Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath

by Carlo Ginzburg (Author), RaymondRosenthal (Translator)

• Used

  Paperback
  1992

  $51.42

  For centuries witches on trial admitted to taking part in gruesome sabbaths where they cast spells, worshipped a bestial devil, enacted obscenely blasphemous rites and even devoured corpses. Many scholars believe that such confessions, often enacted under torture were just a reflection of their persecutors' fantasies. Certainly as Carlo Ginzburg shows, witch hunters adapted the stereotypes earlier used to descredit and persecute lepers and Jews.