The Historiolae in Belarusian Incantations

The article deals with one of the most popular techniques in Belarusian magical medicine — the so-called historiolae, the essence of which is to recall precedent situations. This implies that the “disequilibrium of being, which has arisen in human life at the present moment (e.g. a disease), is restored according to a sacred pattern that took place in the past”. The texts declare connections between different levels of the worlds, past and present, but to the same extent between the microcosm and the macrocosm, erasing all distinctions between the real and the supernatural worlds. The present time of these charms prevents the transfer of the patient and the healer to ancient times of the myths. Instead, it is the sacred world that spreads around the requester. The most common form of such charms includes a narrative that relates certain events in Christian history, primarily describing the life of Christ or of one of the saints. A particular place among the narrative manifestations of historiolae is occupied by references to the Passion of Christ. These narratives, in turn, possess powerful life-affirming and healing potential. It is not the logical correspondence of a specific comparison in an incantation that is central, but the very desire to place the situation of treatment in an appropriate context. A number of texts from the author’s field records and archival materials are introduced here into scholarly circulation.

Going Back to the Manuscripts: an Interview with Lea T. Olsan

In the first of what is to be hoped will be the first in a series of interviews with charms researchers about their scholarly life and work, we present an interview with Lea T. Olsan conducted remotely (via Skype) by Jonathan Roper in October 2020. Lea is one of the earliest members of the Committee for Charms, Charmers and Charming, having attended the first meeting in London almost twenty years ago. A medievalist and manuscript scholar, she moved from America to Cambridge almost twenty years ago. She and her husband Peter are familiar figures at our conferences.

Armenian Amulets from the Collection of Armenian Orthodox Diocese in Baghdad

This study is dedicated to the Armenian manuscript and printed Amulet1 of the Armenian Diocese of Baghdad (DAOB). In this collection of early printings, there are two printed Amulets in scroll (Pr. n. 14, second half of the 19th century and Pr. n. 15, A.D. 1716). The third Amulet is a manuscript written in 1736 in the city of Erzrum (Karin) for a certain Ohan (Ms. n. 13). The scanned copies of these amulets are currently available through the website of Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML).2 Since this paper is the first study of these amulets, it presents them in terms of codicology and bibliographical study and discusses their decoration. The study of some iconographic details will help to reveal the practice of using amulets and their meaning, considering them as a representation of Armenian “folklore-art”, since scribes and miniaturists were partly free to choose texts and decorate them, even they were mostly works of the priesthood.3 It should be noted that as artifacts of the same genre, having a purpose of protection of their owners using incantations and prayers, very often the content and decoration of these three Amulets have similarities. From this point of view, Ms. n. 13 (A.D. 1736) and Pr. n. 15 (A.D. 1716) are more relevant to each other both in content and, accordingly, in decoration. A selection of prayers and illustrations to them show almost the same structure, and for the printed Amulet, we can certainly argue that such structure was typical (but not limited) for the printed Amulets in the Armenian tradition from the 18th to 19th centuries. Despite some similarities with two previous Amulets, the Pr. n. 14 (19th century) represent another structure of content and its decoration. It is enriched with prayers and illustrations which does not exist in mentioned above two examples of the 18th century. E.g. engravings depicting the life of Christ (Annunciation, Birth of Jesus Christ, Baptism, Resurrection, etc.), or portraits of the evangelists, accompanied by the passages from their Gospels. Our research shows that the publishers of this Amulet had an eighteenth-century prototype and took an innovative approach using Western art engravings.

The Virgin Mary (Panagia/Theotokos) in Modern Greek Incantations: The Sacred Afflicted

Sacred personae of the officially recognized religious systems often appear in charms in order to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of the ritual. Their appearance is particularly common in Greek narrative charms where they often assume the role of the auxiliary agent who expels the malevolent factor and provides a cure to the afflicted person. In this context, the appearance of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Angels, Archangels, the Apostles, as well as various saints, is also quite frequent. There is, however, a peculiarity in terms of the role that the figure of the Virgin Mary (Panagia, Theotokos) assumes. This holy figure can not only assume the role of an auxiliary sacred agent who provides a cure to the afflicted person, but also the role of the afflicted, seeking healing treatment by another holy figure. Worth mentioning in the last case is that this affliction could have as its source another sacred figure such as the Apostles or even the Angels. In which particular charm-types does the Virgin Mary appear as the afflicted person? Which are the factors leading to the onset of this affliction and which are the symptoms experienced by the holy figure? How is this affliction cured and by whom? How could we, finally, explain this ambiguity of the Virgin Mary (Panagia) who appears to be standing in a liminal and transitional space between the sacred and the secular, divine and human, healer and afflicted? These are some of the questions that this article seeks to examine and answer.

Distant Reading of the Metadata of the Digitized Hungarian Charm Corpus

Based on Éva Pócs’ manual charm index an online database was created for Hungarian verbal charms within the East–West Research Group at the Institute of Ethnology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest), between 2013 and 2018. The main goal was to create a multidimensional digital database. Digital text preparation would open the gates to new interpretations and analyses, which would bring us closer to understanding the compound and complex phenomena of charms. In the Digital Database of Hungarian Verbal Charms users can search by various metadata, like date and place of collection/recording, name of collector/scribe, informant, type of source, function of the charm, rites/gestures, language of the text, keywords etc. This paper focuses on how different new arrangements and distant reading of the corpora can reshape our knowledge about the Hungarian verbal charms.

Book Review

Marcello Barbato, Incantamenta Latina et Romanica. scongiuri e formule magiche dei secoli V-XV, Testi e Documenti di Letteratura e di Lingua XLI (Roma: Salerno Editrice, 2019)