Mirandola witch trials

[1] The witch trial attracted a lot of attention in contemporary Italy, and were the subject of Libro detto strega o delle illusioni del demonio (1523) by Gianfrancesco Pico, which are referred to as the first book about witchcraft and demonology in vulgar Latin.

[7] The Inquisition began in 1522 when Dominican friar Girolamo Armellini arrived from Faenza, who had jurisdiction over the diocese of Reggio Emilia and who was investigating rumours of strange nocturnal rituals that took place in the countryside crossed by the Secchia river, especially in the villa of Cividale near Mirandola.

[2] On 22 August 1522 the first accused, Don Benedetto Berni, was burnt at the stake, and the same fate befell Francesco da Carpi, Bernardina Frigieri, Maddalena Gatti, Camilla Gobetta del Borghetto, Andrea Merlotti and Marco Piva the following year.

[2] Public opinion in Mirandola began to harshly criticise these death sentences, so that in May 1523 Giovanni Francesco Pico had to quickly (in just ten days) write and publish in Bologna the three-book dialogue Strix, sive de ludificatione daemonum to justify the killing of those accused of witchcraft.

[2] From the 18th century onwards, following the annexation of Mirandola to the Duchy of Modena, other trials for magic and witchcraft (in this case also against men) and for heresy are documented, mainly due to the spread of Lutheranism imported into this territory by the occupying imperial armies, as well as the fact that many of these accused were also linked to Freemasonry.

[2] In particular, there was the tradition that 'at the stroke of midnight, on the night eve of Epiphany, the parish priest of San Martino Carano, a locality one kilometre from the city on the border with the oratory of the "Madonna della via di Mezzo", would go to the crossroads in a purple cope, equipped with an aspergillum and holy water, to drive the witches away from the confines of the villa.