In this fine study Christine F. Cooper-Rompato explores the phenomenon of xenoglossia, or the miraculous ability to speak or understand a foreign tongue, in the context of late medieval ideas on spiritual and literary authority. Her nuanced analyses, complemented by ample notes, cover a wide range of saintly biographies and autobiographies as well as several tales of Chaucer. Throughout, the author looks at xenoglossia from a gendered perspective. For the practical realm, for instance, she shows that men, such as St Vincent Ferrer, most frequently received the gift of tongues – modelled on the events of Pentecost – for pastoral purposes (preaching, spiritual counselling or hearing confession) in foreign lands, while women's miraculous acquisition of a foreign language could protect them during their travels. Especially interesting are the sections on women's miraculous Latinity where the author teases out the wide variety in degrees of Latin literacy (reading, writing, voicing words) and the meanings attached to it. Many of the vitae analysed here present a clerically controlled access to Latinity for women, centring on the Scriptures and spiritual understanding. Cooper-Rompato's close readings of a variety of sources also lead to an important reassessment of what literate and illiterate meant in the Middle Ages. For a number of women, overcoming Latin illiteracy could mean access to a closed or even forbidden world of masculine authority. But vernacular literacy or xenoglossia could be equally important, as the author shows for Margery Kempe where miraculous translation abilities are presented as lending spiritual authority to Margery's words and deeds (and they come in handy for travel as well). Modelled on earlier saints' Lives, Margery's xenoglossia adds to this laywoman's claims to holiness and authorises her visionary experiences. The hagiographical trope of xenoglossia also appears in the Canterbury tales where Chaucer ‘employs the … xenoglossic woman as a metaphor for a translator's relationship to his authoritative sources’ (p. 143). The Squire's tale, for instance, features the male narrator as an ‘impotent’ and inadequate translator while the female protagonist Canacee can ‘erase all translational difficulties’ (p. 176). Here, Cooper-Rompato also looks at zooglossia, the ability to communicate with animals, in particular with birds. Throughout this well written and thought-provoking book the author tracks the transformation of the Pentecostal theme of xenoglossia into a trope that lies at the heart of gendered issues of both spiritual and literary authority.