Wax & metal votive offerings

Medieval & Early Modern Europe: the tradition

Medieval Europe held two protective systems at once: the Church's sacramentals (relics, blessed wax, saints' medals, written prayers) and an older 'natural magic' of stones, herbs and animal parts inherited from Pliny and the lapidaries of Marbode of Rennes (c. 1090) and Albertus Magnus. Pilgrimage produced millions of cheap lead badges. Renaissance courts wore toadstones and bezoars set in gold, and Protestant reformers attacked both relics and charms. In Catholic Bavaria, Austria, Italy and Spain the folk tradition survived into the 20th century, recorded by collectors like Leopold Kriss-Rettenbeck and Rudolf Kriss, whose collections are now in Munich, and by Walter Hildburgh, who gave thousands of Spanish and Italian amulets to the V&A.