Twenty chapters composed by twenty-one contributors make up this volume that draws its origins from a conference held at the British School at Rome in March 2010. The centrality of the Vatican basilica to the history of medieval and western Christianity amply justifies this volume, and both the attempt at complete coverage and the excellent plans will make it an essential reference tool for the future.

Opening the volume is an introduction by the editors that contextualises and furnishes an overview of the contributions. Starting the series, P. Liverani focuses upon how St Peter's functioned as a centre of social assistance and a theatre to constitutive moments in the Roman community's history, such as the recitation of Arator's poetic rendering of the Acts of the Apostles. Next R. Gem seeks to reassign the paternity of the basilica to Constantine the Great, claiming that work began in late 324 only to end in the late 340s. L. Bosman discusses the use, potential or ascertained, of spolia in the construction of St Peter's basilica. O. Brandt reviews the evidence for a baptistery at the Vatican as of the pontificate of Damasus. McK. examines the testimony offered by the Liber Pontificalis for the old St Peter's basilica, thereby highlighting the importance that this church gradually acquired over Late Antiquity. M. McEvoy makes illuminating observations regarding renewed imperial patronage in the course of the fifth century, as revealed by the mausoleum of the emperor Honorius. In a similar vein, A. Thacker argues that it was in the latter half of the fifth century and in the sixth century that St Peter's basilica was re-appropriated by the bishop of Rome from the senatorial elite and emperors. P. Jeffrey attempts to shed light upon the shape of the liturgy at the Vatican through the eighth century, deploying synodal decrees and hagiographic materials as well as calendars (ordines) and the Liber Pontificalis. E. Ó Carragáin examines the relationship between politics and liturgy, through new festivals such as Annunciation and as regards the issues of icons and saints' relics in the late seventh and first half of the eighth centuries. A. Ballardini and P. Pogliani discuss the Oratory of the Virgin by John VII, offering a detailed attempt to reconstruct and interpret this important early medieval Marian shrine. C.B. McClendon examines the interest of the papacy in icons as expressed by actions taken at the Vatican during the eighth and ninth centuries. A. van Dijk reviews the history of the so-called Veil of Veronica, offering the intriguing suggestion that its ‘invention’ belongs to the period immediately following the Saracen pirates' sack of St Peter's basilica in a.d. 846. S. investigates Carolingian involvement in and presence at the old St Peter's basilica, usefully calling attention to the acrostic poem that constitutes the preface to the Dionysio-Hadriana canon law collection. O. examines not only the history but also the medieval stories that accrued about the Vatican obelisk, in so doing offering a useful topographical survey of the environs of St Peter's at the close of the Middle Ages. C. Vircillo Franklin utilises a document that she labels the San Pietro Legendary (SPL) in order to cast light upon the liturgy of St Peter's basilica at the very end of the eleventh century. K. Christa Schüppel's paper is an exemplary study in how an artefact made of humble material such as a stucco crucifix, which is a sixteenth-century copy of a late medieval silver original, can provide insight into the religious mindset and generation of artistic models. R. investigates the history of St Peter's basilica in the fifteenth century, delineating in clear and convincing fashion the influence that was exercised from 1445 to 1471 by Pietro Barbo first as cardinal and then as Pope Paul II. R. Glass examines the genesis of the monumental bronze doors created by Filarete for Eugenius IV, highlighting their indebtedness to Classical sculpture. C. Fletcher offers a persuasive study in the invention of tradition at St Peter's basilica, as embodied by the ‘ancient tradition’ surrounding the Altar of St Maurice and the ceremony of the coronation of the emperor. Bringing the book to a close, B. Kempers follows in this critical line with an examination of the evidence for the intentions of Julius II as regards what his architects were to do at the Vatican. Closing the volume is an appendix offering a bilingual edition of the 1605 letter by the canons of St Peter's basilica that proved responsible for the elongation of the present-day church's nave. Repeatedly detailed, critical examination of the evidence reveals that the history of the old St Peter's basilica has been far from linear.

Although there are lessons to be drawn from the later chapters, in terms of comparative approaches to history and material culture as a manifestation of religious sentiment, that portion of the book dedicated to Late Antiquity (a.d. 300–650) is likely to be of the greatest interest to readers of this journal. However, this part of the volume will be superseded if my contention that the church was built by Constantius II in a.d. 357–359 is upheld (R. Westall, ‘Constantius II and the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican’, Historia [forthcoming 2015]). Rearguard attempts to defend the traditional attribution of the old St Peter's to Constantine the Great (Liverani, Gem, Thacker, McK.), despite Bowersock's work (‘Peter and Constantine’, in W. Tronzo [ed.], St. Peter's in the Vatican [2005]), fail to deal with the resounding silence of the literary record up until the last year of the pontificate of Liberius (352–366), the manifestly vitiated nature of the narrative of the Liber Pontificalis and the sudden explosion of positive evidence as of the burial of the praefectus urbis Iunius Bassus in a.d. 359. Claims that Ceionius Rufius Volusianus signo Lampadius provided largesse to the Christian poor in a.d. 335/340 (Liverani, pp. 21–5; Thacker, p. 142) are based upon a failure to read the Latin text of Ammianus Marcellinus with a critical eye for style and content, and an obdurate belief that the Liber Pontificalis is trustworthy (cf. T.D. Barnes, review of P. Brown 2012, Canadian Journal of History [forthcoming 2014]). From a methodological viewpoint, the matter is astonishingly simple: the Datianus who heads the list of property-owners named by a document of the 380s cited by the Liber Pontificalis (LP 34.19) must be identified with the Censorius Datianus (cos. 358) who was a long-standing intimate of Constantius II, a Christian, and in all likelihood comes rei privatae at the time. Indeed, it is worth remarking that the archaeological evidence makes far better sense – on the tried and true principle that motifs (e.g. a palmette or a ground-plan) become more complicated with the passage of time – if the old St Peter's be dated to the latter half of the 350s. Failure to recognise both the fundamental unreliability of the narrative portions of the Liber Pontificalis and the complications attaching to the non-narrative portions means an inability to draw the necessary conclusions for the history of St Peter's basilica in Late Antiquity and consequently vitiates many of the initial contributions to this attractive volume.

The old St Peter's basilica offers fundamental, important insight into Late Antiquity and this volume's detailed treatment is welcome, but both the above and various other problems are visible and disconcerting. Of these perhaps the worst is a persistent inability to cite documents verbatim. Indeed, readers find themselves confronted with images of inscriptions that are never incorporated within the text, except in passing reference as though they were monuments to be appreciated for the mere fact of their existence. Despite such problems, the production of the volume is highly commendable, with maps that will make it a pleasure to use this work for research and teaching purposes.