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Popular Culture, Religion and Society.
A Social-Scientific Approach 3

Giuseppe Giordan
Adam Possamai Editors

The Social
Scientific Study
of Exorcism in
Christianity
Popular Culture, Religion and Society.
A Social-­Scientific Approach

Volume 3

Series editor
Adam Possamai
School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University,
Penrith South DC, NSW, Australia
What happens when popular culture not only amuses, entertains, instructs and
relaxes, but also impacts on social interactions and perception in the field of religion?
This series explores how religion, spirituality and popular culture co-exist intimately.
Religion sometimes creates and regulates popular culture, religious actors who
express themselves in popular culture are also engaged in shaping popular religion,
and in doing so, both processes make some experiences possible for some, and deny
access to others. The central theme of this series is thus on how religion affects and
appropriates popular culture, and on how popular culture creates and/or re-enforces
religion. The interaction under scrutiny is not only between the imaginary and ‘real’
world but also between the online and off-line one, and this revitalises the study of
popular religion through its involvement in popular culture and in new social media
technologies such as Facebook and Twitter. Works presented in this series move
beyond text analysis and use new and ground-breaking theories in anthropology,
communication, cultural studies, religious studies, social philosophy, and sociology
to explore the interrelation between religion, popular culture, and contemporary
society.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13357

Giuseppe Giordan • Adam Possamai
Editors

The Social Scientific Study

of Exorcism in Christianity
Editors
Giuseppe Giordan Adam Possamai
Dipartimento di Filosofia, Sociologia School of Social Sciences
Pedagogia e Psicologia Applicata Western Sydney University
University of Padova Sydney, NSW, Australia
Padova, Italy

ISSN 2509-3223     ISSN 2509-3231 (electronic)

Popular Culture, Religion and Society. A Social-Scientific Approach
ISBN 978-3-030-43172-3    ISBN 978-3-030-43173-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43173-0

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

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Contents

  1 Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    1
Adam Possamai and Giuseppe Giordan

Part I Case Studies in Early Modernity

  2 The Secret History of the ‘Earling Exorcism’ ��������������������������������������   17
Joseph Laycock
  3 Demonic Possession and Religious Scientific Debate
in Nineteenth-Century France����������������������������������������������������������������   33
Roberta Vittoria Grossi
  4 A Brazilian Exorcist at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century:
The Supernatural as an Empowerment Strategy���������������������������������   53
Tiago Pires

Part II Case Studies in Late Modernity

  5 The Devil Returns. Practices of Catholic Exorcism in Argentina ������   75
Vernica Gimnez Bliveau
  6 Diagnosing the Devil. A Case Study on a Protocol Between
an Exorcist and a Psychiatrist in Italy ��������������������������������������������������   95
Giuseppe Giordan
  7 Doing Battle with the Forces of Darkness in a Secularized Society���� 111
Deirdre Meintel and Guillaume Boucher
  8 Spirit Possession and Exorcism in Today’s Church of England���������� 137
Douglas J. Davies
  9 Spiritual Flows and Obstructions: Local Deliverance
in The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God�������������������������������� 159
Kathleen Openshaw

v
vi Contents

10 Ethnography of the Devil: The Aftermath of Possession,

Exorcism, and the Demonic�������������������������������������������������������������������� 175
J. Tyler Odle
11 Exorcism, Media and the Romanian Orthodoxy: Chasing
the Devil, Coping with Uncertainty�������������������������������������������������������� 191
Antonela Capelle-Pogacean
12 Confidence in Society, Exorcism, and Paranormal Practices:
The Mediating and Moderating Role of Spirituality���������������������������� 217
Victor Counted and Adam Possamai
13 Conclusion������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 237
Giuseppe Giordan and Adam Possamai
Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 241
Contributors

Vernica Gimnez Bliveau holds a PhD degree in sociology (École des Hautes
Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris/Universidad de Buenos Aires). She works as full
researcher at the CONICET/CEIL. Her researches focus on the social and religious
dynamics of Catholicism, the convergence of religion and health, the characteristics
of beliefs in Contemporary Latin America, and the constitution of identities and
movements of religious groups. She is adjunct professor at the University of Buenos
Aires and has been invited as visiting professor at the Maison des Sciences de
l’Homme (Paris, 2016), École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS,
Paris, 2013), Columbia University (New York, 2008), Institut des Hautes Études de
l’Amérique Latine (IHEAL, Paris, 2010), Universidad de Villa María (Córdoba,
2016, 2009), and Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos (UNER, Paraná, 2009, 2011,
2013). Her works include books and articles in specialized journals: Católicos mili-
tantes. Sujeto, comunidad e institución en la Argentina (Eudeba, 2016); La triple
frontera. Globalización y construcción social del espacio (Miño y Dávila, 2006);
and La triple frontera. dinámicas sociales y procesos culturales (Espacio
Editorial, 2011).

