This monograph, originally a thesis supervised by Christoph Markschies and submitted at the University of Jena in 1999, attempts a comprehensive review of the life, career and works of Pope Damasus of Rome. As Ursula Reutter states in her preface, she has been able to add only a few items to the bibliography since 1999. The book is organised in six chapters: chapter i, aptly titled ‘Biographische Fragmente’ collects the scant information for the life and career of Damasus: he was the contested successor of Pope Liberius who – after having been sent into exile by the emperor Constantius ii – had been replaced by a certain Felix. After Liberius' return to Rome, the Roman Church was in effect split between the two for several years. The schism broke out again after the death of Liberius on 24 September 366: two popes were elected, one, Damasus, in Lucinis (S. Lorenzo in Lucina) and Ursinus in the basilica Iuli (S. Maria in Trastevere). Reutter believes that it may well have been Damasus who had been elected slightly earlier (pp. 43f). In any case, she argues, it was Damasus, not Ursinus, who managed to occupy the Lateran, availed himself of the support of the Italian bishops (only one of them seems to have sided with Ursinus), enjoyed the support of the probable majority of the Roman Church and was therefore duly ordained a few days after his election. The conflict between the two contenders turned violent: on 26 October Damasus and his followers besieged the basilica Liberii (S. Maria Maggiore) which had been occupied by their opponents. They eventually broke into the church and killed 160 followers of Ursinus, men and women.

The tumultuous events surrounding his contested election were to overshadow a good part of Damasus' period in office, and – after having been accused of homicide by a certain Isaac – it was in the end the emperor himself who had to intervene in order to clear the pope's name (pp. 165–70). The novel aspects of Reutter's reconstruction are due mainly to her mistrust of the most important source for these events, the report in Collectio Avellana 1.1–14 which was composed by a follower of Ursinus. It is a pity that Reutter could not or would not react to the alternative reconstruction by A. Coskun (‘Der Präfekt Maximinus, der Jude Isaak und der Strafprozess gegen Bischof Damasus von Rom’, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum xlvi [2003], 16–44). Coskun, on his part, briefly comments on Reutter's thesis (at the time unpublished) only in the very last footnote of his article. Reutter devotes her second chapter to Damasus' project of Christianising Roman space: the versatile pope composed epigrams, putting up all but two of them to embellish the funeral sites of martyrs and other important Christian dead. Furius Dionysius Filocalus, an eminent artist and the only calligrapher of his times known by name, designed the beautiful script (pp. 12–15, 57–153). Reutter also provides a useful survey of Damasus' building activity and the learned controversies about it (pp. 99–111). Chapters iii–v deal in great detail with the literary legacy of Damasus' papacy: in each case Reutter presents the relevant texts with a facing translation. She surveys the transmission of the texts, analyses their structure and comments on selected topics. Chapter iii (pp. 154–91) deals in its first part with the letter of a Roman synod in 378 to the emperors Gratian and Valentinian ii (Ambrosius, epistula extra collectionem 7: it is concerned with episcopal jurisdiciton and imperial support for it) and the imperial response (Collectio Avellana 13). The second part of ch. ii is devoted to the oldest decretal, the letter Ad Gallos. In 1904 Ernest Charles Babut was the first to propose the attribution of this text to Damasus; until then either Siricius or Innocent had been considered its authors. Other eminent historians, for example Charles Piétri, accepted Babut's hypothesis. Reutter's analysis leads her to endorse Babut's proposal; she emphasises particularly certain agreements with Jerome. Unfortunately she could not take into account the late Y.-M. Duval's La Décrétale Ad Gallos episcopos (Leiden 2004). Duval, with more and other arguments, came to the same conclusion. In 2010, however, C. Hornung submitted a thesis at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Bonn (‘Directa ad decessorem: ein kirchenhistorisch-philologischer Kommentar zur ersten Dekretale des Siricius von Rom’) which builds a strong case for disagreeing with Babut, Duval and Reutter and attributing the text to Damasus' successor Siricius (Hornung's thesis will be published in the series Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum: Ergänzungsbände). In chapter iv (pp. 248–349) Reutter first analyses document no. 3 of part ii of the Codex Veronensis LX: she proposes to distinguish between the synodical letter of a Roman synod of 371 (Confidimus quidem) and the letter of a second Roman synod (Ea gratia /Non nobis quidquam) which was accepted by an Antiochene synod in either 378 or 379. According to Reutter, the anti-Apollinarist section 3 of document no.3 (Illud sane miramur) belongs to a different context. Reutter then turns to Damasus' letter to Paulinus of Antioch (Per filium meum) in which the pope lays down the conditions for communion with him and Paulinus, in particular the rejection of the Christological teachings of Apollinaris of Laodicea (350–67). Moreover, Reutter argues for dating the anti-Apollinarist text Illud sane miramur before this letter (p. 371). The last part of chapter iv (pp. 381–426) analyses the Tomus Damasi: Reutter proposes to distinguish two versions. According to her the original Tomus was drawn up by a Roman synod in about 375 ce and contained the Nicene Creed combined with an anathema against the Pneumatomachi and a number of propositions exposing the Nicene Creed and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. In chapter v (pp. 428–513) Reutter deals with four documents which demonstrate Rome's claim to be the centre of Christendom: a letter of Damasus condemning a disciple of Apollinaris, Timotheus (Theodoret, Ecclesiastical history v.9.20); two letters to Bishop Acholius of Thessalonike, condemning the ordination of the philosopher Maximus as bishop of Constantinople; and the Decretum Gelasianum (pp. 429–513). With regard to this last document one is confronted again, as in the case of the Damasian material in Codex Veronensis LX or the Tomus Damasi, with a composite text. The manuscript tradition attributes the Decretum either to Damasus or to Gelasius; Reutter notes that most manuscripts that assign the Decretum to Gelasius omit its first two sections (p. 468). Reutter tries to argue that Damasus is the author of parts i–iii: according to her the third part should be read as the reaction of the Roman synod of 382 to the Second Ecumenical Council of 381. The first part deals with the seven-fold Spirit and the titles of Christ; according to Reutter it comments on the Roman liturgy. The second part is a list of the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments; here Reutter notes partial agreements with Jerome. It has to be said that arguments which are here advanced in favour of Damasus as the author of parts i–iii of the Decretum Gelasianum seem to be somewhat less than totally compelling: I doubt that they are sufficient to destroy the sceptical arguments so succinctly formulated by C. Pietri (Roma Christiana, Rome 1976), 881–4. The sixth and very brief final chapter (pp. 514–16) summarises the author's conclusions by portraying Damasus as an important innovator on the papal throne. Reutter's monograph presents a wealth of judicious observations and arguments. Not all of her proposals are equally convincing, but future research on Damasus and his time, and more generally on the synodical history of the fourth century, would be well advised critically to engage with them.