Becoming a Witch

This book is not about witches. First of all, because it focuses on the Middle Ages. And, despite common misconceptions among the general public, the figure of the witch as a woman who seals a pact with the Devil is not a "medieval" invention. Becoming a Witch explores the feminization of what civil and religious authorities defined as "magic" in medieval times. It looks into the complex connections between women, the natural, the supernatural, and the tragedy of existence. The chapters in this book span from the far north of Europe to the Mediterranean area, and investigate topics such as divination, erotic "magic", flying and dancing bodies, cannibalism, milk-stealing witchcraft, the circulation of "superstitious" knowledge among women, Otherness, agency, and, last but not least, contemporary representations of the witch in books, TV series, and cinema productions. From whom did women learn their beliefs and remedies? Were they really in contact with demons? Were they a social threat? And, most importantly, should men fear and stop them?



Andrea Maraschi holds a PhD in History (University of Bologna, 2013). He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Iceland from 2014 to 2017, and he taught Medieval History and Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages at the University of Bari from 2018 to 2021. He is currently a research fellow at the Interuniversity Research Centre "Seminario di Storia della Scienza" (University of Bari), and teaches Anthropology of Food at the University of Bologna. He is a member, among others, of the Interdepartmental Research Centre "Cibo in salute": Nutraceutica, Nutrigenomica, Microbiota Intestinale, Agricoltura e Benessere Sociale". His research interests touch on food history, the history of magic and medicine, medievalism and gender studies. His latest monograph is entitled Similia similibus curantur. Cannibalismo, grafofagia e "magia" simpatetica nel medioevo (500-1500) (2020). Angelica Aurora Montanari, PhD in Medieval History (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris), was a research fellow at the Universitade Federal Fluminense of Niteroi (Brazil); University of Cambridge (visiting scholar); University of Ostrava, University of Bologna, where she is currently a lecturer in History of the Medieval Mediterranean. Her interests focus on the history of the body, on the history of dance, on rituals of violence and on illuminated manuscripts. Angelica is co-director of the book series Animal Studies. Genetics, Anthropology and History (Trivent) and she is the author of Il fiero pasto. Antropofagie medievali (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2015); Cannibales. Histoire de l'anthropophagie au Moyen Age (Paris, Les Editions Arkhe, 2018).



Witchery 101. An Introduction Andrea Maraschi CHAPTER 1. Religious Cafting and Subversion: Women and Magic in Early Medieval Iberian Sources Lilian R. G. Diniz CHAPTER 2. Women and Magic in Early Medieval England: Terms and Material Traces Gwendolyne Knight CHAPTER 3. Women's Sexuality as Threat: Erotic Magic in Burchard of Worms' Corrector sive medicus Larissa de Freitas Lyth CHAPTER 4. The Discourse of Wounding: Witchcraft and Ethnography in Burchard of Worms' Decretum Chris Halsted CHAPTER 5. Medieval Canon Law Scholarship and Its Repression of Magic Practices: A Cultural Premise of Early Modern Witch-Hunting? Federica Boldrini CHAPTER 6. Udder Calamity: Dealing with the Milk-Stealing Witch in Medieval Iceland Beth Rogers CHAPTER 7. Women's Magical Knowledge and Its Gendered Circulation in Late Medieval Exempla Andrea Maraschi CHAPTER 8. "Divergent" Orchestic Formae: Traces in Italian Preaching (13th - 15th Century) Angelica Aurora Montanari CHAPTER 9. A Few Remarks on Witchcraft and Medievalism Francesca Roversi Monaco End-of-Term Party: Old and New Witches Angelica Aurora Montanari Notes on Contributors