Witch Hunt, by Serenella Quarello

It’s not the first time I’ve come here to talk about witches. I admit that I feel weakness for this figure: for the role she has played in literature, for the beliefs around her magical powers, for being the victim of endless ordeals. Of all those witches, the fictional ones, the real ones and the invented ones, talk Witch hunt“Life of witches in history, stories and today”, the book by Serenella Quarello.

That the edition is a marvel is evident from the cover by Fabiana Bocchi. But the illustrations that she leaves us inside are no less precious. And they are the ideal company for the fifty biographies of women that Serenella Quarello tells us. Sometimes, she tells us her life in just one page; Other times, she makes two of them talk to talk about their witchcraft or their misfortunes; Sometimes, she summarizes the history of the book in which they appear. In this way, she tells us about real women who were accused of being witches, such as those of Salem or Zugarramurdi, Joan of Navarre, Carolina of Brunswick, Anne Boleyn or Joan of Arc. Of women from mythology and legends, such as Hecate, Morgana, Viviana, the meigas, the sorginas and the lamias. Fictional ones, like Snow White’s evil stepmother, Celestina, Oz, Shakespeare, Apuleius, Horace or Victor Hugo. The kind that stars in modern songs and in operas, like that of Giuseppe Verdi. And she even mentions the paintings, with special mention of those by Goya.

But we not only find biographies in Witch hunt. There is also room to talk about his servants (the Golem and the goblins, among others), about brooms and cats, about what the tarot is and how to read the hand, about the powers of plants and the superstitions of ancient Rome, from Africa and from so many cultures around the world. And the fascination—and fear—of witches has never known borders.

Witch hunt It is, above all, a book that awakens our curiosity and clear proof that the word “witch” has been, and continues to be, a weapon to insult and silence emancipated women. Good or bad, ignorant or wise, poor or rich, everyone who has been accused of being a witch is because she dared to be free, master of herself. It is not surprising that, in the centuries of witch hunts, the majority of victims were single and widowed women, or rich and powerful.

The work of Serenella Quarello and Fabiana Bocchi opens a door to the almost unfathomable world of witches, so that, once reading is finished, each reader can delve into the biographies of those women who have found them most fascinating, of which there will be many, not to say all. So you are warned: if you read witch huntyou will be bewitched by these exciting women.