Non solo reliquie : traduzioni di materiali dal suburbio alla città e la spoliazione dei cimiteri : spunti per un'inchiesta

The present study aims to verify whether sometimes the translation of the holy bodies – a practice in which Paschal I was an undisputed protagonist – may have been associated with the movement of some materials and connected with phenomena of spoliation of sanctuaries and cemeteries. The development of the theme is not easy and clashes with some difficulties: the complexity of the relics removal’ phenomenon from the original tombs; the general difficulty to refer cemeterial marbles present in the various churches of Rome to specific suburban sites and to chronologically frame their displacement; the general lack of knowledge on the procedures of the spoliation, widely documented in the the early Middle Ages to the centuries of the modern age. As a starting point, an attempt has been made to trace the origin of the ‘historical’ inscriptions, i.e. those linked to clearly recognisable original burial contexts and then dispersed in various urban churches.