Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage, and Power at the End of the Renaissance

The Holy Office in Venice, as the agency of a rejuvenated Roman Inquisition, was an important arbiter of orthodoxy in late Renaissance Venice. In this boldly structured work, Guido Ruggiero presents five narrative accounts of inidividual encounters with the Inquisition that turn around how the passions were both bound by late Renaissance society and were seen in turn as binding people. With an imaginative flair for story-telling and impeccable scholarship, Ruggiero opens up new perspectives on magic, witchcraft, love, marriage, gender and discipline illuminating a chapter in Venetian history previously unexplored. This entertaining work will be of interest to scholars, the general reader and students alike.