巫术信仰本质的注释:十五世纪乞丐传统的民间传说和古典文化

Notes on the Nature of Beliefs in Witchcraft:Folklore and Classical Culture in Fifteenth Century Mendicant Traditions

巫术是一种历史现象,随着时代的变迁和地域的变化,社会文化方面也会产生变化。尽管如此,我们还是可能追溯到形成巫术信仰的不同的文化底层,从而阐明它们的融合过程。本研究的目的是为了说明民间传说和古典文学这两种元素在15世纪如何交织在一起,当时,那些被称为高级知识分子的方济会修士、多米尼加传教士以及审判官,通过这种交织构成了一系列与巫术信仰相关的、连贯的、多样性的画面。通过将本人在专著《巫术、迷信和圣方济会修士》中一些重要的信息资源与其他作者作品中的信息联系起来,本文旨在分析这个多文化传统结合的过程是如何将巫术现象之被创造、被理解这一事件具体化、清晰化的。此外,本文也想强调,这些时而指向现实时而指向怀疑立场的、有关巫术信仰的、相互矛盾的观点是如何与修士们不同态度的具体转变相联系的。

Witchcraft is a varied historical phenomenon with changing socio-cultural aspects according to the times and the places considered.Nonetheless,it is possible to trace the different cultural substrata giving shape to witchbeliefs in order to shed light on their process of amalgamation.The aim of this study is to show how the folkloric and the classical literary motives were intertwined in the fifteenth century by figures lauded as the high intellectuals of the time,Franciscan and Dominican preachers and inquisitors,to produce a coherent and multifaceted picture of witchcraft-related beliefs.By putting some of the most significant sources that I have analyzed in my monograph Witchcraft,Superstition,and Observant Franciscan Preachers in relation to others that I have not considered before composed by the same or different authors,my aim is to show how this process of combination of various cultural traditions gave shape to the creation and the understanding of the witchcraft phenomenon.Furthermore,I also intend to highlight how the at times contradictory views concerning witchbeliefs,pointing either to realistic or to skeptical stances,are related to specific declensions of those different traditions on the part of the friars.