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Abstract:  “L’ASSEDIO DELLE RELIQUIE” TO THE CITY OF ROME Written in a time frame in which that attention which scholars had in a different way for centuries dedicated to relics is rekindled, fueled by a completely new interest in themes having to do with the body, this paper thus discusses the theme of Roman relics, of the collective imagination linked to them, of the sources which can help us understand the meaning that they had for the pilgrims of the jubilee year between the 16th and the 17th centuries, in order to deepen the study of those writings which seem to indicate precisely in these sacred objects one of the pillars of the religious, and not only, identity, precisely to holy places and to the city itself. The author is influenced by the work of Ottavio Panciroli (1600), who imagines seeing the relics in the period in which they were lying in the ditches outside of the walls, besieging pagan Rome, anxious to celebrate their victory over Rome. The whole history of the passage from paganism to Christianity is seen as a “battle for the relics”, or better yet, a battle which relics themselves carry on, spurred on by an holy rage to Christianize the world. Panciroli’s book seems to indicate how even about objects, one could note, in the early 17th century, the promises for those historical antiquarian discussions of erudite research which between the 17th and the 18th century will lead up to the new methods of a Francesco Bianchini’s or a Bernard de Montfacon’s historical research. A closely related problem to this is the one about why the results of research on relics differ so from those on epigraphs, coins and scrolls (parchments). The problem why historical research on relics gave uncertain and belated results, being treid up, except for in a few specific cases, solely in the polemic about the truth or falsity of relics. That for the pilgrims to Rome the “ treasures” of the Roman churches for centuries have been the relics and bodies of saint rather than the silver chalices or other more celebrated works of art is well-known; but it is more difficult to determine when things really started up to change. That which in any case seems useful to emphasize with regard to travelers to Rome from the end of the 16th century onward, is that they started to get interest in what the relics represented beyond their former religious function: the relics began to be considered as evidence of the historical stratification of the city. That “religion of the stones” portried by pilgrims for centuries, had begun imperceptibly to transform in the antiquarian and erudite research of modern travelers.