Latin verses by Pope Damasus, commemorating the construction of a basilica in Rome dedicated to *Laurence/Laurentius (deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037), later known as S. Lorenzo in Damaso. Written in Rome, 366/384.
Evidence ID
E07210
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Literary - Poems
Major author/Major anonymous work
Damasan and pseudo-Damasan poems
Damasus, Epigrammata 58
Haec Damasus tibi, Christe deus, nova tecta dicavi
Laurenti saeptus martyris auxilio.
‘This new building I, Damasus, have dedicated to you, God Christ,
sheltered by the support of the martyr Laurence.’
Text and translation: Trout 2015, 189.
Cult PlacesConstruction of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Saint as patron - of an individual
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - Popes
Cult Related ObjectsInscription
Source
The poems of DamasusThe poetry of Damasus is the first substantial corpus of texts devoted specifically to the cult of saints. All but a handful of his surviving poems were written to be inscribed on stone and displayed at the tombs of the martyrs. The installation of these inscriptions formed part of a programme of monumentalisation of the sites of martyr cult, most of which originated as ordinary tombs in the cemeteries and catacombs around the city of Rome, and it was often accompanied by major remodelling and rebuilding of the tombs and their physical surroundings (see Trout 2015, 42-47). The poems were inscribed on marble plaques with distinctive lettering ('Philocalian script') by the calligrapher Furius Dionysius Filocalus (Trout 2015, 47-52). This characteristic script makes it possible to identify fragments of inscribed text as Damasan even when the surviving remains are too small and fragmentary for the content of the inscription to be reconstructed.
Damasus' poems are of great importance for the history of saints' cult at Rome because, aside from what their content tells us, they are securely datable to his papacy (366-384). If a martyr is the subject of a poem by Damasus, it means that their cult was established and formally recognised at Rome no later than the early 380s; the only comparable, but much briefer, material is that in the Chronography of 354 (E01052). By contrast, the surviving Roman saints' lives are of very uncertain date and in most cases much later than Damasus' poems (which they sometimes used as a source: Lapidge 2018, 637-8).
It is certain that most material in the Damasan corpus is by Damasus himself, either because the inscribed text (or fragments of it) survives, or because Damasus refers to himself in the poem (which he does frequently). In other cases his authorship has been assigned on stylistic grounds. Since Damasus' style is quite distinctive (see Trout 2015, 16-26), this can usually be done reasonably securely, but there are a few instances where there is disagreement among editors as to whether poems are genuinely by Damasus (see E07149; E01790; E07503)
Survival of the poems
Only two of Damasus' inscriptions on the martyrs have survived more or less intact, those to Eutychius (E07169) and Agnes (E07189); a few others exist in fragments substantial enough to piece together most or all of the text, including the inscription from the crypt of the popes in the catacomb of St Sebastian (E01866), and the poem to Felicissimus and Agapitus (E07170). But most of his poems either do not survive at all in their inscribed form, or do so only in small fragments of a few words or letters. Their survival is the result of their inclusion in syllogae – collections of inscriptions from the martyr shrines and churches of Rome, which were transcribed by pilgrims and then circulated in manuscript. The earliest syllogae seem to have been compiled in the 7th century, at the same time as the earliest pilgrim itineraries, and like the itineraries they were organised geographically, following the routes used by pilgrims around the city and its suburbs. Poems by Damasus therefore appear scattered through the collections according to their location.
No sylloge survives in its original form: those now extant were compiled from earlier manuscript collections (whose traces are sometimes evident in their structure). They were edited by de Rossi in vol. 2.1 of the first edition of ICUR (1888), which remains the only modern edition of the syllogae as such (as opposed to the individual poems they contain). For a descriptive account of the syllogae containing Damasus’ poems, see Trout 2015, 63-65; more briefly, Lapidge 2018, 638. The most important syllogae for the transmission of Damasus' poems are as follows:
The Sylloge Laureshamensis. A manuscript produced at the monastery of Lorsch in the 9th/10th c., now in the Vatican Library (Vatican, Pal. Lat. 833; digitised: digi.vatlib.it/view/bav_pal_lat_833). De Rossi believed it was a compilation of four existing collections, which he denoted as follows: Laureshamensis I (de Rossi 1888, 144-153), dating from the 9th c. (ibid. 142); Laureshamensis II (de Rossi 1888, 126-130), from the 7th c. (ibid. 124); Laureshamensis III (de Rossi 1888, 161-173), a collection of inscriptions from northern Italy, dating from the late 8th c. (ibid. 160); and Laureshamensis IV (de Rossi 1888, 98-118), dating from the 7th c. (ibid. 97), and the one that contains most of the Damasan material
The Sylloge Centulensis (de Rossi 1888, 78-94). Produced in the monastery of St. Riquier in the 9th/10th century, held for most of its existence in Corbie, and now in the Russian National Library at St. Petersburg (Codex Petropolitanus F XIV 1).
