Rationale:
Edited works are frequently excluded from book prize competition. Yet the work of editing a book deserves recognition. Editors make others look good from behind the scenes: correcting errors (factual, grammatical, spelling, etc.), calling on authors to  provide context and clarifications, putting their work into a proper and attractive format. Editors of documents need to be able to decipher difficult handwritings, be experts in languages (grammar, spelling, etc,), knowledgeable about the historical context in which the document was created, able to identify persons and  events mentioned, have good judgment regarding preferred readings, etc. It is often meticulous work that goes unappreciated by the casual reader. The prize will give proper recognition to high quality editing. 

Criteria:
The winner(s) of the prize may be an editor(s) of a published book or editor(s) for at least five continuous years of a journal/periodical devoted to the history of Catholicism. The published book from 2022 or 2023 could include:

1) an annotated transcription or critical edition or translation of a historical document or collection of documents related to the history of Catholicism, or    

2) a collection of essays (recruiting leading scholars and also young experts) on an important particular theme and editing the essays so that they are in proper format, free of factual or other errors, with references to up-to-date scholarship, and providing an index.