%0 Journal Article
%T A history of amulets in ten objects
%A Annie Thwaite
%D 2019
%V 
%N Spring 2019
%K Amulets
%K collecting
%K Europe
%K healing
%K History
%K material culture
%K medicine
%K museums
%K objects
%X What are amulets? How are they situated in the larger narrative of European healing? Varied and complex objects, amulets present both challenges and opportunities for historians and museums alike. Yet an examination of these often-overlooked items within a medical context can provide significant information about cure and protection over different times and geographies. This article analyses ten amulets from the Science Museum collections, and asks what we can learn from exploring these objects’ material features and varying functions. It argues for a re-consideration of amulets from their categorisation by nineteenth- and twentieth-century collectors and classification by modern museums, to their recognition as a significant part of the history of healing.
%Z Wednesday 4 January; Sunday 8 January; Monday 9 January; Wednesday 18 January; Thursday 19 January (1664/5). Pepys, S; Wheatley, H (ed), 1660-9; 1893, found at P Gyford (ed).

%Z Pepys, S; Wheatley, H (ed), 1660-9; 1893, found at P Gyford (ed), https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1665/01/20/(accessed 21 April 2018); Knighton, C S, 2008, ‘Batten, Sir William (1600/01–1667), naval officer’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, 2019), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1714 (accessed 7 February 2019).

%Z Friday 20 January 1664/5. Pepys, S; Wheatley, H (ed), 1660-9; 1893, found at P Gyford (ed), (accessed 29 April 2018).

%Z 20 January 1664/5. Pepys, S; Wheatley, H (ed), 1660-9; 1893, found at P Gyford (ed) (accessed 14 December 2017).

%Z 21 January 1664/5. Two months later, Pepys wrote once more in celebration of his ‘very perfect good health’, marvelling: ‘Now I am at a losse to know whether it be my hare’s foot which is my preservative against wind, for I never had a fit of the collique since I wore it’. Despite his ambivalence, he was still cured of colic. Pepys, S; Wheatley, H (ed), 1660–9; 1893, found at P Gyford (ed) (accessed 14 December 2017).

%Z For instance on ebay, ‘LUCKY Rabbit Foot Good Luck Charm’: https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/222775139002?chn=ps&adgroupid=49939730778&rlsatarget=pla-380792705024&abcId=1129946&adtype=pla&merchantid=6995734&poi=&googleloc=9060160&device=c&campaignid=974198600&crdt=0(accessed 9 January 2018).

%Z For a recent introduction to early modern English medicine, see Andrew Wear, 2000. For an overview of Renaissance medicine more generally, see Nancy Siraisi, 1990. For a useful social history of medicine in this period, see Harold Cook, 2006, pp 407–34.

%Z For an overview of the different types of healers in early modern England, see Mark Jenner and Patrick Wallis 2007; Margaret Pelling, 2003.

%Z charm, n.1". OED Online. March 2018. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/30762?rskey=oupvW1&result=1&isAdvanced=false (accessed March 31, 2018). For historiographical references to amulets and charms used synonymously, see Peter Murray Jones & Lea T Olsan, 2015, pp 406–433. For a discussion and definitions of each, see Skemer, 2006, esp. pp 6–19.

%Z Author’s own translation. Science Museum Group, 2018 ‘Protective amulet consisting of nickel medall’, https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co103212/protective-amulet-consisting-of-nickel-medall-amulet (accessed 13 March 2018).

%Z Science Museum Group, 2018, ‘Hare’s foot amulet’, https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co108096/hares-foot-amulet-used-as-protection-against-cra-amulet-foot-animal-component (accessed 1 February 2018).

%Z For instance, Pitt Rivers Museum object numbers 1985.51.305, 1985.51.355; Museum of Witchcraft object number 202, ‘Hare’s foot: charm’.

%Z For example, Olivia Weisser, 2015, p 2.

%Z An example of this from the Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland is the ‘Archer Butler Luck Stone’. Archival information sent to the author confirms there is no evidence of the item being used for luck, or the original owners referring to is as lucky. The provenance of the appellation ‘luck’ is unknown; instead, the stone was used to protect cattle from disease, and often hung from the neck of the cow in need. See http://www.huntmuseum.com/collection/archer-butler-luck-stone/ (accessed 24 September 2018).

%Z For instance, Museum of Witchcraft object 1709, where the object’s classification as an amulet is specifically questioned: ‘amulet(?)’, found at http://museumofwitchcraftandmagic.co.uk/object/amulet-charm-3/ (accessed 3 March 2018).

%Z On magic and superstition, see for instance Michael D Bailey, 2006.

