The publication of these two texts is very welcome indeed, since they were previously known to few scholars and their state of conservation is delicate. The first, the Regestum possessionum comunis vincencie of 1262 (Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana Archivio Torre, n. 762,) is of great significance for the history of Vicenza and its territories and, along with the city statutes of 1264, constitutes a key source for the government and administration of a major northern Italian commune. All the possessions of the post-Ezzelino commune are inventoried, including its territories of Marostica, Piovene, Bassano, Cismon del Grappa and Enego, Solagna, Ronchi, Cartigliano, Fontaniva, Breganze, Costozza, Lumignano, Castegnero and Lonigo, filling 421 pages. Not only are buildings (with function) described, but the occupants and their professions also feature, as well as the rents paid. The richness of this register was already known to architectural and urban historians through Francesca Lomastro's 1981 study of urban space: Spazio urbano e potere politico a Vicenza nel XIII secolo: dal ‘Regestum possessionum comunis’ del 1262 (Vicenza), but the present volume is a complete edition with full scholarly apparatus, preceded by four essays situating the inventory in its historical context (Natascia Carlotto, pp. xi–xxxiii), describing the manuscript's codicology with additional diplomatic and historical observations and a useful map of the places mentioned in the text (Gian Maria Varanini, pp. xxv–lxviii). Varanini also provides metrological notes (pp. lxviv–lxxi), and there are ten good quality photographs which could be used as palaeographical exercises. A detailed index of persons and locations completes the volume and is searchable thanks to a pdf file provided in cd-rom format.

The Liber contractuum is a rather different document: of equal significance for a study of patronymics in Vicenza and in Padua, though focusing on the next thirty years, it is a two-volume register (562 pages) drawn up in 1302 as part of an investigation of the ‘abuses’ and ‘scandals’ of the Franciscan inquisitorial office in the Trevisan March ordered by Pope Boniface viii (Archivio di Stato, Padua, Corporazioni soppresse, S. Antonio, b. 150–1). Its publication is the fruit of twenty years of transcriptions carried out as part of tesi di laurea by university students under the direction of Antonio Rigon, with final checks and editorial work by Elisabetta Bonato. The Liber consists of two volumes, the first reproducing 398 notarial acts drawn up between 8 May 1263 and 27 August 1302 (usually cross-referenced by the scribes to the original notarial record) focusing on the deposits, sales, purchases or other contracts drawn up by the Franciscans themselves or in their name. The second records houses, lands, rents and other possessions. Since most of the accusations against the friars focused on irregularities in the execution of wills (particularly when the friars nominated themselves as heirs to testators who had bequeathed goods to the ‘poor of Christ’), these occupy the bulk of the material, but oral testimonies and confessions complete the picture. What emerges are illicit activities, extortion, kickbacks, nepotism and complex operations to hide these, involving not only the inquisitors but the wider Franciscan community. This remarkable document provides a treasure trove of material for those working on networks of patronage, testamentary practices, the functioning of the inquisition and canon law, as well of course as the Franciscan order and ecclesiastical and social history in general.