Georg Strack, Solo sermone. Überlieferung und Deutung politischer Ansprachen der Päpste im Mittelalter (MGH Schriften 79), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2022.

Georg Strack is a professor of Medieval History at the University of Marburg. His research interests include the history of the papacy and the Crusades, as well as rhetorical studies. In his recent study Solo sermone. Überlieferungen und Deutungen politischer Ansprachen der Päpste im Mittelalter [Traditions and Interpretations of Papal Political Orations in the Middle Ages], published in the MGH Schriften series, he combines these foci precisely by examining the political speeches of the popes of the High and Late Middle Ages. By doing this, Strack provides the first comprehensive study of papal oratory, its tradition, and its interpretation between the 11^th and 14^th centuries.

The title of the book specifically refers to the sermon of Pope Urban II (r. 1088–1099) at the Council of Clermont in 1095, which, according to Urban’s epitaph, incited innumeras gentes to conquer Jerusalem (p. 1). The author particularly focuses on papal synodal speeches, which represent a significant type of papal political oration during this period. He examines the function of these speeches and their historical transmission within their specific political context. The structure of his study thus follows both chronological and thematic criteria.

The first chapter (pp. 11–128) addresses the era of the church reform in the 11^th century. Strack examines the ways in which papal oratory contributed to the representation and manifestation of a generally binding consensus during this period. He points out several problems regarding the reliability of the historiographical accounts of papal speeches, which often contained dramatizing depictions. In addition to topics concerning the church reform, the Crusader movement plays an important role here; thus, a large part of the chapter focuses on the aforementioned speech of Urban II in 1095 and its reception in historiographical sources. The author explores the relationship between the individual accounts, considering their distinct ways of representation and narrative agendas. In doing so, Strack questions several assumptions in historical research, which he attributes to expansions made during the process of réécriture, such as the famous call Deus vult, which, in the context of Urban II’s speech, seems to go back to the account of Robert the Monk (Historia Iherosolimitana).

In the second chapter (pp. 129–202), the focus shifts to synodal speeches that refer to conflicts between popes and secular rulers. These conflicts culminated first in the so-called Investiture Controversy and continued to have a formative influence on papal political oratory in the later 12^th century. Strack again emphasizes that the depiction of these speeches primarily aimed at representing consensus, since the assembled participants often belonged to the same conflicting party. At the same time, historiographical tradition employed literary devices to represent political conflicts. This included the use of fictional speeches, even by members of the opposing party. In this context the rhetorical skills of the popes and the content of their speeches are shaped by the agenda of each respective author.

Following this, the third chapter (pp. 203–275) analyzes papal speeches in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. Strack notes that although the transmission of these speeches declined during this period, the versions that were transmitted simultaneously exhibited a growing diversity. He pays particular attention to the influence of Pope Innocent III (r. 1198–1216) on his successors and the theme of imitatio Christi, which had a significant impact on the political speeches of the popes during the 13^th century. In this context, the study provides the first edition of Innocent III’s sermon on Desiderio desideravi (Luc. 22,15) at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 in the appendix (pp. 297–310). This sermon has been preserved not only in collections of sermons, but also, as previous research had largely overlooked, in canonistic manuscripts. Strack furthermore discusses the depiction of the performance of papal speeches, noting that the transmission of these orations became more detailed during this period. He concludes that, due to the spatial positioning of the popes on a throne in the choir area—which, since the mid-13^th century, was separated from the nave by a rood screen—only a part of the audience was able to fully understand their speeches. This may explain why the number and the scope of transmitted political orations of the popes decreased in sources of the later 13^th century.

The last section (pp. 276–296) of the book discusses the influence of Innocent III on the tradition of papal consistorial speeches up to Clement VI (r. 1342–1352), which prove to be similarly consensus-oriented as the synodal speeches discussed earlier. To make the sources more accessible to readers, the book includes indices of manuscripts, names, and biblical citations. In conclusion, it should be noted that Strack has succeeded in providing fresh insights into the tradition and transmission of papal oratory, emphasizing the relevance of réécriture as a literary process of editing, extending, and adapting texts in a specific context. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in this field, especially to scholars studying the political history of the medieval papacy and the Crusades.