Piibiani : The CoisorsJiip of the Chiircli of Rome 871 impenetrable seas. What Italian seaman would have been terrified by such tales ! His difficulties were those that beset practical seamanship, and in time they were overcome. How well these seamen could chart the coast of the Mediterranean and beyond, to north and south, even in the earliest years of the fourteenth century, is remarkable in the extreme. There is scarcely a connecting link between the medieval monastic map of the world and the splendidly drawn portolan chart of the Catalan or Italian seaman. We pass almost abruptly from fantastic picture-maps to the semi-scientifically constructed chart. JIr. Beazley has reproduced some of these early portolanos or port charts and has called attention to their importance. It is a pity that his reproductions are not better done, but they serve to illustrate the text and will doubtless contribute their part in awakening an interest in the study of early charts or maps. The maps of the period have yet to be more carefully studied if we would know the full value of the geographical and historical records they contain. The volume concludes with a chapter on Geographical Theory, or the Geography of the School- men, a chapter on the Later Moslem and other Non-Christian geography, and a valuable appendix in which the leading manuscripts of the prin- cipal texts of volumes II. and III. are listed as are also the leading edi- tions of the principal printed texts. Mr. Beazley's work is most timely. It is without doubt the best that has yet appeared on the subject. It is not only a work belonging to geographical literature, it has an important place in historical liter- ature. Such a work serves well to impress the importance of Historical Geography, an importance which receives commendable recognition in the European countries, but which we in America are slow to appreciate. E. L. Stevexsox. The Censorship of the Church of Rome and Its Influence upon the Production and Distribution of Literature. 'oIuiTie I. By George Haven Putnam, Litt. D. (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1906. Pp. xxv, 375.) There has been a long- felt need for an English book on the subject suggested by the title of the work before us. A brief summary of the first volume, which carries the narrative down to the beginning of the nineteenth century, will best set forth the scope and plan of the work. which is professedly largely based upon a few authorities. The book begins with an introductory chapter followed by a slight sketch of the censorship of books in the early church, and in the Middle Ages. Then comes an account of the book regulations in various European countries, and of the papal censorship, from the invention of printing down to the publication of the first Indexes. The sixth chapter deals with the Roman Inquisition and the establishment of the Congregation of the Index; and then the rest of the book is taken up with analyses of the
