Classical Culture and Witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Italy by Marina Montesano

Author:Marina Montesano
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783319920788
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The Barlotto

The accounts of witchcraft that appear in these Observants’ sermons and treatises offer a glimpse of the somehow different way in which accusations were taking form, compared to the better studied early persecutions such as those happening in the Dauphiné. There, as has been previously noted, heresy played a wider role, and the assimilation of sorcery to heresy, or the idea of witchcraft as a new sect, was evidently a main theme. The central and southern regions of Italy show a partially different scenario, albeit that the fight against heresy was an important part of the Observants’ activities, especially in the case of Giovanni of Capestrano and Giacomo della Marca, who persecuted the Franciscan fraticelli.

Some incidents occurring in Piedmont at the end of the fourteenth century had a notable impact on the narrative of the Observants. Bernardino of Siena refers to the so-called ‘barlotto’ or ‘barilotto’ (keg) for the first time during his preaching in Siena in 1427. He is criticising the customs of heretics, when he begins to tell a story:There is a place where a certain thing happens, by night, when men and women mix altogether, turning off the light, and then all of them randomly have sex with whom they happen to grab. […] These people are from Piedmont. Five inquisitors went there trying to eradicate this curse, but they have been killed by these wicked people, so that now it is even difficult to find an inquisitor willing to go there. And do you know their name? They are called ‘those of the keg’, because at a certain time of the year they take a child, and they toss him around among themselves until he dies. Then, they reduce him to powder, put it in the keg, and they all drink from it. […] And to the women here, I want to say one thing, and keep it in mind: if one of those brawlers teases you with lovely words, even the loveliest, and wants to see you naked, do you know what you have to do? Scream: ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’ And do not hush, until someone comes to the rescue.12

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