The volume under review brings together the revised proceedings of a conference held in Trento on 25-26 September 2023. It examines the role of print in the communication of current events during the first decades after the invention of movable type, asking how print functioned not merely as a means of reproducing texts but as a new medium for the dissemination of news and ideas (3, 5). The geographical focus lies on the German-speaking lands and Italy, while the chronological framework extends from the late fifteenth into the early sixteenth century. The editors adopt a broad understanding of "events", arguing that events come into being through both experience and communication, since "it is their narration that ascribes or denies them meaning" (3). The volume therefore investigates not simply the reporting of events but the processes through which print contributed to their construction, circulation, and reception.

The contributions approach these questions from a variety of perspectives and draw on an equally diverse range of source material. Broadsides, pamphlets, chronicles, devotional literature, invitations, and humanist publications are analysed alongside visual and material media, demonstrating the many ways in which information circulated in the early age of print. While the individual chapters address different political, religious, and cultural contexts, they are united by a shared interest in the interaction between media, materiality, and communication. Together, they illustrate that the emergence of print as a medium did not simply transform the reproduction of texts but could reshape the dissemination, reception, and interpretation of current events.

This broader understanding of communication becomes particularly evident in the volume's final contribution on the miracle of Santa Maria delle Carceri, which highlights an important implication of the editors' definition of the event. Since the miracle cannot be established or reconstructed in the same way as a political or military occurrence, its status as an event derives not from its factual demonstrability but from the ways in which it was narrated, materialised, and collectively received. The chapter therefore, provides a compelling illustration of the editors' argument that events emerge through processes of communication and acquire their meaning through reception. Rather than limiting its analysis to printed texts, it also considers manuscripts, lead medallions, printed images of the Virgin, and even the construction and decoration of the sanctuary as interconnected media through which the miracle was disseminated and experienced. In doing so, the contribution exemplifies one of the volume's central insights: the significance of print can only be understood within a broader media ecology in which different forms of communication interact in shaping contemporary perceptions of events.

A similarly illuminating perspective is offered by the contribution on printed invitations in the incunabula period, which shifts the focus from the representation of past events to the anticipation of future ones. By examining invitations as a distinct category of early printed ephemera, the chapter demonstrates that print did not merely record events after their occurrence but actively contributed to their being brought into being. The wide distribution of these invitations created expectations, mobilised participants, and established the social framework within which an event could unfold. In this sense, the contribution convincingly shows that events were, at least in part, produced through communicative practices that preceded their actual occurrence, thereby extending the volume's broader argument that print shaped not only the reception but also the very constitution of events.

The contribution on material culture of mobility further expands the volume's understanding of how events were experienced and communicated. Focusing on the movement of books and their owners, the chapter demonstrates that printed works were not static objects but accompanied people on their journeys, making the circulation of texts inseparable from the circulation of individuals. In line with recent approaches in the study of mobility, it highlights how objects themselves participated in processes of movement and exchange. Particularly revealing is the analysis of annotations added to a biblical text, which not only relate the reader's personal experiences to the written word but also provide evidence of the reader's presence at specific biblical locations. Through these interventions, the act of travelling became connected to the events narrated in Scripture, creating a personal encounter between past and present. The chapter thereby also challenges the assumption that events must necessarily be collective or experienced by large groups: individual acts of movement and reception could create meaningful encounters with events through processes of interpretation and commemoration.

Overall, the volume offers a wide-ranging and thought-provoking examination of the relationship between print and the communication of events in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The diversity of the case studies demonstrates the many ways in which printed media interacted with other forms of communication to shape contemporary perceptions, while the shared theoretical framework lends coherence to the collection. Although the individual contributions vary in their approaches and source material, they consistently encourage readers to view print not simply as a means of reproducing texts but as an active participant in the making, dissemination, and reception of events. As such, the volume makes a valuable contribution to the study of early print culture, media history, and the history of communication.

Janne van der Loop