The Night Battles
Composing of most of the European population in the 1500’s and 1600’s, peasants played an important role in the development of Europe. In his book The Night Battles, Carlo Ginzburg gives a unique perspective on the lives of Friulian peasants through the analysis of inquisitorial records. During the inquisitions, peasants were categorized as witches or benandanti, which literally means well-farer. “The benandanti were a small group of men and women, who because they were born with a caul, were regarded as professional antiwitches. They told inquisitors that, in dreams, they fought ritual battles against witches and wizards to protect their villages and harvests from harm.” (Ginzburg. Back Cover) Although the lives of the benandanti were more exciting and dangerous, similarities do exist between ordinary peasants of early modern Europe and the Friulian benandanti. From the way they lived their lives and were uneducated, to the way they stuck together and were easily manipulated, the Friulian peasant and the ordinary early modern peasant share several characteristics.
One of the major similarities between the benandanti peasants described by Carlo Ginzburg in The Night Battles, and the ordinary peasant from the early modern period is the importance of agriculture and farmland. Of the many characteristics that define a benandanti, perhaps the most reoccurring is that they are all defenders of their crops and farmland. The Friulian peasants revolved their lives around agricultural cycles. Their calendar revolved around these agricultural cycles as exhibited by the Ember seasons, and their livelihood depended on a good harvest. (Ginzburg. 22) Being a catholic state, the Friulian blamed bad Ember Seasons on the devil and subsequently witches, who were known for doing the devils work. Thus, “It was during these occasions, on which the prosperity of the