The publication of this substantial portfolio of plates with accompanying transcripts and commentary brings to fruition a project originally conceived by Sergio Pagano, Prefect of the Vatican Archives. If Pagano is the father of the work, its grandfathers are perhaps Heinrich Denifle and Gregorio Palmieri, editors of Specimina palaeographica ex Vaticani tabularii Romanorum Pontificum registris selecta ab Innocentio III ad Urbanum V (Vatican City 1888) (the work is generally ascribed to them, although they are not named on the title page). Both publications provide facsimiles of high quality of the papal registers in the Vatican Archives, and both start with the pontificate of Innocent iii, when the more or less continuous series of papal registers begins (1198). The editor of the new work, Marco Maiorino, has selected illustrations of 147 documents taken from four series of registers, the Vatican Registers, the Avignon Registers, the Lateran Registers and the Registers of Supplications. The first three contain copies of the popes’ outgoing correspondence, while the fourth contains copies of petitions addressed to the pope. For understandable reasons, the Registers of the Supplications of the Apostolic Penitentiary (no longer housed in the Vatican Archives and containing petitions addressed to the pope but dealt with by the cardinal penitentiary), the various series of registers of the Apostolic Chamber (containing accounts and other financial records) and the registers of briefs (brevia) are not included in the collection.

The editor has been astute in his selection of documents. Their geographical range is wide, and they exemplify the almost inexhaustible richness of the papal registers for the history of Latin Christendom and beyond. Several items illustrate points of diplomatic, for instance the rehearsal of earlier documents in papal letters (nos 18, 50), the exceptional copying of the text of an enclosure or cedula interclusa (no. 13B) or the reformulating of a petition (reformatio) when the initial version had proved defective (no. 79B). The Vatican Registers represent a particular challenge in any selection, since registers of different kinds have been combined to form this artificial series. For this reason, it should have been made clear that Reg. Vat. 30, illustrated as no. 11, and Reg. Vat. 33–5, collated with it, are not registers of Clement iv (1265–8) in the generally accepted sense of the term. These volumes, together with Reg. Vat. 30A and 36, were written in the fourteenth century and contain a collection of letters of this pope. They may, however, derive from a register of littere secrete of Clement iv which is no longer extant (see especially Edith Pásztor, ‘Per la storia dei registri pontifici nel Duecento’, in her Onus apostolicae sedis: Curia romana e cardinalato nei secoli XI–XV [Rome 1999], 111–52). It is regrettable that no examples from the important series of registers of littere secrete which begins with the pontificate of John xxii (1316–34) are given; the entries from the Vatican Registers in the present collection jump from Clement v (d. 1314) to Urban vi (elected 1378) (see nos 22–3).

The editor seems to have achieved a very high standard of accuracy in the transcripts and his close attention to detail is evident, notably in the recording of the annotations which accompany many of the documents and in the identification of personal and place-names. The few slips that I have noticed are of scant importance: Edward i was not ‘elected’ king of England in 1272 (no. 15); ‘committens’ should be ‘committeres’ and ‘Pons-de-Sorgues’ should be ‘Pont-de-Sorgues’ (no. 38); Segorbe is not in the diocese of Elne but is a diocese in its own right (no. 48); ‘clausolis’ should be ‘clausulis’ (no. 76A and passim).

Scholars have long been exercised by questions concerning these voluminous but highly problematic sources: what was the Vorlage of the entries (draft or original letter)? Are the Vatican Registers originals or copies of registers for the most part no longer extant? What was the nature of the registers prior to 1198 which do not survive? How and why were papal documents selected for registration? Marco Maiorino eschews consideration of such matters, and wisely so, for they are controversial and a consensus has yet to emerge on many points. Doubtless his aim was rather to produce a work of reference, primarily for the use of students of palaeography and diplomatic, which would not quickly become out of date. In this he has succeeded.