High Medieval Period Research Articles

Droplets of Heaven: Tears Relics in the High and Later Middle Ages

Precious liquids associated with Christ, a saint, or holy sites were collected and treasured by pilgrims throughout the Middle Ages. By the high medieval period, flocks of pilgrims visited holy sites and saints’ tombs where liquids associated with a holy body could be collected. La Sainte Larme, the holy tear of Christ, boomed in popularity, leaving a trail of associated ampullae across Europe. Nor was it just the Sainte Larme that was revered. Saints’ lives from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries confirm the importance of heavenly droplets shed by would-be saints. At this time, lachrymose piety became a salient feature of sanctity for religious men and women. Using the vitae of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century holy women and a wide range of sources relating to the Saint Larme, this essay puts together a picture of these little-known, yet highly revered, relics. Applying an interdisciplinary and integrated approach that examines the material, visual, and written sources for tears relics, it provides a textured analysis of the methods of collection, preservation, use, and veneration of tears. The article explores how tears relics were particularly fertile bearers of meaning and how Christians lived their religion through interaction with the material. The use and veneration of tears was multisensory and emotive, and it will be shown how tears relics were an apposite medium for stimulating emotional responses. In sum, it argues that tears relics, unknown before the eleventh century, were the product of the particular spiritual climate of the high Middle Ages when a tide of lachrymal piety swept across Western Europe and an emotional and multisensory experience of relics was at the heart of pilgrims’ devotion.

… nos gerentes ad instar canonicarum secularium … Das Problem der Verfassung religiöser Frauengemeinschaften im Mittelalter am Beispiel des ‘Stifts’ Thorn

Based on a petition to Pope Clement V dating from 1310, this essay examines the specific way of religious life in the women’s community of Thorn Abbey (Dutch Limburg). Additionally, a recent scholar debate which questions the common distinction between ‘monastery’ and ‘secular Stift’ is taken into account: such an ideal type of distinction is not useful for the early and high medieval period. Until now Thorn Abbey, too, was considered to be a foundation under Benedictine observance which became a secular Stift during the high Middle Ages. In contrast to this assumption, this essay shows that presumably no particular ordo was defined when the community was founded. It was not until the beginning of the late medieval period when the community’s property was clearly divided into possessions of the Abbey and the convent’s goods. This differentiation shows an advanced dissolution of the vita communis. However, for a long period of time, a profound uncertainty of their own status seems to have affected the community’s life. Therefore the members of the community addressed themselves to the Pope aiming at a canonical approval of their status. This goal was not achieved until the end of the fifteenth century, but from that moment, the ideal of their community’s life, created in the petition of 1310, remained unchanged.

Tjamke, Manuscript Communication: V isual and Textual Mechanics of Communication in Hagiographical Texts from the Southern Low Countries, 900–1200 by Snijders

Reviewed by: Tjamke, Manuscript Communication: V isual and Textual Mechanics of Communication in Hagiographical Texts from the Southern Low Countries, 900–1200 by Snijders Hilary Maddocks Snijders, Tjamke, Manuscript Communication: Visual and Textual Mechanics of Communication in Hagiographical Texts from the Southern Low Countries, 900–1200 (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 32), Turnhout, Brepols, 2015; hardback; pp. xviii, 493; 5 colour, 24 b/w illustrations, 38 b/w tables, 23 graphs; R.R.P. €110.00; ISBN 9782503552941. Based on the author’s doctoral dissertation, this a study of some two hundred hagiographical manuscripts of the tenth to twelfth centuries from Benedictine monasteries in the dioceses of Arras/Cambrai, Tournai, Thérouanne, and Liège in the Southern Low Countries. Tjamke Snijders investigates how abbeys in the high medieval period employed hagiographical manuscripts as a tool for communication, and contends that these manuscripts served to both influence and reflect individual monastic policy. The communicative potential of hagiographic manuscripts is considered in terms of layout, composition, intrinsic instability, and monastic context. In the first part of the volume, Snijders provides an introduction to the historical evolution of Benedictine monasteries and manuscript production during the waves of institutional reform that took place from the late ninth century. She also defines the study’s research parameters and terms, such as ‘writing intensity’ and ‘scriptum’, used in her subsequent manuscript analysis, along with descriptions of illustration, initials, punctuation, and layout. In Part II, Snijders takes a more quantitative approach, and finds that hagiographical manuscripts from different abbeys did not necessarily follow an abbey’s ‘house style’. Rather, the manuscripts conformed to particular genres, such as single saint libelli and auctoritas libelli or legendaries of numerous saints. Institutional factors influenced the decision to incorporate particular saints’ lives into manuscripts, which were then often actively used as ‘weapons in defence of the abbey’s goals through a combination of contents and layout’ (p. 174). Part III offers a comprehensive case-study analysis of two monasteries, Anchin and Marchiennes, both located in the episcopate of Arras, and just over 3 km apart. Twenty-eight high medieval hagiographical codices are extant from each monastery, but Snijders shows that they served quite different purposes according to context of use. They were used as tools to shape different collective identities: the older Marchiennes was initially concerned with using patron saint libelli to enhance its standing and legitimise its existence; while the younger and more progressive Anchin was more concerned with networking, and used its manuscripts to establish a group of ideologically homogenous monasteries. In conclusion, Snijders argues that the various genres of hagiographical manuscripts that emerged in this period laid the foundation for the liturgical and scholastic manuscripts and specialised works, such as the Legenda aurea, of the thirteenth century. [End Page 197] Hilary Maddocks The University of Melbourne Copyright © 2016 Hilary Maddocks

