1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910962349803321

Autore

Ginzburg Carlo

Titolo

The night battles : witchcraft & agrarian cults in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries / / Carlo Ginzburg ; translated by John & Anne Tedeschi

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Milton Park, Abington, Oxon ; ; New York, : Routledge, 2011

ISBN

1-136-74011-2

1-280-68494-1

9786613661883

1-136-74012-0

0-203-81900-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (241 p.)

Collana

Routledge library editions : witchcraft ; ; 4

Disciplina

133.4309409031

398.41094539

398/.41/094539

Soggetti

Witchcraft - Italy - Friuli

Friuli (Italy) Religious life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Translation of: I benandanti.

Reprint. Originally published: London : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries; Copyright; Contents; Foreword by Eric Hobsbawm; Translators' note; Preface to the English edition; Preface to the Italian edition; I. The night battles; II. The processions of the dead; III. The benandanti between inquisitors and witches; IV. The benandanti at the sabbat; Appendix; Notes; Index of names

Sommario/riassunto

Based on research in the Inquisitorial archives, the book recounts the story of a peasant fertility cult centred on the benandanti. These men and women regarded themselves as professional anti-witches, who (in dream-like states) apparently fought ritual battles against witches and wizards, to protect their villages and harvests. If they won, the harvest would be good, if they lost, there would be famine. The inquisitors tried to fit them into their pre-existing images of the witches' sabbat.



The result of this cultural clash which lasted over a century, was the slow metamorphosis of the ben