This book is a thorough and comprehensive study of the life and times of Nicholas Cusanus (1401–1464), one of the shining lights of the fifteenth century. Nicholas was a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, jurist (both canon and civil law), philosopher, theologian, mystic and conciliarist reformer at the time of the Great Schism and after. There is certainly no excuse needed for publishing a book about him; even 550 years after his death, the last word has not been written on his career, accomplishments or thought.

Yet this book is not really about Nicholas of Cusa: it is an encyclopaedic collection of fairly brief essays about his context. After 12 essays on ‘Ideas and events’, there are 26 articles on individuals closely associated with Nicholas. The volume is completed by 32 papers on places that were significant in Nicholas' career. These essays range from 4 to 15 pages (with the average being 6 or 7 pages); there is a select bibliography at the end of almost every paper.

The very first of these essays, in the section on ‘Ideas and events’, is on canon law. Nicholas was a student in the Canon Law Faculty of the University of Padua from 1417 to 1423. The essay summarises the origins and development of canon law from apostolic times to Nicholas de Tudeschis (Panormitanus), a slightly older contemporary of Cusanus. It positively leaves one breathless reading through this brief survey, which concludes with a consideration of Nicholas' time in Padua. While Nicholas is located within the school (quite literally – it indicates where he was a boarder and the locations of classes), there is unfortunately no description of what the distinctive characteristics were of the Paduan canon law faculty in this period, particularly when compared to its older rival, Bologna. Many of the other essays are likewise laden with specifics, but somewhat lacking in helping the reader to get the big picture.

This is certainly not a book that one can read through from start to finish, but even a selective reading of these articles provides a panoramic – kaleidoscopic, even – view of the conciliarist era, the personalities (both Cusanus' allies and opponents) that populated Europe and the geographical setting against which the drama played out. This work is an unparalleled reference and a valuable introduction. But it is only an introduction, and invites the reader to follow the bibliographies to a fuller understanding.

The volume is the work of Professor Morimichi Watanabe, a massive intellect and internationally recognised Cusanus scholar who taught political theory at the University of Long Island in New York for almost half a century until his retirement in 2009. Those articles in this collection without any name are his, and many are revised versions of his contributions to the American Cusanus Society Newsletter (the publication of the society of which Watanabe was president). The remainder of the book is the product of six additional contributors. Professor Watanabe died on 1 April 2012, less than six months after the publication of this work; the volume stands not only as a compendium of his life's study but also as a tribute to him by his colleagues and students.