Release date is 2026-03-11

Barbara Magni and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This transcription was produced from images generously made available by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek / Bavarian State Library.)

"Storia della città di Roma nel medio evo, vol. 4/8" by Ferdinand Gregorovius is a historical account written in the mid-19th century. It examines Rome in the eleventh century, charting the Papacy’s dramatic fall and swift reform amid battles with powerful Roman clans and the interventions of German kings. Readers should expect a close study of the Crescenzi and Tusculani, the civic roles of the patriziato and the emergent “senate,” the roots of the Investiture Controversy, and the wider Italian shift from Byzantine and Saracen pressure to the rise of the Normans.

The opening of the volume frames the eleventh century as a turning point: after Otto III’s death, Arduino of Ivrea is made a national king in the north while Romans back Giovanni Crescenzio as patrizio; a rapid papal turnover (Silvester II’s death, then John XVII, John XVIII, Sergio IV) ends with the Tusculan takeover and Crescenzio’s fall (1012). Teofilatto becomes Benedict VIII, gains Henry II’s recognition, and crowns him in 1014 amid Roman unrest; the text sketches Rome’s noble “senators,” a “senator of all the Romans,” and the suppression of revolt, while Arduino fades into monastic obscurity. Benedict VIII strengthens papal rule, defeats Saracens with a Pisa–Genoa alliance (securing Sardinia), and, as Greeks and Lombards struggle in the south, the first Normans arrive via Melo’s failed revolt; Henry II campaigns in Apulia (1022), and Benedict begins anti-simony and clerical-discipline reforms before dying. His brother rules as John XIX; Conrad II is crowned in 1027 after bloody street clashes (with King Cnut present), imposes Roman law in papal territory, and campaigns in the south. The narrative then turns to the scandal of the child-pope Benedict IX, his expulsion, restoration by Conrad, and, at the start of the next chapter, his ouster, Silvester III’s brief reign, the sale of the papacy to Gregory VI, and the spectacle of three rival popes—culminating in Henry III’s arrival, the Synod of Sutri (1046), Gregorio’s resignation, Clement II’s elevation, the imperial coronation, and the transfer of the Roman patriziato to the German crown. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Venezia: Antonelli, 1872