alymac42's review against another edition

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3.0

Extremely specific and niche, but I'll give it to the author - They were able to make the book accessible to a lay person. That's rare to do in academic writing. That said, I would have liked more analysis.

tesch18's review

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3.0

I had to read this for a class about Witchcraft. The book was interesting, but the author repeated himself a lot (about 2/3 of the book could be condensed into the other 1/3), and he wasn't able to prove his point extremely well. However, important points were made in the book, and I'm glad I read most of it.

jacksonhager's review against another edition

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informative mysterious medium-paced

4.0

medeirossz's review against another edition

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3.0

MUITO interessante, mas um pouco repetitivamente exaustivo por ser manter em sua maior parte relatando os processos da igreja sobre a população de forma bem parecida

annabellee's review against another edition

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1.0

This book was impossibly dry. The information contained within it was often presented without appropriate background, or without the background presented first. I was often lead to read the same paragraph or section over and over again in an attempt to understand it - it was not well written. Though the subject matter was very interesting, the book itself was a disappointment simply because of how difficult it was to get the information out of it that it was intended - and attempted valiantly - to present to it's readers.

srsmn's review against another edition

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4.0

not as good as the cheese and the worms but only because the subject matter is by its nature makes for a less cohesive "story". benandanti fandom grab your stalks of fennel.

nicolejohnson's review against another edition

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1.0

Interesting topic, dry reading.

pythagorean's review against another edition

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4.0

Interesting survey of the evolution of a complex of myths in Italy. Ginzburg attempts to show how the Church and Inquisition morphed an ancient agricultural folk cult into the traditional witches sabbath. I found myself thinking of this as a meeting of two Heideggerian 'worlds' where the Inquisitors, baffled by the seemingly contradictory "good witches" they encountered, tried to shoehorn the benandanti into the Church's closest conceptual analog i.e. witches, the devil, and the sabbath. Of course, the benandanti are the ones in direct opposition to the witches!
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