Abstract

This paper aims to investigate – thanks to the discovery of a document concerning a case involving a magical practice against the royal castellan of Vieste, in Apulia, in the late Seventeenth century − a local tradition known as the «fatone», which shares many points of contact with other traditions such as the benandanti of Friuli and the kresniki in the Slavic area. Economic and commercial relationships between the military outpost of Vieste, the Serenissima Republic of Venice, and the nearby Slavic countries may have facilitated the circulation of beliefs and practices that were uncommon in the areas of the Italian peninsula «defended» by the network of inquisitorial courts during the Modern Period.