File:Devotional folded Book Amulet or Breverl, Women of the Book Collection.jpg

English: Devotional folded book amulet in duodecimo format. Inside the booklet 8 small devotional prints showing saints and the cross, surrounding the central print of the Virgin and Child. The latter can be lifted to reveal the amulet with double cross, grana benedicta, a printed broadsheet declaration, simple wooden crosses, a broken carved medal, a manuscript slip stating “Reliquie SS,” &c. These elaborate amulets were often produced by nuns in convents in southern Germany and Austria in the 18th and early 19th centuries and sold to visitors and pilgrims to convent churches. They were not intended to be read or looked at but to be kept folded up into decorated paper and to be worn by the buyer, usually on hanging on a necklace. Opening the breverl would nullify its protective capabilities. The 8 devotional prints show Francis of Assisi, Ignatius of Loyala, John of Nepomuk, Antonius of Padua, Jacobus de Marchia, Franciscus Solanus, and the severed head of Anastasius. To the left of the central Virgin and Child miniature engraving is one depicting Ignatius of Loyola, which when lifted reveals a separate folded printed declaration of protection issued by the Catholic Church. A similar miniature woodcut or copperplate engraving, or fold-out engraved prayer or letterpress text, appears under each of the other saintly prayer cards. The central right print can be lifted to reveal a folded engraving captioned at its foot “Contra maleficiam contra ignem pestem et tempestatem,” with eight saints surrounding a double cross. The cover pastedowns represent several complex images, including, e.g., the sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary and the five wounds of Christ.