Since its founding in 1943, Medievalia et Humanistica has won worldwide recognition as the first scholarly publication in America to devote itself entirely to medieval and Renaissance studies. Since 1970, a new series, sponsored by the Modern Language Association of America and edited by an international board of distinguished scholars and critics, has published interdisciplinary articles. In yearly hardcover volumes, the new series publishes significant scholarship, criticism, and reviews treating all facets of medieval and Renaissance culture: history, art, literature, music, science, law, economics, and philosophy. Volume 48 is a special issue that presents the outcome of an international workshop (“Transnational Aspects of Early Modern Drama”) held (virtually) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in June 2021. The conference was hosted by Jan Bloemendal, one of the most distinguished scholars in the field. This volume contains six transnational and/or translingual case studies of early modern theatre and four reviews which cover various epochs, genres and discourses.

His successes as a political reformer have been exaggerated, and his diplomatic views have been largely misunderstood. In religion, government and diplomacy he was only more or less successful, and his greatness lies in the personal influence he wielded in all these spheres, rather than in the actual changes he brought about. His defects of character are those of his generation; his virtues are those of Counter-Reformation Europe; and his life is worthy of study by all who would understand the problem of regulating human affairs. - Preface.