ERETICOPEDIA

Edited by Daniele Santarelli e Domizia Weber

DOI 10.5281/zenodo.5792517

The construction of this cross-sectional section of Ereticopedia begins with the assumption that the social and cultural categories associated with individuals accused of witchcraft in the modern age are subject to significant variation. The stereotypes most frequently linked to witches, as highlighted and debated in many important historiographical works, must be considered in relation to documentary evidence, which does not always confirm them.
Generally, the profiles that documents often present and that we expect to find correspond to a specific stereotype: an older woman, more rarely a man, of unpleasant appearance, poor, eccentric in behavior, and disliked by the local population. However, these social and cultural categories are not always present—quite the opposite. For instance, while in the Tuscan countryside of the early modern period we may find figures that match this stereotype, such as the paradigmatic cases of Gostanza da Libbiano and Maddalena Serchia, in the urban setting of 16th-century Modena, we instead encounter figures that largely contradict the traditional stereotype of the witch portrayed in much of the historiography. The figure of the beggar is almost entirely absent, and elderly widows represent a small minority among those tried for witchcraft. Instead, the alleged witches were mostly well integrated into the social life of the city. This supports a revisionist historiographical approach, emphasizing the variety of situations over adherence to a preconceived model.
A similar scenario to that of Modena can be found in Siena during the same period and in certain areas of England, particularly Kent.
The statistical analysis conducted by Oscar Di Simplicio for Siena allows him to conclude that "lo stereotipo della strega, come di una donna in età avanzata, non regge sulla base delle 80 indicazioni di età rimaste" ("the stereotype of the witch as an elderly woman does not hold up when based on the 80 age records that remain": Di Simplicio 2005, p. 102). Di Simplicio also notes an extremely general occupational situation as well as even greater uncertainty regarding the income of these accused and a non-marginal social status for the women accused of witchcraft.
Similar findings have emerged from studies on the phenomenon of witch hunts in early modern England, many of which were inspired by Alan Macfarlane's pioneering study on Essex, though it did not deviate from the classic paradigm. Cynthia B. Herrup has observed that, regarding the Sussex region, those accused of witchcraft generally did not belong to social classes lower than those of their accusers. For 16th- and 17th-century Kent, Malcolm Gaskill has arrived at very significant conclusions based on solid documentation: "It is certainly true that many women accused of witchcraft in Kent were active and integrated in local society, rather than passive and isolated" (Gaskill 1996, p. 265).
Moreover, in the German territories, the classic witch stereotype does not appear to be as dominant. Di Simplicio, highlighting the similarities with the case of Siena, stated: "Similarly, in Germany, a significant percentage of the women accused were not marginalized but were well-integrated figures within their communities" (Di Simplicio 2005, p. 111).
The classic stereotype of the European witch, which has been confirmed in the analysis of documentation in renowned studies on witch hunts in modern Europe, such as those by Edward William Monter for France and Switzerland, Erik Midelfort for southern Germany, Keith Thomas for England, and Gustav Henningsen for the Basque Country, has thus been questioned. It can now be argued that this paradigm should be reconsidered: in modern Europe, witchcraft should be understood as a fluid and dynamic system, not reducible to rigid, pre-established schemes.
This dialectic between stereotypes and anomalies in the figure of the witch during the modern era could be further explored through prosopographical models and digital tools.
The use of such models and tools could also help clarify the role played by the "fama di strega" (reputation of being a witch) as a fundamental element of persecution. This reputation was naturally acquired through social defamation, which non-conforming behaviors and situations inevitably attracted. The scenario remains largely unchanged when moving from Scotland to the Grisons, or from Sweden to early modern Tuscany.
Social defamation plays a crucial role in concentrating persecution against certain individuals, particularly in a context like that of Scotland, which has been widely and systematically studied. The foundational works of Christina Larner, which spurred quantitative analyses later incorporated into the digital database The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft (1563-1736), directed by Julian Goodare, emphasized the prevalence of diabolical witchcraft (with relatively few healers), where the element of the sabbath was central. This witchcraft was primarily practiced by middle-aged or elderly women whose non-conformist conduct did not go unnoticed, drawing suspicion and hostility from local communities.
In the large-scale witch hunt of 1668-1676 in Sweden, investigated by Bengt Ankarloo, the key players were women of ill repute, whose profiles generally did not align with the classic stereotype. These women were accused of having corrupted even a large number of children, who were involved in the trials and, in many cases, sentenced to severe punishments, including death.
This ill repute could affect an individual or an entire family. In certain contexts, it was not uncommon to find families who were prejudiced for generations, producing successive lines of witches and wizards that faced repeated persecution. The case of the Poschiavo Valley, in the Grisons—a territory where Catholics and Reformers coexisted, creating severe social tensions—is a paradigmatic example. The secular tribunal of Poschiavo prosecuted numerous witches between the 17th and 18th centuries, many of whom were sentenced to death after confessions were extracted through extensive torture. In the 19th century, Gaudenzio Olgiati (1836-1892), a federal judge in Lausanne of Poschiavine origin, cataloged and transcribed 128 witch trials from 1631 to 1753. In 2014, Cristina Giulia Codega reorganized this collection, resulting in a valuable website where one can access summaries, transcriptions, and the original trial records, all digitized and freely available. The majority of those prosecuted in Poschiavo were stigmatized individuals, and many belonged to families believed to have practiced witchcraft for generations.
In 17th-century Tuscany, defamation played a similar role. In rural areas, this is evident in the case of the old beggar healer Maddalena Serchia, while in urban contexts, the example of the social climber Oriana Bari is noteworthy.
A complex and fascinating system like witchcraft requires a combination of traditional and innovative methodologies, as well as a convergence between the humanities and social sciences with technical and scientific disciplines, to be better understood and studied. Consider also the contribution that neuroscience, based on recent discoveries about the workings of the human brain, can make in explaining the origins of the belief in witches, as recent studies have highlighted.
The creation of a comprehensive repertoire of the women and men persecuted for witchcraft in the modern era within a defined territory, such as the Italian peninsula, the Mediterranean world, or Western Europe—combining interpretative, descriptive, and analytical aspects and integrated into a broader and more ambitious dictionary of heretics, dissidents, and inquisitors—could allow for a deeper exploration of the actors and dynamics of repression. It could also draw parallels between heretics and witches, helping to better understand the system of witchcraft in all its facets. This is the goal we aim to pursue here.