%Z For biographies of Wellcome and Lovett, see ‘Henry Wellcome 1853–1936’ found at http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/henrywellcome and ‘Edward Lovett’ found at http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Edward-Lovett.html (both accessed 4 April 2018). Whilst the remits of this article prevent a detailed discussion of these two collectors, further information can be found. Secondary analysis of Lovett is scant, but his monograph provides an excellent starting point (see Edward Lovett, 1925). Also rich in information about Lovett is Cadbury, 2012. For more on Henry Wellcome, see Robert Rhodes James, 1994; Helen Turner, 1980; Ken Arnold and Danielle Olsen, 2003.

%Z See for example the astrological sigil discussed on pp 10–12 of this article. A highly prevalent date range for amulets in the Science Museum collection is around 1870–1930, encompassing the lives of Wellcome, Lovett, and other prominent collectors who provided objects for the Museum such as Adrien de Mortillet (1853–1931).

%Z For instance, Campbell Bonner, 1950; E A Wallis Budge, 1961. For an example of amulets in a particular time period, see Don Skemer, 2006.

%Z See Cummins, 2016, pp 164–187, Stefan Münger, 2013, pp 66–82 or W L Hildburgh, 2012, pp 178–195 for examples. Some pieces are even written to provide instruction as well as historical context, for instance Robert Dancik, 2009.

%Z For an example, see Cadbury, 2016.

%Z The phrase ‘royal gift of healing’ is from John Browne, 1684, document images 14; 23. For an exception to the monarchical ability to heal ‘King’s Evil’, see Peter Elmer, 2013.

%Z Indeed, the coins used in this remedy were merely referred to as ‘gold’ by contemporary authors. See for example, Browne, 1684,document image 237 et passim.

%Z Science Museum object A641050 is an example from Charles I’s reign (1634–1649), but other Science Museum examples include A152330 (Henry VII, 1485–1509); A152329 (Elizabeth I, 1590–1603); A641046 (Elizabeth I 1582–1603); A125613 (Elizabeth I, 1582–1603). For similar examples in other museums, see for instance ‘Angel’, Museum of London, object number SRP98[33571] .

%Z For a contemporaneous example including testimonials, see John Evans, 1651.

%Z See Browne, 1684, pp 138–9; 148–9; 167; 171; 184 et passim.

%Z Browne, 1684, p 181

%Z For instance, Browne,1684, p 71 discusses in this treatise the ‘unresolved at the efficacy of the Gold put about the Patients neck’.

%Z For more on scrofula, see James F Turrell, 1999, pp 3–36; Marc Bloch, 1973; Stephen Brogan, 2015; Scrofula and the royal touch: Hope and Fear at KCL; ‘The King’s Evil’, https://recipesandmedicineinearlymodernengland.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/the-kings-evil (accessed 28 February 2018); Daniel Fusch, 2008, pp 34–39.

%Z Michael Hunter and Anna Marie Roos have noted that coins and medals were often collected as amulets or for cabinets. See Anna Marie Roos, 2008, pp 271–288, esp. pp 271–2.

%Z Similar examples of cauls can be seen for instance at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, i.e. object number 1907.1.13.

%Z Also known as a mask, baby’s veil, silly-how(e) and haly-hood.

%Z Edward Muir has speculated that the reason for this potency stems from the fact that since before birth the caul had permitted the foetus to live within fluid, it could prevent drowning in water for adults.

%Z Science Museum Group, 2018, ‘Amuletic Caul’ https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co104541/amuletic-caul-piece-of-tissue-like-membrane-in-an-amulet-human-remains (accessed 3 January 2018). For a reference to cauls being used merely as prophylactic ‘lucky’ items, see this rhyme from 1875 in J Fairfax-Blakeborough, 1923, pp 9–10: ‘But a lass if born with a caul in July, Will loose her caul & young will die. Every month beside luck comes with a caul If safe put by, If lost she may cry: For ill luck on her will fall.’

%Z We also see references in popular literature, most notably Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, in which Copperfield describes the potency of the caul, its sale at auction for the ‘low price of fifteen guineas’, and popularity with sailors. Charles Dickens, 1849; 2001, pp 13–14

%Z Muir has also noted the ability for the child born with the caul to have ‘visionary powers’; citing the ‘benandanti’ in Italy.

%Z For John Monson, see corresponding entries in Ashmole 230, f. 219r, and Ashmole 235, ff. 67v-69v (followed, after blank pages, by a nativity for William Monson, born two years later, ff. 72r-73v) which say he was born at midnight on 10 September 1597. Reference from Lauren Kassell, Michael Hawkins, Robert Ralley, John Young, Joanne Edge, Janet Yvonne Martin-Portugues, and Natalie Kaoukji (eds), ‘Casebooks’, The casebooks of Simon Forman and Richard Napier, 1596–1634: a digital edition, https://casebooks.lib.cam.ac.uk, accessed 11 October 2018. Also see‘Locket’, V&A Museum, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O11007/locket-unknown/ (both accessed 22 September 2018).

