Touched the Cologne Magi relics & protect against witchcraft, etc. Unrecorded.

[Three Magi] / [Touch relic]. Heilige drey Könige Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar, Bittet für uns jetzt, und in Stund unseres Tods. Diß an die Häupter und Reliquien der HH. drey Königen in Cölln angestrichenes Brieflein ist gut für alle Reißgefahren, Hauptweh, fallende Krankheit, Fieber, Zauberey und jähen Todt, durch einen vesten Glauben. Köln: zu haben bey den Jungfern Schorns auf dem Dohmhof, s.a. [18th century]. [10.5 x 4.5 cm], [1] f. letterpress slip, with woodcut, tinted blue. Creases and edge wear.
[With:]
Heilige drey Könige Caspar / Melchior / Balthasar / Bittet für uns jetzt und in Stund unseres Todts. Diß an die Häupter und Reliquien der HH. drei Königen in Cöllen angestrichenes Brieflein ist gut für alle Reißgefahren / Hauptweh / fallende Krankheit / Fieber / Zauberey und jähen Todt / durch einen vesten Glauben. S.l. [likely Cologne]: s.n, s.a [18th century]. [6.6 x 3.9 cm], [1] f. letterpress slip, tinted with red wash. Some rubbing.
 
 
Two unrecorded 18th-century paper slips that—according to their text—touched the “heads & relics” of the Three Kings (Three Magi) in Cologne, i.e., the relics kept in the famous gold shrine (Dreikönigsschrein) in Cologne Cathedral. 
 
The paper slips (here called ‘Brieflein’) are thus examples of ‘touch’ relics (also called a ‘contact’ or ‘secondary’ relics), i.e., items that contacted or was in the vicinity of a saint’s primary relic (e.g., a body part or personal item) or another holy item. 
 
These two slips claim to carry with them the power to protect bearers against “danger in travel, headaches, falling sickness, fever, witchcraft, and sudden death.” One of the items is decorated with a woodcut of the Three Magi, and both are (rather unusually) tinted with bright colors, no doubt the better attract buyers.
 
Paper slips of the Three Magi slips are collectively known as “Dreikönigszetteln.” Most do not make claims about having touched relics, but simply rely on the longstanding amuletic quality of the very names of the Three Magi.
 
The origin, meaning, and apotropaic qualities of the names “Caspar, Melchior & Balthasar” (“C. M. B.) were in the Early Modern Period (and still remain) a matter of some debate. During Epiphany it became a tradition to write in chalk on the door of one’s house the letters “C. M. B.” flanked by the numbers of the New Year, e.g., “20 + C. M. B. + 24.” A common explanation of these letters was that they stood for the Latin phrase “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” (“May Christ bless this house”), but they also came to be associated with the names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior, & Balthazar.
 
The Brothers Grimm, for example, in the entry for “Dreikönigsabend” (“Three Kings Eve,” or “Twelfth Night”) in their Deutsches Wörterbuch (1852), remark that the “C. M. B.” sign warded off the devil and witches. Johann Baptist von Horix noted in the 1780s that a “Three Kings slip” (Dreikönig-Zettel) printed with the images of the Magi or the letters “C. M. B.” was thought to protect against ghosts and Hexen and that such amulets could be traced back at least to the 16th century (p. 9). In 1715, Placidus Taller published a popular sermon on the Epiphany in which he offered numerous rather fanciful interpretations of the letters “C. M. B.” and their association with the names of the Three Magi. 
 
Dreikönigszetteln promising ‘travel protection’ have sometimes been found pasted to valuable items (e.g., on the backs of paintings) to safeguard them during shipment.
 
These items are not located by OCLC, KVK, or the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. Similar slips are, however, known.
 
 
*H. Heres, Das private Andachtsbild: Devotionale, Andenken, Amulett; A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert; Placidus Taller, Einfältiger doch Wohlgemeinter Bauern-Pediger, Das ist, Fest-Tägliche Predigen Auf das gantze Jahr (1715), pp. 34-44; Johann Baptist von Horix, Viertes Sendschreiben eines Layen an seinen Freund, einen Weltgeistlichen, über das während der Jesuiterepoche ausgestreuete Unkraut verschiedene merkwürdige deutschgeistliche Geschichtsumstände enthaltend (1786); Christoph Kürzeder, Als die Dinge heilig waren: Gelebte Frömmigkeit im Zeitalter des Barock; S. Metken, Geschnittenes Papier eine Geschichte des Ausschneidens in Europa von 1500 bis heute.