| Titre | Veneficiis vel maleficiis. | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Franck Collard | |
 |
Revue | Le Moyen Age |
| Numéro | tome 109, no 1, 2003 | |
| Page | 9-57 | |
| Résumé anglais |
Fr. COLLARD, Veneficiis vel maleficiis. Reflections on relations between poisoning and
witchcraft in the medieval Western world.
Both narrative and legal sources in the medieval Western world provide us with
a number of cases combining witchcraft and poisoning. Indeed associating the two
has been common practice in the history of witchcraft. The present study aims at
assessing to what extent this linking rests on actual criminal practices or on popular
representations. It first establishes in which cases and in what ways the two practices
converge. The legal and lexical roots of the association and how they intersect in
culture and people's perceptions are examined next. Veneficium and maleficium are
both connected to the occult, which explains the parallel in the chart tracing their
repression in the late Middle Ages. We note, however, that there is a simultaneous
attempt at uncoupling the two practices in that « common » poisoning is
distinguished from the use of satanic powders mentioned in witchcraft trials. This
process of « dis-spelling» criminal poisoning extended into the 17th century. Source : Éditeur (via Cairn.info) |
|
| Article en ligne | http://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=RMA_091_0009 |
