Inscribed Power: Amulets and Magic in Early Spanish Literature

"[Inscribed Power] is, in fine, a work of vast scope and of dense but well-informed and authoritative presentations of the several ramifications of its titular theme. It contributes significantly new readings of the medieval and early modern Spanish works discussed and breaks fresh scholarly ground in doing so."

Joseph T. Snow, Michigan State University, BSS, xcv 2018

"Inscribed Power [is] a valuable contribution both to the study of Spanish literature and to our knowledge of magic in the Iberian Peninsula."

Don C. Skemer, Princeton University, Speculum, vol 94 1, Jan 2019

"Inscribed Power constitutes a major scholarly contribution to the study of the esoteric textual universe to which the pre-modern word belonged. Giles’s book discovers a numinous world in which inanimate objects are imbued with magic, in which words and texts are fortified by metaphysical powers, and where a word or a name alone may be placed at the service of either good or evil. This is a key study for understanding the history of knowledge and the epistemologies and associative beliefs that shaped medieval and early modern textualities. Scholars can miss it only at their peril."

E. Michael Gerli, Commonwealth Professor of Spanish, University of Virginia