Imagining Rome: Reading a Ninth-Century Carolingian Manuscript in Its Monastic Context

This chapter examines the image of Rome evoked in a Carolingian collection of writings in a manuscript that is now kept in the Stiftsbibliothek of Einsiedeln (Codex 326 (1076)). Containing mostly texts that focus on Rome, the book has been interpreted as a guidebook for pilgrims, providing directions and information about the important sites in the city. Contending this view, the article argues that the book evokes a symbolic image of Rome that is embedded in a longer literary and artistic tradition. At the same time, it fits the wider interests and needs of readers in the immediate context in which it was made and functioned, the Carolingian monastery. In keeping with the Carolingians’ broader interest in renovatio, Rome is presented as a resource of liturgical renewal and model for new literary creations. At the same time, the manuscript takes on educational and meditational functions, which cannot be seen apart from its monastic context of origin and use. Thus, the book allowed the reader outside Rome to imagine the city and to experience it from within, without ever going there in person.