History Of The Val Camonica Witch Trials

The Val Camonica Witch Trials was a huge event in history and one of the largest hunts that was ever recorded. They were located in Italy during the early 16th century, with their society under the influences of banning paganism. Val Camonica was isolated from the Venetian city and different from the rest of Italy. Most documentary evidence had been destroyed, so very little information was discovered in depth. Rituals were made for the goods of the tribe, and there was many conspiracies about the trials. The Val Camonica Witch Trials hunted people involved in witchcraft, and this relates to “The Crucible” because it followed similar events and hunts to find witches.

One of the greatest witch hunts in Italy was the Val Camonica Witch Trials

People created their own conspiracies on how the witchcrafts occurred, how people died, and who was responsible. Some believed that the women would spread powder from satan in the air, causing people to get sick and die. This conspiracy claimed it killed 200 people because of this “powder.” Another conspiracy was that people were spreading the witchery through magic, causing thunder and lightning storms as well. People of Val Camonica believed nothing of witches, but cults as a report claims: “However, fifty years after this purge, there were still reports that Christianity was still very weak in the area, and few fulfilled their religious responsibilities. A lot of old Pagan cults and habits were clearly still alive there” ("Val Camonica Witch-Trials"). With this, people believed the cults of paganism was causing this mayhem. Most of the documented evidence of this trial was destroyed by command of the Bishop of Brescia, Giacinto Gaggia. He requested this to prevent any oppositions, but some of the evidence made it. After the trials in 1573, they reported that Christianity is weak in the area. As conspiracies filled peoples heads, no one could really believe just