Original research article
Palamedes

San Pietro in Vincoli, Pope John II, and the Mystery of 'Urbiclus Cedrinus'

2019/2020, TOM 13

Paweł Nowakowski

0000-0003-4049-7181

University of Warsaw, Faculty of History, Department of Ancient History

Publication date

12.09.2026

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Humanities

Discipline

history

Language of publication

English

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Abstract

In this paper, the author offers a new edition and commentary on an inscription from the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, recording a donation to this church by a certain presbyter Severus (PCBE Italie 2: s.v. Sever(u)s 20), under the patronage of Pope John II Mercurius (533–535). From 1568 onwards, the inscription, usually cited as ILCV 1780 (ed. E. Diehl) has attracted the attention of a number of already early modern scholars, who have offered different readings and dating of this text and have described its changing display location in the building. These aspects of the inscription’s history have been entirely absent from present-day studies of this church, and a need for a proper edition has been increasingly pressing. Alongside the editorial part, the author refers to the enigmatic urbiclus cedrinus, specified in the inscription as the object donated by Severus. Several different possible interpretations of this term are examined, including the now prevalent identification as a ‘small cedar disk’ by Giusto Fontanini (1727), and a new option is suggested: that it was a cedar panel decorating the door.

Keywords:

Pope John II Mercurius,presbyter,Saint Peter,Rome,San Pietro in Vincoli,dedicatory inscription,cedar disk,urbiclus cedrinus,Renaissance reception of Roman epigraphy

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