Giandomenico Fei, the Only Male Witch. A Tuscan or an Italian Anomaly?

Abstract

In 1599, a blacksmith called Giandomenico Fei was tried on charges of witchcraft by the Sienese Inquisition in the Tuscan town of Montepulciano. This case was unusual, not only because it involved a man, but because Giandomenico holds the dubious honour of being the only man to be tried on such charges in the region of Tuscany subject to the tribunal of the Roman Inquisition in Siena. Was his case a local anomaly that can be dismissed as irrelevant to the overall pattern of witchcraft beliefs and witch-trials in this region? Or does closer examination of the case of even one male witch give the historian important insights into broader questions about the gendering of witch-persecution? The aim of this chapter is to explore answers to these questions. However, before beginning, I would like to sound a note of caution about the interest in gender that has come to dominate the field of witchcraft studies in the late twentieth century. My work on witchcraft in early modern Italy has persuaded me that witchcraft beliefs, and the cognitive processes in which such beliefs were rooted, were not, first and foremost, ‘about’ gender; they were, rather, about the fear of evil powers and how to counteract them. We must, thus, be careful not to focus too exclusively on the question of gender in relation to witchcraft, as this might be misleading, both in terms of the questions posed and the conclusions reached.