Over the past four decades, Thomas F. X. Noble has consistently introduced new perspectives to the study of early medieval religion. His first monograph, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), revolutionized the study of the early medieval papacy by presenting it as a political, as well as a religious, institution. More recently, in Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), Noble delved into early medieval “art talk” to explore western participation in the Byzantine Iconoclast controversy. The consistent themes of Noble's work—Rome, religion, the Carolingian Empire, and images—provide the framework for Rome and Religion in the Medieval World. Edited by two of his former students and consisting of essays by friends and colleagues, Rome and Religion seeks to “capture the breadth of [Noble's] career” and adopts as its guiding principle Noble's “commitment to take religion seriously as a historical force” (xvii). At first glance, a reader might assume that this book is a collection of essays about the city of Rome. Giselle de Nie opens the collection with a close reading of the symbolic imagery of Arator's History of the Apostles, a sixth-century Roman exegetical poem interpreting the biblical book of Acts. A number of contributions focus more specifically on the medieval papacy. Walter Pohl, for example, examines eighth-century papal views of foreigners, especially marriage to foreign women, to offer new insights into papal political discourse and its reception (or lack thereof) in the Carolingian Empire. Some essays focus on material as well as textual evidence: Maureen Miller offers a fascinating exploration of the appearance and production of clerical vestments and church textiles in early medieval Rome, while Julia Smith examines the wrappings and tags of relics in the papacy's possession in order to determine how medieval popes identified and preserved relics. Moving beyond the city of Rome itself, other essays address the idea of Rome in the Carolingian world. John Contreni traces biographical lives of Virgil preserved in Carolingian manuscripts to examine views of ancient Rome in Carolingian intellectual culture, while Rosamond McKitterick draws on her considerable expertise in medieval manuscripts to explore the use of the Liber Pontificalis in two early medieval historical compilations.

The essays in Rome and Religion, however, are not solely concerned with Rome and its remembrance. Four contributions focus on the Carolingian Empire of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. In her essay examining Carolingian critiques of pilgrimage, Janet Nelson reminds readers that widely accepted Christian practices still elicited worry among religious reformers. John van Engen offers a broad meditation on baptism and christening in the Carolingian Empire, and his essay touches upon themes ranging from baptismal theology and ritual to baptism's role in political submission and religious integration (102). Taking as his starting point Noble's translations of Carolingian texts, David Ganz uses the Astronomer's Life of Louis the Pious to meditate on the possibilities of the biographical genre for presenting Carolingian imperial history. And Mayke de Jong conducts an intricate analysis of how Paschasius Radbertus's Epitaphium Arsenii sheds light on the composition of the pseudo-Isidorian decretals, noting in particular how the context of the 850s influenced Radbertus's portrayal of the events of the 830s.

The last three essays in this collection address topics that are chronologically later than the previous ten. Rachel Fulton Brown tackles the practice of monastic prayer in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and uses glosses in medieval psalters to explore how Psalms could facilitate prayerful meditation. Lawrence Nees takes inspiration from Noble's work on medieval art to demonstrate how the historical study of an object can be influenced by modern narratives, using the ninth-century Vienna Coronation Gospels as his example. And, finally, Karl F. Morrison concludes the volume by examining the early modern reception of the late eighth-century Libri Carolini, comparing Catholic and Protestant approaches to the Carolingian text in order to reveal semiotic shifts in historical definitions of Christian community.

The overall quality of the essays in this volume is excellent, and a number of appendices containing newly edited and translated texts will be useful resources for students and scholars alike. Methodologically, the volume offers a rich range of interdisciplinary approaches to the study of early medieval religion. The collection's attention to the material aspects of history is particularly impressive. Moreover, a number of essays demonstrate the importance of careful manuscript analysis; given the ever-growing interest in working with early medieval manuscripts in the American academy, the volume's emphasis on the benefits of manuscript study is timely.

Although the collection's wide range of topics and methodologies is undoubtedly one of this volume's many strengths, it also affects the collection's overall coherence. The volume takes as its theme a scholar rather than a concrete historical topic, and the essays talk more to Noble rather than to each other. As a result, the collection may fall victim to selective reading: scholars might read one or two essays specific to their interests, but ignore the rest. Despite its somewhat disjointed thematic focus, there is much to be gained from reading the volume in full. These thirteen essays reveal how researchers can still find new questions in foundational pieces of scholarship. Indeed, almost all of the authors in this volume explain that they take up questions that Noble has raised or suggested to explore further. These avenues of potential research identified by Noble are perhaps as important as the insights on religion, politics, and society in the early Middle Ages that he shared with us in many publications. They are befitting of this excellent tribute.