This article proposes a historically grounded interpretation of the so-called Sélestat charm (Bibliothèque Humaniste, Cod. 134), a short bilingual marginal text whose opening line has resisted explanation since its first edition by Steinmeyer. Rather than seeking external “analogues,” the study applies a three-level method tailored to early medieval German charms: close reading of the textual units, analysis of page layout and paratextual positioning, and reconstruction of the manuscript’s compilation logic. The decisive advance comes from codicological context: on the facing page, the same hand copied a previously unnoticed and partially erased witness of the Legend of the Twelve Fridays. Read as a micro-dossier, the two marginal entries clarify the procedural force of the crux Sicuta sicunda which presupposes a penitential observance before initiating the therapeutic action of touch and verbal performance. The Sélestat material thus demonstrates how early medieval charms derive meaning not only from formulaic counterparts, but from the local, manuscript-bound alignment of penitential instruction, liturgical authority, and vernacular efficacy.
Keywords: Old High German charms; Sélestat Cod. 134; Twelve Fridays legend; manuscript marginalia and paratexts; bilingual ritual language (Latin–vernacular)