1983 The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Description

First Edition, Original Binding, Publishers' Original Binding, With Dustwrapper

First English translated edition. A historical study of the benandanti or "Good Walkers" folk custom of sixteenth and seventeenth century Friuli, Northeastern Italy. The work examines the accounts of benandante who were interrogated and tried by the Roman Inquisition, using these records to elicit evidence for the beliefs and practices of the benandanti. Highlighting the notion of their nocturnal visionary journeys, during which they believed that their spirits traveled out of their bodies to do battle with malevolent witches who threatened the local crops. Written by Carlo Ginzburg, an Italian historian and a proponent of the field of microhistory. Translated by John and Anne Tedeschi, American translators.