Ulrich Lehner and Shaun Blanchard eds., The Catholic Enlightenment: A Global Anthology, Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2021 pp. 304, $34.95, ISBN: 9780813233987

Abstract

errors in the ‘Essay’. In addition, he includes a useful appendix containing short biographies of the principal figures treated. The volume dovetails with Dr Cunningham’s ongoing project to publish new editions of Grosseteste’s own works. In 2004, Southern wrote that when ‘Grosseteste’s writings are made available in modern critical editions [ : : : it] seems likely that [ : : : ] he will take his place in the first rank of medieval Englishmen’.2 How Perry would have agreed! This volume will interest readers of British Catholic History as a life of a remarkable Catholic ecclesiastic —in Perry’s words, ‘a perfect scholar [ : : : ] an illustrious linguist, poet, orator, philosopher and mathematician, as well as a prime theologist [sic], and eminent prelate’ (p. 5). But, of greater interest, since the Bishop’s career can obviously be investigated in detailed modern accounts, is the historiographical dimension: the distinctive treatment of Grosseteste’s life, the reasons why Perry adopted his stance, and the skills which he deployed in writing his ‘faithfull sketch’.