Nuns’ composite amulet: Protects against plague and sorcery. Unopened.

[Amulet] / [Nuns]. [Unopened “Breverl” in embroidered case]. S.l. [German lands]: s.n., s.a. [late 18th or early 19th century]. [8.8 x 5.8 x 1.1 cm], [1] fabric ‘case’ decorated with various beads, wirework, stickpins, metal ornaments, foil, and a hand-colored etching of St. Martin; presumably enclosed is a composite amulet, which can be glimpsed where the case is partially unsewn at the bottom corner. Well preserved apart from the unsewn corner.
 
 
Rare unopened late 18th- or early 19th-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 distribution to pilgrims. 
 
Ellen Ettlinger neatly 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 is unopened, although an edge of the folded contents can be glimpsed though an unsewn corner of the case. I am not sure if the ‘power’ has leaked out.
 
The case is constructed from fabrics which are decorated with various beads, wirework, stickpins, metal ornaments and rattles.  A hand-colored etching of St. Martin dividing his cloak is provides a pictorial focus. The removal of the stickpins might allow the case to be opened (I have not tried it).
 
*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.