BENEDICTUS CANONICUS. — He was a canon of St Peter’s in Rome. We know little about him. Under the title of canon and that of cantor of the Roman Church he presents himself in the *Liber policitus* (he meant to say *polypychus*) addressed to Guido de Castello, then cardinal of St Mark’s, who later became CELESTINE II (Pope from 26 Sept. 1143 to 8 March 1144). The work, completed before Sept. 1143, could not, however, have been written before 1140.
Thus we know roughly the period in which he worked.
In his *Policius* he published: 1) the *Ordo Romanus*, which in the edition of Mabillon (*Musaei italici*, II, pp. 118-64; *PL* 179, 371 ff.) bears the title: *De Ritibus Ecclesiae seu ecclesiastico ordine totius anni et praecipue Apostolicae dignitatis et totius Curiae*, preceded by a dedicatory letter to Cardinal Guido; 2) a list of the feasts on which the Pope is crowned; 3) a list of the night and day stations in the Vatican basilica; 4) a catalogue of the popes up to Innocent II (d. 1153); 5) the ceremonial for the possession of a cardinal in his titular church; 6) the text of the *laudes* sung in Rome on solemnities; 7) a description of the popular festivals of the *cornomania*; 8) the *Curiosum*, i.e. the Roman regionary of the 4th century; 9) the *Mirabilia Urbis Romae*; 10) extracts from the canonical collection of Cardinal Deusdedit. Part of B.’s work was incorporated into that of Cardinal Albinus, bishop of Albano, and of Cencio Camerarius; it has come down to us in a Vatican codex and a Vallicellian codex, both of the 15th century, and in a Cambrai codex of the 12th century which, however, is not the best.