The witches’ sabbath and its places
at the center of the new collateral event of Witchcraft
Saturday 30 March
the exhibition hosts the conference
Where we can meet witches: four steps inside stories and legends,
which will also lead us to discover two real trials of the Inquisition
It is dedicated to the sabbat, the legendary witches’ conference, and to the places linked to it the collateral event that Witchcraft. Iconography, facts and scandals of history’s subversives offers this weekend. Saturday 30 March, at 4pmarrives on display Giuliana Zanelliessayist and teacher, who will talk about it in the conference Where we can meet witches: four steps inside stories and legendsduring which we will also discover the history and secrets of two real Inquisition trials.
According to tradition, witches gathered at night in pre-established places to carry out diabolical orgies and magical practices. Mythical, fantastic, but also extremely real places, probable traces of ancient fertility rites of a peasant society whose survival depended above all on the results of the harvests and, therefore, on atmospheric events that escape human control. It is precisely from these places that Giuliana will begin her narration, to then talk to us about the treatises on demonology thanks to which the tales of sabbats and terrible curses have come down to us. Often written by inquisitors and used as a guide for witch hunts, these texts were often accompanied by images full of symbolism and evocative power that have inspired, over the centuries, numerous artists and engravers such as those on display in the exhibition.
The speaker, who during her many years of research was able to study and transcribe some registers of the Holy Office, will explain to us how the flowering of the legend of the Sabbath culminated in the Renaissance with thousands of trials and fires. We know the names and charges of the victims, often but not always illiterate women. But who were these figures really and what led them to such a risky confrontation? The meeting will allow us to follow two witchcraft trials that took place in Emilia-Romagna, one in Imola and one in Forlì, to capture together some aspects of these incredible stories.