Though many of the earliest biographies are brief, devoid of detail and contain apocryphal anecdotes and spurious facts, the biographies of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries are considerably more fleshed-out and of much greater scholarly value as they are often the only source for certain important events.
This reprint of the 1916 translation of the Liber Pontificalis is heavily footnoted, and the translator, Louise Ropes Loomis, scrupulously indicated wherever the text is at odds with other available reliable data. She also incorporated commentary in the footnotes from Mommsen and Duchesne, two of the foremost 19th century scholars of the Liber. Furthermore, several manuscript traditions have been reproduced in parallel in this edition so that the reader may compare them side-by-side.
The 2006 edition includes 14 black & white illustrations from the lives of various Popes, as well as a short preface.
