With this wonderful publication researchers have acquired not only a welcome addition to the High Medieval diplomatic corpus, but also a critical and modern edition of the oldest lay cartulary in France. Currently housed at the Société archéologique de Montpellier (MS 10), this manuscript was practically inaccessible for much of its modern history. Stored in the archives of Foix (likely since the Albigensian Crusade), the cartulary and other administrative documents of the Trencavel viscounts were described by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century copyists who studied them. How the manuscript had been procured by a private collector (Jules Soulanges) in Toulouse and sold in a mid‑nineteenth‑century auction is unknown; however, we do know that it had escaped a disastrous fire in the Fuxéen archives in the fall of 1803, unlike the other Trencavel diplomatic works. Although a number of its acts were known and transcribed in the Collection Doat of the Bibliothèque nationale de France as well as in the Histoire générale de Languedoc (HGL), 161 of the 586 individual acts (excluding thirty-one duplicates, for a total of 617) appear here for the first time in published form. A monumental undertaking for any scholar, with over three decades of dedicated study and numerous publications supported by evidence derived from its acts, Hélène Débax was the historian for the task.

As is now well accepted within diplomatics, cartularies are far more than simple repositories of copied charters, but are to be considered as texts in their own right. Over the last few decades scholars have paid far more attention to details once thought superfluous: the binding, rubrication, and depictions; the assortment of its acts and internal logic; as well as the evidence of their production. The Trencavel Cartulary is no exception. Two general phases of redaction are discernable within its thirty‑three quires, as Débax has noted. Three blank leaves separate the final four quires from the larger original, essentially comprising an addition from the thirteenth century. The larger, earlier portion, following the editor’s argument, was completed between 1186‑1188. What is most interesting about this discussion, however, are the details that emerge regarding record keeping techniques and developments at the court of Viscount Roger II. While notarial activities throughout the twelfth century were varied, the presence of two primary workshops in Carcassonne and Béziers – the seats of two cadet branches reunified by 1150 – became integral to the forming chancellery. Few acts within the cartulary bear signs of imitation from originals, as seen in other regional examples from the inclusion of chirographs and notarial symbols. Yet, other details as the editor argues suggest that copies of copies were recorded within the text, beside which the cartulary would have been preserved. It is the comparison with the eight original charters from the viscounty of Nîmes – seat of another branch of the family – copied in the Layettes du Trésor, that Débax indicated the function of the text: the Trencavel Cartulary, with no obvious internal logic, projects seigneurial power and authority by focusing on domanial ties to vassals and their fortifications, whereas the Nîmois charters include land transactions. Surely these kinds of documents were stored beside the cartulary for the senior line, perhaps those destroyed in the fire of 1803 at Foix. With these shortcomings in mind, Débax makes a compelling case for the documentary history of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Languedoc.

In the vein of preserving the hints of documentary culture, the organization of the cartulary was deliberately chosen to follow the manuscript itself. Original headings were recorded in bold font when they appear; as were brief descriptions in italics of the ink color and size of initials, which slowly taper toward the end of the cartulary. For those interested in observing the rhythms of production, an appendix (I) details the chronological order of the acts, whose dates remain largely unaltered unless enough detail allowed for their correction from the various conventions of the region and period. Cross-references, furthermore, are affixed to each act of various other transcriptions, most predominantly those within the Collection Doat or HGL; which necessarily relates to a thorough bibliography of all original charters and previous transcriptions in the appendix (III). The heavy editorial work of Débax is made all the more apparent by the inclusion of three thorough indices – nomina, loci, res – each with their own justifiable (and understandable) rationale for included entries, that will undoubtedly be of immense service to all readers, amounting to 118 pages together.

The long hours needed to produce a published cartulary of this size, from transcriptions to identifications of place names and indexing, is no small task. Many other scholars have attempted such a project with the Société archéologique de Montpellier, MS 10, though it has not until now been successful. The necessary time needed to produce such a work evidently proved more burdensome by the inclusion of detailed summaries joined to each act. Unaddressed in the introduction, these surely will number among the greatest strengths of the edition, assisting researchers in perusing its acts. Considering the broad applicability and interest for scholars outside the fields of meridional social and economic history – as the editor noted for legal historians and jurists as well as linguists – this reader, however, would have liked to see more attention given to the discussion of the editorial process itself. Palaeographical decisions concerning Latin abbreviations, for example, were curtly summarized as following »les règles usuelles«, with mention of »les seuls choix délicats« falling on the orthography of placenames and the designations of local coinages (22). Slightly more explicit is the reference to the transcription of Old Occitan; though, a discussion of the general appearance of this language within the cartulary alongside Latin is missing. Contextual information about the Trencavel family and their lands, castles, and vassals are alluded to by the inclusion of a family tree (Appendix IV) and map (Appendix V), though each without a discussion in and of itself. These omissions, it should be clarified, are readily available in the previous publications of the author herself and hardly detract from the merit of the edition as a whole. Offering a veritable trove of material for those studying the contours of meridional noble fiefs, of castles and their elite owners, of vassality and homage in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Trencavel Cartulary is a tremendous addition for all scholars of the High Middle Ages, a much anticipated and praiseworthy accomplishment from one of its greatest historians.