Carole Delaney has written a very approachable and highly readable book about Columbus for the general public, choosing to deal most thoroughly with his millenarian beliefs, ties to the Franciscan order, and the religious ideas behind his voyages. The book draws on published materials, many of them primary sources, but introduces no new archival findings. Delaney manages the sources well. The Times Literary Supplement hailed her work as one of the 100 best books of 2011.

This book is a unique reference tool and will be essential reading for students of what the editors provocatively designate as the “Hispanic Baroque” for years to come. Designed to emphasize transatlantic links as well as local redefinitions in the religious histories and cultural practices of Spain and the Americas, the book is arranged thematically. Chronologically, it extends from the late fifteenth into the eighteenth century (p. 1). The book is organized into 43 categories, arranged alphabetically, from “Afterlife” to “Supernatural,” with separate entries for each category devoted to Spain and Spanish America. The author of each entry is a distinguished researcher, which permits the reader to enjoy 86 distillations of state-of-the-art scholarship; these are followed by suggestions for further reading. The scholars are of several generations and work in several disciplines, ranging across the humanities and social sciences.