Since the 1913 publication of James A. Montgomery's Aramaic Incantation
Texts from Nippur, students of the bowls have used that book as the
diving platform from which they enter a deep pool of study, In the
intervening years, the body of work on incantation (or magic) bowls has
continued to grow. Bowls in several ancient languages have attracted the
attention of scholars from a variety of countries and traditions. The
result has been the publication of a considerable number of translations
of additional texts and fragments. Focusing only on those bowls
inscribed in Aramaic and even then, only on the seventy-two extant bowls
which could be personally read in photographs or facsimiles, Charles
Isbell has, in Corpus of the Aramaic Incantation Bowls, compiled an
impressive volume of work. Including the complete original texts, full
translations, and annotations, Isbell supplements the text with a
glossary of all inscribed words, an index of personal names, and a list
of quotations from scripture.