«Nelle mani del demonio per molto tempo…». Superstizione e inquisizione nella seconda metà del XVI secolo

This essay highlights how the Roman inquisition and the Roman Church deal with superstition and witchcraft in early modern Italy. Through some inquisitorial sources held in Crema (and neglected) and some ecclesiastical documents, we can find out different strategies to rule and to punish convicted magicians and witches. Some differences rely on gender issues. Those outcomes allow us to evaluate some historiographical ipothesis in a comparative light.