The Sylloge Turonensis (de Rossi 1888, 62-71). Produced at Tours in the 7th century, but surviving only in two manuscripts from 11th/12th-century Austria (Klosterneuburg Stiftsbibliothek Cod. 723; Göttweig Stiftsbibliothek Cod. 64 (78), digitised: manuscripta.at/diglit/AT2000-64).
The Sylloge Virdunensis (de Rossi 1888, 134-141). Produced at Verdun in the 10th century (Bibliothèque de Verdun, ms. 45; digitised: www1.arkhenum.fr/bm_verdun_ms/_app/index.php?type_recherche=cote&choix_secondaire=Ms. 45).
The Sylloge Einsidelnensis (de Rossi 1888, 18-33). Produced at the monastery of Einsiedeln in the 9th century (Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek 326, digitised: www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/sbe/0326).
Discussion
Original location: church of San Lorenzo in Damaso, Rome.Physical remains: none
Manuscript transmission: Sylloge Virdunensis.
The verses form a single elegiac couplet. In the Sylloge Virdunensis it is headed Ad ecclesiam sancti Laurentii in Damaso, quae alio nomine appellatur in prasino, isti versiculi sunt scripti in illo throno ('at the church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, also known as in Prasino, these short verses are written in the thronus'). According to Ferrua thronus indicates the apse area (Ferrua 1942, 212; Trout 2015, 189).
The verses evidently commemorate the foundation of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, the only intramural church known to have been built by Damasus. The church was in the Campus Martius, near the Theatre of Pompey: it is described in the Liber Pontificalis as iuxta theatrum, 'next to the theatre' (see E01273). The heading in the sylloge says that the church was also known as in Prasino, literally 'in green', which seemingly relates to the Green circus faction: the church was built on part of the site of their stables (Trout 2015, 189). The church built by Damasus was demolished in the 15th century to make way for the Palazzo della Cancelleria, of which the present church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso forms part. The architecture and layout of the original church were clarified by excavations which took place from 1988 to 1993: see the summary in Trout 2015, 189, with further bibliography.
On Damasus' reference to being 'sheltered' (saeptus) by Laurence, see Blair-Dixon 2002, who relates it to the conflicts over his election as pope.
Bibliography
Editions and translation:de Rossi, G.B., Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae Septimo Saeculo Antiquiores, vol. 2.1 (Rome, 1888), 134, no. 5.
Ihm, M., Damasi epigrammata (Anthologiae Latinae Supplementa 1, Leipzig: Teubner, 1895), 57.
Ferrua, A., Epigrammata damasiana (Rome: Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1942), 212.
Reutter, U., Damasus, Bischof von Rom (366-384): Leben und Werk (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 73, no. 58.
Aste, A., Gli epigrammi di papa Damaso I (Tricase: Libellula Edizioni, 2014).
Trout, D., Damasus of Rome: The Epigraphic Poetry: Introduction, Texts, Translations, and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 188-190.
Epigraphic Database Bari, ED42912
https://www.edb.uniba.it/epigraph/42912
Further reading:
Blair-Dixon, K., "Damasus and the Fiction of Unity: The Urban Shrines of Saint Laurence," in: F. Guidobaldi and A.G. Guidobaldi (eds.), Ecclesiae urbis: Atti del Congresso internazionale di studi sulle Chiese di Roma (IV-X secolo), Roma, 4-10 settembre 2000 (Rome: Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, 2002), 331-352.
Krautheimer, R., and Pentiricci, M., "S. Laurentii in Damaso," in: E.M. Steinby (ed.), Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae, vol. 3 (Rome: Quasar, 1996), 179-182.
Record Created By
David Lambert, Katarzyna Wojtalik
Date of Entry
22/08/2020; revised 16/07/2025
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Laurentius | Certain |
|---|
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