Item Summary

Textual amulet for the bearer's personal protection and healing, written and illustrated in Catalonia on a parchment sheet, which was folded and worn on the body, probably in a pouch or purse. It was later pasted down on cardboard. Three columns (55, 23, 55 lines respectively) with brief apotropaic texts and images: (1) Readings from the Four Gospels; (2) "Nomina domini Ihesu Christi" with text in Latin and Catalan, first offering promises of protection, then listing 66 names of God, which are interspersed with crosses in red and blue; (3) Heavenly Letter, a version of an apocryphal Christian letter, ostensibly written by Christ to King Abgar V of Edessa (4 BCE-50CE), in Asia Minor ("Beatus est Abgare quia credisti in me..."); (4) "Protestacio ultilis. Firmiter Ihesum christum nazarenum esse filium dei et omnes articulis simbolum apostolicis et fide catholice... In cuius testimonium porto mecum presens scriptum."; (5) "Arma Christi," illustration of the Instruments of the Passion (arma Christi), executed in ink and color wash, with a surrounding inscription.