Nuns’ 18th-century composite amulet. Protects against plague & sorcery.
[Amulet] / [ Nuns]. [“Breverl” in leather case]. [8.3 x 6.3 cm the case, 19.0 x 14.5 cm unfolded], paste-paper case covered with leather embossed with Sacred Names of Jesus and Mary; folded inside the case are printed and other amuletic material affixed to a block-printed backing sheet (see description below). Some rubbing cracking to the case. Some toning and staining of printed material, a few of the prints trimmed, folding and creasing with minor separation at a few folds, generally well preserved.
Rare 18th-century composite amulet known as a “Breverl,” a term referring to the apotropaic “Breve” (“letter” or “brief”) around which such items were constructed. Breverln typically were made by nuns in German-speaking lands for sale to pilgrims.
Ellen Ettlinger nicely summarizes this category of object: “A very popular compound amulet is the so-called Breverl, which was usually made in a convent. If complete, the Breverl contains in a case: (1) a folded prayer-sheet, (2) a folded woodcut or engraving showing nine patron saints, (3) a small print and invocation either of the Three Magi or of St. Agatha, (4) a collection of miniature devotional objects pasted on a stiff cardboard, and (5) a largish folded woodcut or engraving of the Pestkreuz (a cross giving protection against the plague), surrounded by various patron saints and magico-religious texts. Originally a plague amulet, the Breverl became in the course of time a panacea owing to its composite character. The opening of its case, whether of metal, silk, velvet, embroidery or paper, was believed to destroy its protective virtues. The Breverl was carried on the person, and usually suspended from a string round the neck” (Ettlinger, pp. 110-11).
The Breverl offered here has a paste-paper case covered with leather tooled with Sacred Names of Jesus & Mary. Folded inside the case are printed and other amuletic material affixed to a block-printed backing sheet.
Pasted the folded backing sheet is a print depicting an amuletic two-barred cross (Pestkreuz) inscribed with the first letters of a series of Latin-language blessings associated with Saints Zacharias and Benedict (the Zachariassegen & Benediktussegen) and said to protect “against plague and spells.” Written on the backing sheet is a contemporary Latin inscription only partially legible to me which reads “ad memoriam [?] mea matre.”
The first unfolding of the backing sheet reveals a group of eight devotional engravings/etchings depicting Ignatius of Loyola, Anthony of Padua, Franciscus Xavier, Johannes Nepomuk, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, the icon of Maria in Wessobrunn, the Virgin and Dove of the Holy Spirit with verses from Canticles, and another Zacharias-Benedict cross. Concealed beneath the Canticles-Mary prints is a folded Three Magi slips known as a “Dreikönigszettel,” which is decorated with a woodcut of the Three Magi with text claiming that it protects against “danger in travel, headaches, falling sickness, fever, witchcraft, and sudden death.”
In the middle of these prints is a folded letterpress sheet (the ‘Breve’) enveloping a diverse collection of natural, manmade, and divine objects. The letterpress ‘Breve’ here is the “Breve super se portandum ad gloriam dei, suorumque sanctorum contra daemones,” first published by Pope Urban VIII in 1635, which declares that bearers of the text will be protected against various diabolical evils.
In the middle of the ‘Breve’ is displayed a group of fascinating objects affixed to a backing of tar or paste, including tin and wax badges, a painted statuette of a ‘Black Madonna,’ plant material (grains, dried flowers, seeds), scraps of fabric, and other relic material relating to various saints.
*E. Ettlinger, “The Hildburgh Collection of Austrian and Bavarian Amulets in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum,” Folklore, vol. 76, no. 2 (1965), pp. 104-17; D. Skemer, “Magic Writ: Textual Amulets Worn on the Body for Protection,” in Annette Kehnel, et al., eds., Schriftträger-Textträger: Zur materialen Präsenz des Geschriebenen in frühen Gesellschaften, pp. 127-50; Roland Halbritter, “Südtiroler Breverln – Amulette zwischen Magie und Glaube,” in Der Schlern: Monatszeitschrift für Südtiroler Landeskunde, vol. 72, no. 1 (1998), pp. 39-64; Christoph Kürzeder, Als die Dinge heilig waren. Gelebte Frömmigkeit im Zeitalter des Barock, pp. 144-50.