Machielsen, Jan  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8492-0263
2025.
Pierre de Lancre, the Basque witch-hunt, and the 'real' building blocks of illusion.
Goumegou, Susanne and Robert, Jörg, eds.
Dämonie der Illusion: Semantik, Episteme, Performanze - L'illusion et le démoniaque: Sémantique, épistémè, performance,
Berlin:
De Gruyter,
pp. 109-130.
(10.1515/9783111384023-007)
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Abstract
The Basque witch-hunt of the early 17th century is principally remembered because of a highly erudite account composed by one of the judges involved. Pierre de Lancre’s Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et démons (1612) is one of the most influential works of demonology, praised by literature scholars for the elegance of its prose. This article uses the aftermath of de Lancre’s witchcraft commission to explore the ‘real’ building blocks of the fantastical and (for him) entertaining demonic netherworld that the judge constructed. These events showed that the witch-hunt did not end after de Lancre’s departure but eventually culminated in the violent death of a Portuguese New Christian refugee who was accused of crimes not dissimilar to witchcraft. The fact that the lynching of Caterina Fernandes was again transformed into literature in de Lancre’s hands offers further evidence that historians and literature scholars alike should pay closer attention to demonology’s raw materials. The process by which terrible events were repackaged and turned into something stylised and erudite that was meant to entertain urgently requires further scholarly study.
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion |
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D204 Modern History P Language and Literature > PB Modern European Languages P Language and Literature > PC Romance languages P Language and Literature > PD Germanic languages |
| Language other than English: | German |
| Publisher: | De Gruyter |
| ISBN: | 9783111383927 |
| Related URLs: | |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2025 13:00 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/178994 |
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