The Making of Medieval Rome
A New Profile of the City, 400 – 1420

It is the first in-depth profile of Rome's transformation over a millenium to appear in any language in over forty years.

Hendrik Dey (Author)

9781108971560, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 July 2025

350 pages
27.9 x 21.6 x 1.9 cm, 0.982 kg

'Clear, organized, and enlivened by the occasional vivid rhetorical flourish, Dey's writing is a pleasure to read. … [The book] offers an excellent overview of Rome's history and physical transformation over a millennium that provides important correctives to Richard Krautheimer's influential account. It should serve us well for many years to come.' Ann van Dijk, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies

Integrating the written sources with Rome's surviving remains and, most importantly, with the results of the past half-century's worth of medieval archaeology in the city, The Making of Medieval Rome is the first in-depth profile of Rome's transformation over a millennium to appear in any language in over forty years. Though the main focus rests on Rome's urban trajectory in topographical, architectural, and archaeological terms, Hendrik folds aspects of ecclesiastical, political, social, military, economic, and intellectual history into the narrative in order to illustrate how and why the cityscape evolved as it did during the thousand years between the end of the Roman Empire and the start of the Renaissance. A wide-ranging synthesis of decades' worth of specialized research and remarkable archaeological discoveries, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in how and why the ancient imperial capital transformed into the spiritual heart of Western Christendom.

Introduction
1. The eternal city on the brink: Rome in 400 AD
2. 401-552: from imperial metropolis to provincial town
3. 552-705: Byzantine Rome
4. 705-882: a papal 'republic of the Romans'
5. 882-1046: the long twilight of the early middle ages
6. 1046-1230: church reformed, senate reborn, Rome renascent
7. 1230-1420: Barons, babylonian captivity, and black death. The apogee and agony of late medieval Rome.

Subject Areas: Medieval history [HBLC1], European history [HBJD], Landscape art & architecture [AMV], History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art c 500 CE to c 1400 [ACK], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]