Witch trial of Nogaredo
The Witch trial of Nogaredo took place in 1646–1647 in Nogaredo in Italy. It attracted considerable attention and is one of the best documented cases of witch trials in Italy. It led to the death of between eight and ten people.
Maria Salvatori
On 26 October 1646, Maria Salvatori from Castelnovo, nicknamed "la Mercuria," was arrested and accused of witch craft. Salvatori had long been suspected of sorcery. She was accused of not swallowing the Host at her communions but instead preserving it for use in sorcery. She was also accused of having caused Marchioness Bevilacqua to miscarry by the use of spells. During torture, she pointed out the widow Domenica Camelli, and Domenica's daughter, Lucia Caveden, as witches. Salvatori claimed that she had given a host to Lucia Caveden, who used it to cast the spell on Marchioness Bevilacqua. She named a certain Delaito Cavaleri was a necromancer and a worshipper of Satan.
The Trial
The witch trial formally opened on Saturday, 24 November 1646, at Nogaredo. Lucia Caveden pointed out Domenica Gratiadei, in whose house several objects were found which incriminated her. Domenica Gratiadei confessed under torture to have attended the witch sabbat, cast the evil eye on Cristofero Sparamani, renounced her baptism and defiled the Sacrament. Benvenuta, the daughter of Domenica Gratiadei, confessed that her mother had taken her to Satan, "as if in a dream", where she had had sexual intercourse with him.
Domenica Gratiadei confessed to have officiated at the witch sabbats alongside a warlock named Santo Peterlino, where they all sang, danced and gave Satan the hosts from the communion. The witches, she claimed, all smeared themselves in an unguent made of "the Blessed Sacrament, the blood of certain small animals, Holy Water, the fat of dead babies" while chanting blasphemies, and then transformed themselves in to cats when they left for the Sabbath. The witch trial stretched out for several months, implicated more people and draw a great crowd.
Domenica Camelli, Lucia Caveden, Domenica Gratiadei, Catterina Baroni, Zinevra Chemola, Isabella and Polonia Gratiadei, and Valentina Andrei were condemned to death. Maria Salvatori, and Maddalena Andrei, who was known as "la Filosofa", both died in prison. The condemned were beheaded and their bodies burned on 14 April 1647. It is suggested that Isabella and Polonia Gratiadei and Valentina Andrei managed to escape.
References
- http://www.executedtoday.com/category/why/witchcraft/
- http://www.stregamorella.it/storia_Romanazzi.htm Archived 2012-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
Literature
- The geography of witchcraft by Montague Summers
- A. Romanazzi, La Dea Madre e il Culto Betilico, antiche conoscenze tra mito e Folklore, Levante editore, Bari 2003;
- T. Dandolo, La Signora di Monza e le streghe del Tirolo, Milano 1855.
- Abele De Blasio: Inciarmatori, maghi e streghe di Benevento
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- Witchcraft in early modern Britain
- Channel Islands Witch Trials
- Witch trials in England
- Witchcraft in Orkney
- Witch trials in early modern Scotland
- Witchcraft in early modern Wales
- Windsor Witches (1579)
- St Osyth Witches (1582)
- Witches of Warboys (1589–1593)
- North Berwick witch trials (1590)
- Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597
- Pendle witches (1612)
- Northamptonshire witch trials (1612)
- Samlesbury witches (1612)
- Witches of Belvoir (1619)
- Bury St Edmunds witch trials (1645, 1662, 1655, 1694)
- Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50
- Alloa witch trials (1658)
- Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661–62
- Bute witches (1662)
- Bideford witch trial (1682)
- Paisley witches (1696)
- Pittenweem witches (1704)
- Islandmagee witch trial (1711)
- Witch trials in Hungary
- Witch trials in Poland
- Kasina Wielka witch trial (1634)
- Northern Moravia witch trials (1678)
- Szeged witch trials (1728–29)
- Doruchowo witch trial (1783)
- Witch trials in France
- Labourd witch-hunt of 1609
- Aix-en-Provence possessions (1611)
- Loudun possessions (1633–34)
- Louviers possessions (1647)
- Normandy witch trials (1669–70)
- Affair of the Poisons (1679–1682)
- Trial of the Wizards of Lyon (1742–1745)
- Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire
- Rottweil Witch Trials
- Derenburg witch trials (1555)
- Wiesensteig witch trial (1562–1563)
- Rottenburg witch trials (1578–1613)
- Trier witch trials (1581–1593)
- Pappenheimer family witch trial (1600)
- Fulda witch trials (1603–1606)
- Ellwangen witch trial (1611–1618)
- Eichstätt witch trials (1617–1630)
- Würzburg witch trials (1626–1631)
- Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631)
- Baden-Baden witch trials (1627–1631)
- Mergentheim witch trials (1628–1631)
- Esslingen witch trials (1662–1666)
- Witch trial of Fuersteneck (1703)
- Witch trials in Denmark
- Witch trials in Estonia and Latvia
- Witch trials in Finland
- Witch trials in Iceland
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- Põlula witch trials (1542)
- Copenhagen witch trials (1590)
- Gyldenstierne-sagen (1596)
- Køge Huskors (1608–1615)
- Finspång witch trial (1617)
- Vardø witch trials (1621)
- Akershus witch trials (1624)
- Ramsele witch trial (1634)
- Rosborg witch trials (1639–1642)
- Vardø witch trials (1651–1653)
- Kirkjuból witch trial (1656)
- Vardø witch trials (1662–63)
- Kastelholm witch trials (1665–1668)
- Mora witch trial (1669)
- Torsåker witch trials (1675)
- Katarina witch trials (1676)
- Rugård witch trials (1685–86)
- Thisted witch trial (1696–1698)
- Witch trials in Italy
- Witch trials in Catalonia
- Witch trials in Portugal
- Witch trials in Sicily
- Witch trials in Spain
- Val Camonica witch trials (1505, 1518)
- Mirandola witch trials (1522–1525)
- Navarre witch trials (1525–26)
- Lisbon witch trial (1559–60)
- Benandanti (1575–1650)
- Witches of Laspaúles (1593)
- Basque witch trials (1609)
- Terrassa witch trials (1615–1619)
- Witch trial of Nogaredo (1646–47)
in Europe
- Witch trials in the Netherlands
- Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands
- Stedelen witch trial (1397–1407)
- Valais witch trials (1428–1447)
- Geneva witch trials (1571)
- Amersfoort and Utrecht witch trials (1591–1595)
- Bredevoort witch trials (1610)
- Roermond witch trial (1613)
- Spa witch trial (1616)
- Lukh witch trials (1656–1660)
- Salzburg witch trials (1675–1681)
- Liechtenstein witch trials (1679–1682)
- Witch trials in Virginia (1626–1730)
- Connecticut Witch Trials (1647–1663)
- Maryland Witch Trials (1654–1712)
- Witch trials in New York (1642–1790)
- Salem witch trials (1692–1693)
- Witchcraft and divination in the Old Testament (8th–2nd centuries BC)
- Directorium Inquisitorum (1376)
- De maleficis mulieribus (1440)
- Formicarius (1475)
- Summis desiderantes affectibus (1484)
- Malleus Maleficarum (1487)
- De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus (1489)
- Laienspiegel (1509)
- De praestigiis daemonum (1563)
- The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584)
- Newes from Scotland (1591)
- A Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcrafts (1593)
- Daemonolatreiae libri tres (1595)
- Daemonologie (1597)
- Magical Investigations (1599)
- Compendium Maleficarum (1608)
- A Guide to Grand-Jury Men (1627)
- The Discovery of Witches (1647)
- Treatises on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants (1751)