Inscribed Power

In Inscribed Power, Ryan D. Giles explores the function of amuletic prayers, divine names, and incantation formulas that were inscribed and printed on parchment, paper and other media, and at the same time inserted into classic literary works in Spain.

Ryan D. Giles is an associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, Bloomington.

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

Joseph T. Snow, Michigan State University:

"[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."

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

"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."