Between 2006 and 2014, the authors of this volume led multiple archaeological campaigns in Ethiopia to investigate the impact of the Jesuit era (1557–1632) on the country’s architecture, art, and material culture. This volume offers a comprehensive account of the methods, challenges, and outcomes of this unprecedented effort to document one of the most consequential and controversial missionary efforts in early modern Africa.

Chapter 1 offers little beyond a chronological summary of the archaeological campaigns completed over the years. Unfortunately, it fails to introduce the volume’s contents and reads more like a preface than an introduction. Chapter 2 draws the contours of the Jesuit mission to Ethiopia and identifies two fundamental phases for its architectural history: an experimental one in the late 1610s, and a “patriarchal” one coinciding with the mission’s final years (23). In the first, the fathers began tinkering with vernacular architecture by introducing new building techniques; in the second, they engaged in ambitious construction projects geared toward securing the support of the Ethiopian elites for the Jesuit cause by providing them with an “architecture of power” (24) of European but also Indian derivation.

The bulk of chapter 3 consists of ten site-specific reports. No review or summary could do justice to the wealth of material included in this section, which accounts for two-thirds of the volume’s length. All sites underwent a surface survey, and the most important ones also benefited from excavation, 3-D scanning, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys. Particularly noteworthy are the comprehensive discussions of the royal complex of Azäzo-Gännätä Iyäsus, and of the Gorgora Peninsula, which alone make up about half of the volume. At the end of the chapter, the reader will also find a brief overview of the “Lost Missions” (435–40), locales identified in the literary record but yet to be found. Chapter 4 offers a structured discussion of the volume’s central theme: the dual purpose of Jesuit innovations. The fathers deployed their technical and artistic talent not only to win over Ethiopian grandees to Catholicism. They also provided their interlocutors with ways to facilitate the “consolidation of royal power, the development of a centralized administration, and the formation of state structures” (455), which in turn would be instrumental in converting the populace. In this perspective, the construction of complexes characterized by advanced sewage systems, rainwater-harvesting cisterns, imposing single-nave churches, and fortified walls was the direct result of a “symbiotic relationship between the Jesuits and the ruling elites” (449), one in which Ethiopian royals became enthusiastic financial backers of Jesuit projects.

Chapter 5 further elaborates on the transfer of styles and techniques from both early modern Europe and India, and offers some concluding thoughts on the long-term influence of Jesuit practices on vernacular architecture in the Gondarine era. In the five appendixes, the reader will find additional discussions of the employed topographic techniques (appendix 1), 3-D modeling for the reconstruction of selected sites (appendix 2), 3-D GPR for the surveying of Azäzo (appendix 3), reports on conservation and restoration options (appendix 4), and public archaeology projects in Azäzo (appendix 5). One of the striking and most commendable features of this volume, which speaks to the interdisciplinarity of the project and of the team of investigators who led it, is the dialectic between literary and archaeological evidence that the authors weave throughout the text.

Of the many intriguing discoveries and innovating interpretations included in this work, two contributions stand out for their interdisciplinary significance. One is that the authors’ findings dovetail with recent historiographic calls for a more nuanced understanding of the era, one capable of moving past simplistic notions of a Jesuit-Ethiopian confrontation. The archaeological record points at a collaborative engagement between the missionaries and the Ethiopian elites, who built innovative sites of worship and power to serve their respective objectives: conversion and centralization. The other is that while the fathers presented their architectural accomplishments as products of Portuguese ingenuity, evidence from multiple sites confirms that their creations were deeply informed by Mughal style (30–34). The fathers saw themselves as purveyors of Christian European civilization, but they also operated, albeit unwittingly, as cultural brokers between non-European societies.

The volume could hardly be more comprehensive, and the account of almost a decade of archaeological campaigns more thorough. On the other hand, completeness was achieved at the expense of readability. In particular, the ten site reports making up the bulk of chapter 5 are quite repetitive: one wonders whether the content could have been reworked into a less procedural and more engaging text, and about the choice of having a 404-page chapter in a 600-page book. But these are minor flaws, and scholars of early modern Africa should make sure to add this volume to their library. The stunning collection of contemporary and archival pictures, map, plans, and renderings, adding up to almost five hundred colored plates, is guaranteed to atone for the exorbitant price tag.