The Church offers, in every age, in her Saints, Apostles, and Martyrs, brilliant examples of virtue, zeal, and heroic courage. While all are holy, there are still some, whose lives present features, at once so touching and sublime, that time can detract nothing from the interest which attaches to their names in every Catholic heart. Pre-eminent among these, is St. Cecilia, the gentle queen of Sacred Song, distinguished alike for her attachment to holy Virginity, her apostolic zeal, and the unfaltering courage by which she won the martyr's crown. The author has followed with fidelity, the ancient Acts of St. Cecilia, the authenticity of which the reader will find satisfactorily defended in his pages. For less important details, he has claimed the right generally accorded to historians, of receiving probable evidence, where certain proofs cannot be ob- tained. On such authority, he has, for example, assumed with the learned Bosio and others, that the virtues of our Saint formed the crowning glory of the illustrious family of Cecilia Metella. The recital does not terminate with the death of Cecilia. The discoveries of her tomb, in the ninth and sixteenth centuries, form not the least interesting portion of the work. The description of the church which was once her dwelling, and the witness of her sufferings and triumphs, brings those scenes so vividly before us, that Cecilia seems to belong, as all the Saints of God most truly do, as much to our own day, as to the period when she still combated on earth. We will not speak of the pleasure and instruction the author has afforded by his faithful pictures of the celebrated Ways of Ancient Rome, and the sacred cities of the dead, concealed in the holy shades beneath. For this, and much other interesting information, we refer the reader to the following pages, content, if, by our own humble labors, we have contributed to the edification of our Catholic brethren, and to the glory of Him who is admirable in His Saints.

A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula is the second comparative history of a new subseries with a regional focus, published by the Coordinating Committee of the International Comparative Literature Association. As its predecessor for East-Central Europe, this two-volume history distances itself from traditional histories built around periods and movements, and explores, from a comparative viewpoint, a space considered to be a powerful symbol of inter-literary relations. Both the geographical pertinence and its symbolic condition are obviously discussed, when not even contested. Written by an international team of researchers who are specialists in the field, this history is the first attempt at applying a comparative approach to the plurilingual and multicultural literatures in the Iberian Peninsula. The aim of comprehensiveness is abandoned in favor of a diverse and extensive array of key issues for a comparative agenda. A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula undermines the primacy claimed for national and linguistic boundaries, and provides a geo-cultural account of literary inter-systems which cannot otherwise be explained.

This book investigates the history of writing as a cultural practice in a variety of contexts and periods. It analyses the rituals and practices determining intimate or ‘ordinary’ writing as well as bureaucratic and religious writing. From the inscribed images of ‘pre-literate’ societies, to the democratization of writing in the modern era, access to writing technology and its public and private uses are examined. In ten studies, presented by leading historians of scribal culture from seven countries, the book investigates the uses of writing in non-alphabetical as well as alphabetical script, in societies ranging from Native America and ancient Korea to modern Europe. The authors emphasise the material characteristics of writing, and in so doing they pose questions about the definition of writing itself. Drawing on expertise in various disciplines, they give an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in a field at the forefront of ‘Book History’.