Cornicello

Cornicello: what was it used for?

Worn on the watch-chain or about the neck, and hung in houses, in Naples and Sicily against the malocchio, the evil eye.

Cornicello: what does modern science say?

Elworthy found it in 1895 “almost invariable upon man and beast in Italy.”

Cornicello: what did the older authorities say?

The Roman fascinum

Pliny calls the god Fascinus the guardian “not of infants only, but of generals as well,” his image “attached beneath the triumphant car of the victorious general”; Elworthy describes the phallic fascinum “commonly suspended from the necks” of Roman children, and the gesture of the horns, the mano cornuta, as “constant and persistent” against the evil eye.

Frederick Elworthy

In The Evil Eye (1895) describes the single pendent horn, “of silver, coral, pearl, or bone,” and the Neapolitan cart harness “literally made up of charms and prophylactics,” the horn hung on it among crescents, wolf skin, and bright ribbons.

The Catholic Encyclopedia

The Catholic Encyclopedia counts among vain observances “amulets, things worn as a remedy or preservative against evils or mischief, such as diseases or witchcraft,” and says that “the power of the evil eye (fascinatio) has been believed in for a long time, and is still dreaded in many countries.” Pliny records the Roman habit of spitting against it: “we are in the habit of spitting, for instance, as a preservative from epilepsy, or in other words, we repel contagion thereby: in a similar manner, too, we repel fascinations.”