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HISTORY COLUMN shameful
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Leonardo Sciascia, THE WITCH AND THE CAPTAIN ... within three weeks it came out of this story. As a gentle homage to Alessandro Manzoni, in the year that dramatically marks the second centenary of his birth
. So Leonardo Sciascia in Note that closes "The Witch and the captain", a book published in 1986. The idea for the composition of this text, that it looks and style of a document of historical reconstruction, comes from thirty-first chapter of "The Betrothed" . Here cites the proto Lodovico Settala Manzoni, Professor of Medicine and author of numerous works reputatissime
. The merits of Settala but did not prevent the people of Milan to see him in a sort of infector: "One day I went to visit his sick compass, in principle radunarglisi people around, shouting him be the leader of those who wanted necessarily that there was a plague .... " Manzoni also explains that he succeeded in regaining Settala "praise of wise" when, with his "deplorable consultation, cooperation to make torture, pincers, and burn as a witch, a poor, wretched unfortunate, because his master suffered strange pains in the stomach. "
And it is the "poor unfortunate unfortunate" Sciascia witch who devotes his story. Catherine Medici, this is its name, strangled and burned in the streets March 4, 1617. The desire for clarity and the search for historical truth are the basis of the Sicilian writer of the book that, unlike Manzoni, reconstructs in detail the story of Catherine the case by not omit the names of famous personalities involved. Un'omertà Manzoni, and not only, as explained by the same Sciascia a sort of deference to the influential families and too prestigious to be associated, even after centuries, a story so obscure and ambiguous. Catherine Medici was the maid of Senator Luigi Melzi. Powerful man, surrounded by a swarm of children and, at the time, little more than sixty. Senator Melzer suffered from strange stomach pains, unexplained group of doctors who had applied. Illnesses that neither Settala (the same mentioned by Manzoni), nor Clerici, neither the Wild (two other famous scientists consulted by the Senator) could justify and to heal. The first suspicions of witchcraft against Catherine begin to take shape when the master comes home Melzi Vacallo (November 30, 1616). This man was struck by how no one knows what insights as well as influenced by a personal situation going back a few years before, began to speculate that the pain of the senator can be traced back to the presence of Catherine. He talks first with Jerome Melzi, son of Louis, and shortly afterwards with the patient in person. The suggestive hypothesis Vacallo, confirmed by a Cavagnolo, within a very short time, become accusations. Catherine is denounced as a "witch professes" December 26, 1616. The woman, in fact, had confessed and confirmed to practice the art of witchcraft Catherine Doctors believed to be a witch, or at least, had faith in witchcraft. And maybe a whole faith less than that of his accusers, because, in terms of witchcraft, the inquisitor el'inquisito, the executioner and the victim, attended the equal belief ... Catherine confesses that he has applied to the evil Senator he falls for her and have them applied with the help of the devil. The woman is often questioned and different characters but the outcome does not change: there was nothing medical science in the diagnosis of evil Luigi Melzi not for lack of scientific medicine, but because you cancel the evil presence of the obstacle. A paradox in which Sciascia pauses at various times and with subtle irony. Catherine
process takes place fast enough. Accusations, questions, questions, confessions. Catherine speaks of justice and tells men what they probably hoped they want to hear. Torture does not extend to his despair. The intention of the Captain of Justice is to arrive at the truth, with the unfailing support of the Curia. But torture does not lead to any truth "is a means to confuse the truth, never to soon be shown whether" Pietro Verri writes in his "Remarks on torture." Catherine makes other names, probably invented situations and self accusation of evil, illness and deaths that has no responsibility. Why Catherine hopes in forgiveness and mercy of his captors, instead, make her a creature to punish and destroy so that it can be a warning and threat. With the death of Catherine, then, the Justice had concluded his triumphal progress, the doctors had found a useful scapegoat to cover their ineptitude and the city of Milan had canceled one of the many appearances that the diabolical infested.
A short book, The Witch and the captain. " A story carefully reconstructed and pervaded by a constant sense of justice. Sciascia wanted to return to the story of Catherine's sense of dignity, truth and emphasizing, by contrast, poverty, cultural and human apparently prepared individuals and scholars. Although this is a minor affair, an event buried and forgotten for centuries, the story of the Medici is emblematic of a historical phase is very important and often overlooked.
A book packed with quotes, phrases gleaned from documents dating from the seventeenth century, reflections on the world of religious and civil justice. And do not miss Sciascia, in some passages, to create a parallel between the past and the present
as if to underline how often mistakes are not served to make the current time better or more humane.
