The opening quotation given by John Witte, Jr in his Foreword immediately catches our attention: ‘Thrice has Rome conquered the Western world – by her arms, by her church and by her law’ (Rudolf von Jhering). The editors’ Introduction and the 26 chapters by as many scholars bring out the transformative power of the Roman Church and Roman law in the second millennium on what is now Italy; and beyond, one should add. The jurists chosen range from Irnerius to Pope Paul VI.

The standard of these studies is consistently high, there are generally brief but apposite footnotes, and each chapter has a well-selected bibliography. All the jurists presented merit inclusion, and as the Dizionario Biografico dei Giuristi Italiani, XII–XX Secolo (2013) lists 2159 jurists the selection must have been difficult. Nevertheless Dante, Giorgio La Pira and Pope Pius XII are perhaps surprising absences. This volume is part of the ongoing project ‘Great Christian Jurists in World History’ aiming at some 50 volumes and 1000 biographical case studies. Already published and noteworthy is Great Christian Jurists in English History (2017),Footnote ¹ edited by Mark Hill and R.H. Helmholz, ranging from Bracton to Lord Denning.

The Introduction provides a basic context for the diverse and at times unfamiliar jurists spanning a millennium. In line with other volumes in the series, ‘jurist’ is defined broadly, while a unified interpretative perspective is provided by the legal expertise of the contributors. We therefore have chapters on theologians (Aquinas, Cajetan, Bellarmine), philosophers (e.g. Vico), thinkers committed to political action (Sturzo, De Gasperi) and popes (Innocent IV, Paul VI). As for the overall emphasis, the majority of jurists studied here lived approximately between 1100 and 1800. For various reasons, the selection of later jurists was ‘thornier and more difficult’. Not only in the context of Italian history, the processes of secularisation reduced the incidence of religious thought in the elaboration of law. What the editors say about canon law after the nineteenth century national civil codifications invites discussion, and also comparison with the uncodified situation in the United Kingdom: canon law, which had contributed in a decisive way to the formation of a common legal tradition, became confined as positive law to an area of irrelevance with respect to civil relations or was considered relevant only to the extent that State law permitted it. The chapter on Paul VI considers how the social mandate of the Catholic Church came to appeal not only to classical natural law but also to human rights. The entry ‘natural law’ in the index shows it is a (complex and controverted) thread in the thought of a number of Italian jurists, not least Aquinas.

Aquinas does indeed receive a valuable presentation by Charles Reid, Jr, although the ‘few observations’ on the Summa Theologiae are possibly too few, and based on too narrow a selection and focus. Aquinas's influence on thinking about law and justice has had, and continues to have, a great influence within Italy and internationally; see Il Tomismo Giuridico del XX Secolo, edited by E. Ancona and G. De Anna (2015), an anthology of 13 thinkers representing different juridical cultures, including Giuseppe Graneris, John Finnis and Guido Soaje Ramos.

There is much to appreciate and learn from in this volume, whatever the juridical setting and culture of the reader. In discussing Giovanni d'Andrea, P. Clarke brings out how he constantly revised and rethought his commentaries to take into account the latest papal legislation and juristic views. The masterly reassessment by R.H. Helmholz of Niccolò dei Tedeschi (‘Panormitanus’) opens with Henry Swinburne's description of him as ‘the captain of the canonists’. This observation by an English ecclesiastical lawyer who died in 1624 on a medieval Sicilian lawyer, who quickly became a standard point of reference throughout Europe, typifies Christianity crossing boundaries when it comes to law. R. Astorri brings out Luigi Sturzo's concern for the moral basis for the juridical construction of current international law, and his related reflections on a theory of the state which is substantially and truly Christian. The study of Francesco Carnelutti, by G. Chiodi, is emphatically about a Christian jurist, someone who measured himself directly with the meaning of the sacred texts by offering original interpretations. Carnelutti is portrayed as a jurist inspired by Christian teachings that deeply affected his general theory of law and his conception of punishment. For R. Domingo, Contardo Ferrini was above all a Catholic legal scholar, expert in Roman law, who tried to live an intense academic life and scholarship in permanent union with God. The linking of Ferrini to Giambattista Vico, draws us back to the intellectually stimulating although demanding chapter on Vico by M.N. Miletti. Vico was sure of the foundational value of religion, and this belief concerned not only anthropology but also law. Vico, an undoubtedly complex thinker, is being increasingly studied as a jurist in Anglo-American literature as well as in France and Spain. Isaiah Berlin has brought Vico into prominence, and he may prove fruitful in an age of legal post-modernity.

Having read these chapters on 27 Italian jurists, one can reflect again on John Witte's Foreword. The biographical approach adopted is not intended to deprecate institutional, doctrinal, social or intellectual histories of law, nor will it devolve into a new form of hagiography or hero worship of dead white males. It is instead designed to offer a simple method and common heuristic to study the interaction of law and Christianity. This latest publication fits successfully into the project. The pursuit of legal history by means of the study of individual jurists is familiar to readers of this journal through the writings over several years of Sir John Baker, Richard Helmholz and now Norman Doe.

This biographical approach has scope for vivid glimpses, a reminder that tradition requires the personal involvement of individuals and that Christianity has its challenges. Thus Cino Sinibuldi da Pistoia poetically regretted his neglect of the law written by God in human hearts, Baldo degli Ubaldi da Perugia struggled to resolve his own internal moral conflict through the medium of consilia, Arturo Jemolo felt acutely the tensions of being a Catholic and a liberal, and Francesco Carnelutti at the end of his life reaffirmed his love for the law although one must go beyond its borders truly to understand it.