%Z For context on such rarities in cabinets of curiosity, see Findlen, 1990, pp 292–331; p 307 et passim.

%Z Science Museum Group, 2018, ‘Whelk Shell with Reversed Spiral’, https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co108067/amulet-whelk-shell-with-reversed-spiral-rare-ca-shells (accessed 16 December 2017).

%Z ‘It is the majesty of Nature which cultivates human curiosity’, Gaspar Schott, 1662; 1986, p 18. Findlen, 1990, p 303.

%Z Science Museum Group, 2018, ‘Stone Charm’, https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co107922/stone-charm-london-england-c-1801-1900-amulets-protective-amulets, (accessed 16 December 2017).

%Z Known ‘as an amulet’ or to cure all across Europe, ‘with similar examples seen in Scandinavia’. Roud, 2006, p 438; Ettlinger, 1939, p 152. For examples in other museums, see Horniman Museum object number 19.106, ‘Soldier’s holed stone mascot’ and 31.28, ‘Curative charm’.

%Z See for instance, John Trotter Brockett, 1829, pp 3–4: ‘Adder-stone – A perforated stone, imagined by the vulgar to be made by the sting of an adder… hung up at the bed’s head, to prevent the night-mare.’

%Z Browne, 1646, Book 5, Ch. 21. John Aubrey repeated this in his Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme of 1686, citing Browne: ‘to prevent the ephialtes or night-mare, we hang up an hollow stone in our stables’.

%Z Cited by various sources as giving protection against ‘witches, evil spirits and nightmare’, for instance in Self Weeks, 1910, pp 104–110; 107–9.

%Z For a thorough analysis of this practice, see Dent, G, 1964a & 1964b.

%Z Although in Collections Online it is called a ‘pendant’. Science Museum Group, 2018, ‘Circular Metal Pendant’, https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co107433/circular-metal-pendant-pierced-for-suspension-en-pendants (accessed 29 February 2018). For a similar example, see ‘magical disc’, British Museum, object number 1888,1110.11.

%Z For instance, see Agrippa, H C, Freake, J (trans), Tyson, D (ed), 1531; 1993.

%Z See Kassell 2005a, pp 47–8 for the various values of a sigil in early modern England; ‘The value of a sigil was inherent to the object but it was not constant.’

%Z Kassell, 2005a, pp 50–1. Kassell cites Simon Forman here, Ashm. 392, fol. 46; (see also Ashm. 390, fol. 30). For Forman, like other astrologer-physicians, such practices were at the core of his medical practice; see Kassell, 2005b, p 225.

%Z Astronomy, knowledge of the heavens, and properties and motions of the stars and planets, worked in conjunction with astrology – the reading of the significance of the stars and planets ‘judging by their motions, places, natures, beings and aspects’. Kassell, 2005b, p 52.

%Z Donald Tyson notes, ‘The Kaballah was to Agrippa the magic of God’. Classical sources included Pliny the Elder, Ovid, Virgil and Hermes Trismegistus, as well as later writers such as Ficino; Jewish Kabballistic sources derived from the writings of Reuchliun and Pico della Mirandola. Agrippa, H C, Freake, J (trans), Tyson, D (ed), 1531; 1993, pp xl-xli.

%Z The seven 'planets' known at this time were Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol (the Sun), Venus, Mercury, and Luna (the Moon).

%Z Divine names answering to the numbers of Jupiter included ‘4 – Aba’, Agrippa, Tyson, 1533; 1993, p 320. Table of the 16 signs are found on p 104; seal, intelligence and table on p 322; full sigil on p 329. On the magic square pattern like the one on this sigil, see Roos, 2008. The Latin inscription ‘Confirma O Deus potentissiumus’ approximately translates as ‘Give me strength God Almighty’ (author’s own translation). Also Barrett and Trithemisu, 1801, esp. p 174.

%Z On coins as magical objects, see Maguire, 1997. On stamping, see Park, 1998. On sigils as items of curiosity, protective and curative objects, and amulets, see Roos, 2008.

%Z When the rose is also a wheel, this could symbolise the up and down movement of human life. They may also have a profound religious message; Kingdoms rise and fall, but the Kingdom of God abides forever. Roberts, 2013.

%Z All information from http://www.infobretagne.com/saint-nicolas-du-pelem.htm, (accessed 8 June 2018). The former theory about the rector is attributed to Yves de Boisboissel, but no work is referenced.

