Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione ed. by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca (review)

262BOOK REVIEWS connection with Don Sturzo. The contributions of Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno, the Second Vatican Council, and John Paul II are recognized, but the plan of the work is not to deal with "the Catholic Church" (often equated with the hierarchy, as on p. 569), but with some striking figures of social and political "Catholicism." Such limits make sense; a good deal of material, relatively speaking, is available on the modern papacy. The book is a particularly welcome addition to Catholic studies for instructional purposes. Though lacking a bibliography or "suggestions for further reading ," it has a good, if less than exhaustive index; its footnotes are well placed (at the bottom of the page) and adequate, while kept to a useful miriirnum. Its limpid style and modest price should help assure it broad use. Paul Misner Marquette University Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione. Edited by Guerrino Pelliccia and Giancarlo Rocca. Vol. LX: "Spiritualità-Vézelay." (Rome: Edizioni Paoline. 1997. Pp. xxvi, 1,960; 17 colored plates.) These truly monumental volumes, undertaken in the wake ofVatican Council II in 1968, ambition covering all monasticism, religious Orders, and analogous movements, not excluding non-Catholic and Asian analogues, from the Early Church to the present day, from a largely historical perspective, including themes, mentalities, theologies, and movements, in comprehensive scope. Its riches are so varied and sometimes unexpected under their Italian indicators that we Anglophones must hope for ample multilingual indexes at the end. Major themes can amount to small books, as with Historiography of religious life (77 columns), the role of Study including libraries (85 columns), Third Orders both regular and secular (81 columns), or Virginity (56 columns). Generous space is also accorded Theater, monastic Taxes, Trent on religious life, Theology, and concepts such as Spouse of Christ, State of Perfection, Tonsure, and the process and history of Leaving (Uscita). Some entries are particularly contemporary: the problem of an aging population in Orders (Terza Eta), the pros and cons of the Third Way as sexual expression (Terza Via), and the use of modern communications (Strumenti). Other entries are unexpected: Vegetarianism , Utopia, Humanism (monastic, then Renaissance), siting of religious houses (Ubicazione, some 30 columns), and their relation to cities (Urbanística ). A sprinking of exotic items catches the eye: Sufism, Stoicism, Taoism, Tantrism, Vestals, and Waldensians. An unending parade of monks and Orders down the centuries forms the backbone of this enterprise; the alphabetical sequence here brings us the Templars , Trinitarians (over 40 columns), Virgins (over sixteen Orders under that title), the ancient Stylites and the Lutheran Humiliati begun in 1921, as well as BOOK REVIEWS263 the older movement of the Humiliati. A Typology of Orders sorts them all out (13 columns). Notable monasteries with separate entries include Subiaco, the ecumenical Taizé.Tintern Abbey,Tokwon in Korea,Vallombroso, and Vézelay. Individuals whose alphabetical turn has come include Lorenzo Valla and Thomas Aquinas on religious life, Teresa of Avila and Thérèse of Lisieux, Francisco Suárez, Stephen Harding, Humbert of Romans, Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, and any number of founders whose names begin with Van. The regions whose monasteries and religious life receive extended special treatment in this volume include Hungary, the Holy Land (Terra Santa), Switzerland , and Tibet, with 30 columns for the United States and an unusual 150 for Latin America. An oddity is that some regional units are lumped under the rubric States (Statt Baltici, Statt di Nord Europa). A similar alphabetical displacement locates some topics under History (Storia): of Charity (hospitals, poor), of the Consecrated Life, or of the Missions. The tight focus of each entry on its relation to the monastic or religious context , the dense material available within each entry, the encompassing scale of the whole enterprise, the up-to-date bibliographies, and the historical professionalism throughout, make this volume like its predecessors indispensable to historians of Christendom or religion, especially for anything touching on monasticism under its many guises. Every library should have this tool. Robert I. Burns, SJ. University ofCalifornia at LosAngeles San Benito y los Benedictinos. Tome I: La Edad Media, 1; Tome II: La Edad Media, 2; Tome III: La Edad Moderna, 1; Tome IV: La Edad Moderna, 2; Tome V...