More Pleasing than the Stars. Paschal I and the Rome of his Time

Abstract

Pope Stephen IV died in Rome on 24 January 817. His papacy, which had started with his consecration on 22 June 816, was a brief break after the long and intense papacies of Adrian I (772-795) and Leo III (795-816). At the end of January of the year 817 that is, 1,200 years ago Paschal I was raised to the pontifical chair. Whereas the pontificates of his predecessors had allowed the administrative and economic reorganization of what has been aptly called the 'Republic of St. Peter', and in particular of the city of Rome, the tumultuous seven years of the papacy of Paschal I he died at some point between February and May of 824 were no doubt the years of the transformation of the city.