Obj. ID: 53895
Sacred and Ritual Objects  Le-Nekevah, Bayern (Bavaria), circa 1770

The following description was prepared by William Gross:

During the last half of the 18th century, a number of birth amulets were printed in Germany, primarily in the areas of Sulzbach and Fuerth in Bavaria. They were usually specifically for a male or female child and seem to have been often printed in pairs. These amulets often carry an illustration of either a male or female figure.  The depictions seem to have been taken from stock wood blocks, often for the zodiac signs, and they sometimes appear on other printed pages for Jewish uses other than amulets. The female figure holding a wreath is likely to have been a zodiac illustration for the sign of virgo. It was also used on another object shown in this exhibition: the school chart in the section on home and family. The texts, in both Hebrew and Yiddish, contain the traditional "shir le-ma'alot", the names of the three angels whose names, Sanoi, Sansanoi and Samgelaf, are invoked for protection against Lilith as well as other amuletic texts. While there is no printer's name, this decorative border and woodcut were used on other Hebrew printed items from the Hebrew press in Fuerth, so it is most likely that this amulet was printed there. The field of printers' decorative devices and decorations is not a well explored field, but can be very useful in identifying otherwise unmarked printed sheets and books.