Prologue: Abracadabra Omnipotens
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Notes Prologue: Abracadabra Omnipotens 1. ‘Wherever there is religion there is magic, even though the magical stream does not always follow the main channel of religion; similarly, wherever there is magic there is religion, although it can be only one specific type of religion.’ Gerardus van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation, Princeton and New York, Princeton University Press, 1986, pp. 468–469. Quoted by permission of © Princeton University Press. 2. See Guillermo Fatás (ed.), Guía Histórico-Artística de Zaragoza, Saragossa, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1982. 3. Writer Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola (1559–1613), for example, dedicated a poem to the city in which he even compared it with Ancient Babylon. 4. See María Tausiet, ‘Zaragoza celeste y subterránea: Geografía mítica de una ciudad (siglos XV–XVIII)’, in François Delpech (ed.) L’imaginaire du territoire en Espagne et au Portugal (XVIe–XVIIe siècles), Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, 2008. 5. The coat of arms was not granted by the emperor Augustus (as certain seventh-century panegyrists had it), but by Alfonso VII of Castile and León (the lion rampant was the ensign of the kings of León) when he gained ‘imperial control’ of the city in 1134, taking advantage of the fact that the people of Saragossa were unable to defend themselves against the Moorish threat without outside help. 6. This enclosure was in the San Andrés parish and had a boundary fence that enabled ‘those who went there to see and admire the said lion without dan- ger’. In 1577, Brother Jorge Oliver wrote that in Saragossa ‘they have a lion, representing the insignia or arms of that city, and that it was so valued by all the people that when it died they greatly mourned its loss and kept its skin in its memory’. See Ángel San Vicente, ‘El escudo de armas de Zaragoza’, in Guillermo Fatás (ed.), op. cit., p. 42. 7. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto, ch. 1, cited in Owen Davies, ‘Urbanization and the decline of witchcraft: an examination of London’, Journal of Social History, 30 (3), 1997, p. 597. 8. Sigmund Freud, Totem und Tabu. Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker, Vienna, Hugo Heller & Cie, 1913. (Eng. transl. Totem and Taboo. Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics, trans. Abraham A. Brill, New York, Moffat Yard & Co., 1918. 9. See Randall Styers, Making Magic. Religion, Magic and Science in the Modern World, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004, in particular Chapter 2, ‘Magic and the Regulation of Piety’, pp. 69–119. 10.SeeE.M.Butler,The Myth of the Magus, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1948. 170 Notes 171 11. See Stuart Clark, ‘Inversion, Misrule and the Meaning of Witchcraft’, Past and Present, 87, 1980, pp. 98–127, and Thinking with Demons. The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997. 12. See Walter Stephens, Demon Lovers. Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2002. 1 The judicial backdrop: Saragossa and the three justice systems 1. ‘Estatuto hecho a seys de Deziembre de mil quinientos ochenta y seys contra las Brujas y Hechizeras’ [Statute of 6 December 1586 against Witches and Sorceresses], in Recopilacion de los estatutos de la ciudad de Zaragoza por los Señores Iurados, Capitol y Consejo, con poder de Concello General. Confirmados y decretados el primero de Deziembre de 1635, Saragossa, Hospital Real y General de Nuestra Señora de Gracia, 1635, p. 291. 2. See Ángel San Vicente Pino, ‘El escudo de armas de Zaragoza’, in Guillermo Fatás (ed.), op. cit., pp. 35–44. 3. See Miguel Beltrán Lloris and Guillermo Fatás Cabeza, ‘César Augusta, ciudad romana’, Historia de Zaragoza, vol. 2, Saragossa, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1998. 4. See José Luis Corral Lafuente, ‘Saragossa musulmana (714–1118)’, Historia de Zaragoza, vol. 5, Saragossa, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1998. 5. See María Isabel Falcón Pérez, ‘Zaragoza en la Baja Edad Media (siglos XIV–XV)’, Historia de Zaragoza, vol. 7, Saragossa, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1998. 6. See Antonio Domínguez Ortiz and Bernard Vicent, Historia de los moriscos. Vida y tragedia de una minoría, Madrid, Ed. Alianza, 1985, p. 61. 7. See María Isabel Falcón Pérez, Zaragoza en el siglo XV. Morfología urbana, huertas y término municipal, Saragossa, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza & IFC, 1981. 8. See Eliseo Serrano Martín, ‘Zaragoza con los Austrias mayores (siglo XVI)’, Historia de Zaragoza, vol. 8, Saragossa, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1998. 9. See Jesús Maiso González and Rosa María Blasco Martínez, Las estructuras de Zaragoza en el primer tercio del siglo XVIII, Saragossa, IFC, 1984. 10. See Pablo Desportes Bielsa, ‘Entre mecánicos y honorables. La “élite popular” en la Zaragoza del siglo XVII’, Revista de Historia Jerónimo Zurita, 75–2000, Saragossa, IFC, 2002. 