Krisztina Ilko’s generously illustrated book focuses on the Augustinian Hermits during the first century of their existence. Unlike the Franciscans or Dominicans, the Augustinians were formed from several preexisting distinct groups of hermits officially joined together in the Magna Unio (Great Union) of 1256. Scholarship available in English on the history of hermits during the first centuries of their existence includes David Gutiérrez’s The Augustinians in the Middle Ages 1256–1356, trans. Arthur J. Ennis (Villanova, PA: Augustinian Historical Institute, Villanova University, 1984), and Frances Andrews’s The Other Friars: Carmelite, Augustinian, Sack and Pied Friars in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2006). Art historical studies include the book edited by Louise Bourdua and Anne Dunlop on Art and the Augustinian Order in Early Renaissance Italy (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007).

The author goes beyond these examples by offering a cross-disciplinary perspective bringing together history, architecture, reliquaries, tombs, and paintings – including manuscript illuminations, panel paintings, and frescoes. The focus on central Italy reflects the concentration of Augustinian houses during this period. The text is divided into six chapters that start by giving a historical overview (Chapter 1: The Order of the Hermits of St Augustine), followed by an investigation of the ways in which the interiors of Augustinian churches were configured and used, and their furniture (Chapter 2: Creating the Augustinian Church Interior). The following three chapters privilege the Augustinian arts, focusing in turn on “St Augustine” (Chapter 3), “The Old Hermits” (Chapter 4), and the “New Hermits” (Chapter 5). Chapter 6 on “Where the Wild Things Are” picks up on some of the arguments in previous chapters to explore new understandings of the importance of the natural environment to the Augustinian Hermits.

The Sons of Saint Augustine is an ambitious book. Ilko sets out to explore the importance of a series of interrelated issues to the Order: the strategies used to establish a link to Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430), the significance of the untamed landscape, and the promotion of saints and holy people. Drawing on the approach of cultural historian Jan Assmann, among others, Ilko argues that considering the ways in which the Augustinian Hermits constructed their collective memory can further our understanding of the development of the Order (5–6). The fictive communal history applied to Saint Augustine by the Hermits in the art commissioned by and for them has been discussed by several scholars. Ilko expands on this work through the range of her examples and a careful consideration of specific details of iconography, such as the way in which the rule of Saint Augustine is visualized in the scene of the “Giving of the Rule.” She also pays close attention to two of the holy men whose followers became members of the Augustinian Hermits at the time of the Great Union: Giovanni Bono (d. 1249), founder of the Bonites, and Guglielmo (William) of Malavalle (d. 1157), whose post-mortem adherents were known as Williamites. The range of holy people promoted by the Order, Ilko posits, demonstrates the ways in which they sought to position themselves as relevant to the urban landscape – as seen in Simone Martini’s early fourteenth-century panel showing scenes of the life of Agostino Novello (d. 1309) discussed in Chapter 5 – and to rural areas – as explored through the iconography of Giovanni Bono and Guglielmo of Malavalle in Chapter 4, as well that of Agostino Novello.

The amount of material marshalled throughout this book is rich, detailed, and impressive, bringing together a range of archival research with a command of the secondary literature, and a thorough knowledge of the art and architecture of the Order. The Sons of St Augustine is packed with information and will be a deep fount of information for anyone working on the Hermits in central Italy. One might wish that there had been the opportunity to take a little more time over some discussions. Doing so would have helped to make the text accessible to a wider readership. However, this is not to take away from the very real achievement of casting new light on the Hermits and their varied strategies for collective memory making.