1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910299812403321

Autore

Montesano Marina

Titolo

Classical Culture and Witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Italy / / by Marina Montesano

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2018

ISBN

3-319-92078-2

Edizione

[1st ed. 2018.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (IX, 278 p. 3 illus. in color.)

Collana

Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic, , 2731-5649

Disciplina

940.902

Soggetti

Europe - History - 476-1492

Social history

Civilization - History

Italy - History

Europe - History - To 476

History of Medieval Europe

Social History

Cultural History

History of Italy

History of Ancient Europe

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Prototypes: Magic and Witchcraft in Greece -- The Witch as a Woman: Tales of Magic in Rome -- Maleficia: From Late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages -- ‘A Company That Go the Course’ -- ‘Let’s Send Up Some Incense to the Lord!’ -- The Italian Quattrocento -- ‘Twelve Thousand Circes’ -- Bibliography -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores the relationships between ancient witchcraft and its modern incarnation, and by doing so fills an important gap in the historiography. It is often noted that stories of witchcraft circulated in Greek and Latin classical texts, and that treatises dealing with witch-beliefs referenced them. Still, the role of humanistic culture and classical revival in the developing of the witch-hunts has not yet been fully researched. Marina Montesano examines Greek and Latin literature, revealing how particular features of ancient striges were



carried into the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance and into the fifteenth century, when early Italian trials recall the myth of the strix common in ancient Latin sources and in popular memory. The final chapter also serves as a conclusion, to show how in Renaissance Italy and beyond, classical accounts of witchcraft ceased to be just stories, as they had formerly been, and were instead used to attest to the reality of witches’ powers.