3 The Old Vinegar Lady, or the Judicial Modernization of the Crime of Witchcraft

One https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203055755/776b2e0b-2c35-49dd-a944-b7e4dc74ea7a/content/ch13_page261-01_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>night in October 1788, Giovanna Bonanno, a seventy-five-year-old widow and beggar, who was widely believed to be a witch, was arrested in Palermo. She possessed all the classic characteristics of a witch: she was at once an old woman, a widow, and a beggar. ¹ Undoubtedly, Giovanna practiced magic, as it was said of her that she went out at night with “the women from beyond” [donna di for a]. ² These were supernatural beings whose unpredictable decisions and fickle desires people believed were responsible for their good or evil fortunes. ³ We do not know how much of their notion of “going out” is conserved in the contemporary belief that witches “flew.”