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Pope Celestine III (1191-1198): Diplomat and Pastor. Edited by John Doran and Damián J. Smith. [Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West.] (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing. 2008. Pp. ii, xvi, 370. $99.95; £60.00. ISBN 978-0-754-65671-5.)
This well-produced volume brings the career of Hyacinth Bobone into the light, featuring his distinguished career as papal diplomat as well as his role as Pope Celestine HI- developing policies he inherited and passing them on enhanced to his successor. The work of able scholars, the book is enriched with abundant bibliography in the footnotes, illustrations, maps, and a thorough index. Anyone interested in twelfth-century Europe will find it valuable.
Anne Duggan surveys Hyacinth's seventy-year career in the service of the papacy, giving an especially detailed analysis of the politics of Italy during the reign of Emperor Henry Vl, with Hyacinth making the best of a difficult situation. John Doran examines Hyacinth's life through an extended analysis of politics in Rome and its immediate environs throughout the...