Carlo Ginzburg's Night Battles vs. Keith Tomas' Religion and the Decline of Magic

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Carlo Ginzburg's Night Battles vs. Keith Thomas' Religion and the Decline of Magic

Carlo Ginzburg’s Night Battles depicts the relationships that existed concerning magic and the use of witchcraft as they where believed by both the popular and the elite concerning the benandanti in the Italian area of Friuli. Keith Thomas’ Religion and the Decline of Magic does a similar thing except his subject area is in the whole of England and includes more information and examples of the beliefs and practices of the English. Both the English account and the account of the Friuli benandanti have several similarities that exist between the two as well as some distinct differences. The differences between the two groups are shown by the way the common and elite treat the situation and the way that the two separate situations changed over time both sharing some characteristics while having other characteristics being different the same in the two areas.

In England the role of magic was not one that encompassed the devil or evil in the mind of the popular belief. Magic, on the other contrary, is used properly and for positive purposes could be a good thing. People would tell that they had or wanted to visit a cunning man, someone that uses magic to find lost objects, in order to find out certain information or to reveal who had stolen from them. This practice was not frowned upon by popular opinion. This acceptance of the proclamation of the use of a cunning man shows the public acceptance of magic if used in the right form; as well as the popular opinion that a cunning man was not someone to be feared or despised.1 On the contrary, the cunning man was someone who could help you through magical means in order that you might...

... middle of paper ...

...he desire of the elite to hunt witches and the court system set up that will benefit witch-hunting. These two separate places have two different kinds of magic that are treated in two separate ways by the elite and popular people of the area.

1. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), 221.

2. Thomas, 505.

3. Thomas, 516.

4. Thomas, 437.

5. Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966), 1.

6. Ginzburg, 69-70.

7. Thomas, 226.

8. Thomas, 200.

9. Ginzburg, 71.

10. Ginzburg, 72.

11. Thomas, 453.

12. Ginzburg, 100-101.

13. Ginzburg, 81.

Bibliography

Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1966.

Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.

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