The four-yearly International Congresses on Medieval Canon Law bring together a high proportion of those concerned with the topic, and provide a splendid opportunity to survey the direction of current work, or to imagine new perspectives for research. As they alternate between Europe and North America, and are held in a different centre on each occasion, they all have their distinctive local accent. Surprisingly, Catania in 2000 was the first to be held in Italy, and it is a strength of this volume that Italian scholarship and Italian canonists are particularly well represented; equally, the special interest of the Catania faculty, under the direction of Manlio Bellomo, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is more fully treated than is usually the case. Since Catania was the birthplace of the great Panormitanus, it is only fitting that he is a powerful presence in the essays collected here. The traditional long delay in publishing the Proceedings is a matter for regret. Of the hundred and more papers given in 2000, around half are published here; a number of others appear in the compendious Panta rei: studi dedicati a Manlio Bellomo (Rome, 2005). Many papers are essential for specialists. Those with wider concerns will probably find most in the two opening papers. Péter Erdő, Cardinal primas of Hungary and a noted canonist, discusses the changing relation of historical study to the practice of the law across the publications of the two Codes of Canon Law, and Peter Landau describes the long and thoughtful engagement of Stephan Kuttner with these Codes and their revision. The questions raised here are central to anyone involved in the subject – both papers deserve a wide readership.