This is the last in a series of four books, edited by Grell and Cunningham—with third partners in most cases—on the general subject of Health care and poor relief in Europe 1500–1900. The scope of the books—issued in 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2005—presents a twofold divide, chronological and religious (this “southern Europe” is made up of the Catholic countries of western Europe: Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Austria; France being included in northern Europe). The series is a most welcome attempt to produce a comprehensive European history of a problem—the provision of health care to the mass of the population—which has lost none of its prominence, its evolution being the origin of some of the common features of today's medical care. At the same time, issues regarding the meaning of poverty, its management and solutions, have only slightly changed, mainly in terms of the subjects involved, but are still pressing in post-industrialized societies. A timely effort, then, worthy of praise, although affected by the fact that the series has been published by several different publishers. This particular volume is composed of an introduction, eleven chapters that discuss care and relief in eighteenth- to nineteenth-century Austria (Martin Scheutz), Spain (Castile and Madrid—Pedro Carasa, and Barcelona—Alfons Zarzoso), Portugal (Maria Antonia Lopes), and Italy (Rome—Martin Papenheim, Parma—David Gentilcore, Naples—Brigitte Marin, Bologna—Gianna Pomata, and Piedmont—Giovanna Farrell-Vinay), and the European travels of John Howard (Ole Peter Grell), plus index. The customary introduction by Andrew Cunningham links this to the general purpose of the editors of the series, as a farewell to the whole enterprise. The first two chapters are analytical in nature, first there is an overview by John Davies aiming to underscore the common historical features of the diverse national processes studied; second, an ideological summary of the main questions on poverty and its relief—causes, interventions and responsibilities—by Nicholas Davidson. Certainly, these are probably the most difficult parts to write, as they require uncommon scholarship; both are overtly slanted towards Italian examples as well as to an English-language critical bibliography. There are slight differences of scope and perspective among chapters dedicated to national contexts, ranging from the driest of analysis for Castile, where hardly any empirical data are given, through full descriptions of social actors and events for Austria and Rome; to the beautiful account of Howard's journeys “of body and soul”. The chapter on Bologna deals only with the history of health care, while that on Parma is limited to the eighteenth century (precisely, 1740 to 1820). A disturbing lack of uniformity is found in the name of institutions: Carasa's “county councils” are Zarzoso's “diputaciones provinciales”, while common Italian “congregazione di carita” in several chapters are “congregations of charity” in Farrel-Vinay's Piedmont, so that the last does not feature in the index. The index is particularly weak. It does not include a number of institutions that appear within the text (i.e. diputaciones, the Portuguese General Council for Benefaction, Commissione di Sanita, etc.) and the control of language is careless; “insane” is not listed, but “mental health, asylums” and “lunatic asylums” are given separate entries; the page numbers for “beggars” in the Austrian and the Neapolitan chapters are missing; and the cities visited by Howard are not included. Despite these minor shortcomings, the book is generally a solid work, and is enjoyable to read. These studies show brilliantly the lasting activity of institutions created for religious reasons (in the mid-nineteenth century around two-thirds of the charitable institutions active in cities such as Naples had been founded before 1700), as well as the return of medieval agencies, when state development under Liberal rule broke the centralist approach to empower once again intermediate public agents such as communes and provinces. The concept of a single narrative of a progressive takeover of charities by the state is completely shattered. As both Davies and Davidson show, the burden of insufficient financial resources and the priority of urban charities are common traits in modern Catholic Europe. In the different local/national contexts—not to mention the unusual civil tradition in Portugal—debates on poverty were entangled with debates on the place of the Church in social life.