Guillaume Boucher is a PhD student in anthropology at Université de Montreal.

After completing a master’s thesis on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Québec,
he focused his doctoral research on Pentecostal congregations composed of
Bhutanese refugees from Nepal. As regional coordinator of a broad study of reli-
gious groups in Québec, directed by Deirdre Meintel, his work concerns issues of
conversion, religious healing, and religious pluralism.

Antonela Capelle-Pogacean is a tenured researcher at Sciences Po CERI and a

lecturer in history and political sociology at Sciences Po (Paris). Her research inter-
ests include identity issues, citizenship, religion and politics, and the social history
of communism. Among her publications are (editor, with Patrick Michel and Enzo
Pace) Religion(s) et identité(s) en Europe. L’épreuve du pluriel (Paris, Presses de
Sciences Po, 2008); (coedited with Nadège Ragaru) Vie quotidienne et pouvoir sous
le communisme. Consommer à l’Est (Paris: Karthala & CERI, 2010); and (with

vii
viii Contributors

Nadège Ragaru) “Les horloges suspendues du futur: les mondes de la science-­

fiction en Bulgarie et en Roumanie” in Cahiers du monde russe (56(1), 2015,
77–109).

Victor Counted is a social psychology and practical theology researcher inter-

ested in the psychological aspects of religious and place experiences in health,
youth, and migration contexts. His scholarly work examines religion, place, and
health – as well as the intersection of these three themes. He is research associate of
the Cambridge Institute for Applied Psychology, and his work has been featured in
Psychology Today, Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Psychology &
Theology, and Health and Quality of Life Outcomes.

Douglas James Davies FBA, is professor in the study of religion in the Department
of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham. He is an authority in the
history, theology, and sociology of death. His fields of expertise also include anthro-
pology, the study of religion, the rituals and beliefs surrounding funerary rites and
cremation around the globe, and Mormonism. His research interests cover identity
and belief and Anglican leadership.

Giuseppe Giordan PhD (2002) in social sciences, is professor of sociology of

religion at the University of Padova, Italy. He is author, coauthor, editor, and coedi-
tor of 15 books and journal special issues in the sociology of religion. He is coeditor
of the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion (Brill) and elected member of the
Executive Councils of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the
International Society for the Sociology of Religion. He is director of the International
Joint PhD Program in Human Rights, Society, and Multilevel Governance based at
the University of Padova.

Roberta Vittoria Grossi is a PhD student in church history at Pontifical Gregorian

University in Rome and archivist of the Society of African Missions (Rome). She
completed her PhD in modern history from the University of Rome “La Sapienza.”
Among her publications are “Scienza e Chiesa in Italia” in Dizionario Storico
Tematico “La Chiesa in Italia” (P. F. Lovison B, director), volume I, Dalle origini
all’Unità nazionale (Roma Città Nuova, 2015); and “Le Fonti sui Martiri all’ARSI”
in Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu (2012, I, 233–249).

Joseph Laycock is an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State

University. His books include The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the
Struggle to Define Catholicism (Oxford University Press, 2014) and Dangerous
Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says About Play, Religion,
and Imagined Worlds (University of California Press, 2015).

Deirdre Meintel is professor of anthropology at the Université de Montréal and

has authored numerous works on migration, ethnicity, contemporary religions, reli-
gious diversity, and pluralism. She directed a study of over 200 religious and
Contributors ix

s­ piritual groups across Québec and, since 2000, has undertaken individual research
on spiritualists. Cofounder and editor of the journal Diversité urbaine, she directs
an interdisciplinary research group of the same name.

J. Tyler Odle is a graduate student at the University of South Florida pursuing a

master’s degree in religious studies. He is the founder and president of the Graduate
Religious Studies Initiative for Professional Development (GRIP), where in its first
6 months, he facilitated three graduate symposiums and two graduate student lec-
ture events. He is currently peer-reviewing three articles for publication by first and
second year master’s degree students.

Kathleen Openshaw is a PhD candidate in the Religion and Society Research

Cluster at Western Sydney University. She completed her master’s degree in anthro-
pology and development studies from Maynooth University, Ireland. Her main
research interests are Pentecostalisms from the Global South, local lived migrant
religious expressions of globalized Pentecostalisms, and material religion. Her PhD
research is an ethnography of the Brazilian megachurch, the Universal Church of
the Kingdom of God (UCKG), in Australia.

