A Companion to the Abbey of Quedlinburg in the Middle Ages, ed. Karen Blough. Brill’s Companions to European History, 29. Leiden und Boston: Brill, 2023, pp. xx, 477.

Following upon two Brill’s Companion volumes on medieval German-speaking cities, Lübeck (2019) and Vienna (2021), Blough has assembled twelve essays on the history of Quedlinburg, today a small yet once important imperial seat in what later became East Germany (GDR); its municipal history reflects the abbey’s often radically evolved environment. While the focus throughout is Quedlinburg’s medieval legacy, the roles of her buildings and devotional objects can only be understood in the present by reflecting on the changes that they have undergone. Much evidence has been lost, both allowing for and demanding careful speculation on what occurred as much as a millennium ago.