Presentazione del lavori 

Inquisition in the 18th Century 

Credenze popolari 

Iconografia dell’Inquisizione 

Indice libri proibiti nel 1700 

Le modalità processuali 

Rapporti col Santo Uffizio di Roma 

Tipologia dei processi 

During the past school year and at the beginning of this, my classmates have been working on a project of research with the help of Mrs Franca Baldelli, a researcher of the Historical Archives of Modena. The project was based on the research of documents in the Historical Archives. The topic of the work was Inquisition in Modena around the 18th century. My classmates splitted in six groups and each group worked to study and develope a different aspect of the topic and different aspects of the Court of Inquisition. The first part of the project was carried on at the Historical Archives of Modena. After an introductive meeting where Mrs Baldelli illustrated the organizzation and te method of research that should be used, the six groups started the research of documents. They first practised on the interpretation of some documents given by an expert; some groups joined a conference of Prof. Albano Biondi, that took place in the Auditorium of Polo Leonardo in Modena. In many cases the research moved from the Historical Archives to the State Archives where the students where helped by Mr Boni: some groups, starting from a specific topic, modified their targets, following the track of the documents found. They often enriched their work with the help of some books. The first group chose Iconography, that is the study of immages and rapresentatipon connected with magic activities and presumed with craft of the period of Inquisition. Because of some problems met in finding documents on the topic, the researches shiftedtowards the analysis of a trial, starting from a pamphlet wich dealt with exorcisms and magic rituals considered eretic. They checked and worked on some letters written by Mr Giacomo Duponte and Pietro Rainardo between December the 10th and the 26th, 1716, in which it was explained how to use the pamphlet and make exorcisms. 
The second group worked on the tipology of trials and underlined that it was hard to find documents on the topic and to translate the judicial register because of the handwriting and the language used by the Inquisitors; the most important document is the one that tells us about an argument between two women, one of whom, Maddalena Spaggiari, accused of beeing a whitch. We don’t know about the decision taken by Inquisition about this woman. 
The third group found information about the forbidden books in Modena in the 18th century. The church checked all the books published through an expert called Inquisitor. The Inquisitors based their decisions on the General list of the forbidden books, written by pope Paolo the fourth in 1559. In Modena, besides the censorship of the church there was also the one of the Estensi, thet wanted to avoid the diffusion of ideas against their power and position. Sometimes the church and the government didn’t get along and there wewre arguments about the decision taken. 
The consequeces of censorship wewe a huge decrease of the sale of books and many booksellers lost their job and got unemployed. Besides that, there was an obvious limitation in the freeadom of speach and ideas. The group studied two edicts that asked population for collaboration to find and trial all the eretic people; two mote documents show how two priests assured their collaboration to the court. 
The fourth group worked on the trial procedure. Before the institution of the Inquisition court, trials took place with an accusation rite and the judje, usually a rich and poweful person, just cared about keeping the public order more than finding out the objective truth. With the study of the Giustiniano code, they found out a different method of trial that let coercitive measures be used, so the inquisitive trial was born. With the introduction of this method the trial got more objective, but there were different problems because judges often abused the method of torture. The group examinated two documents that describe two trials, one in Modena (February 1704), the other against Ginevra Ferraresi (October 1704). 
The fifth group studied popular believes in the 18th century in Modena and they underlined how the birth of the Inquisition court was at the same time consequence of the birth of superstitions and popular belief. Usually this superstitions were linked to magic rituals for benefic targets like healing sick people, find lost things and so on. These believes were probably porn because of the ignorance but also because of a need to find an explanation that the church of that period couldn’t give. 
The last group worked on the relation between Inquisition of Roma and Modena. Every Inquisitor, after he got the job, emanated an edict in which he described the heretical attitude and how to behave; he also appointed a vicar that had to check out the population; the group read two different edicts put up in Modena.