The Dominicans in the British Isles and Beyond

Reviews / Votes

'While the Dominicans in medieval England have received various degrees of attention over the past decades, this book does a particular service in attending to the less remembered history of the Order from the Reformation onwards. Notably, it also covers the activities of the Province beyond the geographical boundaries of England proper, which includes not only Scotland, Ireland and Wales but also its "homeless" period in the Netherlands and its emergence within various British colonial territories. The scholarship is of a consistently high quality and the research is impressively comprehensive. There is also a welcome determination to bypass flowery narratives of the Order's past in favour of more complicated and occasionally less-harmonious accounts.' Steven Watts, Crandall University 'The scholarship is of a consistently high quality and the research is impressively comprehensive.' Steven Watts, Crandall University 'This is an accessible account of the history of the Order from 1221 until 2021 and one that should attract a great deal of interest from readers. Richard Finn nimbly makes his way through the early history of the English Province, incorporating many of the sources published in the last seventy years. He then significantly expands knowledge of the Order as it strove to deal with the political constraints of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and brings the history of the English Dominicans into the new millennium and lifetime of the author. Finn adopts an even-handed approach to the multiple sources, and is content to let the records speak for themselves. His book offers a very worthy commemoration of the eighth centenary of the Friars' arrival in England.' Michael Robson, St Edmund's College, Cambridge 'Finn displays a complete mastery of the relevant primary and secondary sources that is all the more impressive because of the volume's broad chronological and geographical sweep. He writes in a crisp, accessible style, enlivened by occasional flashes of dry wit and provides a reliable and comprehensive introduction to the history of the Friars Preachers in Britain, Ireland, Flanders and further afield.' Colman O Clabaigh, Irish Theological Quarterly 'Finn's book is a rare achievement: it is meticulously researched, but also highly readable ... The book fills a gap in scholarship. Throughout his study, Finn uncovers a number of mistaken assumptions made by early modern sources that have been taken at face value and perpetuated in later scholarship for decades.' Cornelia Linde, The Journal of Religious History, Literature & Culture 'Finn is able to outline the continuity of traditions going back to the thirteenth century while showing at the same time that something entirely new emerged during the modern revival.' Jens Roehrkasten, Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies