Studies of godparenthood have concentrated on the Middle Ages or the modern period. By closely examining the practice in a number of northern Italian communities and cities in the early modern age this study fills a significant gap in the literature. Its main aim is to assess the impact of the Council of Trent on an institution that underwent considerable expansion in the Middle Ages. Though there is no reference to godparents either in the Gospels or in the Bible, medieval theology developed the idea that a real spiritual kinship was formed at baptism. Bans on marriage gradually came to include all those involved in the ritual – parents, godparents and godchildren and their blood relations up to the fourth generation. At the same time the institution assumed important social functions, becoming a means of artificially extending bonds of kinship to friends and partners, patrons and clients. The custom of having several godparents at baptism became the norm but this created an unmanageable situation since the huge expansion in marriage impediments led to frequent cases of spiritual incest. From the ninth century, and with increased intensity in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Church was therefore engaged in a battle over social custom, as it aimed to curb the number of godparents at baptism and hence the number of people affected by the prohibition of marriage. It was only with the Council of Trent that the model of one male and one female godparent became firmly established and the new prescription successfully implemented. The embarrassment of spiritual incest was therefore the key issue tackled by the Church. The council failed however to regulate other aspects of the practice, and despite extended debate within it no other measures were taken to transform godparenthood into a holy institution. As a result this remained a highly flexible practice, serving the varied interests of compari (spiritual brothers) rather than those of the godchild. There were also unintended consequences of the Tridentine reform. While multiple godparenthood offered opportunities for establishing and reinforcing ties at different social levels, the new norms brought about a verticalisation of spiritual bonds; given the constraints of choice, godparents of a high rank were preferred, and ties with social equals and members of the lower classes were sacrificed. At gender level, by contrast, the reform created a better balance, for the godmother became by rule a definite presence at the baptism.

This book adds important new facets to our understanding of godparenthood. However, the excessive tendency to classify and categorise, and a narrative style repetitive and bogged down in detail do not make for easy reading. The methodology also seems unnecessarily complicated, several assertions are purely conjectural and unconvincing (among these the suggestion that catechism was developed as the result of failure to entrust godparents with the duties of Christian education). The comparison between localities is problematic as it appears to involve data from different time spans (chapter ii) and the geographical parameters adopted seem rather pointless, lacking as they do any complementary analysis of the specific ecological, economic and social characteristics of the various communities.