This gendered translation of the Benedictine Rule for nuns in 1517 is also a handbook for women on exercising authority, management skills and the art of good governance, including monastic property and relations with the outside world. Barry Collett here provides a modern facsimile edition of Fox's translation, written in the tumbling phrases of passionate prose that make Fox stand out as a literary figure of the English Renaissance. Collett also provides an extensive introduction that argues that Fox's experience as an administrator and senior political adviser with special responsibility for foreign affairs, mainly with Scotland and France, the political situation in 1516, and social concerns Fox shared with Thomas More, all provide keys to understanding this translation of the rule.

Contents: English society and Here begynneth: the question of good govermamce in 1516; The monastic life and Here begynneth: the ambivalence of the monastic vocation; Making the translation during autumn and winter of 1516: Here begynneth and the early modern Englishwoman; Three Epilogues: Fox, the nuns, and the book; editorial notes: Here begynneth the rule of seynt Benet: Richard Fox's translation of the Benedictine rule for Women, 1517; Bibliography; Index.