Isabel de Villena (1430-1490) is one of the most fascinating women of the Spanish Middle Ages. Related to the royal family, she became abbess of the Poor Clare convent, the Santa Trinitat, in Valencia in 1462, a position she held until her death in 1490. Her treatise on the religious life, 'Vita Christi', was the first book by a woman to be printed in the kingdom of Aragon. This is a full-length survey in English of Isabel's life and literary works.