Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice

Records of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century witchcraft trials in Venice uncover individuals' conception of the supernatural in early modern Europe.

Jonathan Seitz (Author)

9781107011298, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 August 2011

298 pages, 1 map 4 tables
23.3 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.55 kg

'Seitz provides a detailed reconsideration of Venetian witch trials, focusing on medical understandings rooted in inquisitorial procedure and popular mentalities … makes a significant contribution to the history of medicine in early modern Italy, and one welcomes a future expansion of his findings.' David Lederer, Bulletin of the History of Medicine

In early modern Europe, ideas about nature, God, demons and occult forces were inextricably connected and much ink and blood was spilled in arguments over the characteristics and boundaries of nature and the supernatural. Seitz uses records of Inquisition witchcraft trials in Venice to uncover how individuals across society, from servants to aristocrats, understood these two fundamental categories. Others have examined this issue from the points of view of religious history, the history of science and medicine, or the history of witchcraft alone, but this work brings these sub-fields together to illuminate comprehensively the complex forces shaping early modern beliefs.

Introduction
1. Witchcraft and the 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.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]