The Church of Rome in the early Middle Ages arguably shaped ecclesiastical life for all of medieval Christendom, so it remains the focus of intense scholarly activity. Given the apparent centrality of Roman liturgy to the rest of the world, it remains puzzling that its analysis has not hitherto been a key tool for examining medieval Roman history. Historians often eschew liturgy as a source, perhaps because it requires such technical knowledge, or maybe because some think that it remained marginal to daily life or the workings of power. Romano's book, developed out of a 2007 PhD dissertation, boldly attempts to promote liturgy as a source. He claims that prayer and liturgical ritual were the primary means by which the bishops and priests of Rome communicated with Romans and the world. The core of the book is the analysis and translation of Ordo Romanus I, the first extant liturgy of the papal mass at Rome, dating from the late seventh century. Romano has published research on this document before, but here it receives robust treatment – not a revision of M. Andreiu's critical edition, but a ‘rereading’ calibrating the weight given to certain manuscripts and a circumspect study in the light of broad historical questions. Romano is clearly correct to lament the insularity of early medieval liturgical studies and to stress the need to study Rome and its liturgical development as part of a larger process of constructing authority for the bishop of Rome. His study, however, avoids engaging with the social history which would help us make sense of all this liturgy – laity as audience (mostly as pilgrims) appear only very briefly in this Church-driven view of medieval Rome. We know very little about lay prayer and practice, and virtually nothing about monastic liturgy. All of our preserved sources are papal, but it does not follow that all the liturgy of Rome was directed at promoting the papacy. Further, the ‘canny’ use of liturgy to ‘order the papal court’ was surely not the end in itself of the carefully orchestrated ceremonies and the textual and visual apparatus that accompanied them. The bishops of Rome had mundane as well as religious aims in marshalling and manipulating the thoughts and hearts of Romans and non-Romans alike. These issues of interpretation aside, the book achieves one of its main aims: it makes the liturgy of early medieval Rome come alive as well as newly accessible and intelligible to the wider audience of scholars and students of medieval Rome.