Val Camonica witch trials

The documentary evidence was destroyed by order of Giacinto Gaggia, the bishop of Brescia, to prevent it from being used by the anticlerical opposition.

In 1433, witches were burnt in South Tirol, 1460 in Valtellina, and in 1485, the Inquisitor Antonio da Brescia had strongly criticized the ongoing heresy and witchcraft in Val Camonica in the Venetian Senate.

On 23 June 1505, seven women and one man were burned in Cemmo in Val Camonica, and in 1510, witches were burned who were accused of having caused the drought by magic: 60 women and men confessed having injured people, animals and land with their spells, caused fires with help of Satan: "The whole world mourns for the sad lack of faith in God and the saints in Valcamonica.

In a letter from August 1518, an official, Josef di Orzinuovi, reported of the trial to Ludovico Quercini.

The same year, one Carlo Miani, a venetian nobleman, wrote to Dr Zorzi: "Some women in Breto have confessed to have spread powder from Satan through the air, which caused sickness and the death of 200 people..." In 1573, it was reported that Christianity was still weak in the area; few fulfilled their religious responsibilities, women went to church without covering their hair with a veil, people danced on holidays.