Law, Nature, Theology and Witchcraft in Ponzinibio’s De lamiis (1511)

Abstract

This essay focuses on one noted – but little studied – protagonist of the debate on the reality of witchcraft, the Italian lawyer Gianfrancesco Ponzinibio, author of the first book wholly devoted to the confutation of the witch-hunters’ theories (Tractatus subtilis et elegans de lamiis et excellentia utriusque iuris, ‘A subtle and elegant treatise on witches and on the excellence of canon and civil law’, 1511). Ponzinibio argued for the superiority of jurisprudence over all other disciplines, and thus claimed that lawyers have the right to discuss the theological implications of the crime of witchcraft. He claimed that the alleged proofs of the reality of the witches’ deeds not only conflicted with the normal course of nature, but were also grounded in an erroneous interpretation of the Scriptures. This contribution seeks to show that Ponzinibio’s De lamiis was the most radical rejection of the reality of witchcraft available at the beginning of the 1500s, and that it gave voice for the first time to the Italian elites’ widespread aversion to witch-hunting.