A major collection of festival texts, in their original languages and in translation into English, with introductions, commentaries and illustrations, has been published as 'Europa Triumphans': Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, gen. eds. J.R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring, assoc. eds. Elizabeth Goldring and Sarah Knight (2 vols; Aldershot and Burlington VT: Ashgate and the Modern Humanities Research Association, 2004).

Further texts will be found in the Renaissance Triumphs and Magnificences series, under the general editorship of Margaret M. McGowan (published from 1974 by Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Amsterdam, and currently by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Tempe, Arizona).

A very extensive bibliography of festival texts is provided by Festivals and Ceremonies eds. Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Anne Simon (London: Mansell, 2000). Spectaculum Europæum: Theatre and Spectacle in Europe (1570-1750), eds. Pierre Béhar and Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly surveys theatrical forms across Europe in the specified period, including festivals.

Other recent studies of festival include: Court Festivals of the European Renaissance: Art, Politics and Performance, eds. J.R. Mulryne and Elizabeth Goldring (Aldershot and Burlington VT: Ashgate, 2002), Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave 2002) and Mara R. Wade Triumphus Nuptialis Danicus: German Court Culture and Denmark. The Great Wedding of 1634 (Wiesbaden, 1996).

An interesting and informative general introduction to festival culture across Europe is provided by Roy Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450-1650 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1984).