The article aims to provide a glimpse of Pavia’s early medieval pictorial and mosaic richness basing on four tituli contained in the Lorsch sylloge (Vat.Pal.lat.833, early 9th ct.). By combining the information given by the tituli with the politico-ecclesiastical situation and the archaeological evidence of the pre-Carolingian city, the hypothesis that the inscriptions referred to images created in the church of San Michele between the 7th and 8th centuries is pursued. The image of St. Michael once dominating the entrance and that of a Christus Victor could date back to a rearrangement of the church resulting from the affirmation of the cult for the archangel in the second half of the 7th century. These and other figural elements may have provided inspiration for the works promoted by King Desiderius (757-74), to whom an inscription seems to attribute an apsidal mosaic replacing an older decoration.