Attempt at specifying the attribution of late medieval leather amulets From Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

We determine the function of the so-called leather amulets, of which we already know 50 specimens, mainly as identifiers of medieval messengers. In several cases, we managed to identify the connection between the amulets and document/letter cases and to specify other tangible attributes of messengers. Owing to the diversity of the iconographic programme and, occasionally, also of inscriptions, we were able to identify the issuers of these artefacts, albeit not without some reservations: rulers, the wealthy, municipal self-governments, trade organizations, minnesingers, bishops, religious fraternities, commanders of the Teutonic Order, and Jews. As for now, we know of only one workshop where the amulets and document cases were manufactured, specifically, in Nysa, Silesia; however, only part of the known products were made there. The origin of the amulets not discovered yet in Western Europe is still to be determined, along with specifying the function of love amulets and identifying coats of arms of commanders known from the amulets, as well as narrowing down the identification of the emblem of a mermaid with a specific trade organization.