Iberian · Meigas in Galicia, witch trials in the Basque Country, folk belief in Portugal

Iberian: what the sources say

This path describes what the sources say about folk belief and witch trials on the Iberian Peninsula. It does not teach practice.

Full text with access in the app

Sources:Leite de Vasconcelos, José, Tradições populares de Portugal, Livraria Portuense de Clavel 1882 · Braga, Teófilo, O povo portuguez nos seus costumes, crenças e tradições, Band 2, Livraria Ferreira 1885 · Rodríguez López, Jesús, Supersticiones de Galicia y preocupaciones vulgares (2. Auflage, Vorwort 1910), 1910 · Murguía, Manuel, Galicia (Reihe „España, sus monumentos y artes“), 1888 · Webster, Wentworth, Basque Legends, with an Essay on the Basque Language, 1877 · Vinson, Julien, Le folk-lore du Pays Basque, Maisonneuve 1883 · Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Band 2, 1880 · Homza, Lu Ann, Village Infernos and Witches' Advocates. Witch-Hunting in Navarre, 1608 bis 1614, Penn State University Press 2022 · Castell Granados, Pau, La caza de brujas en Cataluña: un estado de la cuestión, in: Índice Histórico Español 131, S. 81 bis 114, Universitat de Barcelona 2018

Basque Country: the trials and Salazar's doubts

The persecution began in December 1608 in the villages of Zugarramurdi and Urdax. From January 1609 the Inquisition of Logroño intervened.

Full text with access in the app

Boundaries

The trial records are perpetrator sources. They give the view of the court, and the confessions arose under torture and suggestion: according to Lea, the secular authorities in Navarre extorted confessions, and most of those who came forward to Salazar were children.
The Akelarre is not attested as a custom. No “witch religion” can be reconstructed from the records.
There is no public-domain print of Salazar. The basis is Lea's excerpts of 1907 from the manuscripts. Lea has been superseded in details by more recent research (Henningsen, Caro Baroja, Homza): in the number of the convicted, in María de Zozaya and in the date of the instruction.
Besides the Inquisition records there are records of secular and episcopal courts, which Homza evaluates. For Basque folk belief a reliable public-domain source is lacking: Webster and Vinson collected mostly in the French Labourd, and Webster calls his own witch legends “very poor”.

Sources:Anonym, Auto de fe celebrado en la ciudad de Logroño en los días 7 y 8 de noviembre del año de 1610 (Nachdruck Madrid 1820), 1611 · Lea, Henry Charles, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, Band 4, Macmillan 1907 · Webster, Wentworth, Basque Legends, with an Essay on the Basque Language, 1877 · Vinson, Julien, Le folk-lore du Pays Basque, Maisonneuve 1883 · Henningsen, Gustav (Hrsg.), The Salazar Documents. Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution, Brill 2004 · Henningsen, Gustav, Enciclopedia de la brujería, in: Príncipe de Viana 278, S. 1033 bis 1054, Gobierno de Navarra 2020 · Homza, Lu Ann, Village Infernos and Witches' Advocates. Witch-Hunting in Navarre, 1608 bis 1614, Penn State University Press 2022

Galicia: Meigas, Compaña, Queimada

For Galicia there is one rich public-domain collection, the Supersticiones de Galicia by the physician Jesús Rodríguez López, and a chapter by Manuel Murguía from 1888. Both describe the procession of the dead, the Compaña. Even these authors know little about the Meigas.

Full text with access in the app

Sources:Rodríguez López, Jesús, Supersticiones de Galicia y preocupaciones vulgares (2. Auflage, Vorwort 1910), 1910 · Murguía, Manuel, Galicia (Reihe „España, sus monumentos y artes“), 1888 · Leite de Vasconcelos, José, Tradições populares de Portugal, Livraria Portuense de Clavel 1882

Portugal: Benzedeiras, Bruxas, the Cyprian book

For Portugal there are 2 dense public-domain collections: José Leite de Vasconcelos, Tradições populares de Portugal (1882), and Teófilo Braga, O povo portuguez (1885). They describe the Benzedeira as a living figure of her time, the folk belief about the Bruxas, and a chapbook that bears the name of Saint Cyprian.

Full text with access in the app

Sources:Leite de Vasconcelos, José, Tradições populares de Portugal, Livraria Portuense de Clavel 1882 · Braga, Teófilo, O povo portuguez nos seus costumes, crenças e tradições, Band 2, Livraria Ferreira 1885 · Missler, Peter, Las hondas raíces del Ciprianillo. 2ª parte: los grimorios, in: Culturas Populares. Revista Electrónica 3 (septiembre a diciembre 2006), Culturas Populares. Revista Electrónica (ISSN 1886-5623) 2006

Treatises against superstition as a source for folk custom

In the 16th century, treatises against superstition appeared in Spain. They describe customs in order to combat them.

Full text with access in the app

Sources:Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Band 2, 1880 · Castañega, Martín de, Tratado muy sotil y bien fundado de las supersticiones y hechizerias y vanos conjuros y abusiones, Miguel de Eguía 1529 · Ciruelo, Pedro, Reprovación de las supersticiones y hechizerías (Ausgabe 1547), 1547 · Rojas, Fernando de, La Celestina, tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (Ausgabe 1913), 1499