Musicologists have only recently begun to explore the ways in which censorship has affected the production, consumption, and reception of music in the Western classical tradition. The focus of this strand of scholarship has so far been on twentieth- and twenty-first-century music, with relatively few studies devoted to the early modern period. For this reason, Anne Piéjus's monograph is a very welcome addition, in that it sheds light on the theory and practice of censorship, as well as on the cultural and aesthetic implications thereof, in vocal music from Counter-Reformation Italy. More specifically, Piéjus places a monumental collection of three-voice spiritual laudi, the Tempio armonico (1599) assembled by Giovanni Giovenale Ancina (1545–1604), in the context of the Counter-Reformation culture of censorship. Affiliated with Filippo Neri's Congregazione dell'Oratorio and inspired by Neri's ideals of spiritual regeneration, Ancina was a refined man of letters and a competent musician who sought to purge contemporaneous secular vocal music from its lasciviousness. To this end, he manipulated the texts of madrigals and canzonettas by some of the most prominent composers of the late sixteenth century, especially of Roman provenance, assembling the newly texted works in the Tempio armonico. Piéjus provides an in-depth and sophisticated study of this important collection, analyzing Ancina's practice of textual manipulation and explaining its significance in the larger context of Counter-Reformation culture.

Piéjus's monograph is divided into four parts, for a total of thirteen chapters. Framing the monograph are an introduction, a conclusion, and six short appendixes with tables of manuscript and printed material consulted and samples of Ancina's textual revisions. Part 1 of the monograph, “Un temple harmonique” (A harmonic temple), is essentially introductory, as it provides an overview of Ancina's career, with an emphasis on his affiliation with the Congregazione and his involvement in the Roman musical milieu, and outlines the genesis and structure of the Tempio. The most interesting chapter of this part is the fourth, “Les vestiges du temple” (The vestiges of the temple), in which Piéjus examines some hitherto-overlooked manuscripts, including preparatory material for the Tempio, which document Ancina's practice as a censor and manipulator of texts from secular vocal music.

Part 2, “Musique et censure” (Music and censorship), is an extensive investigation of the nature and function of censorship in Counter-Reformation Italy, particularly in the milieu of Neri's Congregazione and its relationship to music. Chapter 6, “Musica bifrons” (Two-faced music), and chapter 7, “Théorie et étique de la parodie spirituelle” (Theory and practice of the spiritual parody), are especially important as they zoom in on the status of music during the Counter-Reformation and on the moral underpinnings of music censorship, respectively. The latter subject is further explored in the two chapters of part 3, “La croisade musicale” (The musical crusade), which focus on the moralizing efforts underlying Ancina's work on the Tempio armonico.

Part 4, “Écrir, Récrir” (Writing, rewriting), engages more directly with the texts of the Tempio armonico, providing an in-depth analysis of the techniques of textual manipulation adopted by Ancina. This analysis is especially useful as it offers a more nuanced insight into the work of a Counter-Reformation censor than is typically offered in standard narratives. More specifically, Piéjus does an excellent job of illustrating the sophistication of Ancina's work, which ranges from simple correction to full-fledged rewriting. Especially interesting is Ancina's use of a variety of poetic sources for his revisions, which places the Tempio armonico at the center of the very complex intertextual web that Piéjus has deciphered in her study. This sophistication speaks to the intellectual stature of Ancina and casts his work as a censor as an artistic achievement in its own right, rather than simply as a purge of lascivious texts in accordance with the morals of the Counter-Reformation.

Aside from an occasional tendency toward redundancy in the more theoretical chapters, Piéjus's is a rich and stimulating monograph that sheds light on one of the most fascinating figures of late sixteenth-century Italy, Giovanni Giovenale Ancina, and provides us with a deeper understanding of the role that censorship played in the culture of Counter-Reformation Italy. Accordingly, it is enthusiastically recommended to anyone with an interest in this period.