Laudes Regiae

In this series of significant studies Ernst Kantorowicz demonstrates the truth of his contention that the liturgy is today one of the most important auxiliaries to the study of medicval history and has been too long neglected. No attentive reader will fail to comprehend more fully than he has before how packed with the vitality of history a liturgical form can be. It is impossible to give within the limitations of this review any extensive analysis of the important topics considered in these essays and it is desirable that more specialized journals should allot space where experts may speak at length concerning what the author here endeavors to do. The short chapter 1 describes how the Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat formula, so favored by French monarchs, was for the first time applied to coins by the Norman kings of southern Italy. The six remaining chapters give extensive analyses of acclamations—regal, imperial, princely, papal, episcopal— used from Roman and Frankish times in various sections of medieval Europe and, in chapter vi1, in more modern times. The book has a certain unity as a whole but, as the author points out, the present stage of researches prevents completeness and each chapter is better understood if regarded as a separate study