With over 2000 plays, Spain's seventeenth-century Golden Age has the richest theatrical heritage of Europe, though only a tiny fraction of it has been performed in modern times. Throughout his forty years of reading, David Castillejo has discovered many unknown and buried masterpieces. To help actors, directors and researchers cope with such vast material he has classified 1000 of these plays as Good, Minor or Mediocre, giving a brief summary of the plots and the number of characters in each play. Unfortunately the political destruction of the projected Centro deteatro clásico at Alcalá de Henares makes it unlikely that Spain's Golden Age drama will be revived for her own citizens, but this survey will help make the enormous wealth of drama from that age available to the world at large.

David Castillejo (Madrid, 1927) read History at King's College, Cambridge. Since the 1950s he has spent periods of time in Spain rediscovering the intellectual freedom enjoyed in Madrid in 1896 - 1937 in Los intelectuales reformades de Espana. In 1983 he organised the Exhibition of the Fouth Centenary of the Corral del Principe in Madrid. David also helped classify the ceramic collection in the Alhambra for its subsequent exhibition at the Museo Nacional de Arte Hispanomusulman. His publications include 'Giua de Ochocientas Comedias del siglo de Oro' (Madrid, 2002), 'La Formacion del actor en el teatro clasico' (Madrid, 2005) and 'El Otro Siglo de Oro' (Madrid, 2007).