In 1949, Mabel Dolmetsch first published her work on dance history, Dances of England and France from 1450 to 1600, with their music and authentic manner of performance. Five years later, her companion volume, Dances of Spain and Italy from 1400 to 1600, appeared. Recently, both volumes have been reprinted by Da Capo Press, New York (1975), and they are thus readily available to anyone interested in the reconstruction of dances of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. While Da Capo Press is to be applauded for providing these classic works with a renewed distribution, the absence of a modern preface discussing the progress which has been made in historical dance reconstruction since the original composition of these books may well mislead readers into believing that they represent the current state of the art.