The Caulite order owes its name to the place where its founding monastery was located, that is in the Val-des-Choux (Vallis Caulium). Its founder was said to be a certain brother Viard, a former conversus of the Charterhouse at nearby Lugny, whose identity Philip Adamo has convincingly pieced together. Its existence and subsequent development have largely escaped the attention of English monastic historians despite the presence of three Caulite foundations in Scotland. It would be difficult to find fault with this scholarly work. Moreover, we have the pleasure of encountering a text which is remarkably informative and, at the same time, a joy to read. The author displays an enviable fluency of style and a clarity and succinctness of expression that equip him to present the results of his research in eloquent but straightforward prose. The chapters follow one another logically rather than chronologically in order to elucidate and, wherever possible, to resolve the problems raised in the introduction: for example, the numerous gaps in the surviving evidence and the many discrepancies found in the records still extant. Thus, we are given a clearly construed and convincing narrative of the founding and growth of the Caulite order during its first three-quarters of a century. Its origins lay in Burgundy and the regions around Troyes and Nevers, and subsequent expansion increased the total to some twenty houses, including the houses in Scotland and a single house in the Netherlands. Some of the surviving details of the Caulite rule reflect the influence of the Carthusian connection in combination with passages from the Benedictine rule. The first papal confirmation approving the new order is that of Innocent iii in 1205 in which some of the distinctive features of the new order are mentioned, notably that the monks were to depend entirely on gifts of rents in kind and in money, thus enabling them to remain permanently within their monastic enclosure and observe a strict silence. However, as Adamo makes clear, their spiritual ideals soon conflicted with the economic realities of the day and compromise became inevitable. The bull issued by Honorius iv in 1224 indicates that by, and probably before, this date the Caulites considered themselves Benedictines. Nevertheless, like Carthusian priories they continued to limit their numbers to about twenty per house of whom almost half were conversi but, in contrast to Carthusian and Cistercian practice, the Caulite conversi lived with their brother monks, slept in the same dormitories and ate the same food. All the surviving manuscript material and the later printed records have been consulted in the preparation of this work, to which the abundant detail in the numerous footnotes, the lengthy bibliography and the appendices of documents bear witness. My only quibble concerns the choice of title for this book, the meaning of which appears to be ambiguous. Is this intentional?