INDEX OLEORUM

INDEX OLEORUM. - It is a list or notula containing the names of the Roman martyrs from whom a certain Giovanni, in the time of s. Gregorio Magno (590–604), collected the oils that burned near their tombs in small ampoules distinguished by labels or pittacia bearing the names of the individual martyrs, and offered them to Queen Teodolinda at Monza, as is read at the end of the list itself: «quas olea sancta temporibus domni Gregorii papae adduxit Iohannis indignus et peccator domnae Theodolindae reginae de Roma». The whole is preserved in the treasury of the basilica of Monza. The list, also called the papyrus of Monza, has no topographical value; it begins with s. Pietro and was perhaps drawn up at Monza; the first editor of the notula and the pittacia was L. A. Muratori (Anecdota latina, II, Milano 1697, pp. 191–92).