Among the amulets of Neapolitan tradition, the horn is the best known. But there is a rarer and more complex object, which collectors and folklore scholars consider one of the masterpieces of Italian apotropaic art: the cimaruta. The name comes from the Neapolitan cima 'e ruta, "tip of rue": it is in fact a small silver jewel shaped like a sprig of this plant, from which numerous protective symbols hang or sprout.
The form
The cimaruta reproduces a branch of rue that divides into three main branches, which in turn subdivide. Small symbolic objects are attached to the tips of the branches. It is usually a flat amulet, to be hung around the neck or on clothing, often children's, or kept at home.
The symbols vary from one piece to another, but some recur frequently:
| Symbol | Traditional meaning |
|---|---|
| Crescent moon | The link with the moon and with protective female figures |
| Key | Opening and closing, the safekeeping of the home |
| Hand | Often in the fig gesture or with horns, an apotropaic gesture |
| Heart | Affection, sometimes the flaming heart of devotion |
| Fish | A symbol of fertility and an ancient Christian emblem |
| Flower | Vitality, blossoming |
| Cockerel or bird | Vigilance, the announcement of the day that drives away the night |
| Serpent | The power of defence and regeneration |
This wealth of symbols in a single object makes the cimaruta a kind of composite amulet, concentrating many different protections in itself.
Rue in tradition
Why rue in particular? In Mediterranean popular culture rue was considered a plant with a strong protective value. Its intense, pungent smell was associated with the idea of repelling what is harmful, and the plant was kept in the house or near the door as a sign of defence.
Tradition also remembered it as a plant linked to sight and the eyes, and therefore, by symbolic association, to defence against the envious gaze. The value of rue in the amulet is thus symbolic: it represents protection in plant form, made lasting in metal.
Elworthy's description
Much of what we know about the cimaruta as an object of study is owed to Frederick Thomas Elworthy, an English scholar who in 1895 published The Evil Eye, a work devoted to beliefs about the evil eye and to amulets. Elworthy collected and described numerous Neapolitan cimarute, observing their symbols and proposing interpretations.
Some of his readings, especially those linking the cimaruta to specific ancient cults, are now considered hypotheses to be treated with caution. But his work remains precious as documentation: thanks to him we know pieces and variants that would otherwise have been lost.
The interpretations
Scholars have proposed different readings of the cimaruta, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
- The sum of protections. The cimaruta gathers into a single object amulets that elsewhere are worn separately: the hand, the key, the heart, the moon.
- The link with female figures. The crescent moon and some other symbols have suggested a relationship with protective female figures, ancient or Christian, such as the Madonna.
- The protection of children. Many cimarute were hung on cradles or on the clothes of newborns, who were considered especially exposed to the envious gaze.
- Aesthetic value. The finest pieces are also small works of goldsmithing, in which protective value is joined to the beauty of the object.
Where it is found today
Antique cimarute are now kept in ethnographic museums and private collections, in Italy and abroad. They are not common objects like the horn: their production was more laborious and their use more limited. In recent decades they have been reproduced by goldsmiths and craftsmen, often with free variations on the traditional models.
An object to be read
Looking at a cimaruta means reading a small symbolic text. Every branch, every hanging object, tells of a fear and an answer: the night and the cockerel that drives it away, the door and the key that guards it, the envious gaze and the hand that deflects it. It is a concentrate of popular knowledge, a way of giving visible form to the desire for protection.
In short
- The cimaruta is a Neapolitan silver amulet shaped like a sprig of rue.
- Its three branches end in symbols such as the moon, key, hand, heart, fish and cockerel.
- Rue was considered in tradition a plant of strong protective value.
- Frederick Thomas Elworthy described it in 1895 in his book The Evil Eye.
- It was often hung on cradles and children's clothes as protection against the envious gaze.
