A prominent woman in Parisian society, Marie de la Guesle-the Countess of Châteauvieux-met Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament on a charity visit in August 1651. So taken was she with the Prioress's wisdom that she returned several days later to resume the conversation. Soon the nun began to serve as the Countess's spiritual guide, leading her in the paths of faith, self-renunciation, prayer, and the pure love of God. The Countess and her husband became great benefactors of Mother Mectilde's newly established order, the Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, and on the day after her husband's death in November of 1662, the Countess herself entered the convent she had helped to build. A permanent record of the friendship, which grew ever deeper between the mystic of Lorraine and the grand lady, was left in their candid and multifaceted correspondence, conducted over a period of about a dozen years. Marie later arranged Mectilde's letters into a volume which she called her "breviary of fire." Benedictine in its fundamental principles, Mother Mectilde's teaching reflects and contributes to the French School, which included such luminaries as Pierre de Bérulle, St. John Eudes, and Jean-Jacques Olier, while drawing freely on other sources, especially St. John of the Cross and St. Francis de Sales. Mother Mectilde's gifts of psychological penetration and practical mysticism are fully evident in the advice she gave to Marie de Châteauvieux, which her daughters in religion eagerly recopied and passed down for over three centuries, and which is now available for the first time in English in a translation that faithfully reflects the fiery quality of the original.

The first book by Mother Mectilde to appear in English, these words, steeped in Sacred Scripture and the liturgical tradition of Benedictine monasticism, reveal a woman of profound human insights and of supernatural wisdom, a sure guide to holiness with a timeless and universal message that seems providential for precisely this moment in history.

Humphrey Llwyd's Breviary of Britain (1573) is both the first Tudor description of Britain and a passionate and learned defence of Welsh historical traditions. Featuring the first reference in English to the 'British Empire', Thomas Twyne's translation would influence Elizabethan writers from Michael Drayton to John Dee. The volume also includes relevant illustrative selections of David Powel's History of Cambria (1584). Based on Llwyd's own translation of the medieval Welsh chronicle, Brut y Tywysogyon, Powel's History was an important source for Spenser's Faerie Queene and Drayton's Poly-Olbion, and remained the standard history of medieval Wales until the nineteenth century. Philip Schwyzer is Associate Professor of Renaissance Literature in the Department of English, University of Exeter. He has published extensively on Anglo-Welsh literary relations and visions of British antiquity in the early modern period. His books include Literature, Nationalism and Memory in Early Modern England and Wales (2004), Archaeologies of English Renaissance Literature (2007); he is co-editor with Willy Maley of Shakespeare and Wales: From the Marches to the Assembly (2010).

The Breviary of Queen Isabella of Castile is one of the most splendid of Flemish illuminated manuscripts, notable for the verve and originality of its miniatures. This is the first time it has been the subject of a substantial separate publication, providing comprehensive coverage of its contents and decoration. The manuscript was presented to Isabella by Francisco de Rojas, apparently to mark the occasion of the double marriage of her son and daughter to the children of Maximilian, King of the Romans, and his first wife, Mary of Burgundy. De Rojas had acted for Isabella and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, throughout the marriage negotiations, which were concluded in 1495. Isabella had a strong interest in Flemish art and this sumptuous devotional book must have been much to her taste. Breviaries, normally produced for the use of the clergy, are much less common than books of hours. They contain a larger and more varied body of texts, affording their artists a wider range of subject matter and extensive decorative opportunities. In the case of the Isabella Breviary, no effort was spared to produce an illustrative scheme on a grand scale. Two outstanding workshops of the day are represented. The greater part of the manuscript is due to the Master of the Dresden Prayerbook, whose contribution includes a number of unusual Old Testament subjects. Many of the illustrations of saints are by the Master of James IV of Scotland. In addition there are four magnificent miniatures closely related to (and possibly in the hand of) Gerard David.