11. See José Antonio Salas Auséns, ‘Zaragoza en el siglo XVII’, Historia de Zaragoza, vol. 9, Saragossa, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, 1998. 12. See Ángel San Vicente Pino, El oficio del Padre de Huérfanos en Zaragoza, Universidad de Zaragoza, 1965. To quote Andrés Giménez Soler, Saragossa was a ‘haven to all Spain’s outlaws, since the freedoms of Aragon devolved notuponmenbutuponland’(AndrésGiménezSoler,La Edad Media en la Corona de Aragón, Madrid, Ed. Labor, 1930). 13. See Christine Langé, La inmigración francesa a Aragón en los siglos XVI y XVII, Saragossa, IFC, 1994. 14. According to Henry Kamen, ‘the pruning of saints, and the corresponding attempt to uproot superstitious practices connected with them, was by no 172 Notes means a step towards the simpler, purer religion that reformers wished for. On the contrary, the many campaigns to foster more devotion among the people led inexorably in the opposite direction.’ (The Phoenix and the Flame. Catalonia and the Counter Reformation, New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1993, p. 136.) 15. See María Tausiet, ‘Zaragoza celeste y subterránea ...’, in François Delpech, L’imaginaire du territoire ..., op. cit., p. 141. 16. See María Tausiet, Ponzoñaenlosojos.BrujeríaysupersticiónenAragónenel siglo XVI, Madrid, Turner, 2004. 17. The office of the Justicia in Aragon enjoyed a judicial status unique in early modern Spain. The role’s origins can be traced back to the royal Curia:in Castile, this developed into the Court Tribunal, a permanent, collegiate insti- tution; in Aragon, on the other hand, its powers over time devolved to a single judge, or justicia, who dealt with cases involving members of the nobility, as well as lawsuits arising between nobles and the monarch. From the mid-fourteenth century onwards, however, this judge was also responsi- ble for pronouncing upon the correct interpretation of the Kingdom’s laws and customs and, through the court system, for preventing their abuse or violation. 18. See Gregorio Colás Latorre and José Antonio Salas Auséns, Aragón en el siglo XVI. Alteraciones sociales y conflictos políticos, Saragossa, Universidad de Zaragoza, 1982. 19. ‘Estatuto contra los broxos y broxas, y hechizeros y hechizeras, y contra los com- plizes en dichos casos’ (1592), in Archivo Municipal de Daroca, Estatutos de la comunidad de Daroca (siglos XIV–XVI), fol. 348r. 20. Statuto de la bal d’Aysa (1530), Archivo Histórico Provincial de Huesca, Protocolo 8146, notario Orante, fol. 24. 21. Libros de Actas del Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza (September 1584), Archivo Municipal de Zaragoza (AMZ), 34 B-30, fol. 65v. 22. The zalmedina or zabalmedina (from çahalmedina, itself derived from the Hispanic-Arabic term sâhib al-madina, meaning chief of police: sâhib – chief/inspector – and madina – city) was a municipal judge with both civil and criminal jurisdiction. He was appointed by royal decree and selected from those citizens who were entitled to be chosen as city councillors. He was expected to visit the local prison every Friday and to hold court on designated juridical days. If he wanted to leave the city he had to obtain permission from the councillors (for periods of a six days or less) or from the presiding judge of the Audiencia (for longer periods). 23. ‘Estatuto hecho a seys de Deziembre de mil quinientos ochenta y seys contra las Brujas y Hechizeras’, in Recopilacion de los estatutos de la ciudad de Zaragoza ..., op. cit., pp. 291–294. 24. Their names were Magdalena Ortiz and María de Val and their cases are men- tioned in the Bastardelo y y borrador de los actos y eventos de los señores jurados en 1590, 1591, 1592 y 1593, AMZ, 34 B-30, fols. 60–63. 25. Constituciones Sinodales del Obispado de Teruel (1627), Saragossa, Pedro Cabarte, 1628, fol. 248. For more on the episcopal courts’ involvement in persecuting magic, see José Pedro Paiva, Práticas e crenças mágicas. O medo e a necessidade dos mágicos na diocese de Coimbra (1650–1740), Coimbra, Minerva, 1992, pp. 44–50. Notes 173 26. Constituciones Sinodales del Arzobispo de Zaragoza Juan Cebrian, Saragossa, 1656, fol. 141. 27. Registrum epistolarium missarum et acceptarum a capitulo sedis cesaraugustane insigni (Collection of letters from 1567–1580), no folio number. Letter dated 23-X-1576. 28. These were trials (whose documentation is housed in Saragossa’s Diocesan Archive [ADZ]) brought by the city’s archbishop against the following: Joanna Polo in 1561 (ADZ, C. 1–41), María Sánchez in 1574 (ADZ, C. 1–7), Gostanza Rossa in 1581 (ADZ, C. 27–35), Jerónima Fernández in 1581 (ADZ, C. 28–15), Juan Blanc in 1584 (ADZ, C. 26–3), Pedro de Salanova in 1591 (ADZ, C. 37–20), María Rodríguez in 1604 (ADZ, C. 23–13) and Isabel Gombal in 1605 (ADZ, C. 44–27). 29. Record of the trial of María Sánchez (Saragossa, 1574), ADZ, C. 1–7, fol. 8. 30. Record of the trial of Pedro de Salanova (Saragossa, 1591), ADZ, C. 37–20, fols. 3–4. 31. Ibid., fol. 15v.