A kétely kezdetei: A milánói ferences obszervancia és a boszorkányság a 15–16. század fordulóján
Views of Witchcraft: The Origins of Scepticism in the Milanese Franciscan Observant Milieu (1498-1505)

Summary/Abstract: The preaching environment of the Franciscan observant friary of St. Angelo's in Milan offers an opportunity for intriguing observations. The dates indicated in the title are those of the publication of two key texts instrumental in the emergence of a sceptical view concerning the reality of belief in witchcraft: the Rosarium Sermonum by Bernardino Busti, a collection of 80 lenten sermons in two volumes published for the first time in Venice in 1498, and the Questiones lamearum by Samuele Cassini, a polemical tract issued probably at Pavia in 1505. On the basis of these two texts, the paper explores the Franciscan friars' approach towards witchcraft, which the author defines as “pastoral”, and the debate it triggered with the Dominicans who believed in the reality of the phenomenon. To Cassini's direct attack against the inquisitors, the Dominican Vincenzo Dodi replied with his Apologia tellingly subtitled “against the defenders of witches”, published in 1506. The dialectics dividing the friars belonging to the two main Mendicant orders presents renaissance Milan as a central locus of investigation for one of the most challenging intellectual debates of late medieval and early modern culture, through the consideration of sources that have never been adequately considered before.

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