Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; Reform and Questions of Nature and Supernature; Witchcraft and Magic, Natural and Supernatural; Understanding Nature in Vernacular Culture; The Knowledge of the Practitioner; A "Disenchantment" of the Early Modern World?; A Proliferation of Views; 1 Witchcraft and Inquisition in the Most Serene Republic; The Structure of the Inquisition in Venice; Witchcraft and Witch "Crazes"; Inquisition Trials and Their Documents; Denunciations; Witness Testimony and the Constitutus; The Defensive Phase; Trial Outcomes
Unearthing the True in the False2 Blackened Fingernails and Bones in the Bedclothes; Evidence in Maleficio Denunciations; Signs of the Supernatural; 3 Appeals to Experts; Healers as Experts; Choosing Healers; Religious Pressures; Learned Philosophy and Vernacular Approaches; 4 "Spiritual Remedies" for Possession and Witchcraft; Exorcism in Early Modern Europe; Consultations of Healing Clerics; The Social Geography of Exorcist Consultations; Exorcist Qualifications and Training; Diagnostic Practices of Venetian Clerics; Treating Supernatural Illness: Segnar, Benedir, and Scongiurar
Material Elements in Spiritual RemediesThe Diminishment of the Demonic; 5 The Exorcist's Library; Diagnosing Supernatural Illness; Distinguishing Possession from Witchcraft; Manuals and Material Cures; Exorcist Theory and Practice; 6 "Not My Profession": Physicians' Naturalism; Training and Regulation of Venetian Physicians; Treatment by Physicians in Early Modern Venice; Physicians in Maleficio Trials; 7 Physicians as Believers; Physicians and the Miraculous; Physicians as "Ordinary" Witnesses; Sources of Medical Naturalism; The Limits of Naturalism; Professional Dimensions
Clarity and Ambiguity8 The Inquisitor's Library; Sources of Inquisitorial Policy and Procedure; The Watchful Eye of Rome; An Instruction on Witchcraft; Advice and the Venetians; Conclusion; 9 "Nothing Proven":; Medical Expertise; Exorcists; Wise Women; Physicians; Reputations and Witchcraft Materials; Trial Outcomes: The Dog that Did Not Bark; Theory versus Practice; Inquisitorial and Vernacular Views of the Supernatural; Conclusion; Changes in Conceptions of Nature and the Supernatural; Cultural Continuities; Theory and Practice in the Pursuit of Maleficio; The Idea of Disenchantment
Looking ForwardAppendix I; Appendix II; Bibliography; Index
Summary
Records of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century witchcraft trials in Venice uncover individuals' conception of the supernatural in early modern Europe
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-281) and index
