Laurentius

Italian family of marble-workers, sculptors and architects. Four generations of the family are known from 22 signed inscriptions. Between 1162 and 1254 they ran the most prolific marble workshop in Rome; more than a quarter of all the surviving signed works by the medieval Roman marble workers known as the COSMATI were produced by the Laurentius family alone. The father often worked with his sons and signed his name with theirs, so that the genealogy of named members of the family is certain. Two members of the family, Jacobus Laurentii and his grandson Lucas Cosmati, held honorary posts at the papal court, which would suggest that they were held in high esteem by both citizens and curia. The principal surviving work by the family is Civit? Castellana Cathedral, Lazio, in which the names of all four generations of the family are recorded in inscriptions. The portico dated 1210 and signed by Jacobus Laurentii and his son Cosmas (see below) was their finest achievement, indicating the Roman marble workers' critical knowledge of the Antique. As in most of the other marble workshops in Rome, most commissions were for the furnishing and decoration of church interiors, but after 1180 the Laurentius family also carried out work on portals and fa?ades. Jacobus Laurentius was one of the first of the Roman marble workers to undertake figural mosaic work.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Laurentius (Lawrence) (d. 619). Second archbishop of Canterbury. Named Lawrence ‘the priest’, he landed in Kent with Augustine in 597. At Augustine's request he returned to Rome (601) to fetch a new body of missionaries and the pallium, the archiepiscopal insignia, for Augustine. Before his death Augustine consecrated him as his successor (c. 604). When Æthelbert of Kent died (616), there was likelihood of reversion to paganism under Eadbald, but, unlike Mellitus and Justus, Laurentius stayed and converted him.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: Roman martyr; supposedly Lawrence was ordered by the police to give up the Church's treasure and when he responded by offering the poor people of Rome he was roasted to death on a gridiron (died in 258)
  Synonyms: Lawrence, Saint Lawrence, St Lawrence

Laurentius may refer to:

In Catholicism:

• Antipope Laurentius, antipope of the Roman Catholic church
• Joannes Laurentius Lydus, Byzantine writer on antiquarian subjects
• Archbishop Laurence of Canterbury
• Laurentius Abstemius, Italian writer, Professor of Belles Lettres at Urbino, and Librarian to Duke Guido Ubaldo under Pope Alexander VI
• Laurentius Grimaldius Gosliscius (1530–1607), Polish bishop, political thinker and philosopher best known for his book De optimo senatore

In Lutheranism:

• Laurentius Andreae, Swedish clergyman and scholar
• Laurentius Paulinus Gothus (1565–1646), Swedish theologian, astronomer and Archbishop of Uppsala
• Laurentius Petri (1499–1573), Swedish clergyman and the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden
• Laurentius Petri Gothus, the second Swedish Lutheran Archbishop of Uppsala, Sweden
• Paul Laurentius (1554-1624), Lutheran divine

In other fields:

• Henrik Laurentius Helliesen, the Norwegian Minister of Finance in several periods between 1863 and 1883
• Laurentius Christophori Hornæus, minister and witch hunter in Torsåker and Ytterlännäs, Sweden

See also

• Lars
• Lawrence

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