Wolves, Poisons, Cloven Hoof: Cultural Exchanges and the
Origins of the Witches' Sabbath Imaginations

k 2017

Wolves, Poisons, Cloven Hoof: Cultural Exchanges and the Origins of the Witches' Sabbath Imaginations

NOVOTNÝ, František

Basic information

Original name

Wolves, Poisons, Cloven Hoof: Cultural Exchanges and the Origins of the Witches' Sabbath Imaginations

Name in Czech

Vlci, jedy, čertovo kopyto: Kulturní výměny a počátky představ o sabatu čarodějnic

Authors

NOVOTNÝ, František (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Evil/Le Mal: 14th Annual Symposium of the International Medieval Society (IMS-Paris), Paris, 29th June -1st July, 2017

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60304 Religious studies

Country of publisher

France

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/17:00097149

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords (in Czech)

čarodějnictví; hereze; Alpy

Keywords in English

witchcraft; Heresy; Alps

Abstract

V originále

During the first half of the 15th century, imagery about bizarre diabolical rites, usually included by modern historians under the term Witches’ Sabbath, emerged rapidly in the western Alpine and Subalpine regions. Since this imagery combined the 13th- and 14th-century beliefs about antinomian heretic sects with fears of harmful magic and with folklore motives, they became a frequently discussed topic in the historiography of late medieval culture, especially in the field of historical anthropology. This paper attempts to view the synthesis of motives, from which the Sabbath imagery emerged, as result of cultural exchanges projected on two levels: the social level (communication between specific social groups and institutions, for example preachers and their auditoria, or investigators and deponents) and the level of interfaces between different discourses and literary genres (inquisitional trials, heresiological treatises, exempla etc.). Particularly, the paper will discuss two essential and probably closely interrelated sources written in the region of western Alps between 1430 and 1440: The report on the witch trials in Valais by the chronicler Hans Fründ, and the anonymous treatise Errores Gazariorum. It will attempt to identify the cultural resources, or types of resources, which authors of both texts employed for their descriptions of the alleged diabolical rites. It will proceed with the question, how the meaning of the motives, which can be found in older sources and seen as cultural topoi, change, once their context is shifting. Finally, some assumptions will be made about whether or to which extend specific types of cultural exchanges can be perceived as patterns determining the emergence of the Witches’ Sabbath imagery in general.

Links

MUNI/A/0873/2016, interní kód MU

Name: Internacionalizace výzkumu v religionistice (Acronym: INTERVYR)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A

Citovat

NOVOTNÝ, František. Wolves, Poisons, Cloven Hoof: Cultural Exchanges and the Origins of the Witches' Sabbath Imaginations. In Evil/Le Mal: 14th Annual Symposium of the International Medieval Society (IMS-Paris), Paris, 29th June -1st July. 2017.

@proceedings{1385127,
   author = {Novotný, František},
   booktitle = {Evil/Le Mal: 14th Annual Symposium of the International Medieval Society (IMS-Paris), Paris, 29th June -1st July},
   keywords = {witchcraft; Heresy; Alps},
   language = {eng},
   title = {Wolves, Poisons, Cloven Hoof: Cultural Exchanges and the Origins of the Witches' Sabbath Imaginations},
   year = {2017}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1385127
AU  - Novotný, František
PY  - 2017
TI  - Wolves, Poisons, Cloven Hoof: Cultural Exchanges and the Origins of the Witches' Sabbath Imaginations
KW  - witchcraft
KW  - Heresy
KW  - Alps
N2  - During the first half of the 15th century, imagery about bizarre diabolical rites, usually included by modern historians under the term Witches’ Sabbath, emerged rapidly in the western Alpine and Subalpine regions. Since this imagery combined the 13th- and 14th-century beliefs about antinomian heretic sects with fears of harmful magic and with folklore motives, they became a frequently discussed topic in the historiography of late medieval culture, especially in the field of historical anthropology. This paper attempts to view the synthesis of motives, from which the Sabbath imagery emerged, as result of cultural exchanges projected on two levels: the social level (communication between specific social groups and institutions, for example preachers and their auditoria, or investigators and deponents) and the level of interfaces between different discourses and literary genres (inquisitional trials, heresiological treatises, exempla etc.). Particularly, the paper will discuss two essential and probably closely interrelated sources written in the region of western Alps between 1430 and 1440: The report on the witch trials in Valais by the chronicler Hans Fründ, and the anonymous treatise Errores Gazariorum. It will attempt to identify the cultural resources, or types of resources, which authors of both texts employed for their descriptions of the alleged diabolical rites. It will proceed with the question, how the meaning of the motives, which can be found in older sources and seen as cultural topoi, change, once their context is shifting. Finally, some assumptions will be made about whether or to which extend specific types of cultural exchanges can be perceived as patterns determining the emergence of the Witches’ Sabbath imagery in general.
ER  -

NOVOTNÝ, František. Wolves, Poisons, Cloven Hoof: Cultural Exchanges and the Origins of the Witches' Sabbath Imaginations. In \textit{Evil/Le Mal: 14th Annual Symposium of the International Medieval Society (IMS-Paris), Paris, 29th June -1st July}. 2017.

Detailed Information on Publication Record