Season of birth and sheep husbandry in late Roman and Medieval coastal Flanders: A pilot study using tooth enamel δ18O analysis

From the early Roman period, there is archaeological evidence for the exploitation of the Flemish coastal plain (Belgium) for a range of activities, such as sheep herding on the then developing salt-marshes and salt-meadows for the production of wool. During the early Middle Ages, this culminated in the establishment of dedicated ‘sheep estates’. This phase of exploitation was followed by extensive drainage and land reclamation measures in the high Medieval period, transforming areas into grassland, suited for cattle breeding. As part of a larger project investigating the onset, intensification and final decline of sheep management in coastal Flanders in the historical period, this pilot study presents the results of sequential sampling and oxygen isotope analysis of a number of sheep teeth (M2, n = 8) from four late Roman and Medieval sites (dating from 4th to 15th century AD), in order to assess potential variations in season of birth between the different sites and through time. In comparison with published data from herds of known birth season, incremental enamel data from the Flemish sites are consistent with late winter/spring births, with the possibility of some instances of slightly earlier parturition. These findings suggest that manipulation of season of birth was not a feature of the sheep husbandry-based economies of early historic Flanders, further evidencing that wool production was the main purpose of contemporary sheep rearing in the region. Manipulation of season of birth is not likely to have afforded economic advantage in wool-centred economies, unlike in some milk- or meat-based regimes.

Gravestones with Georgian Inscriptions from the High Medieval Period at Dmanisi, Georgia

This paper discusses gravestones with Georgian inscriptions discovered during the archaeological excavations at the cemetery of the medieval city of Dmanisi. Although the tombstones with epitaphs were discovered in the 1970-1980s, this paper is the first typological, paleographical, and art historical study of the material.

Judicial Assembly Sites in Scotland: Archaeological and Place-Name Evidence of the Scottish Court Hill

A NEW COUNTRYWIDE SURVEY of traditional medieval court sites in northern Britain, using place names, historical records and historic landscape analysis, has identified distinct archaeological characteristics of this widespread, though previously underexamined site type. Natural hills are revealed as the most common venue for local judicial gatherings in Scotland. Place names derived from Gaelic, Scots and English are utilised to illustrate that mounds and reused prehistoric monuments also acted as venues for court sites. Findings from several recent studies have illustrated rich and comparable traditions of legal assembly for Anglo-Saxon England, early Gaelic Ireland and Viking-Age Scandinavia. In the light of these the Scottish sites presented in this article are considered in terms of legal assembly practices derived from the late 1st millennium ad. Evidence for the continued use of court sites into the high medieval period is also discussed.

Bilingualism in Medieval Europe: Germans and Slavs in Helmold of Bosau'sChronicle

Having described the countries of the “numerous peoples of the Slavs,” the late twelfth-century chronicler Helmold of Bosau added, “If you consider Hungary as a part of Slavania, as some would suggest, because it does not differ by customs or by language, the area of the Slavic language extends so far that a proper estimate is quite lacking.” These few words indicate how clearly local the chronicler's horizon was—the farther away from Wagria, the fuzzier his information. At the same time, though, Helmold made plain that the Slavic language was for him an essential element of what Slavania was. As a parish priest at the forefront of missionary and settlement activities, Helmold wrote a chronicle that is a unique source of information for intercultural interactions between Germans and Slavs during the high medieval colonization period.

