Study of the reception or of the “effect” of a canonical text within the church or broader culture is now a well-established discipline, even if it often appears still to be in search of criteria by which either the enterprise or the reception which is its focus might be assessed—unless the conclusion is drawn that there can be no criteria external to the fact of the potentially limitless possibilities of reception. Unsurprisingly, the Apocalypse has proved a fertile field for analysis of its reception and influence, including by Professor Christopher Rowland, to whom this book is dedicated, and by whom the underlying Oxford doctoral thesis was supervised. When first encountering the title of the book, some may expect this is to be but an addendum to such prior, more comprehensive, works; indeed, they might assume Patmos, the location of John's vision according to Revelation 1:9, to be of interest only to the historian or to the modern-day organizer of a Mediterranean cruise for biblical enthusiasts. On the contrary, what Ian Boxall demonstrates is the extraordinary fecundity of Patmos in the imagination of the writers not only of commentaries but also of poetry and hymns, liturgy and sermons, as well as in that of artists in a variety of media and contexts. His time-frame extends from the writing of the work through the early Patristic tradition, the early and later medieval traditions, Eastern traditions from the fifth century, and Western interpreters from 1517 up to modern commentaries. Alongside the expected discussions of Patmos as a place of exile or a place of revelation, or as an episode in the biography of John, he also explores allegorical interpretations as well as those that “actualized” it in a variety of new contexts, often those of the writers concerned. In so doing he traces both lines of continuity in interpretation and also the emergence of new perspectives and questions. The separate chapter on “visual exegesis” draws attention to the subtle interpretative moves achieved by the multiple choices made by the artist, while also examining the significance of the artist's own personal and social context, as well as of the spatial or liturgical context for which the work was first intended, and within which it was experienced: eight plates illustrate the chapter but for the rest, the reader will have to follow footnotes to find the examples discussed. Inevitably, given the time-range, his account has to be both selective and condensed, presenting bald statements where specialists in each period, even more in each example, might debate and nuance and offer yet further explanations and observations—a challenge of which the author is well aware, likening his approach to that of a catalogue which self-consciously organizes and so comments on its material. On the other hand, he has made a point of extending as far as possible the range of voices heard, not only those of the well-known luminaries of each period, but also those that were perhaps more marginal or less authoritative. One consequence is that Boxall demonstrates that accounts of the history of the interpretation of the Apocalypse which focus only on the temporal pattern of the end-time, fail to do justice to their theme. Where the book makes its most substantive contribution is the way in which Boxall frames the exploration by an initial chapter which reads closely the role of Patmos in Revelation and a final chapter of “hermeneutical reflections.” In the former, Boxall argues that the allusions introduced by Revelation 1:9, particularly within the Apocalypse's overall strategy of scriptural echoes, already suggest a far richer “interpretative potential” than many recent commentators have allowed for. In reflecting on the hermeneutical significance of the enterprise the author acknowledges that this close reading was written retrospectively, in the light of his journey through the reception; consequently, terms such as “interpretative possibilities” become more inviting of analysis, in particular as the “real audiences” who have been constantly in mind are brought into the equation. On this basis Boxall does attempt some assessment of the continuities between the potential he discerns within the strategies of the Apocalypse and later, less immediately obvious, patterns of interpretation. Moreover he makes a very strong plea for a greater recognition of the role of the imagination and of the exegete's location in a specific “reading community.” The argument that Boxall makes is, therefore, a nuanced and reflective one; he does it with an attractive style and apparent mastery of his material which bear few of the more labored characteristics associated with a doctoral thesis. In all, this is an important contribution not only to the study of the Apocalypse and its interpretation, but also to hermeneutical reflection on the nature of reading scriptural texts, and on how the contemporary reader might interact with her predecessors.