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
Conclusion
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
Our story of early modern efforts to identify and understand supernatural phenomena has focused on the beliefs and activities of Venetians, but witchcraft was a matter of grave concern across early modern Christendom. From the American colonies to Russia, Scandinavia to Sicily, ecclesiastical tribunals, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens were – to a greater or lesser extent – concerned about the potential power of malevolent forces and maleficent individuals. The Venetian context perhaps makes the natural philosophical and medical problems of witchcraft trials particularly visible, but the city and its people were part of a larger world. Even though Venice is, in so many ways, a unique city, its experiences help us to understand the confrontations with witchcraft occurring elsewhere in the early modern world. The prescriptive literature on which the Venetian Inquisition relied, including many of the instructions emanating from the Congregation of the Holy Office in Rome, was available to local inquisitions elsewhere in the Italian peninsula and to judicial authorities north of the Alps, suggesting that the procedural problems the Venetian court faced were not unique. Furthermore, despite some areas of divergence, the substantial harmony between the practices of the Venetian Holy Office and the ideals of the prescriptive literature and of the Congregation of the Holy Office suggests that inquisitorial wariness of maleficio accusations was not necessarily limited to Venice. Similarly, the diverse voices on witchcraft and possession that Venetian physicians or exorcists could consult, as we observed in the medical literature, would have been familiar to medical practitioners elsewhere. We still need more, and more detailed, examinations of local tribunals across Europe, especially studies of actual practice in local contexts rather than of judicial or medical theory. But even without such intensive accounts, we can still see that the phenomena explored in the preceding chapters resonate with broader developments in early modern Europe.
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- Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice , pp. 245 - 260Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011