City of Echoes

A New History of Rome, its Popes and its People

Jessica W Rnberg

A brilliant new history of the city, told through the lens of its popes.

In Rome the echoes of the past resound clearly in its palaces and monuments, and in the remains of the ancient imperial city. But another presence has dominated for 2,000 years, that of the pope, whose actions and influence echo down the ages.

Emerging as the anonymous leader of a marginal cult in the humblest quarters of the city, less than 300 years later the pope sat enthroned in a gilt basilica, endorsed by the emperor himself. Eventually, the Roman pontiff would supplant even the emperors, as de facto ruler of Rome and pre-eminent leader of the Christian world.

Shifting elegantly between the panoramic and the personal, the spiritual and the profane, this is a fresh and often surprising take on a city, a people and an institution that, to many, seems at once familiar and elusive.

JESSICA WÄRNBERG is a historian of the religious and political history of Europe, with a background in the history of art. She has written for academic journals and popular magazines such as History Today. In Rome, the city she knows best, she has worked extensively in the archives of the Vatican and the Jesuits. Jessica has also taught history, including at the University of St Andrews. She lives in London.