This excellent volume of essays provides the reader with an impressive range of studies on late-medieval urban religion (particularly in the Low Countries). Although a quick glance at the table of contents might not lead one to expect cohesion given the geographic, thematic, and disciplinary ranges of the essays, the editor and contributors do succeed remarkably well in producing a collection that exemplifies the goal of this kind of study—unity in diversity. Suzan Folkerts's introduction, “Religious Connectivity as a Holistic Approach to Urban Society” (11–20), skillfully shares the intellectual perspective that informed the conference's planning and the ensuing volume. Marina Gazzini's contribution, “Urban Society and Lay-Religious Communities: Notes on Confraternities in Italian Communes and Signories” (21–42), summarizes some of the main aspects of the role of confraternities in Italy, without adding too much new. Cora Zwart, “Religion as a Connecting Force in the Late Medieval City of Utrecht: The Religious Life of Alderman and Mayor Dirck Borre van Amerongen (c. 1438–1528)” (43–74) is an especially admirable example of interdisciplinary microhistory. Other strong, informative essays include Megan Edwards Alvarez, “Fleshers, Saints, and Bones: Connectivities that Transcend the Sacred-Secular Divide within the Medieval Scottish Burgh of Perth” (75–98); Johanneke Uphoff, “Dit boec heft gegeven: Book Donation as an Indicator of a Shared Culture of Devotion in the Late Medieval Low Countries” (99–124); An-Katrien Hanselaer, “Recycled Piety or a Self-Made Community? The Late Medieval Manuscripts of the Tertiaries of Sint-Catharinadal in Hasselt” (125–156); and Cécile de Morrée, “The Re-Use of Melodies as an Indication of the Connection of Religious Song to the Urban Environment” (157–184). Delphine Mercuzot, “Caxton's Press and Pilgrimages: Shaping Groups of Travellers into a New Community of Interpretation?” (185–214) is a novel approach to a well-known figure of English literary history. Elsa Kammerer, in “How Figures of the Bible Connected Printers, Artists, and Friends (1538–1576)” (215–238), deftly examines the role of social networks in the production of image-Bibles in the sixteenth century; the work she does in this essay is truly fascinating. María José Vega's contribution (“The Coalman and the Devil: Carbonaria Fides and the Limits of Lay Religious Knowledge” [239–262]) was perhaps the most captivating of the collection: the diverse uses of a simple folktale-like exemplum across confessional divisions in the sixteenth century was fascinating (and a model of research crossing numerous linguistic and confessional divides). Finally, Folkerts concludes the volume with “People, Passion, and Prayer: Religious Connectivity in the Hanseatic City of Deventer” (263–276). The quality of the contributions is quite high; as ever in conference proceedings, some essays have undergone more polish in their journey to print than others. All in all, however, the volume admirably addresses late-medieval lay religion in an impressively wide variety of contexts and from a similarly diverse range of disciplinary perspectives.
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