AGNELLO of RAVENNA. – A priest of the 9th century, author of the *Liber Pontificalis* of Ravenna. Born in Ravenna around 805 into a noble and powerful family, he received the name Andrea at baptism in honor of an ancestor. As a child he entered the ranks of the cathedral clergy, at the age of twelve he acquired for money the monastery of Santa Maria ad Blachernas, and later also that of San Bartolomeo from his uncle Sergio. He stood out among the other priests not only for his wealth but also
AGNELLO of RAVENNA. – *Liber Pontificalis*, a 15th-century codex – Modena, Biblioteca Estense.
for his exploitation of popular legends, he also drew extensively on the documents of the episcopal archive and monumental sources. These two aspects make his book particularly valuable, though it remains a singular mixture of trivial tales and historical tidbits. Essentially, it is an uneven, anecdotal compilation, lacking historical sense and guided by narrow local and factional interests. Like the similar Roman compilation, it is no better.
A. cheerfully disregards the rules of grammar and deliberately contents himself with the unrefined Latin of the common people, though in different sections of his work and at different times he shows himself more or less skillful. His style is generally careless and prolix, his sentences labored and disordered, at times almost childish. Yet now and then his tone rises, and A. becomes impassioned, full of warmth and passion, when he defends the autocephaly of Ravenna against Rome, or vents his spleen against Archbishop Giorgio, or must put himself and his own affairs in the best light. For the rest, he adorns himself only with borrowed ornaments—Scriptural phrases and Virgilian reminiscences in abundance; perhaps for him the numerous Grecisms and the many ἀπ᾽ ἐπὶ μηδὲν were gems of eloquence.