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“The Root is Hidden and the Material Uncertain”: The Challenges of Prosecuting Witchcraft in Early Modern Venice*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Jonathan Seitz
Jonathan Seitz*
Affiliation:
Drexel University
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Abstract

The rich archival records of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Venice have yielded much information about early modern society and culture. The transcripts of witchcraft trials held before the Inquisition reveal the complexities of early modern conceptions of natural and supernatural. The tribunal found itself entirely unable to convict individuals charged with performing harmful magic, or maleficio, as different worldviews clashed in the courtroom. Physicians, exorcists, and inquisitors all had different approaches to distinguishing natural phenomena from supernatural, and without a consensus guilty verdicts could not be obtained.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 62 , Issue 1 , Spring 2009 , pp. 102 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Renaissance Society of America

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Footnotes

*

This material is based upon work supported by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0115198. Thomas Broman, Libbie Freed, Erika Milam, Michael Shank, and John Tedeschi kindly read earlier versions of this paper and provided very helpful advice, as did Richard Kieckhefer and an anonymous referee.

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