Angels or Demons? Interactions and Borrowings between Folk Traditions, Religion and Demonology in Early Modern Italian Witchcraft Trials

Abstract

In 1638 Caterina di Francesco, from the town of Siena (Tuscany), was accused by the Roman Inquisition of invoking the devil through a spell called “the white angel spell” or “the spell of the carafe” (incantesimo della caraffa). She was interrogated, tortured and kept in and out of prison for nine years. Despite the accusations of the witnesses being focused on her practice of love magic, specifically her ability to bind men to “other” women rather than their wives and to help the disgruntled wives to have their husbands back with the use of a baptised magnet, the Inquisition focused its attention on her practice of the white angel spell, a divination spell to find lost or stolen objects with the help of shadows seen inside the carafe. This was a well-known spell not only among all levels of Italian lay society but also well known to the Inquisition, so much so that the 17th-century Inquisition manual Prattica per Procedere nelle Cause del Sant’Officio lists this spell among the sortilegij qualificati: Those spells presenting serious heretical elements. Using archival sources, this article will examine the effects of borrowed concepts between the theological/elite and folk witchcraft traditions within a specific case-study.

Witch Hunting and Prosecuting in Early Modern Italy: A Historiographical Survey

“…The trials discussed and examined thus far mostly focus on confessions, sometimes revealing that the accused understood the nature of traditional witchcraft, maleficium, and sabbath and the dangers of admitting to practices associated with demonological ideas, while often showing the inquisitors' culture and prejudices. Some scholars, as Moretti outlines, think "some trial documents and inquisitorial documents can truly provide a glimpse-albeit minimalistic-on the perceptions and concepts of witchcraft beliefs from both the accused and the inquisitor and the more general cultural background within which these witchcraft beliefs and traditions were developed" (Moretti 2019). That has been the aim, without overlooking the institutional and political frameworks that fashioned them.…”

“…176-93). Many other studies that I cannot mention here have contributed to the complex picture of episodes and trials of witchcraft (Lavenia 2001;Mazza 2009;Duni 2008;Moretti 2019). While unique and particular, every local study can help us better understand the general situation in the Italian peninsula (Visintin 2008).…”