Abstract
The aim of this book was to compare how the authorities proscribed and proceeded against witchcraft, and how the prosecutions were applied locally. How did official positions on witchcraft come to have influence on the offences brought to trial, and what agency were accusers, witnesses and suspects left with? In my introduction, I presented two trials to illustrate the main differences between Roman Inquisitorial and Danish lay prosecutions of witchcraft. Stefano Tommei from Orbetello was sentenced to imprisonment and a large fine; Johanne Pedersdatter from Sejlflod was sentenced to death by burning. Both were convicted of witchcraft (sortilegio/trolddom), and the difference in punishments can be traced back to the two essentially different courts prosecuting the same offence.480
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Notes
Gijswijt-Hofstra, Marijke, ‘Witchcraft After the Witch Trials’ in The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. The Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, vol. 5, Ankarloo, Bengt and Stuart Clark (eds.) (Athlone and University of Pennsylvania Press: London and Philadelphia 1999), p. 134.
Herlihy, David, ‘The Tuscan Town in the Quattrocento: A Demographic Profile’ in Medievalia et Humanistica, New series I (1970), pp. 93–95.
Richard Kieckhefer noted this possible connection, but refrained from pursuing the argument further, Kieckhefer, Richard, European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300–1500, (University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976), p. 57.
Historians have so far more or less neglected this collection, Ohrt, F., Danmarks Trylleformler (Nordisk Forlag: Copenhagen 1917), pp. 382–387.
For an overview and bibliographical references on urban and rural witchcraft, see the two articles by Di Simplicio, Oscar, ‘Urban Witchcraft’, pp. 1148–1151, and ‘Rural Witchcraft’, pp. 977–950 in Golden, Richard M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition (ABC-CLIO eBook Collection: Santa Barbara, CA 2006).
Such a tendency that can be detected in most of Western Europe. For overview pieces, see Monter, William, ‘Witch Witch Trials in Continental Europe.1560–1660’, in Ankarloo, Bengt, Stuart Clark and William Monter, Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. The Period of the Witch Trials (University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia 2002), pp. 49ff., for Western Europe in general; on Italy, see Lavenia, Vicenzo, ‘Stregoneria, Italia’ in Dizionario storico dell’Inquizione, p. 1529;
Norway, Sweden and Finland experienced severe regional hunts in the late 17th century, for an overview on Scandinavia, see Ankarloo, Bengt, ‘Witch Trials in Northern Europe. 1450–1700’ in Ankarloo, Clark and Monter 2002), pp. 75–96.
This regulation was motivated by a series of scandalous trials led by the nobleman Jørgen Arenfelt, see Henningsen (1991), esp. pp. 143–164; Krogh, Tyge, Oplysningstiden og det magiske. Henrettelser og korporlige straffe i 1700-tallets første halvdel, (Museum Tusculanum: Copenhagen 2000b), p. 121.
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© 2015 Louise Nyholm Kallestrup
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Kallestrup, L.N. (2015). Conclusion: the confessor and the judge. In: Agents of Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy and Denmark. Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316974_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137316974_10
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