Mirabilia Urbis Romae

Marvels of the City of Rome

Author

Benedictus, Canon of St Peter's

Language

Medieval Latin

Year

c. 1140

Country

Italy

Genre

Nonfiction / Essays / Treatise

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Mirabilia Urbis Romae is a grouping of hundreds of manuscripts, incunabula, and books in Latin and modern European languages that describe notable built works and historic monuments in the city of Rome. Most of these texts were intended as guidebooks to the city for pilgrims and visitors. Before the fourteenth century, however, the core text seems instead to have served as a census of the built patrimony of the city, the decus Urbis. This inheritance represented the strength of Rome and the power of the institutions that controlled it.