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Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2011

Jonathan Seitz
Affiliation:
Drexel University, Philadelphia
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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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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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  • Conclusion
  • Jonathan Seitz, Drexel University, Philadelphia
  • Book: Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice
  • Online publication: 07 September 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894886.013
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  • Conclusion
  • Jonathan Seitz, Drexel University, Philadelphia
  • Book: Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice
  • Online publication: 07 September 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894886.013
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Jonathan Seitz, Drexel University, Philadelphia
  • Book: Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice
  • Online publication: 07 September 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511894886.013
Available formats
×