This is an annotated bibliography of Catholic books in English printed abroad or secretly in England at a time when Catholic printing was prohibited in England and such books, when discovered by the authorities, were seized and destroyed. It includes all the 930 items listed in the authors' A Catalogue of Catholic Books in English..., 1956 (A&R) except for a handful which, for reasons of consistency, were described in volume I of the present work (Scolar Press, 1989), and it adds a further twenty-five on which information has come to light more recently. The annotations, historical, literary and bibliographical, are very much fuller than those in A&R and include a vast amount of evidence now brought together for the first time. The true authors of many anonymous and pseudonymous books are identified and many books issued with a false imprint, or no imprint at all, are assigned to particular presses. In each entry, up to fifteen locations are given where known. A concordance links the entries with those in A&R to facilitate cross-reference from one to the other, and indexes of titles, printers and publishers, and persons (including foreign authors) mentioned in the text are provided. The volume concludes with a short list of Addenda and Corrigenda to volume I.

"How were books in early modern England made, circulated, sold, stored, read, marked, altered, preserved, and destroyed? The Oxford Handbook to the History of the Book in Early Modern England provides a stimulating account of the very newest work in the field, and an exploration of how new thinking might develop. Written by scholars working at the cutting-edge of the subject, from the UK and North America, the volume combines lucidity, scholarly expertise, intellectual precision, and an imaginative structure that will enable contributors to show why the history of the book matters. This volume analyses in a lively manner the nature and role of the book in early modern England, and also considers critically how we can talk about the history of book"--

Early Modern Catholicism makes available in modern spelling and punctuation substantial Catholic contributions to literature, history, political thought, devotion, and theology in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Rather than perpetuate the usual stereotypes and misinformation, it provides a fresh look at Catholic writing long suppressed, marginalized, and ignored. The anthology gives back voices to those silenced by prejudice, exile, persecution, or martyrdom while attention to actual texts challenges conventional beliefs about the period. The anthology is divided into eight sections entitled Controversies, Lives and Deaths, Poetry, Instructions and Devotions, Drama, Histories, Fiction, and Documents, and includes sixteen black and white illustrations from a variety of Early Modern sources. Amongst the selections are texts which illuminate the role of women in recusant community and in the Church; the rich traditions of prayer and mysticism; the theology and politics of martyrdom; the emergence of the Catholic Baroque in literature and art; and the polemical battles fought within the Church and against its enemies. Early Modern Catholicism also provides a context that redefines the established canons of Early Modern England, including such figures as Edmund Spenser, John Donne, John Milton, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson.

Delicious entertainments of the soule is a translation of a collection of conferences which Francis de Sales held for the Order of the Sisters of the Visitation. This order took the form of an institute for young girls and widows who wanted to enter a convent but lacked the strength or the inclination for the physical austerities of the great orders. It was for these sisters that Francis held conferences or 'familiar conversations' on religious topics at regular intervals. These conversations were not written out by Francis himself but were noted down and collected by the sisters. Pudentiana Deacon's translation of these transcripts gives the reader an idea of the personality of the speaker. De Sale comes across as a humane, commonsensical, practical man with an occasional sense of humour and a shrewd idea of the specific worries and temptations of his audience.