Technology, production and chronology of red window glass in the medieval period – rediscovery of a lost technology

SEM-EDXA of 132 examples of medieval red window glass reveals the presence of around 1% copper oxide in all cases. SEM and TEM of selected samples confirm the presence of Cu nanoparticles. Two structural categories of red glass sheet are identified. Sheets comprising a single layer of red glass from a few tens to around 300 μm thick overlying a supporting substrate of white glass, with or without a protective cover of white glass, are typically found from the fourteenth century onwards. However, in 12th–14th century England, France and Spain, and perhaps elsewhere, typical red glass sheets have a complex microstructure comprising multiple coloured striae about 1 μm thick in a white background. SEM–EDXA, TEM and LA-ICP-MS have been used to characterise and investigate the technologies of the two types in detail. The single-layered glasses were produced using an approach analogous to that of copper red glass in the modern period, where a red glass is flashed onto a colourless base. In contrast, the multi-layered glasses were formed by the incomplete mixing of an oxidised high-Cu and a reduced low-Cu glass. The red colour forms due to the diffusion of oxidised copper into the reduced glass and the nucleation and growth of metallic copper during heat-treatment. This represents a previously unrecognised medieval glass technology, where red was created by mixing two weakly coloured glasses, a complex, arcane and mysterious procedure which must have reinforced the exclusivity of the craft. The occurrence of the technique has implications for dating windows and the identification of glass which has been inserted in early restorations and repairs, for the trade in coloured glass and for the transfer of glassmaking technologies in medieval times. It provides a link between stained glass window technology of the high medieval period and the glass-colouring practices of the late first millennium CE.

Law or treaty? Defining the edge of legal studies in the early and high medieval periods

This article is an attempt to define treaties in a legal context, thereby re-aligning the medieval historiography with its modern counterpart, and to explore some of the textual and practical possibilities and problems of this context. It considers why some treaties in the early and high middle ages have been regarded as laws while others have not and argues that while the modern concept of international law is based on the three principles of treaties, practice and custom, and general principles of law (including canon or Roman law), medieval scholars have only looked to the latter principle, thereby disregarding the treaties themselves and legal practice.

The Inquisitor’s Manual at Work

This article engages with the work of Antoine Dondaine on inquisitors’ manuals of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which laid the groundwork for modern scholarship on these texts. While following Dondaine’s line on the texts’ importance to the development of the inquisition of heresy, it questions the emphasis that his reading put on their literary development, and the subsequent tendency by scholars to read these texts as driven by generic concerns. The article surveys thirteen manuals from the high medieval period, produced between 1248 and 1330. The textual exchange that exists between the manuals and across different regions of inquisition and the relationship of the texts to the developing practice of the inquisition of heresy are explored. It is suggested that the typological reading of manuals be set aside, and that changes in their form are more helpfully understood in terms of their practical function.

Ländliche jüdische Siedlungen und Niederlassungen in Aschkenas. Vom Hochmittelalter bis ins 16. Jahrhundert. Typologie, Struktur und Vernetzung

Research on Jewish settlement in the German lands during the high and later medieval periods has tended to focus on the lives of Jews in their urban communities. The present study aims at elucidating the history of medieval Jewish settlements from the perspective of the rural periphery. It shows that the incomplete picture of a predominantly urban Jewish population has to be complemented by a continuity of Jewish presence in rural contexts. Sources of mostly non-Jewish provenance can serve to delineate the spread of rural Jewish settlements, while the terminology used for them can be derived from medieval Hebrew documents. Internal Jewish sources also offer insights concerning the autonomy enjoyed by rural Jewish settlers and their dependence on the urban communities. The development of a rural Jewish presence is traced in light of the question whether there was any continuity with the early modern institution of territorial Jewries (

Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance (review)

