The Power to Pardon in Medieval and Early Modern Christian Europe, ed. Ulrike Ludwig and Quentin Verreycken. Cologne: Böhlau, 2025, pp. 295.

This collection of articles, an Introduction by the editors, nine specialized essays, and a Conclusion, deals with the theory and practice of mitigating punishments handed down by courts in Europe from the twelfth through the seventeenth centuries. The Introduction is a useful overview of the historiography on the subject with an eye to situating the various individual contributions. They are arranged in three parts. Part 1, “Norms, Pluralities, and the Challenges for Mercy,” includes articles on the twelfth-century exegesis of the biblical Solomon’s life. God bestowed the future king with wisdom at his own wish. As the story of the two women’s contest over the maternity of a baby makes plain, he used the gift well. But this is the same Solomon who, having built the Temple, defiled it by allowing images of the gods worshipped by his pagan concubines to be placed in the holy precincts. The Bible is not explicit as to whether Solomon was absolved or not for his desecration of God’s House. So, it was a matter of much dispute among the interpreters, as Philippa Byrne demonstrates. How far could mercy-pardon extend?