The Night Battles

The Night Battles
Author(s)	Carlo Ginzburg
Publisher	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date	1966
Pages	209
ISBN	1421409925

In the Night Battles, Carlo Ginzburg brings to light what had occurred in Northeastern Italy during the Sixteenth Century. Due to reports of incidents in which people were harassed, fighting in the farmlands, and vandalism at local residences (particularly, their wineries), the Holy Office of the local Catholic Church in the village of Friuli conducted a series of inquisitions to determine whether or not the people who called themselves the Benandanti were practicing witchcraft. (1-5, 12) According to the Benandanti that were questioned, they claimed that they were visited by God in their sleep and told them to go to the fields as witches were there ruining the town harvest (though several suspects conflicted in their testimonies as to whether they went outside in person or as a spirit/animal). (6-7) There was also an idea that those called by God also answered to the “caul”, which was a placenta that certain individuals wore at the time, but that did not mean that everyone who wore it subscribed to their ways. (12, 15-16) The Benandanti came together as a group led by a captain and fought against the witches with fennel stalks against the latters’ sorghum stalks. (7, 12-13) Whoever won these “night battles” gained possession of the crops, so the Benandanti felt that they were doing a service for the people of the village, but witnesses felt otherwise. (1, 4, 8) Apart from the fighting, the group of Benandanti and witches danced together and vandalized houses (if there was no water out for them, at a particular house, they would go on to destroy their wine cellars by urinating into the barrels). (13) There was a case where someone claimed that they could see the dead and would “communicate” with an individual’s loved ones for a fee (this turned out to be a scam, but at the same time, she helped to bring peace of mind to those distraught. (33-39) The fact that Benandanti were supposed to serve for upwards of twenty years may also have made the church weary. (6-7)

The legal process is odd at the same time. Besides the different inquisitors, the Holy Office permitted suspects to have their way in the trial, in that witnesses did not have to immediately report to the inquisitor (one feigned illness to delay the trial by two days), and they could ask for more time with themselves during an interview. (9-10) This is strange due to the fact that suspects were held together, which would lead to them coming up with a plausible story without contradicting each other. (6-9) Based on the testimonies, the church could have just gone after witches and vandals, as they were the ones causing chaos while the Benandanti had a goal in mind: protect the crops for God. The fact that the Catholic Church also held fertility rites to ensure a successful harvest should have caused them to let the Benandanti go, but they rather have complete control and influence over everyone rather than share their influence with a group that may be a wild card, as well as rebellious. (23-24) The Church was all or nothing and did not want to take any chances on a group that was not perfect.

In terms of Ginzburg’s reconnaissance, he managed to get all that he could to write this book, that being the Holy Office records. That said, the book is going to contain information and dialogue that the Holy Office permitted in their writings. The majority of villagers were illiterate for the most part, and the only way to see their perspective is if the Church documented their testimonies. Since no outside documents can be obtained, Ginzburg had to deal with a biased source that may not contain everyone’s remarks. Ginzburg combatted this flaw by comparing Friuli to other places in other times, suggesting that the Benandanti were just Friuli’s way of performing fertility rites, such as the werewolves in Lithuania. (28-32) Despite the limited source material, Ginzburg was able to produce a book that looks at the phenomenon of witchcraft and how the Catholic Church dealt with it, along with the inability of the church to recognize minority groups that are not really harmful.