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This book provides fundamental insights into the pontificate of Gregory IX through the little-studied Life of Pope Gregory IX and considering several other sources. It examines the Life’s genesis and transmission, its relation to the medieval papal historiography, its programmatic orientation towards the governance of the Papal States, the significance of the two excommunications of Frederick II in the mirror of the Life, and its stylisation of the papal protagonist and imperial antagonists. The Life served the papacy primarily as a document of legitimation and defence in the crisis years of 1239/40, and also as a source of political, financial, legal, and liturgical responses for the posterity of the Roman Curia. Gregory IX left a longer-lasting mark on the papal sanctity, the territorial politics, and the eschatological thinking of the Roman Curia than recognized by previous scholarship.

Indice: 
Preface - 1. Introduction - 1.1. Research subject, methodology and research question - 1.2. The state of research - 1.3. Sources - 2. The context of transmission - 2.1. The Liber Censuum - 2.2. The Florence manuscript Ricc. 228: a codicological description - 2.3. Rubrication of the Vita in the Ricc. 228 Florentine manuscript - 2.4. Compilation of papal lives at the Roman Curia - 2.5. Conclusion - 3. Structure and conception - 3.1. The Vita in the context of medieval papal historiography - 3.2. The question of authorship - 3.3. Time of production - 3.4. Sources - 3.5. Style  - 3.6. Concepts of order - 3.7. Conclusion - 4. Portrayal of the pope following the model of the Liber pontificalis - 4.1. Papal lives: schema and distinctive features - 4.2. The return of holiness? - 4.3. Background - 4.4. Virtues  - 4.5. Elevation to pope -  4.6.Benignus pater, pius pater: the pope as shepherd - 4.7. The elite papal officials  - 4.8. Conclusion - 5. A Programmatic text on governance in the papal states - 5.1. The concept of temporal dominion of the Roman Church - 5.2. Pope Gregory IX on the move: territorial policy in the Papal States - 5.3. Forms of papal rule in the Patrimonium Petri - 5.4. Conclusion - 6. Legitimisation and defence in the conflict between pope and emperor - 6.1. The second excommunication of Frederick II in 1239 - 6.2. The first excommunication of Frederick II in 1227 - 6.3. Conclusion -  7. The construction of an image of self and an image of the enemy - 7.1. The stylisation of Frederick II - 7.2. The stylisation of Gregory IX and Saint Francis - 7.3. Conclusion - 8. Conclusion - Appendix - Bibliography -Index of Person - Index of Places.