Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transcriptions and Citations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Witchcraft and Inquisition in the Most Serene Republic
- 2 Blackened Fingernails and Bones in the Bedclothes
- 3 Appeals to Experts
- 4 “Spiritual Remedies” for Possession and Witchcraft
- 5 The Exorcist’s Library
- 6 “Not My Profession”: Physicians’ Naturalism
- 7 Physicians as Believers
- 8 The Inquisitor’s Library
- 9 “Nothing Proven”: The Practical Difficulties of Witchcraft Prosecution
- Conclusion
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - “Not My Profession”: Physicians’ Naturalism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transcriptions and Citations
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Witchcraft and Inquisition in the Most Serene Republic
- 2 Blackened Fingernails and Bones in the Bedclothes
- 3 Appeals to Experts
- 4 “Spiritual Remedies” for Possession and Witchcraft
- 5 The Exorcist’s Library
- 6 “Not My Profession”: Physicians’ Naturalism
- 7 Physicians as Believers
- 8 The Inquisitor’s Library
- 9 “Nothing Proven”: The Practical Difficulties of Witchcraft Prosecution
- Conclusion
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the very lively and very diverse world of medical practice in early modern Venice, patients and their families rarely relied on just one category of healer. As a result, the Inquisition documents reveal that, in witchcraft cases at least, exorcists often worked alongside their lay colleagues, physicians. Both groups treated the same patients, sometimes at the same time, and typically with very little conflict. And yet, the two groups played very different roles in maleficio denunciations and had very different experiences in the Holy Office’s courtroom. Physicians also approached the problem of confronting supernatural illnesses and constructing the categories of natural and supernatural in very different ways from both their clerical colleagues and from ordinary Venetians in general.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice , pp. 149 - 168Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011