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Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture

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Rubin consolidates an encyclopedic knowledge of the Eucharist and the rites of the feast of Corpus Christi into a balmy narrative, in this book, now in its sixth printing. The book, undoubtedly a standard in medieval and renaissance history and religion courses, can be viewed more as a textbook on the subject than an engaging read. In constructing her history, and it is extraordinarily intricate, fraught with untimely deaths, expulsions, and papal bulls never circulated, she draws from archival, apocryphal, and secondary sourse material. Considering the task she faced, she succeeds admirably. The reader wanting more will then face the task of combing through her extensive bibliograhy and copious footnotes.

There are many important ideas in this book, which almost make it worth reading. Unfortunately, Dr Rubin is one of the worst writers of prose I have ever endured. She prefers fashionable jargon to plain spoken explanations, and if a page will do she writes ten. Where was her editor?