- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Silver amulet, cimarute, to protect children against the evil eye. [FB 24/01/2012]
- Long description
- Silver amulet, cimarute, to protect children against the evil eye. The amulet represents a 'sprig of rue' with three branches and other subsidiary branches. Hung on each branch is a different amuletic object. There is a round hole through the top of the sprig so that the amulet could be worn as a pendant. The other objects represented on the end of each branch of the amulet are a half crescent moon, key and flower. [FB 24/01/2012]
- Cultural groups
- Italian
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1880
- Date collected
- between 1880 - 1900
- Acquisition information
- Bequeathed: 05/07/2010
- Materials and processes
- Material Silver Metal, Process Incised, Process Moulded, Process Cast, Process Struck
- Dimensions
- Length x Width: max 64 x 45 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 2010.46.15 Other numbers: 4e
- Research and responses
See 'Neapolitan Charms Against the Evil Eye' by Veronica Berry in Folklore, vo.79, No. 4 (Winter 1968), pp. 250 - 256: "The amulet for children, the Cimaruta... or Sprig of Rue, was a special composite charm, evolved to give children, who were particularly vulnerable as a group, the maximum protection against the Evil Eye. It must be remembered that the very high mortality which obtained among children and which today we attribute to disease, malnutrition, bad housing and total lack of sanitation, was then attributed solely to an encounter with a jettatore, the Neapolitan word for fascinator or purveyor of the Evil Eye. Rue was the basis of this charm - rue, the 'herb of grace' and curer, according to Pliny, of eighty-four diseases, the prophylactic against goal fever in the court room and the plant generally concerned with fertility and childbirth. It is modelled in its fruiting stage with three main branches and on it are hung, like presents on an Xmas tree, the other symbols to protect the child: the key and the crescent moon... the flower, thought to represent either the rue flower or, in some specimens, the many petalled artemesia, associated with the moon: the cock, likewise associated with Diana and other divinities; the heart symbolizing Diana Virgo, another of the goddess' contradictory personalities. To these is sometimes added the universal gesture against the evil eye, the manofica, and the power of the cimaruta is reinforced by its metal, silver, the metal of Diana. In the later cimaruta more symbols were added and the rue degenerated until it became unrecognisable, as often happens where in-numerable copies are made and where the maker has little or no idea of the meaning of the original symbolism..." [FB 24/01/2012]
and 'The Evil Eye An Account of this Ancient and Widespread Superstition' by Fredrick Thomas Elworthy (1895). pp. 237 - 267: "Among those who have written upon Neapolitan superstitions, one only is known to the writer who has even alluded to the most curious of all the many charms worn against the evil eye. Mr Neville Rolfe, in Naples in 1888, gives a description of this remarkable amulet, to the infants of Naples just as common to-day as the "coral and bells" were until recently among ourselves..." [FB 24/01/2012]
See Eustace Neville-Rolfe, Naples in 1888, Trübner, 1888. [FB 24/01/2012]
See Eustace Neville-Rolfe, Naples in the Nineties a sequel to Naples in 1888, Adam and Chas. Black, London, 1897. p.50: "We are now in a position to consider the Cimaruta, a charm still made for and worn by the infants of the labouring classes... The charm itself is known by the name of Cimaruta, a Neapolitan word signifying a sprig of rue, and consist, when complete, of the following emblems:- 1. The sprig of rue. 2. The serpent. 3. The half-moon. 4. The key. 5. The heart. 6. The hand and horn. 7. The bird. 8. The shamrock. 9. The metal (silver). Now all these emblems have a magical significance, all of them are emblems of Diana, and none of them have any Christian significance whatever, excepting so far that the Paganism of Rome was grafted in the early days upon the Christianity of South Italy..." [FB 25/01/2012]
See R. T. Gunther, 'The Cimaruta - its structure and development,' Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society, June 1905. [FB 25/01/2012]
Eustace Neville-Rolfe lived in Naples between 1880 and 1900 and was an enthusiastic researcher and collector of amulets against the evil eye. He first loaned artefacts to PRM in 1892 (including a lemon stuck with nails which is now on display) and subsequently in 1893, 1903 and 1908. Rofle was consul in Naples, he was part of a network of amulet specialists including many whose collections are now at PRM (AE Gunther and Elworthy in particular as well as Balfour). [FB 24/01/2012]
- Associated publications
- Eustace Neville-Rolfe, Naples in 1888, Trübner, 1888. [FB 24/01/2012] 'Neapolitan Charms Against the Evil Eye' by Veronica Berry in Folklore, vo.79, No. 4 (Winter 1968), pp. 250 - 256. [FB 24/01/2012]
Search terms: Religion, Ornament, Children and Childcare, Amulet, Pendant