Scrutinizing the Devil’s Plots

This volume revisits one of early modern Europe’s most emblematic episodes of witch-hunting – the trials held between 1587 and 1589 in Liguria – and situates it within the broader history of repression, belief, and judicial culture across the Alpine region and the Latin Christian world.

Grounded on original archival research and comparative perspectives, it explores how the Inquisitions confronted and conceptualised witchcraft from the late Middle Ages onwards. The volume investigates demonological thought, inquisitorial procedure, and the circulation of ideas and fears across Western Europe and its colonial frontiers. Particular attention is devoted to the evolution of legal, theological, and literary discourses on witchcraft, as well as the entanglements of gender and confession. The essays further examine the transformations of magical belief within broader processes of state formation, evangelisation, and cultural exchange.

Inquire – International Centre for Research on Inquisitions

Series Editors:
V. Lavenia, R. Parmeggiani, I. Bueno

http://inquire.unibo.it

• Saluto delle autorità
• Vincenzo Lavenia, Riccardo Parmeggiani, Introduction
• I. Late Medieval Magic and Demonology
• Marina Montesano, “Malgigi scongiurò quello una notte”. Diavoli e streghe nella letteratura del Quattrocento
• Julien Véronèse, Magie savante et conjuration des démons entre textes et procès aux derniers siècles du Moyen Âge: pour une approche croisée
• Martine Ostorero, Miracle eucharistique, vol magique et cornemuse: la culture démonologique de l’inquisiteur François Granet (1481-1496)
• II. Late Medieval Trials
• Richard Kieckhefer, Eliciting False Confessions: Methods of Interrogation and Norms for Evidence in Early European Witch Trials
• Maxime Gelly-Perbellini, Une terre de sorciers? Sorcellerie diabolique et inquisition dans le duché de Bourgogne (seconde moitié du XV^e siècle)
• III. Alps and Liguria
• Océane Acquier-Sicart, Perrine Saillard, L’Enfer peint de la chapelle San Bernardino de Triora: images, objets épigraphiques et prédication à l’encontre des hérésies et de la sorcellerie
• Silvia Bertolin, Le prime persecuzioni della stregoneria in Valle d’Aosta
• Giulia Lovison, “In vestimentis ovium sunt lupi rapaces”: fra’ Modesto Scrofeo e le streghe di Sondrio (1523)
• Paolo Portone, Valerio Giorgetta, La lunga caccia nella diocesi di Como tra continuità, perplessità e resistenze: due casi esemplari (secc. XVI-XVII)
• Paolo Fontana, “Donna di mala vita e fattucchiera”. Evocazioni demoniache e pratiche di guarigione in Liguria (secc. XVI-XIX)
• IV. Continental Europe: Contexts and Comparisons
• Dries Vanysacker, Sans tribunaux de l’Inquisition, pas d’implication ecclésiastique en matière de sorcellerie? Le cas des Pays-Bas méridionaux et septentrionaux (1450-1685)
• Maryse Simon, Nicolas Rémy, le «Torquemada» lorrain, contre le complot du diable et de ses suppôts
• Ildikó Sz. Kristóf, Imported or Local “Witchcraft”? Demonologies, Heresies, and Witch-Hunting in the Kingdom of Hungary (16^th-18^th Centuries)
• V. Early Modern Inquisitions
• Michaela Valente, “et se mi volete abbruciare, abbruciatemi!”. Voci di presunte streghe (secc. XVI-XVIII)
• José Pedro Paiva, Misconceptions of the Early Modern Portuguese Inquisition: Jurema, Calundus, Mandingas, Voduns, and Asian Devilries
• María Jesús Zamora Calvo, La costruzione dell’altro nella colonizzazione dell’America: un paradiso demoniaco
• VI. Decriminalization?
• William Pooley, Decriminalization Was not an Event: Witchcraft and Judicial Procedure in France from the 17^th to the 20^th Century
• Index of Names
• Index of Places

• By (author) Océane Acquier-Sicart
• By (author) Perrine Saillard
• By (author) Silvia Bertolin
• By (author) Paolo Fontana
• By (author) Maxime Gelly-Perbellini
• By (author) Valerio Giorgetta
• By (author) Richard Kieckhefer
• By (author) Giulia Lovison
• By (author) Marina Montesano
• By (author) Martine Ostorero
• By (author) José Pedro Paiva
• By (author) William Pooley
• By (author) Paolo Portone
• By (author) Maryse Simon
• By (author) Ildikó Sz. Kristóf
• By (author) Michaela Valente
• By (author) Dries Vanysacker
• By (author) Julien Véronèse
• By (author) María Jesús Zamora Calvo
• Edited by Irene Bueno
• Edited by Vincenzo Lavenia
• Edited by Riccardo Parmeggiani