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CHOICE Review

An important contribution to our understanding of at least two subjects. Radding's first concern is the creation of legal science in the 11th and 12th centuries, first at Pavia and then at Bologna, and how this shift represents a change from prescientific legal thinking in the early Middle Ages. His discussion of this process, and the emphasis he places on the early development of medieval jurisprudence at Pavia, is controversial, original, literate, and incisive. Radding shows how legal science began at Pavia by consulting placita (juridical records of proceedings at Pavia's sacred palace). The placita are the records of jurists who had, in Radding's words, to ``invent the discipline of law.'' Radding is careful to situate this discussion in the larger historiography of pre-Bolognese legal thinking, a historiography that has been marked by scholarly debate over the relative importance of Roman, as compared to Lombard, law. His resolution of this debate is likely to become authoritative. Radding's second purpose is to use changes in medieval jurisprudence as a way of illuminating ``the cultural history of the whole period'' between the second half of the 9th century and the 12th century. At times, this larger theme is subordinated to the more particular, but it is never lost. In sum, this is an important and enjoyable work. Highly recommended for graduate students and faculty.-J.E. Finn, Wesleyan University