Between Stereotypes and Anomalies: Towards a Prosopography of Witches in the Early Modern Age, this project, in addition to being an independent and cross-sectional section of Ereticopedia, is part of the digital series project La “Ruota dei libri”: corpora, repertori e dizionari online.

General suggestions and entry proposals are welcome. To contact us regarding this, please write to gro.aidepocitere|enoizader#gro.aidepocitere|enoizader.

References

• Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England. A Regional and Comparative Study, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1970 (2nd edition: Routledge, London 1999).
• Norman Cohn, Europe’s Inner Demons, Book Club Associates, London 1975.
• Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials. Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300-1500, Routledge & Kegan Paul-University of California Press, London-Berkeley 1976.
• E. William Monter, Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: the Borderlands during the Reformation, Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1976.
• Christina Larner, Enemies of God. The Witch-Hunt in Scotland, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1981.
• Joseph Klaits, Servants of Satan. The Age of the Witch Hunts, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1985.
• Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Longman, London-New York, 1987.
• Cynthia B. Herrup, The Common Peace. Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England, Cambridge University press, Cambridge 1989.
• Rainer Walz, Hexenglaube und magische Kommunikation im Dorf der frühen Neuzeit. Die Verfolgungen in der Grafschaft Lippe, Schöningh, Paderborn 1993.
• Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe, Routledge, London 1994.
• Early Modern European Witchcraft. Centres and Peripheries, ed. by Bengt Ankarloo, Gustav Hennigsen, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996 (see in particular Bengt Ankarloo, Swedish: The Mass Burnings (1668-76), ivi, pp. 285-317).
• Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Culture and Belief, ed. by Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester and Gareth Roberts, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996 (see in particular Malcolm Gaskill, Witchcraft in Early Modern Kent: Stereotypes and the Background of the Accusations, ivi, pp. 257-287).
• Robin Briggs, Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft, Viking, New York 1996.
• Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons. The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1997.
• Gostanza la strega di San Miniato, a cura di Franco Cardini, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2001².
• Julian Goodare, Lauren Martin, Joyce Miller, Louise Yeoman, The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. 1563-1736, https://witches.hca.ed.ac.uk/ (Online database archived in January 2003, new website active since 2023).
• Oscar Di Simplicio, Autunno della stregoneria. Maleficio e magia nell'Italia moderna, Il Mulino, Bologna 2005.
• Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Merry E. Wiesner, Houghton Mifflin, Boston 2007.
• Domizia Weber, Il genere della stregoneria. Il caso di Maddalena Serchia e Giovanni Serrantelli, Lalli, Poggibonsi 2011.
• Domizia Weber, Sanare e maleficiare. Guaritrici, streghe e medicina a Modena nel XVI secolo, Carocci, Roma 2011.
• The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, ed. by Brian P. Levack, Oxford University Press, Oxford-New York 2013 (see in particular Alison Rowlands, Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Europe, ivi, pp. 449-467, Oscar Di Simplicio, On the Neuropsychological Origins of Witchcraft Cognition: The Geographical and Economic Variable, ivi, pp. 507-526, Peter Elmer, Science and Witchcraft e Id., Medicine and Witchcraft, ivi, pp. 548-560 e 561-573).
• Recuperando – Comune di Poschiavo – Processi alle streghe, https://www.recuperando.ch/progetti/comune-di-poschiavo/processi-alle-streghe (sito web on line dal 2014).
• Julian Goodare, The European Witch-hunt, Routledge, London 2016.
• Cristina Giulia Codega, Una valle alpina alle prese con la stregoneria: Poschiavo tra XVII e XVIII secolo, in Una nuova frontiera al centro dell'Europa. Le Alpi e la dorsale cattolica (sec. XV-XVII), a cura di Federico Zuliani, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2020, pp. 253-273.
• Daniele Santarelli, Domizia Weber, Stereotipi e anomalie nella caccia alle streghe in età moderna. Alla ricerca di un modello prosopografico, in "Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia", LXXV/2, 2021, pp. 521-533.
• Domizia Weber, Daniele Santarelli, Infamia, sabba e antisocietà nel sistema della stregoneria. Note e riflessioni a margine di alcuni processi (XVI-XVII sec.), in “Ricerche Storiche”, LII/1, 2022, pp. 141-151.

LIST OF ENTRIES

List of pages tagged with streghe:

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et tamen e summo, quasi fulmen, deicit ictos
invidia inter dum contemptim in Tartara taetra
invidia quoniam ceu fulmine summa vaporant
plerumque et quae sunt aliis magis edita cumque
[Lucretius, "De rerum natura", lib. V]