depths of its

decay and destruction during Justinian’s Gothic wars in

the sixth century to the 13th century and the great

jubilee or HOLYYEARof 1300. Soon after that the papacy

moved to AVIGNONand later a long era of schism pro-

duced two or three claimants to the papal throne. When

the schism ended in the early 15th century, another

period of growth for the city began and lasted into the

16th century and beyond.

EARLY MIDDLE AGES

From the mid-sixth to the mid-eighth century, Rome

underwent one of the darkest periods of its history. The

Eve as temptress, carved by Gislebertus in the 12th century at the Musée Rolin, Autun (Courtesy Edward English)