The enormous influence of the mendicant orders in medieval and early modern Europe is justification alone for this interdisciplinary volume. As its editors readily admit, the claim to “world” representation is a bit of a stretch. The majority of the articles concern mendicant communities in Italy, and mostly Franciscan and Dominican. A number of the articles do, however, speak to the outward embrace of mendicant spirituality and even ponder Franciscan engagement in other regional contexts. This focus outward is not surprising given the distinctive nature of these missionary traditions. The mendicant orders have from their origins defined community in terms that transcended geographic boundaries because of their wandering mandate and shared religious ideals.

The volume is divided into three parts, organized around the themes of word, deed, and image. Each article takes a particular text—whether written or material—as a starting point for a broader exploration of a particular mendicant culture. Part 1 examines the ways in which the friars constructed and disseminated their spiritual values for the consumption of their own community as well as broader society. In “Of Bees and Brethren,” Ann Holloway challenges a traditional narrative of early Dominican identity that prioritized education and contemplation by illuminating the importance given to preaching in Dominican writings. Nancy Thompson explores the meaning of light in Franciscan spirituality through a study of the stained glass commissioned for the upper gallery in the main convent in Assisi as well as in other churches in Tuscany and Umbria. Peter Howard’s study of Bartolomeo Lapacci Rimbertini illuminates the theological dimensions of the preaching of this popular, highly educated Dominican. Melissa Moreton uses the sermon diary to reconstruct the local preaching ministry of a member of the Dominican community of San Marco in the tense political era of Savonarolean Florence. In part 2, Beverly Mayne Kienzle studies the interplay of mendicant authors and holy women in the construction of Italian hagiographic accounts. Ashley Elston illuminates a sacred geography in the church of Santa Croce in Florence traced by the liturgical procession of Franciscan bodies between the famous reliquary cupboard painted by Taddeo Ghaddi of the life of Francis located in the sacristy, and stained-glass images of the life of Christ in the main body of the church.

Madeleine Rislow examines the unique artistic use of liminal spaces—portals—in Geneose Dominican communities to express core values. Sally Cornelison provides a convincing gendered analysis of lay devotion through examination of space and the timing of liturgical rites at the tomb of Saint Antoninus at San Marco in Florence. The articles in part 3 more fully embrace the engagement of the order outside of Europe, and in particular the Islamic world. Anthony J. Watson’s close examination of William of Rubruck’s famous thirteenth-century account of Asia illuminates the Scholastic theologian underlying the missionary, in particular through his presentation of the many other faiths in Eurasia. John Zaleski argues that Pius II’s energetic support for the canonization of Catherine of Siena must be interpreted in light of Ottoman advancement into Europe but also the tense relations between pope and early modern rulers. It reflected a profound desire on the part of Pius, in particular, he argues, to redefine “Christianitas” as a community of committed believers and an “army” of saints. The final article, by Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby, traces the resurgence and reinterpretation of a Franciscan crusading ideology through analysis of the seventeenth-century decorations in the church of the Ognissanti in Florence. Stirred by the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Observant friars of the Ognissanti privileged images of Franciscan saints who had challenged the forces of Islam: Francis of Assisi, Clare of Assisi, and Bernardino of Capistrano.

On the whole this is a strong collection of articles with many important insights to offer on the character and influence of the Franciscan and Dominican traditions. The number of common themes cries out, even so, for a stronger connecting framework that could bring the articles more clearly into conversation with one another. A longer and more substantive introduction would be useful, in particular, for contextualizing mendicant discussions on community and the struggle for spiritual authenticity, as well as pastoral responsibilities. What it meant to be “mendicant” above all deserves more sustained discussion given that the four great orders—Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite, and Augustinian—have long shared a preoccupation with poverty and a wandering ministry. That said, Mendicant Cultures illustrates very well the diverse nature and high quality of recent scholarship on the mendicant orders