This important volume contains papers from a conference organised by Pavel Blažek in 2012. It provides a panorama view of ideas about marriage in medieval theology and related disciplines: thus it belongs to the history of ideas more than to social history, though there are evident implications for the latter. Blažek himself closes the book with editions of marriage sermons by the Franciscan Berthold of Regensburg, one of the most powerful medieval preachers, after opening it with a full analysis of the volume's contents, in German. Here I try to convey the essence of each contribution's argument, as ideas can easily get lost to scholarship in so big a collection. L. Reynolds traces from late antiquity to the Council of Trent the history of the idea of marriage as an institution founded in the Garden of Eden – as opposed to ideas about sacramental marriage, which have received more attention. (Between the conference and this volume, in should be noted, Reynolds published a magisterial survey of the whole history of marriage theology from patristic times to the Council of Trent.) D. Hunter suggests that in late antiquity the marriages of the clergy were intended to be ‘paradigmatic for the rest of the community, as models of the unity and permanence expected of all Christians’: i.e. a married clergy, sexually active for many years but continent for those of the rank of deacon and above, yet still with their wives, who could not be a second wife and who must not have been previously married, represented not suspicion of marriage but an ideal of marriage. This important argument suggests that the origins of clerical celibacy were bound up not with denigration of marriage but a high ideal of the institution. A. Scafi rightly sees the question of whether Adam and Eve were married in Paradise as a proxy for whether marriage is naturally good, as Augustine believed (despite his reputation for negativity on the subject). I. Weber analyses an early medieval synthesis of biblical authority with social norms. The interpenetration of secular and ecclesiastical law is a principal finding. Social values made marriage a matter for two families as well as two individuals, and, consequently, a marriage without the proper involvement of the families counted as adultery; so did even the participation in such a marriage of a third individual family member. Families also had to be involved in the dissolution of a marriage. In general the understanding of adultery was broad – including for instance sex with someone other than one's betrothed. Contemporaries gave biblical evidence for their understanding of adultery. Penances laid down by penitentials are reported. Throughout the gender symmetry of the norms is stressed. M. Ingegno emphasises the influence of St Augustine on the thought about marriage and virginity of Gilbert de la Porrée. The latter argues for the goodness of marriage as a gift of God and as a choice of the partners. Chastity of widows and widowers is even better, chastity best of all. Her conclusions are supported by ample citations from an unpublished manuscript of Gilbert. M.-O. Bonnichon shows that Innocent iii’s Quadripartita specie nuptiarum was a pendant to, and corrective of, his treatise on the ‘Misery of the human condition’. The union of man and woman derives meaning from the union of human and divine in Christ. Marriage liturgy, as explicated by Innocent, brings out this mystery. Innocent highlights connections between human marriage and the various forms of symbolic marriage. There is a detailed paraphrase. J. Kasnj examines betrothal, legitimate birth and dowries in the work of Raymond of Peñaforte op. Dowries could be regulated by either secular or canon law. Which law controlled it in which regions? Kasnj does not address the question, but somebody should. J. Granados compares the marriage theologies of Bonaventure and Aquinas. Bonaventure stresses the continuity of marriage's religious significance, from the Creation on, whereas Aquinas focuses on the difference made to marriage by the coming of Christ, an event – as opposed to his Franciscan counterpart's longue durée approach. Another exposition of Bonaventure comes from S. Colberg, who argues that the sanctifying power of marriage as sacrament fortifies its power as a symbol: of the union of Christ and the Church, of the two natures in Christ, etc. Marriage furthermore does not just excuse the concupiscence that goes with sex: it heals it. P. Monjou starts with Jacques de Vitry, for whom marriage does not confer grace, but focuses on the Compendium theologiae veritatis (c. 1250) of Hugh Ripelin of Strasbourg, a work which had a major impact to judge from the more than nine hundred manuscripts and eighty printed editions that survive. Monjou unpacks the Compendium’s compressed section on marriage, showing how it distils earlier tradition into a small space. For Hugh, marriage does confer grace. He represents a theological consensus that had crystallised since Jacques de Vitry. P. Nold looks at theological views from the time of Pope John xxii on whether holy orders with the promise of chastity dissolved an unconsummated marriage (this is a supplement to Nold's important book on the subject). Interestingly, Nold shows that John's decree settling the debate crystallised the official Catholic definition of a religious order. C. Trottman presents the marriage views of the Cistercian pope Benedict xii, from his rich commentary on Matthew. John Wyclif's marriage doctrine is explained by S. Penn. Wyclif argued that purely mental consent sufficed for a valid marriage, and vows should be pronounced in the future tense, if at all. This is of a piece with his philosophical system. Criticisms of Wyclif by Thomas Netter are also set out. We move from theology to law with G. Marchetto's paper on the dissolution of non-consummated marriages. Canonistic consilia are his main source. At least two seem to go beyond the canonistic commentaries that I have studied myself in suggesting that the pope might even dispense from divine law, a route never taken in papal practice. Marchetto suggests that the Council of Trent changed theory as well as practice when it made the presence of the parish priest a condition for a valid marriage: note however that man-made law conditions for validity (in the form of changing consanguinity rules etc.) were nothing new. Non-consummation is a theme also of P. Payan's paper on the marriage of Mary and Joseph, which raised the problem of whether there could be a model marriage without consummation. He is good on Gerson's unsuccessful effort to get a feast of their marriage established, and his vivid narrative reconstruction of their engagement. M. von Weissenberg explores the messages about marriage in late medieval saints’ Lives. All these papers add up to a major contribution to knowledge.