Reviewed by: Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance Carolyne Larrington Corinne Saunders , Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English Romance. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2010. Pp. 312. ISBN: 978-1-84384-221-7. $95. Corinne Saunders' substantial new study of medieval English romances comprises two short books in one volume: an introduction to medieval magic and an analysis of the functions of magic and the supernatural across a wide range of English romances. The book's central premise is that however 'rich and strange' magic might be, 'it is always grounded in cultural reality' (2). The first half of the volume—the two chapters concluding on p. 116—offers a condensed but lucid history of magic in the West. The first chapter examines classical evidence for different kinds of beliefs and magicians, and the Old and New Testament treatments of magic and its practitioners. The second chapter covers medieval thinking about magic and the supernatural, from Augustine, via Isidore of Seville to evidence from Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest England. The high medieval period essentially distinguishes between natural magic, a magic which harnesses the unseen powers of plants, stones and other God-created objects in a pseudo-scientific analysis of causes and effects, and 'nigromancy,' understood as derived from Latin niger (black) rather than the Greek necros (dead) and thus not, as in classical sources, the re-animation of the dead for divinatory purposes. Saunders includes the operations of the supernatural, both divine and diabolical, thus making analytical space for the activities of demons and for God's countervailing interventions in the form of angelic messages and of miracles. After establishing the main outlines of the understanding of 'nigromancy' as contained in books and made operational in incantation and ritual, and of natural magic, inhering in stones and plants, the book examines magical technology. Building on Helen Cooper's crucial insight into the importance of 'magic that doesn't work'— supernatural assistance which the hero must discard or disregard if he is to achieve [End Page 131] heroic status—the third chapter culminates in astute readings of Chaucer's Squire's Tale and Franklin's Tale, noting that the Franklin himself seems to take a more conservative view of magic than Chaucer, whose interest in astrology has strong affinities with natural magic. These tales, and the Canon's Yeoman's Tale, invite the audience of The Canterbury Tales to debate the morality and limitations of magic. The next chapter investigates 'nigromancy,' the darker aspect of magic, used to effect the manipulator's will, to interfere with destiny. Here the distinction between the two types of magic is usefully complicated by reference to intention: enchantresses and other practitioners achieve diametrically opposed effects by broadly similar methods. What matters is the intended outcome, whether the romance's hero is helped or hindered by such interventions. Shape-shifting and other transformations, even, in late texts such as Valentine and Orson, the summoning of demons, can be licit if the ends are justifiable. Chapter five deals with the Other World, with Avalon and with faery, contrasting the operation of fairy mistresses who shower riches on their chosen lovers and fairy knights whose methods include rape and abduction. The main discussion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a text with marvelous objects as well as Other World settings, occurs here. The following chapter examines the interventions of the demonic and the divine in romances as various as Amys and Amylion, Havelok, and the various romances labeled as 'penitential' by Andrea Hopkins. Discussion here of the demonic siring of Merlin introduces the book's final chapter, an examination of Malory's treatment of magic and the supernatural. There is an illuminating discussion of Hallewes the Enchantress and the episode in which she figures and thoughtful consideration of Balin and Balan and of the Grail. Saunders effectively refutes the view that Malory is not interested in magic and the supernatural simply because he reduces what occurs in his French sources, by showing how 'the supernatural lightens and shifts within the narrative of [Malory's] world, which is coloured and challenged by the powers of magic and enchantment, human and otherworldly' (260). The epilogue shows...

Medieval coastal Syrian vegetation patterns in the principality of Antioch

The coastal area of Jableh, in the vicinity of the Saladin and Al-Marquab castles, is a fertile alluvial plain located on the northwestern part of Syria, in what was once the crusader Principality of Antioch. In order to detail the coastal environment during the crusader period in the Middle East, palynological analyses have been conducted on the underlying coastal-alluvial deposits. The recovered sediments represent a continuous record of the environmental history of the area spanning a c. AD 850—1850 cal. yr period, from the Muslim Era up to and including the late Ottoman times. During the local crusader period (AD 1100—1270), the area was dominated by an arborescent mattoral mixed with a xerophytic shrub-steppe. The alluvial plain was slightly waterlogged and colonized by a wetland meadow with an open vegetation of steppe-like character on bare surfaces and fresh arable soils. The riparian and open deciduous riverine forests were weakly developed. Signs of agricultural activities are mainly recorded for the High Medieval period (AD 1000—1300), with an increase of vineyards in the coastal area. Since c. AD 1250 cal. yr until the end of the crusader period, agricultural activities never reached the same intensity as during the Mameluke Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire.

