Witchcraft and Inquisition in Early Modern Venice

by Seitz, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9781107011298
• ISBN10: 1107011299
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-08-08
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
A Note on Transcriptions and Citations	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Witchcraft and Inquisition in the Most Serene Republic	p. 30
Blackened Fingernails and Bones in the Bedclothes	p. 59
Appeals to Experts	p. 73
"Spiritual Remedies" for Possession and Witchcraft	p. 96
The Exorcist's Library	p. 133
"Not My Profession": Physicians' Naturalism	p. 149
Physicians as Believers	p. 169
The Inquisitor's Library	p. 196
"Nothing Proven": The Practical Difficulties of Witchcraft Prosecution	p. 219
Conclusion	p. 245
Glossary	p. 261
Selected Venetian Religious Institutions	p. 263
Bibliography	p. 265
Index	p. 283
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