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
3 - Appeals to Experts
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 late sixteenth century, Venetian victims of maleficio typically constructed relatively brief, simple denunciations, offering only one or two types of evidence to support their accusations. One early denunciation, submitted by a certain Franceschina Orio in 1567, simply accused a mother-daughter pair of “so fascinating the eyes and mind” of her son Silvestro that he agreed to marry the daughter against the wishes of his family, “with damage to our household, [and] ruin of his honor.” The only evidence the distraught mother gave was Silvestro’s agreement to an imprudent marriage – and yet that was apparently clear and sufficient evidence, in her view, of a magical twisting of her son’s “eyes and mind.”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice , pp. 73 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011