To the Italia pontificia and the Germania pontificia, published under the auspices of the Göttingen Academy, can now be added the Gallia pontificia, published by that same Academy, together with the École Nationale des Chartes and the Deutsches Historisches Institute in Paris (similar works exist beyond the Göttingen framework, for example the Pontificia hibernica [Ireland], and Scotia pontificia [Scotland]). The first volume of the Gallia pontificia, which was devoted to Besançon, appeared in 1998, and like the Italia pontificia and the Germania pontificia is a calendar reaching to the reign of Innocent iii (1198) of acta documenting the papacy's relations with local churches. The present work, edited by Beate Schilling, well known for her biography of Archbishop Guido of Vienne (Pope Calixtus ii [1119–24]), is the first part of volume iii of the Gallia pontificia which will treat the dioceses comprising the ecclesiastical province of Vienne. Following introductions about the diocese, of special interest for understanding how this work was conceived and assembled, is the section titled ‘Bases documentaires et archives’ (pp. 42–9). The subsequent calendar can be divided into two roughly equal parts: pp. 50–202 cover the archiepiscopal see and the cathedral chapter, and pp. 203–331 treat religious houses. Two shorter sections are added, ‘Clercs du diocèse’, and ‘Laïcs du diocèse’. There follows an appendix devoted to papal relations with the ‘différents royaumes qui ont porté le nom de ≪burgonde≫ ou ≪de Bourgogne≫’ (p. 351). The book concludes with two indices: (i) Papal acta, keyed to Jaffé's Regesta pontificum romanorum, 2nd edn, 1855–88; (ii) Letters addresses to the pope or to the Curia.

The scope of the information included in this book is immense. Vienne was an important city for both civil and ecclesiastical history in ancient times. Eusebius, citing Irenaeus, referred to letters sent to Pope Eleutherius from martyrs at Lyon and Vienne around the year 177. By the mid/late third century Vienne was an episcopal city, and the earliest extant papal letter sent there was from Pope Zosimus, dates from 417 and deals with the authority of the metropolitan of Arles (JK 328; Gallia pontificia, iii/1, p. 56, no. 9). The ‘bases documentaires’ for Vienne's history is complicated. On the one hand a great part of the local archives has perished, but, on the other, an abundance of false or falsified documents survives. Reconstructing the history of Vienne's relations with the papacy is thus impossible without the use of material that survives outside of the diocese. Be that as it may, the history of the papacy's relations with Vienne down to the thirteenth century is very rich. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the metropolitan churches in Reims and Tours hosted papal councils, for example at Reims in 1049, 1119 and 1148, and at Tours in 1096 and 1163. Vienne, of course, witnessed the great council under Clement vi in 1311–12, but was also the site of a much less well-known council held by Pope Gelasius ii in early 1119. Little survives about this gathering but what is known is found registered as a nugget of information here (pp. 162–3, no *250). Similar discoveries abound, and investigators can be grateful to Beate Schilling for her painstaking work in making them available.