Voldbækgravpladsen – Yngre jernalder, vikingetid og middelalder ved Brabrand Sø

Voldbækgravpladsen – Yngre jernalder, vikingetid og middelalder ved Brabrand Sø

Evoluzione storica delle misure orarie in Italia

The present paper represents a research on the historical evolution, in Italy, regarding the measurement of hours during the day. A few cosmographical theoric recalls are offered to clarify how the problem should be considered from the astronomical viewpoint. A review is then made of the different chronometrical scales adopted in Italy, since Roman times; then, later, in the High and Low Medieval periods down to modern and contemporary times. All the different chronometrical scales adopted, in their historical evolution, are investigated: temporary, equinoctial, Italian hours, true local, mean local, civil, time hours a.m. and p.m., mean Rome, Mean Central European, Universal and finally Universally Coordinate, time hours; the intermittent adoption of legal summer time, is recalled. The importance of the problem is evidenced on account of the repercussion that an inaccurate interpretation of the different time measures given in historical times can have on geophysical events, and especially on an indexing of seismic events occurring in epochs prior to the existence of radiosignalled time. To illustrate the research, reference is made to the classical treatise of Baratta «1 terremoti d'ltalia » (ed. 1901): possibility of alterations of the fina lresults can be observed unless special attention is given to the original chronicles. The alterations can even produce a date change or a repetition, in the same catalogue, of the same event. Reliability criteria are suggested for hour data in function of the epoch of the event, as well as for the chronometrical scale employed in evidencing said event. In appendix some passages drawn from a study made by Serpieri on the Rimini earthquake of March 18, 1875 that confirm tre difficulties evidence are reported. Some tables are also reported: a table that gives the start of the clay for the calculation of Italian hours at different latitude sand at different days of the year, prior to and after the Gregorian reformation of the calendar, as well as the corresponding time equations (App. E); a table that gives the geoghaphical coordinates of the Italian provincial capitals with the longitudes (referred to Greenwich and Rome) expressed in time (App. D); a table showing time periods where legal (summer) time was adopted instead of solar time (App. B); a table of intercalar seconds of Universal Coordinate time (App. A).

The potential of pollen analyses from urban deposits: multivariate statistical analysis of a data set from the medieval city of Prague, Czech Republic

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the land which is now the Czech Republic underwent deep social and landscape changes, defined by historians and archaeologists as a transitional period between the early and late medieval periods. This study aims to analyze this transition as reflected by 142 pollen spectra from urban deposits so far excavated in the city of Prague. Multivariate statistics and critical assessment of the results has brought general conclusions on the potential of pollen analysis for urban archaeological research. They reveal an early medieval urban environment as a fine mosaic formed by extensive management, and composed of many habitats without sharp borders between them. Since human impact increased with time and the use of land became more rationalized and intensive, this mosaic developed a relatively coarser structure in the high medieval period. Our results support findings of the earlier subjective and uncertain characteristics of two differing types of medieval pollen spectra (Cerealia-dominated ones with low pollen diversity versus those with a higher proportion of arboreal and wild herbal pollen and high pollen diversity) obtained from various archaeological sites.

Vitis pollen dispersal in and from organic vineyards : I. Pollen trap and soil pollen data

The recent discovery of Roman vineyards in Britain [Antiquity 75 (2001) 745] based on both archaeological and palynological data has raised questions concerning the palynological record of viticulture in NW Europe. This paper presents data collected from 30 pollen traps and 29 soil pollen samples from within, and around, three organic vineyards in England. The soil trap data were collected over one flowering season. Within-vineyard pollen accumulation is compared with off-site accumulation and the soil pollen data. Although there is extremely high intravineyard variation in Vitis accumulation, the data confirm the role of stemflow transport and the exponential decrease in Vitis pollen accumulation with distance away from the vineyard. Pollen trap values of over 2% total pollen (TP) Vitis and soils with over 0.2% TP (based on 1000+ pollen sum) are likely to indicate the on-site presence of a vineyard. This is in accordance with the values recorded from known Roman vineyards in the Nene Valley. A compilation of occasional finds of Vitis pollen in England reveals typical values of 0.2% or less; although higher values are recorded, they are generally an artefact of a low total pollen count. However, the clustering of these occasional finds into the Roman and high Medieval periods suggests that long-distance Vitis influx increased during periods of widespread viticulture in NW Europe including England. The monitoring of Vitis pollen dispersal suggests that where encountered as part of routine pollen counting, the total pollen sum should be increased to ca. 1000 TP in order to establish a better estimate of the frequency of occurrence. This will allow palynology to play a less ambiguous part in the mapping of ancient viticulture.

