The Liber Pontificalis (Latin for Book of the Popes) is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II (867–872) or Pope Stephen V (885–891), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) and then Pope Pius II (1458–1464). the Liber Pontificalis has undergone intense modern scholarly scrutiny as an "unofficial instrument of pontifical propaganda." Along with other documents such as the Pseudo-Isidore, Donation of Constantine, Decretum Gratiani, the Liber Pontificalis is viewed by critical historians as part of a "series of pious frauds" used by the medieval papacy to represent itself "as a primitive institution of the church, clothed with absolute and perpetual authority."
