Also called cornicello, cornetto, corno portafortuna, Italian horn, curniciello
A small twisted red horn, traditionally carved from Mediterranean coral, worn in southern Italy against the malocchio, the evil eye, and for luck and fertility. Coral itself has been an amulet for children since Roman times.
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Take care: Precious coral is a living animal colony and Mediterranean red coral is heavily harvested; this entry uses glass, ceramic or red stone instead of buying new coral. Keep small charms out of reach of babies, as they are a choking hazard.
Pliny recorded that branches of coral were hung at infants' necks as a protection against danger, and he prized the reddest, most branching coral. This is the oldest written root of the coral amulet tradition in Italy.
Elworthy documented the many horn charms and horn-hand gestures Neapolitans used against the jettatore. The mano cornuta, index and little finger extended and pointed downward, does the same work as the horn charm when no amulet is at hand.
Red plastic or enamel horns now hang in cars, kitchens and shop doorways. The car custom is said to continue the older practice of hanging horns on draft horses to protect them.
Red coral, Corallium rubrum, grows in the Mediterranean, and for millennia it was thought to hold protective power. In the 1st century AD Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History that coral branches were hung around infants' necks against danger. Ovid told a myth that coral was born when Perseus laid Medusa's head on seaweed, which then turned to stone. Coral carving became a major craft around Naples, especially in Torre del Greco, and coral amulets for babies remained common in Italian families into modern times.
The horn shape adds its own meaning. Horns stood for strength, fertility and virility, and the evil eye was believed to strike exactly those things: nursing mothers and babies, fruit trees, milk animals and men's potency. Elworthy's 1895 study of the evil eye recorded how Neapolitans used horns and horned-hand gestures against the jettatore. Popular claims that the cornicello goes back to 3500 BC hunters or a moon goddess have no solid evidence; what is documented is a long Mediterranean love of coral and horns as shields for the vulnerable.
An open right hand, often with an eye in the palm, hung in the home or worn to push back the evil eye and bless a household.
A silver charm from Naples shaped like a branching sprig of rue, with tiny symbols such as a key, a crescent moon, a heart and a hand hanging from its tips. It was traditionally hung over a baby's bed or worn to ward off the evil eye.
A blue glass eye bead hung in the home or worn on the body so that envious or admiring looks are caught and reflected before they can do harm.
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