This fine volume in a Brill series edited by Christopher Bellitto is welcome. There is no lack of studies both long and short on the medieval papacy, but the work under review is distinguished by its presentation of a series of fifteen articles by often less well known, younger scholars, which are written in a way that both beginners and those familiar with the topic can find useful. These chapters offer within this monographic form contributions by experts in various areas pertaining to medieval papal history. The book opens with an introduction by Atria Larson, which is followed by a piece by Thomas F. X. Noble entitled ‘Narratives of papal history’. These essays are both substantive and historiographic and set the stage for what follows. And what follows are articles grouped under four headings. The first is the alliterative ‘Popes and Princes, Polemics and Propaganda’, with chapters by Jehangir Yezdi Malegam, Sandro Carocci, Francesca Pomarici and Keith Sisson. ‘Law and Judgement’ follows, which comprises contributions by Atria Larson, Larson and Sisson together, and Danica Summerlin. The third section, ‘Administration Abroad and at Home’, includes articles by Harald Müller, Stefan Weiβ, Andreas Meyer and two contributions by Kirsi Salonen. The fourth and last section is ‘Beyond the Latin Church’, and features essays by Andrew Louth, Rebecca Rist, Felicitas Schmieder and again Keith Sisson. Sisson also is responsible for an appendix: ‘Chronology of key pontificates, events, and works’. The book concludes with three final sections: a select bibliography (remarkably thorough and organised under themes, for example ‘Gregorian reform’, ‘papal councils’ etc.); a general index of names, places and councils; and a very useful index of legal citations, papal letters and important texts. It is impossible in the space of a review to engage in a substantive appraisal of all of the essays in this handsome volume. It also makes no sense to dissect any small set of the contributions, which seem by and large to be very well done. The book's organisation and themes are clear from the foregoing summaries. Anyone looking for an engaging array of articles on medieval papal history will find much here of interest and value. Serious studies of the full sweep of papal history are very often written in languages other than English (it is not without reason that Walter Ullmann's name crops up at several points herein). A companion to the medieval papacy is rare and welcome in that it offers a book accessible to readers at an entry level yet also contains serious scholarly essays, in English, with a good bibliography where readers can continue their investigations in multiple areas and at multiple levels. Finally, it is worth remarking on the fact that this is a splendidly produced volume, which includes a series of good reproductions of medieval images, works of art etc., in both black-and-white and colour.