Summary: The text of this volume is divided into two parts. The first part, divided into five chapters, studies thematerial conserved and the second part provides the reader with technical data sheets on these works.After the general introduction, in which the author explains the method and criteria followed in herresearch, especially in publishing the catalogue of the 113 pieces identified, which are the focus of thestudy, in the first chapter she presents the current state of research on ancient Catalan goldsmithing work,a subject of great interest. This chapter is a good introduction to the subject matter of the volume.

The second chapter is devoted to presenting the typology of the works she is studying, while explaining the history of their evolution over time. She talks about the chalice and the paten, their different types, recalling the best preserved pieces and the materials used in their making. She talks about the funeral-type oblates, the altar and processional crosses, the reliquary and pectoral crosses, with all their typologies from the Carolingian and Otonian models, and of the medieval censers, all with covers, and the episcopal staffs, among other examples of liturgical goldsmithing.

In the third and fourth chapters, she enters the heart of the study. The third chapter is devoted to the Catalan workshops of the 9th to 11th centuries, when the region was governed by Counts, while the following chapter, the fourth, studies their continuity and the changes undergone by the metalwork of the Catalan workshops of the 12th and 13th centuries. The author begins the third chapter by explaining the historical context of the present Catalan territory, with the introduction of the Narbonne version of the Roman-French liturgy into our churches in the 800s, as Christian worship was restored and the Catalan Carolingian counties were formed. Based on the surviving documentation, she describes the firstworkshops, their promoters, the ancient inventories of the Cathedral of Vic and the Monastery of Ripoll,the gold and silver chalices, the tin (pewter) chalices, the silver crosses and the silver altarpieces, now lost but well documented, the censers and the covers of the missals, all illustrated with photographs of the pieces depicted, as we have already mentioned, in manuscript illustrations, on wooden altarpieces and infrescoes. At the end of the chapter, the few surviving works from the 9th to 11th centuries are presented and discussed.

In the fourth chapter, as we have said, the study of the Catalan workshops of the 12th and 13th centuries is continued. The historical introduction speaks of the patronage of the Catalan counts, kings and bishops,and also recalls the counts' plundering of the silver liturgical objects of the monasteries of San Juan de las Abadesas and Santa María de Ripoll. The changes in style of the chalices and patens, the leavings of precious materials to make new ones, the technique used and the decoration are discussed in detail. All the different types of crosses that existed are also mentioned. But where the author best demonstrates her knowledge of the subject is in her presentation of the censers from these two centuries. Having identified fifty-five Catalan ones and three foreign ones - half the works studied - she is able to study them in great detail, identify the techniques used to make them and date them with great precision, dividing them into groups and sub-groups according to the respective geometric, floral and architectural forms of ornamentation. The surviving crooks and the lost silver altarpieces are also discussed in detail, together with other pieces, now also lost, such as the silver sarcophagus of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of theMonastery of Ripoll.

The last chapter, the fifth of the first part, is devoted to the study of the introduction of the works of Limoges' workshops in Catalonia and their influence on the Catalan workshops, with the appearance of the "Limoges-style" pieces throughout the 13th century, with the spread of gilded copper works with a wealth of enamels as a decorative element. She talks about the genuinely Limousine crosses and pyxes from Catalan churches and the undoubtedly Catalan ones from workshops that imitated Limousine works. She also talks about the history and development of the enamels and the appearance of the enamelled Eucharistic goblets.

The second part of the volume, as we have already said, contains the catalogue of the works identified,which are the basis of the whole study. The pieces are described in great detail, identifying theirworkshops, describing their decoration and the materials from which they are made, and presenting thearguments that allow them to be dated with great precision.

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