BENEDETTO CANONICO. – He was a canon of St Peter’s in Rome. We know very little about him. With the title of canon and that of Romanae Ecclesiae cantor, he presents himself in the Liber politicus (he meant polyptychus) ad Guidonem de Castello tunc cardinalem S. Marci, postmodum factus est Celestinus II (Pope from 26 September 1143 to 8 March 1144). The work, completed before September 1143, could not, however, have been written before 1140. Thus we know, broadly speaking, the period in which he worked.
In his Policitus 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 totus anni et praecipue Apostolicae dignitatis et totus Curiae, preceded by the dedicatory epistle to Cardinal Guido; 2) a list of the feasts on which the Pope is crowned; 3) a list of the nocturnal and daytime stations in the Vatican basilica; 4) a catalogue of the Popes up to Innocent II (d. in 1153); 5) the ceremonial for a cardinal’s taking possession of his titular church; 6) the text of the laudes sung in Rome on solemn occasions; 7) a description of the popular festivities of the cornomannia; 8) the Curianum, that is, the Roman regional catalogue of the fourth century; 9) the Mirabilia Urbis Romae; 10) excerpts from the canonical collection of Cardinal Deusdedit. B.’s work was incorporated in part into those of Cardinal Albino, bishop of Albano, and of Cencio Camerario; it has come down to us in a Vatican codex and a Vallicellian codex, both from the fifteenth century, and in a Cambrai codex from the twelfth century, which is not, however, the best.