Intermediaries, Witnesses, Patrons: The Roles of Saints in an Early Modern Book of Magical Prayers-Charms Oběť před Bohem
Abstract
The chapter deals with the roles of saints in a book of protective prayers-charms, the origin of which can be in some cases traced back to Latin late medieval texts and which were later translated to many European languages and repeatedly copied and edited. The core of the compilation analysed in the chapter can be traced back to an early sixteenth-century Latin printed book.
Despite the disapproval of the Church hierarchy, its German version was often printed and copied since the sixteenth century. The earliest copy of its Czech translation, entitled Oběť před Bohem, aneb: Modlitby katolické (Sacrifice before God, or Catholic Prayers), dates back to the second half of the eighteenth century and it went through numerous reeditions during the nineteenth century.
The chapter analyses an undated copy from the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth century printed in Brno in the printing house of František Karel Siedler, and compares it to an undated German version dating back probably to the first half of the eighteenth century. It describes the composition of the book and ordering of its parts, and when possible, also the long textual tradition of individual prayers.
Consequently, it deals with different roles played in these texts by the saints (intermediaries, receivers of the prayers, their privileged users, patrons-guardians etc.) and analyses the relationship between these roles and the textual composition of the book, especially the placement of prayers connected to a certain saint within the book, whether the saint is directly addressed in the prayer, whether his or her name is mentioned within the text itself or in the paratexts etc. It also addresses the question whether it is possible to draw a sharp dividing line between prayers and magical charms or amulets.
Briefly, it touches also the problem of the (non-)adaptation of the content of the German exemplar to the needs of Czech readers, especially the question why some almost unknown patron saints usually were not replaced by Czech patron saints. Finally, it also considers the problem of the genre of these texts and possible approaches to them.