Christian textual amulet on a lead sheet from Rękawczyn in Greater Poland Province

The subject of this article is the discovery of a lead amulet with an engraved Latin inscription. It was found in Rękawczyn (the eastern part of Greater Poland) in 2018 during research conducted by the District Museum in Konin. This artefact is the first and so far only find of its kind in a Polish context. It was identified by comparing it to similar finds from Germany and Bohemia from the 11th-13th centuries that bear apotropaic Latin inscriptions. The text on the amulet consists of 24 lines, which are barely legible and which contain a long quotation from the Gospel of John followed by an apotropaic formula with magical words. The reconstruction of the text is accompanied by a tentative interpretation and commentary. The palaeographical analysis of the script (Gothic minuscule) dates the amulet to the second half of the 14th century. The study presents the amulet in the wider context of similar inscriptions of European origin.

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