Tyragetia (Dec 2020)
Witchcraft at Romanians: Documents of witchcraft trials in Transylvania of the 16th-17th centuries
Abstract
In Transylvania in the 16th-18th centuries, as everywhere in Europe, there was a witch hunt that had many victims. The witchcraft trials in Transylvania differed radically from those in Western Europe, as they were led by civil authorities of cities, fortresses and counties. The victims of the witch hunt in Transylvania were mostly healers of all ethnicities, including many Romanians. The research follows the image and fate of Romanians involved in witchcraft processes. Among them were defendants, accusers and witnesses, each with their own history. Documents of witchcraft trials are a particularly rich source of information about the lives, sufferings and turmoil of people in the Late Middle Ages. As documents of that time show, the magical practices of the Romanians in Transylvania corresponded to the mentality of the population of this region and are similar to those in Wallachia and Moldova.
