Volume IX of History of Universities contains the customary mix of learned articles, book reviews, conference reports, and bibliographical information, which makes this annual publication such an indispensable tool for the historian of higher education. The present volume carries a wide range of articles which cover the early history of Europe's universities, as well as their later development. As usual, the authors and contributors are drawn from all parts of the western world, giving the yearbook a decidedly international flavour.

Of particular note is the article by the American historian of theology, R. Emmet McLaughlin, on the role of the medieval university in preparing the ground for the Reformation.