This is an extremely important study of a fundamental moment in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century female spirituality. Tamar Herzig's erudite and fascinating volume also sheds light on the life and works of Heinrich Institoris, the author of the Hammer of witches (Malleus maleficarum, c. 1486), the treatise that founded early modern views of witchcraft and demonology. The core of Herzig's volume is Institoris's rare pamphlet, which she reproduces at the end of her book, dedicated to the mystical experiences of the contemporary Italian holy women Lucia Brocadelli of Narni, Stefana Quinzani and Colomba of Rieti. As Herzig explains in the introduction, her study aims to expand Gabriella Zarri's seminal work on the so-called sante vive (living saints), female Italian visionaries whose extraordinary mystical experiences turned them into influential and well-known figures of contemporary Italian culture (p. xv). Herzig makes some significant and insightful remarks about Institoris's spirituality and in particular his view of women, whom he sees as inferior to men and more prone to demonic invasions. Women's alleged weakness, however, also make them more open to benign spiritual influences (p. xiv). In the first chapter, a detailed biography of the first years of Institoris's religious activities, Herzig stresses that, contrary to a widespread belief, a close analysis of Institoris's epistolary proves that he was not ‘an ardent opponent of Dominican Observance and of reformist currents in general’ (p. 27). After a second chapter, which is also an examination of key passages of Hammer of witches, in chapter iii Herzig tackles the central topic of her book, Institoris's staunch defence of Lucia Brocadelli's mystical experiences. Brocadelli, a Dominican tertiary, was subjected to severe ecclesiastical scrutiny. Her stigmata, which later disappeared, were especially questioned. Institoris, however, never doubted the veracity of her experiences, which other demonologists could easily have considered as demonic manifestations (p. 111). Herzig reminds us that Johannes Nider, who wrote a treatise on witchcraft that deeply influenced Institoris's, saw the appearance of stigmata on a woman's body as a clear sign of demonic possession (p. 146). Herzig then addresses the pamphlet that Institoris wrote on the Italian women mystics and discusses its significance outside the boundaries of the Italian peninsula. In particular, Herzig reports a passage from a letter of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este in which he claims that Christ had transformed into a virgin woman, Lucia Brocadelli (p. 178). Chapter vi focuses upon a Latin poem of 151 verses that appeared in the Latin and German editions of Institoris's booklet on Lucia Brocadelli. Herzig explains that the anonymous hagiographic poem ‘is the earliest text known to date to describe in detail the rapturous visions that preceded Brocadelli's reception of the stigmata’ (p. 196). Placing this poetic text in dialogue with Brocadelli's autobiography, which she composed almost four decades after the disappearance of the stigmata, Herzig contends that the two texts complement each other (p. 198). Particularly interesting is Herzig's literary analysis of this poem in the light of Dante's Paradiso, which exerts a significant influence on this Latin composition (pp. 211–27).