Historical method: a recorded belief or accusation is not independent proof of the supernatural event described.
A living historiography
A classic work is not frozen at its first appearance. The 2026 publisher description identifies retrospective material in which Ginzburg reflects on archival discovery, the interaction between history and anthropology and the moral complexity of studying persecution.
What has not changed
The existence of a new edition does not make every longstanding interpretation universally accepted. The debate with later scholarship remains worth reading, especially where the chronology and therapeutic roles differ.
Editorial caution
This page is based on the publisher’s public bibliographic description, not a complete close reading of the new edition. Detailed claims about its afterword should be checked against the book before expansion.
Source and revision record
- Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles (updated edition, 2026)Publisher listing · Publisher bibliographic and interpretive overview; updated edition dated September 8, 2026.
- Franco Nardon (ed.), Benandanti e inquisitori nel Friuli del Seicento (1999)University repository · University of Trieste volume focused on seventeenth-century healing and counter-witchcraft.