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RR 2011/08 Oxford Dictionary of Popes (2nd edition) J.N.D. Kelly. Revised by Michael J. Walsh Oxford University Press Oxford 2010 xviii + 353 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 929581 4 £11.99 $19.95
Oxford Paperback Reference
Keywords Christianity, Dictionaries, History
Review DOI 10.1108/09504121111103029
The Oxford Dictionary of Popes is part of the Oxford Paperback Reference series and although this is only the 2nd edition, 24 years after the first publication, it follows a 1988 paperback, a new cover reissue in 1996 and updated version in 2005.
The original preface explains the purpose of the book being to cover a gap, a need for a Who's Who of the papacy, and it includes not only those who have been officially recognised as pope but also those who have been either rightly or wrongly, considered as antipopes. It is a refreshing approach to the subject and one that sets this book apart from other's profiling the history of the papacy. Using the 1984 edition of Annuario Pontifico Kelly was able to ensure that the...