Challenging though the prospect of reading 1325 pages on Latin writing from the Tyrol is, one soon recognizes that this is a major handbook encapsulating an immense fund of erudition and information, most appealingly presented and enlivened not least by some 200 illustrations (though many of these are too small to be more than adornments). Whereas previous work on Neo-Latin has tended to focus on individual authors, genres, and writing from particular towns or wider areas corresponding to modern political states — one thinks of Georg Ellinger’s Geschichte der neulateinischen Literatur Deutschlands (1929–33) and Minna Skafte-Jensen’s A History of Nordic Neo-Latin Literature (1995) — Tyrolis Latina is a courageous but overwhelmingly successful attempt to survey the whole range of Latin writing — literary, scholarly, and utilitarian — of an entire region, the geographic-historical area of the (Austrian and Italian) Tyrol, from the late fourth century to the early years of the twenty-first. The Tyrol, a region with three courts (at Innsbruck, Brixen, and Trent) but no large cities, very many monasteries though none of them really important, and a long and powerful Jesuit presence, is not defined by modern national boundaries but represents a region molded by both Austro-German and Italian influences. Although the region represents only about 0.25 percent of the area of Europe, the amount of Latin writing it produced was immense: the research project on which the book is based brought to light 7,000 texts, including 5,600 by some 2,000 named authors and 1,400 anonymous ones. What is surprising, especially given that the usual focus of Neo-Latin studies tends to be on the early modern period, is that the bulk of Latin writing in Tyrol dates from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, reflecting the influence of the University of Innsbruck (founded 1669), the strong presence of the Jesuits, and the impact of Roman Catholicism generally.

The material is divided into seven periods: from the emergence of Tyrol as a political entity down to ca. 1285; 1285 to the death of Emperor Maximilian I in 1519; the Reformation and Counter-Reformation down to the death of Ferdinand II in 1595; 1595 to 1665 (the demise of the Tyrolean branch of the Habsburgs); the period from the founding of the University of Innsbruck to the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773; 1773 to the 1848 revolution; and from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Each section begins with an excellent overall survey of the relevant period, and then the material is arranged, as far as possible, by genres: poetry; rhetoric and eloquence (mostly orations and addresses of various kinds directed to Habsburg princes or major prelates); historiography; biography; correspondence; music; church writing; philosophy; medicine and science; and law. Although such a scheme may have its problems — not the least of which is that the same authors and topics may recur at several places (for instance, the literature concerning Simon of Trent, the Christian boy allegedly sacrificially murdered by the Jews in 1475, surfaces no fewer than eighteen times) — it is of considerable assistance to readers trying to orientate themselves in the sheer mass of material. Especially helpful, too, is the provision of a shoulder note to each paragraph briefly indicating its content. All Latin titles and quotations are accompanied by translations, and the contents of the many unfamiliar works have been succinctly (in some cases even extensively) summarized, often with judicious assessments of the relevant author’s Latin style and his indebtedness to classical models, all of which makes the work extremely user-friendly and renders the content accessible both to specialists in a wide range of disciplines and to nonspecialists alike. Footnotes have been kept to a minimum, with succinct references to secondary literature being incorporated into the main text instead.

It is impossible here to do more than scratch the surface of such a monumental work. Apart from those with special interests in theology, philosophy, and the law, most readers are likely to turn to the excellent chapters on historiography, poetry, and Jesuit and school drama (266–81; 436–64; 660–700), much of which is as yet unedited and largely neglected. Alongside valuable assessments of well-known writers such as Jakob Balde, “the greatest neo-Latin poet of them all” (453), or the “literary Wunderkind” Clementino Vannetti (694), there are illuminating accounts of the work of countless lesser-known figures, including Luisa Anzoletti (1863–1925), the only female author encountered in the book. In addition to extensive treatment of many theological and philosophical controversies, there are fascinating discussions of such topics as medical men’s debates over the respective merits of water and wine, and coffee, chocolate, and tobacco. Amusing is Archduke Leopold’s conviction in 1622 that aurum potabile (potable gold) was the only medicine fit for a sick Habsburg (582).

All told, Tyrolis Latina will long serve as a standard handbook, offering an inexhaustible wealth of information, not least about the role of Tyrolean writers in preserving and developing classical traditions; and it will assuredly also stimulate further research on the neglected figures and the enormous range of Latin writing associated with the schools, monasteries, seminaries, and other institutions in the region over the past sixteen centuries.