Along with Martin Bucer and other Rhenish Reformers, Wolfgang Capito does not have a high profile in much of the secondary literature on the Reformation, despite the importance of his locus of activity, Strasbourg, to the course of the Reformation in the Empire, Switzerland and beyond (not to mention his own ecclesial and scholarly labours). This situation has begun to change over recent decades, and the work of Erika Rummel and Milton Kooistra in translating and editing his correspondence will go some distance towards increasing the visibility of Capito in future studies of the times in which he lived and worked. This second volume covers the years that embrace the full emergence of reform in Strasbourg, 1524–31, and follows the pattern seen in their first volume of Capito's correspondence. Making use of Olivier Millet's finding list for the enumeration of the correspondence, the editors have furnished readers with a fresh translation into English (including annotation) of Capito's letters that heretofore were either unpublished or, if published, were relatively inaccessible, with a note indicating where a text in the original Latin or German can be found. Letters that appear in modern critical editions, which are not inconsiderable in number, are summarised (likewise with an indication of the source). One of the useful features of Rummel's and Kooistra's work here presented is the link to the Electronic Capito project, in particular the webpage that leads to the letters in electronic format (http://www.itergateway.org/capito/page3.html) which allows readers to consult in their original language those translated here. A significant contribution of the present volume is in respect of letters previously unknown to scholars which have been discovered in the Strasbourg archives (specifically, those in the Archives du Chapitre Saint-Thomas, labelled AST 22), a discovery which has resulted in the renumbering of some of the letters, not to mention the provision of a new body of previously unworked source material. If there is one disappointing aspect of the project that Rummel and Kooistra have undertaken, it is that readers are given only summaries of correspondence that appears in readily available critical editions. While understandable from a practical and economic standpoint, this decision takes something away from the goal if part of the intent of the project is to make source material available in English translation. Nevertheless, this volume and its companions (there will be a third volume in the future) make available a great deal of very useful material for further work on Capito and Strasbourg during the Reformation, and the continuation of this project is most welcome.
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