Good things come in small packages. Diebold’s book should join the ranks of other petit books that have made a large contribution not only to their field of specialization but also to a wider audience. Word and Image: An Introduction to Early Medieval Art has found a place on my personal bookshelf alongside Arnold van Gennep’s Les rites de passage (1909) and Peter Brown’s The World of Late Antiquity (1971). Diebold offers a fine, lively...