{"product_id":"city-of-saints-maya-maskarinec-9780812250084","title":"City of Saints: Rebuilding Rome in the Early Middle Ages","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt was far from inevitable that Rome would emerge as the spiritual center of Western Christianity in the early Middle Ages. After the move of the Empire's capital to Constantinople in the fourth century and the Gothic Wars in the sixth century, Rome was gradually depleted physically, economically, and politically. How then, asks Maya Maskarinec, did this exhausted city, with limited Christian presence, transform over the course of the sixth through ninth centuries into a seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of sanctity? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eConventional narratives explain the rise of Christian Rome as resulting from an increasingly powerful papacy. In \u003ci\u003eCity of Saints\u003c\/i\u003e, Maskarinec looks outward, to examine how Rome interacted with the wider Mediterranean world in the Byzantine period. During the early Middle Ages, the city imported dozens of saints and their legends, naturalized them, and physically layered their cults onto the city's imperial and sacred topography. Maskarinec documents Rome's spectacular physical transformation, drawing on church architecture, frescoes, mosaics, inscriptions, Greek and Latin hagiographical texts, and less-studied documents that attest to the commemoration of these foreign saints. These sources reveal a vibrant plurality of voices--Byzantine administrators, refugees, aristocrats, monks, pilgrims, and others--who shaped a distinctly Roman version of Christianity. \u003ci\u003eCity of Saints\u003c\/i\u003e extends its analysis to the end of the ninth century, when the city's ties to the Byzantine world weakened. Rome's political and economic orbits moved toward the Carolingian world, where the saints' cults circulated, valorizing Rome's burgeoning claims as a microcosm of the \"universal\" Christian church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Maya Maskarinec\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0812250087\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780812250084\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pennsylvania Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/10\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 2.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 10.00h x 7.20w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2018","brand":"Maya Maskarinec","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43947281252607,"sku":"9780812250084","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_eccf653a-15b8-4f11-9904-d190e765a03f.jpg?v=1681517788","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/city-of-saints-maya-maskarinec-9780812250084","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}