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Visitas Pastorales y Relaciones Ad Limina. Fuentes para la Geografía Eclesiástica. By Ma Milagros Cárcel Ortí. [Memoria Ecclesiae, Subsidida VI.] (Oviedo: Asociacion de Archiveros de Iglesia en Espana. 2007. Pp. 371; 4 maps. euro15.00 paperback.)
Exhaustive: this is the best word to describe the work of Maria Milagros Cárcel. In effect, this publication examines all the possibilities that are provided for such a rich episcopal documentation: the pastoral visitations and the relationes ad limina. Without a doubt, the author's wide knowledge of these types of historical sources contributes to this, for she has accomplished numerous projects on this ecclesiastic documentation related to several Mediterranean dioceses of the Iberian Peninsula.
As is well known, the pastoral visitations and the relationes ad limina are reports, more or less periodical, in which the bishops give information on the condition of their dioceses. Although the pastoral visitations were already carried on before the Council of Trent, the...