Trente ans avec le diable: Une nouvelle chasse aux sorciers sur la Riviera lémanique (1477–1484) , and: Françoise sauvée des flammes? Une Valaisanne accusée de sorcellerie au XV e siècle , and: L’enfer sur terre: Sorcellerie à Dommartin (1498) (review)

Abstract

Trente ans avec le diable: Une nouvelle chasse aux sorciers sur la Riviera 16manique (1477-1484). By Eva Maier. [Cahiers lausannois d'histoire medievale, Volume 17.] (Lausanne: Section d'histoire, Faculte des Lettres, Universite de Lausanne. 1996. Pp. 461. Frs. 40.-.) FranFoise sauvee des flammes? Une Valaisanne accusee de sorcellerie au XV siecle. By Sandrine Strobino. [Cahiers lausannois d'histoire medievale, Volume 18.] (Lausanne: Section d'histoire, Faculte des Lettres, Universite de Lausanne. 1996. Pp. 327. Frs. 30-.) L'enfer sur terre: Sorcellerie t4 Dommartin (1498). By Laurence Pfister. [Cahiers lausannois d'histoire medievale, Volume 20.] (Lausanne: Section d'histoire, Faculte des Lettres, Universite de Lausanne. 1997. Pp. 325.) Scholars of witchcraft have long recognized that the earliest true witchhunts in Europe took place during the fifteenth century, mainly in lands around the western Alps. Recently, a cadre of scholars at the Universite de Lausanne has undertaken a series of studies examining the surviving early trial records from that region. The three books under consideration here represent some of the fruits of these labors. Each provides a detailed account of a trial or cluster of trials, followed by extensive Latin editions and facing-page French translations of the trial records used. In general, the authors have endeavored to situate these individual cases within their particular (often highly complex) social, legal, and political contexts, and (perhaps to a lesser extent) to link them to the larger questions of the rise of witch-hunting in late medieval and early modern Europe. Eva Maier's Trente ans avec le diable is in some sense a sequel to Martine Ostorero's earlier study Folatrer avec les demons (CLHM, Vol. 15). Ostorero focused on the earliest surviving records of a major outbreak of witch-hunting in the diocese of Lausanne, occurring in Vevey in 1448. Maier explores a second outbreak along Lac Leman from 1477 until 1484. She connects these trials back to the earlier persecutions at Vevey, and the three decades between 1448 and 1477 comprise her trente ans avec le diable. Between 1477 and 1484, a dozen trials took place, of which she focuses on four particularly well documented ones. First, she outlines the evidence and events of the trials in great detail, devoting a chapter to each one. She then analyzes the trials together in terms of what they reveal about magic, demonology, and persecution in western Switzerland in the later fifteenth century. A similar approach is employed in each of the books covered here, and it has the advantage of allowing a detailed exploration of individual sources. A consequence, however, is that Maier's initial chapters are almost exclusively exposition rather than analysis. The later chapters, which do focus on comparative analysis, are then necessarily full of reiterations of information mentioned, but not fully explored, earlier. Still, putting such points of presentation aside, there is no question that both the exposition and later analysis are very competently done. Maier makes several major points. First, she stresses the importance of a standing inquisition directed by the Dominicans in Lausanne, in place by 1448 and operating for the remainder of the century. According to Maier, the existence of this permanent institution was the most critical single factor behind most of the witch-hunts in this region. This is not to say, however, that other factors were not involved. Maier suggests complex webs of familial and other social relationships underlying the trials at a local level. She also suggests several times that social and economic disruptions caused by war in the mid-1470's contributed to the particular wave of persecution beginning in 1477. Unfortunately, in her effort to give an overview of all aspects of the trials, she does not explore these areas in as much detail as they perhaps deserve, and her broader points tend to be assertions (altogether reasonable and persuasive ones, I should note) rather than fully developed arguments. …