Studio Esoterico Cornelio: why amulets and talismans

An amulet is first of all an object: it can be held in the hand, weighed, dated, displayed in a museum case. It is from this concreteness that «Amulets and Talismans» was born, one of the educational websites curated by the Studio Esoterico Cornelio. The Studio, active online since 2014, is concerned with esotericism and the esoteric tradition and accompanies its official website with a network of projects devoted to history, symbols and traditions.

Objects that tell of ideas

In the history of esotericism few subjects have been debated as much as the power attributed to objects. Renaissance authors asked whether a figure engraved on a gem or a sign traced on a metal plate could gather the influences of the stars, and devoted learned pages to these questions. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535), whose name the Studio recalls as a cultural reference, dealt in De occulta philosophia with images, characters and the squares of the planets, gathering material that went back to the Picatrix, the Greek-Egyptian papyri and the Arabic tradition.

The Studio wanted a site specifically on this subject because amulets and talismans are the point at which the esoteric tradition becomes material culture: the scarab laid on the chest of a mummy, the golden bulla around the neck of a Roman child, the Sator square scratched on a column at Pompeii, the coral horn hung in Neapolitan homes. Each of these objects preserves an idea of the world, and understanding that idea means understanding better the people who made it.

The method: sources, context, distinctions

The texts on the site are based on archaeological finds, on ancient authors such as Pliny the Elder, on medieval lapidaries such as those of Marbod of Rennes and Albertus Magnus, and on modern anthropological studies, including Ernesto De Martino's research on southern Italy. For each object the period, the area in which it spread and the evidence that documents it are given whenever possible. The legends that accompany many lucky charms, such as that of Saint Dunstan and the horseshoe, are reported as legends, kept apart from established history.

The articles attribute no real power to any object and contain no instructions for making, consecrating or using amulets and talismans: they describe what people have believed, not what the reader ought to believe.

Where to find the Studio

Studio Esoterico Cornelio is a name protected by a registered trademark. The Studio's history and the full list of sites in the network can be found on the official website, studioesotericocornelio.com. On these pages, instead, you will go on finding the history of the objects that, from the Egypt of the pharaohs to the workshops of Naples, have accompanied the fears and hopes of many generations.