Romanus-Büchlein

The Romanus-Büchlein is a small German booklet of charms and blessings that circulated in cheap printings from the late eighteenth century onward; the earliest dated edition Peterson cites was printed at Glatz in 1788. Its name, 'Romanus booklet', is unexplained and may be meant to suggest Roman, that is Catholic, authority. Unlike learned grimoires it contains no spirit conjuration. Its content is practical: spoken and written formulae, often invoking the Trinity, Christ's wounds and the saints, for protection on journeys and against fire, theft, witchcraft and weapons, for stopping bleeding and healing wounds, fevers, toothache and broken bones, for help in lawsuits, and for the health of cattle and horses. Many charms are versions of medieval narrative blessings in which a holy figure meets an affliction and banishes it. The booklet was carried by German emigrants to Pennsylvania, where its charms were absorbed into the folk healing practice known as Braucherei or powwow, and Johann Georg Hohman drew on it for his widely reprinted Der lange verborgene Freund of 1820, known in English as The Long Lost Friend. Through Hohman it reached African American hoodoo and Appalachian folk practice. Peterson's 2006 edition prints the German with English translation and withholds two charms; he stresses that the remedies are presented as historical documents rather than advice. It is a key witness to the continuity of Christian folk magic in the Protestant and Catholic countryside.

What it contains

• Protective blessings for travel, house and person
• Charms against fire, theft, weapons and witchcraft
• Formulae for stopping blood and healing wounds
• Remedies for fever, toothache and broken bones
• Charms for livestock and horses
• Charms for lawsuits and luck