This is the fifth volume in the collection of critical editions of Lope de Vega's autos sacramentales published by GRISO (Grupo de Investigación del Siglo de Oro, University of Navarra) and Edition Reichenberger. The book contains two sacramental plays, El heredero del cielo and El niño pastor, which originally appeared in the posthumous Fiestas del santísimo Sacramento, a miscellany of Lope de Vega's texts collected by José Ortiz de Villena and printed by Pedro Verges in Zaragoza (1644). The volume opens with Elena E. Marcello's edition of El heredero del cielo, a dramatization of the parable of the wicked tenants (Matthew 21:33–46; Luke 20:9–19; Mark 12:1–12; also Isaiah 5–6; Jeremiah 2:21), followed by Fernando Rodríguez-Gallego's version of El niño pastor, an auto revolving around the figure of Jesus Christ portrayed as the Good Shepherd. In addition to establishing and annotating the dramatic texts, Marcello and Rodríguez-Gallego have each written a critical and textual introduction for their respective autos. The volume concludes with a shared bibliography and index.

In the absence of previous testimonies, Marcello's edition of El heredero del cielo reproduces the princeps with minor corrections that are rationalized in her introduction's textual analysis. After lamenting the lack of information on the chronology and representations of El heredero del cielo, Marcello underlines the problematic classification of the piece as an auto sacramental, particularly because the celebration of the Eucharist, a crucial motif defining the genre, is relegated to a couple of verses at the end of the play. After considering the objections of other scholars who have questioned the value of Lope's autos on account of their distance from the canonical dramatic formula of the genre and the allegorical perfection of Calderón de la Barca's plays, Marcello defends El heredero del cielo in terms of its theatrical and aesthetic merits. She also demonstrates the play's effectiveness as a catechetical instrument, summarizing and analyzing Lope's dramatization of the parable of the wicked tenants as a celebration of the dogma of the redemption. While doing so, she compares the auto with other sacramental versions of the same parable; relates the piece to Saint Ignatius's teachings and other religious currents of the times; questions the anti-Semitism detected in the play by other critics; and emphasizes the role played by music and theatrical costumes in the representation of the auto. Marcello concludes her introduction with an overview of other critical interpretations, a metrical synopsis, a summary of the plot, and a detailed textual history of the play.

As editor of El niño pastor, the second auto included in this volume, Rodríguez-Gallego faces a greater challenge than Marcello due to the piece's complex textual history. In fact, a greater part of the introduction is devoted to the study of the existing manuscripts and editions of the auto, an indispensable task to outline the stemma and to justify major and minor editorial decisions, which are carefully detailed. Rodríguez-Gallego's edited text is based on the three surviving testimonies from the seventeenth-century, two manuscripts from the Biblioteca Nacional (MS 15577 and MS 15357) and the princeps edition. It is significantly different from Menéndez y Pelayo's version, up until now the only modern edition of the auto, which is based primarily on the oldest testimony (BNE MS 15357). Rodríguez-Gallego's auto has a much broader and more thorough textual foundation than Menéndez y Pelayo's, and this is his main contribution to the field. Other introductory materials include a brief state of the question, a synopsis of the metrics, and a plot summary. A thorough interpretative reading of the piece would have been a good complement to an otherwise remarkable philological endeavor.

In sum, this is an excellent volume that will provide scholars in the field with reliable texts of two long-neglected pieces, and it will become an indispensable tool for those seeking to conduct further research on Lope de Vega's sacramental plays.