The secret Middle Ages

Using the wealth of medieval art, much of it unseen or ignored by museums and art historians, Jones paints a compelling picture of life as imagined by the masses between 1200 and 1500. The civilization that emerges is both like and unlike our own, one teeming with the richness of life and its contradictions. In contrast to most medieval studies, Jones does not focus exclusively on religious or aristocratic art, but looks instead to the products of popular and folk art, such as jewelry, tableware, illustrations, carvings, and textiles. All evoke the vivid creative imagination and strong visual culture of the middle ages. This book offers a major reassessment of the high medieval period. Medievalists and those interested in the history of language and customs will find it to be essential reading. Richly illustrated, it provides a brilliant and evocative picture of medieval Europe by a leading authority on medieval folklore. As Jones writes, gems and precious metals may dazzle the eye, but a pewter brooch, though it may look tawdry, is of more real significance and tells us more about the middle ages than a treasure chest of royal jewels.

17 Dean's Yard, Westminster: Archaeological Investigations

ARCHAEOLOGICAL investigations during underpinning works at 17 Dean's Yard, Westminster (Westminster School) revealed a deep sequence of medieval land-reclamation deposits overlying middle to Late Saxon alluvium and basal sand and gravel. The site lies within the area of the medieval Abbey precinct and also within a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. The foundations of the present building were found to incorporate re-used stonework, possibly derived from earlier monastic buildings associated with Westminster Abbey close by to the north. The site was reclaimed from the peripheral marshy edge of Thorney Island in the High Medieval Period, though dumping to raise the ground level was undertaken as early as the mid-12th century. The discovery of a partial donkey skeleton in an alluvial deposit at the base of the stratigraphic sequence is of national and intemational significance, being the first Late Saxon example of this species found in the country to date. Documentary sources suggest that the cloister area was heavily damaged by fire in the late 13th century and rebuilt in the 14th under Abbot Litlyngton. 14th-century gothic stone mouldings were found in an early post-medieval demolition deposit.

Storia delle Chiese di Sicilia (review)

General Storia della Chiesa di Bologna. Edited by Paolo Prodi and Lorenzo Paolini. 2 vols. (Bologna: Istituto per la Storia della Chiesa di Bologna, and Bergamo: Edizioni Bolis. 1997. Pp. xv, 402 and 670.) These two handsome volumes make a splendid contribution to the history of the Church in Italy. In a series of carefully researched and beautifully illustrated essays, twenty-five local experts trace the history of the Bolognese diocese from the early fourth-century Bolognese protomartyrs, Vitale and Agricola, down to the early 1960's. As Paolo Prodi writes in his Introduction: the substantial novelty of the project lies not so much in the particular research methods, or the discoveries presented in these volumes, as in their ambition to cover the entire history of the Bolognese church in a way that includes substantial treatments of the questions of administration, pastoral care, parish life, and devotional practices that have attracted much recent attention by historians of the Italian Church, but which are usually neglected in the one-bishop-after-another diocesan histories with which Italy abounds. The first volume gives a basic chronological narrative of the Bolognese church parceled into four essays. Amedeo Benati offers a clear discussion of the evidence concerning the late Roman and early and high medieval periods. His treatments of the boundaries of the diocese and of the local impact of the investiture controversy-Canossa was quite close by-are especially interesting. Augusto Vasina offers a good treatment of ecclesiastical foundations, with particularly thorough discussion of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth centuries. Umberto Mazzone develops much rich material, previously little-explored, on the period from the Council of Trent to the early nineteenth century. Giuseppe Battelli is excellent on the Risorgimento and Fascism, although in the post-World War II period he says not nearly enough on the relations between the local church and the Communist Party, which dominated communal administration beginning in the 1950's. In the second volume, Saints and Devotions in the Middle Ages and the modern period (sixteenth century to the present) are treated in essays by Paolo Golinelli and Gabriella Zarri, respectively; and for Liturgical Life a similar division of labor is observed by Giampaolo Ropa and Enzo Lodi. Essays on Charity, Welfare, and Social Commitment by Mario Fanti, Giampaolo Venturi, and Alessandro Albertazzi are especially rich on the Catholic Reformation and the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One imagines that Fanti's treatment of the late medieval and early modern periods would have been more detailed had he been able to consult Nicholas Terpstra's book on Bolognese confraternities, which appeared in English only two years before these volumes were published. …