Dana Wessell Lightfoot

The history of witchcraft and the witchcraze is a topic that has fascinated students, historians, and the general public for centuries. With this fascination, however, has come certain distortions of the past, creating many different versions of the events which took place in Early Modern Europe. This course investigates the concept of witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and the origins, evolution and decline of the witch hunts which took place from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The course will start by considering ideas about witchcraft from the foundation of medieval superstitious beliefs and practices, exploring in particular, the idea of demons and demonology. We will also consider how witchcraft was conceived of within folklore in the early modern period, focusing on the idea of witch familiars. We will then turn to consider how these beliefs came to be seen as a basis for witchcraft as a crime, within both secular and religious legal contexts. Across Europe, approximately 80% of those accused of witchcraft were women, so we will spend a class thinking about the impact of gender on perceptions of witches and those actually tried for the crime. In order to see how all of these concepts worked in practice, we will next explore examples of witch hunts in five distinct geographical regions: Germany, England, Italy, Russia, and the New England colony of Salem. Format This course is a seminar and it is therefore based on discussion. Attendance is mandatory, as is participation in class discussion. All students are required to do the assigned readings before each class so that they are fully prepared to participate. If you do not do the readings, you are disrespecting your fellow students who worked hard to prepare. In preparation for class, students will sign up for roles for THREE Academic Reading Circles over the course of the semester. Each Academic Reading Circle (ARC) is focused on a topic we are covering for that week. In that role, you will help lead off our discussion for that topic based on the readings that were covered, both ONLINE and IN CLASS. Please see the handout "Academic Reading Circle Preparation" for more information.

Aquest article tracta de les experiències de jueves i converses a la ciutat de Girona després de la tràgica violència del 1391 i fins a les crisis a què es va enfrontar la comunitat durant i després de la disputa de Tortosa. Centrant-se en el matrimoni, la família i l’activitat econòmica en el mercat del crèdit, advoca per la importància de considerar aquests esdeveniments des de la perspectiva de les dones com un mitjà per a matisar i aprofundir la nostra comprensió de llur impacte, d’una manera més àmplia, en les comunitats jueves catalanes. També emfatitzem la necessitat de considerar les experiències de les dones jueves i converses paral·lelament amb les dones cristianes de Catalunya, subratllant llurs experiències comunes en una societat patriarcal sotmesa a la crisi dels últims segles de la baixa edat mitjana.Paraules clau: jueves, do...

This article explores how our work as collaborative historians has allowed us to map out the stories of Jewish families in Girona during the early decades of the fifteenth century - a crucial moment in their history - by pulling together documents from royal, municipal, and notarial archives. Here we focus on the Vidal family--Caravida, his first wife Bonafilla, and second wife Regina, analyzing hundreds of records to tell a tale of polygamy, accusations of theft, the death of a son, conversion to Christianity, divorce, a mixed marriage, and investigation and conviction by the inquisition. Interwoven with our narrative of the Vidals, we discuss some of the tools that have helped us bring together such varied sources. Making all this possible is our use of a relational database which has aided our ability to link together such rich documentation from a variety of archives. Finally, we also consider the role of happenstance in our examination of certain archival sources; specifically,...

On 27 September 1391, a woman named Tolrana stood on the steps of the Gironella tower in Girona and, before Christian officials and her own Jewish representatives, refused to convert to Christianity or to remain married to her husband Francesc, who had converted during the recent attacks against the Jewish community. Almost thirty years later, in February 1419, the minor orphan Tolrana Benet appealed to King Alfons because she wanted to convert to Christianity but was being prevented by her Jewish guardians. She proposed to the king that she be put under the guardianship of her converso uncle, Lluis de Cardona. We do not know why the first Tolrana decided to end her marriage rather than convert, nor why the young Tolrana resisted familial pressures to remain Jewish. Yet both examples illustrate ways in which Jewish women exercised agency as a means of determining their own lives. This article focuses on the experiences of women to consider the intersection of agency and religious co...

escape as he, together with his trial record, were being transported to A Coruña where an appellate tribunal was scheduled to review his case. In as much as Spanish law stipulated that fugitives could still be tried in absentia (en rebeldía), the prosecuting attorney sought to continue the proceedings, but the judges determined otherwise and abandoned the case after the records of Soller’s trial went astray. Moore deserves thanks for their rediscovery. In addition to his insightful gloss on Soller’s eventful life, he reproduces the transcript, in both Spanish and English translation, in an appendix. It is now also available online, for readers interested in consulting the original.

... See Caroline Castiglione, “Adversarial Literacy: How Peasant Politics Influenced Noble Governing of the Roman Countryside during Page 4. ... Ironwork and leatherwork were also predominant trades with numerous shield makers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, cob-blers, and ...