We learn from Sprenger's famous theoretico-
practical guide, the 'Malleus Maleficarum,' that forty-one witches were
burnt at Como in the first year after the publication of the bull;
crowds of Italian women took refuge in the territory of the Archduke
Sigismund, where they believed themselves to be still safe. Witchcraft
ended by taking firm root in a few unlucky Alpine valleys, especially
in the Val Camonica; the system of persecution had succeeded in
permanently infecting with the delusion those populations which were in
any way predisposed for it. This essentially German form of witchcraft
is what we should think of when reading the stories and novels of Milan
or Bologna. That it did not make further progress in Italy is probably
due to the fact that here a highly developed 'stregheria' was already
in existence, resting on a different set of ideas. The Italian witch
practiced a trade, and needed for it money and, above all, sense. We
find nothing about her of the hysterical dreams of the Northern witch,
of marvelous journeys through the air, of Incubus and Succubus; the
business of the 'strega' was to provide for other people's pleasures.
If she was credited with the power of assuming different shapes, or of
transporting herself suddenly to distant places, she was so far content
to accept this reputation, as her influence was thereby increased; on
the other hand, it was perilous for her when the fear of her malice and
vengeance, and especially of her power for enchanting children, cattle,
and crops, became general.
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