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Rome was one of the three most important destinations for pilgrims from medieval Europe, along with Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela. The faithful came in crowds not only to pray at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, but also to revere the multitude of relics that were preserved in the churches of the city. From the fourth century on, the liturgical and political significance of the cult of relics grew steadily within the Christian world. The Eastern custom of obtaining a multitude of relics by dividing the saints' bodies into different parts, however, was not usual in Rome until the eighth century, when the norm of the Roman law sanctioning the inviolability of tombs and bodies fell into disuse. After that, the number of relics preserved in the Roman churches began to multiply. The bodies, or parts of bodies, of martyrs buried outside Rome were brought into churches and basilicas intra muros in order to be better guarded, but also to be a tangible sign of the city's power and superiority.1 Some of the most revered relics, including those of New Testament figures and other saints, were gathered, especially in the course of the eighth and ninth centuries, in the Basilica of St John Lateran and in the small Chapel of St Lawrence in palano, also known as the Sancta Sanctorum. This chapel was constructed inside the Palatium Lateranense, which was the residence of the popes throughout almost all the Middle Ages, at least until the Pope returned from Avignon in 1377.2
Besides the numerous Latin sources mentioning the relics preserved in the Basilica of the Lateran and in the Sancta Sanctorum, a list of these relics is also included in the description of Rome in LeiÒarvisir, an Old Icelandic itinerary describing a route to the Holy Land and traditionally dated around the midtwelfth century. This article will analyse the list of Lateran relics in Leiöarvisir and compare it to Latin sources, in particular to the Descriptio Lateranensis ecclesiae by John the Deacon (written in its final version 11 59- 81) and to an inscription that was placed outside the Chapel of St Lawrence in palano at the end of the twelfth century. It will be shown that the list of Leidarvisir must...