%Z It is not clear to which specific work by René Couffon this information is from. The wheel is known in Breton dialect as ‘Rod ar fortun’ (Wheel of fortune). Original source: Jean-Yves Cordier, ‘La Roue à carillon de Confort-Meilars, celle de Locarn et de Priziac’, http://www.lavieb-aile.com/article-la-roue-a-carillon-de-confort-meilars-90677670.html (accessed 21 June 2018).

%Z On his blog, Jean-Yves Cordier notes somewhat cynically that this might sound like ‘old nonsense…but today we even surround babies’ cots with music and rattles!’ (author’s translation): http://www.lavieb-aile.com/article-la-roue-a-carillon-de-confort-meilars-90677670.html (accessed 21 June 2018).

%Z The catalogue notes that this wheel was accorded a ‘holy’ status and known as ‘The Rose of Fortune’.

%Z For instance, catalogue numbers A641893; A665466 and A665699 respectively. For ties to smaller religious denominations, see for instance A657374.

%Z ‘votive, adj. and n.’. OED Online. March 2018. Oxford University Press http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/224725?redirectedFrom=votive (accessed 29 May 2018)

%Z Natalie Coe, ‘Object of the Month: Acts of Faith’, 2013: https://wellcomecollection.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/object-of-the-month-acts-of-faith/ (accessed 22 May 2018).

%Z One object classed as an ‘ex-voto’ is also an amulet (A665472), and of the votives, some ancient terracotta items also appear to be amulets.

%Z Pitt Rivers, Oxford: Votive = 876 objects; Votive + amulet = 14 objects. Ex voto = 287 objects; Ex voto + amulet = 101 objects. Ex-voto = 106 objects; Ex-voto + amulet = 89 objects. Horniman, London: Votive = 707 objects; Votive + amulet = 7 objects. Ex-voto/ex voto = 2 objects; Ex-voto/ex voto + amulet = 0 objects. British Museum, London: Votive = 5,559 objects; Votive amulet = 130 objects. Ex voto = 70 objects; Ex voto amulet = 0 objects. Ex-voto = 59 objects; Ex voto amulet = 0 objects. Figures correct at time of writing, 16 April 2018. Whilst catalogues are not completely accurate, this nonetheless this provides an interesting pattern.

%Z Science Museum Group, 2018, ‘Brass pendant amulet’, https://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co108068/brass-pendant-amulet-with-representation-of-virgi-pendants (accessed 13 June 2018).

%Z Translated as ‘Virgin of Val De Gimena’/‘Protector against rabies’ (author’s own translation).

%Z See for instance object numbers 1985.52.615 and 1985.52.2305 at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and A666132 at the Science Museum. ‘St Hubert Key’, Small Blessings: Amulets at the Pitt Rivers Museum, http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/amulets/index.php/keys-amulet3/index.html (accessed 8 February 2019); ‘1970-56’, Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine, Science Museum, http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display?id=4596 (accessed 8 February 2019).

%Z For a concise description of this general formula, see Ettlinger, 1965.

%Z For work on Italian examples, see Tycz, 2018.

%Z Tycz has noted that there were also non-religious examples, and that the practice dates to before Christianity and might be linked to the Jewish practice of tefflin. Tycz, 2018.‘Amulet’, Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University, https://www.smu.edu/Bridwell/SpecialCollectionsandArchives/Exhibitions/ShapeofContent/ReadableObjects/Amulet (accessed 26 January 2018).

%Z However, Tycz notes that sometimes there was a differentiation between the 'brief' texts and longer texts or combined texts, and were sometimes referred to by other names, such as prayer letters, letters of revelation, spell letters, etc., which scholars suggest could have been opened for prayer or to enact the efficacy of the text by reciting it. Tycz, 2018.

%Z Same as Bidwell Library example: ‘This writ shall be carried to the glory of God against demons’ (author's own translation).

%Z St Francis Solanus was canonized in 1726, and thereby provides the earliest possible date for the engraving and amulet in general. Messbarger, R, Johns, C, and Gavitt, P (eds), 2016, Benedict XIV and the Enlightenment: Art, Science, and Spirituality (London: University of Toronto Press), p 144n.

%Z See Handley, 2006, on coral's ability to traverse different environments and states of being, and its use against demons, night-mares and those sleeping.

%Z Ettlinger, 1965, notes that whilst originally a plague amulet, the breverl became in the course of time a panacea owing to its composite character.

%I The Science Museum Group
%@ 2054-5770
%B eng
%U https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/history-of-amulets/
%J Science Museum Group Journal