Historical method: a recorded belief or accusation is not independent proof of the supernatural event described.
First pass: orientation
Read the foundational overview, the Friuli geography and the 1575 case. Understand why source setting matters before collecting spectacular details about night flight and battles.
Second pass: disagreement
Read Ginzburg’s interpretation and Nardon’s reassessment side by side. Ask whether they discuss the same period and whether agrarian and therapeutic accounts are receiving equal attention.
Third pass: original evidence
Use the linked trial translation as an edited gateway to the records. For serious publication, seek archival originals or reliable scholarly editions and record the differences. Only after that should modern reinterpretations be evaluated as reception, analogy or new practice.
Source and revision record
- Trial transcripts: Paolo Gasparutto and Battista Moduco, 1575–1581 (translated excerpt via University of Washington)Edited translation of primary record · A modern publication of translated trial testimony, not a facsimile of the original manuscript. Copyright may apply.
- 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.