Historical method: a recorded belief or accusation is not independent proof of the supernatural event described.
Wider frameworks
The inquisitorial officials who heard unfamiliar accounts were not operating in an interpretive vacuum. They had existing expectations regarding witchcraft, diabolical association and illicit ritual.
Local claims were not identical
Popular accounts could describe protection against witches even as authorities suspected the speakers of witchcraft themselves. This asymmetry is crucial: a category shared in a court record does not establish a shared understanding among participants.
Comparative caution
The archive uses scholarship on the witches’ sabbath to explain institutional context. It does not extrapolate every claim about witch trials across Europe onto the particular individuals in Friuli without supporting records.
Source and revision record
- Imagining the Witches’ Sabbath (Cambridge University Press)Scholarly book · Modern scholarly treatment of the interpretive construction of the sabbath.
- Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles (updated edition, 2026)Publisher listing · Publisher bibliographic and interpretive overview; updated edition dated September 8, 2026.