Provides the first full study of the predecessor church of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, from late antique construction to Renaissance destruction.

Old St Peter's Basilica in Rome stood for over eleven centuries until it was demolished to make room for today's church on the same Vatican site. Its last eyewitness, Maffeo Vegio, explained to the Roman hierarchy how revival of the papacy, whose prestige after the exile to Avignon had been diminished, was inseparable from a renewed awareness of the primacy of Peter's Church. To make his case, Vegio wrote a history founded on credible written and visual evidence. The text guides us through the building's true story in its material reality, undistorted by medieval guides. This was its living memory and a visualization of the continuity of Roman history into modern times. This volume makes available the first complete English translation of Vegio's text. Accompanied by full-color digital reconstructions of the Basilica as it appeared in Vegio's day.

The story of St Peter's begins in the 1st century CE with the Hippodrome of Nero, one of two places where the Apostle Peter may have been crucified. 250 years later Constantine the Great marked the supposed site of Peter's tomb in an ancient cemetery with a great basilica. That in turn was replaced over a hundred-year period by a series of competitive renaissance and baroque Popes using the greatest artists of their day, all seeking to leave their mark on St Peter's. Here Keith Miller offers a rewarding account of a world-famous building: who built it; what it looks like and why; and how it affects the tourist or pilgrim. An intricate history, telling biography and the study of great art and architecture all play their part in a book that is a brilliant debut.

In this dramatic journey through religious and artistic history, R. A. Scotti traces the defining event of a glorious epoch: the building of St. Peter's Basilica. Begun by the ferociously ambitious Pope Julius II in 1506, the endeavor would span two tumultuous centuries, challenge the greatest Renaissance masters—Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bramante—and enrage Martin Luther. By the time it was completed, Shakespeare had written all of his plays, the Mayflower had reached Plymouth—and Rome had risen with its astounding basilica to become Europe's holy metropolis. A dazzling portrait of human achievement and excess, Basilica is a triumph of historical writing.

The Chair of Saint Peter surveys the history of the papal office from the first century to the current papacy of Pope John Paul II. At the approach of the third millennium, the office of the papacy remains a vital sign of unity in the Catholic church and a link with the earliest church. But the papal office in its current form is the product of a long and conflicted history of evolution. The Chair of Saint Peter is an essential resource for future discussions about the shape of the church to come.

During the course of the 19th and 20th centuries Brighton grew from a small fishing village on the Sussex coast to a large thriving city, popular with residents and visitors alike. Much building work went on during this time, but sadly many of the theatres, cinemas, dance halls and churches that were such a part of life in these earlier times have either been made redundant or converted for other uses or demolished. One of the iconic buildings of the city is St Peters Church. When it was first built it stood at the entrance to the main part of Brighton, on the road that goes past the Royal pavilion to the Palace Pier. It was the first important design that Sir Charles Barry created. He later became one of the foremost architects of Victorian times being responsible for the Houses of Parliament and Highclere Castle (now known to millions of television viewers as Downton Abbey). St Peters is a fine example of Barrys work, but this book will record how a chancel was added to the north of the building seventy-five years after the original structure had been completed. We will also see how the incumbent of St Peters became Vicar of Brighton which put him at the centre of the building and development of other churches throughout the town. In the twentieth century St Peters continued to be the spiritual hub for civic life in the town, but there was one occasion when the vicar failed to get to the church for the Sunday morning service. Later on the church suffered an arson attack, and the century ended with an extraordinary impromptu time of reflection in the early hours of 1st January 2000. However as the new century began, it was recognised that falling attendances and failing masonry could lead to St Peters going the same way as other older buildings in the city. The church authorities did not have the financial resources to cover all the expenses that this grand old building was requiring, and thus St Peters came under the threat of closure. This horrified the inhabitants of the city who saw St Peters as being just as much a part of the cityscape as the Pavilion and the Pier. To the great delight of all, the church was eventually saved through the last minute intervention of Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London. This book documents the story of a church that, amid many ups and downs along the way, has come to be much loved in Brighton, Hove and Sussex.