The Auto do Caseiro de Alvalade, the Auto dos Escrivães do Pelourinho, the Auto do Escudeiro Surdo, the Auto de Florisbel and the Auto de Guiomar do Porto, in their first modern editions, are brought together in this second volume of the series dedicated to 16th century Portuguese drama. All of them are portraits of urban life in 16th century Portugal. The result of ‘realistic’ conventions, which bring theatrical representation closer to reality, is their linguistic expression, which is quite different from that of other literary or essayistic texts. And it’s not just the diverse richness of the linguistic forms that makes these texts a heritage to be recovered and studied; the five autos reveal a culture installed in 16th century Portuguese society, heir to the accumulation of theatrical practices developed from Gil Vicente onwards, a reflection of individual readings and experiences that find an echo in the collective, evidenced in the cultural references they propose.