Tiago Pires is a PhD student in history at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP)

and a visiting researcher at Roma Tre University (2017–2018) under the guidance
of Professor Verónica Roldán, PhD. He completed his master’s degree in cultural
history from UNICAMP and in sociology from Roma Tre University and earned a
bachelor’s degree in history from Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP). During
his master’s studies, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Udine, Italy,
under the guidance of Professor Nicola Gasbarro, PhD, member of the Center for
Studies on Cultural History of Religions (UNICAMP, Brazil).

Adam Possamai is professor in sociology at Western Sydney University and dep-

uty dean at the School of Social Sciences. He is the (co)author and (co)editor of
nearly 20 books and special issues and nearly 90 refereed articles and book chap-
ters. He is a former president of the International Sociological Association’s
Committee 22 on the Sociology of Religion and of the Australian Association for
the Study of Religions.
Chapter 1
Introduction

Adam Possamai and Giuseppe Giordan

Abstract This chapter introduces this edited book as a study of exorcism within a
social-scientific perspective in Western societies. Applying the sociological work
of de Certeau, and the anthropological perspective of Malinowski, this chapter pres-
ents a collection of research papers which reexamines the relationship among
magic, religion, and science within the context of secularization thesis. Modern
practices of exorcism are considered within the Christian and global contexts with
the focus on both early and late phases of modernity. The case studies presented in
this volume touch on various geographical areas in Europe, North and South
America, and Australia, and cover numerous Christian groups and denominations.
We also emphasize the idea that exorcism is not an exclusively Christian practice
and that it can be found as part of other religions, such as Buddhism, Islam, or
Judaism. The study of modern practices of exorcism in non-Christian contexts is
warranted to tackle understanding of this growing phenomenon around the world
and to consider exorcism no longer as an atavistic ritual in conflict with science and
modernity. A practical reason – a need to provide guidance and support for these
victims or patients, through medicine, spiritual care, and community assistance –
fosters this research project.

Keywords Multiple modernity · Supernatural · Rationality · Magic · Religion

· Science

This book is a revisionist piece on the place of magic in Western societies. It follows
recent social-scientific research on religion, and adapts it to the field of magic.
Indeed, over years of research and debates, many specialists in religion, who
observed the reversal of the process of the secularization process in late modernity,
have had to reconsider the views of early sociologists such as Durkheim, Weber and

A. Possamai
School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
G. Giordan (*)
Dipartimento di Filosofia, Sociologia, Pedagogia e Psicologia Applicata, University of
Padova, Padova, Italy
e-mail: giuseppe.giordan@unipd.it

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

G. Giordan, A. Possamai (eds.), The Social Scientific Study of Exorcism in
Christianity, Popular Culture, Religion and Society. A Social-Scientific
Approach 3, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43173-0_1
2 A. Possamai and G. Giordan

Marx. The first set of secularist revisionists, working in the last quarter of the twen-
tieth century, acknowledged that during the early phase of modernity – a period
since the French and Industrial revolutions, that witnessed the development of sci-
ence, education, and urbanism – it was supposed that religion would disappear from
both the public and private social spheres. Later, in the current phase of late-­
modernity, a time that began to question the use of instrumental reasoning to the
detriment of other ways of thinking – such as post-colonial, indigenous, and spiri-
tual – it became evident that religion had never surrendered the private sphere and
had even reappeared in the public sphere. The first quarter of the twenty-first cen-
tury brought a second set of secularist revisionists who took their argument further:
religion had never really disappeared during modernity, even in the public sphere.
The views previously brought to the debate were mainly Eurocentric and did not
adequately take into account the situation in other parts of the world. The argument
here, following the multiple modernity thesis, is that at certain times in history and
in certain regions of the world, religion might predominate over secularization, or
vice versa. There is no universal trend leading to a ‘full’ secularization that ended
with the advent of modernity. While this was a project that emerged from Europe, it
never fully eventuated, not even in communist countries. While modernity has
spread around the world, its European links with secularization have not necessarily
been followed by other countries. This has even led Berger, Davie and Fokas (2008)
to claim that secularization in Europe has become the world exception, instead of
the norm previously thought of last century. Instead of seeing the development of
modernity leading to secularization, we should rather see some back and forth
movements between religion and secularization that have been fluctuating in differ-
ent proportion in many parts of the world during these last three centuries.
The same can be argued with regards to magic. While a first set of researchers, in
the last quarter of last century, started to revise their understanding of the disen-
chantment process, a second set of revisionists is today starting to argue, in the light
of the above argument concerning religion, that magic never really disappeared, and
that it would be more prominent at certain times in certain parts of the world,
depending on the various contexts, including the strength and legitimacy of scien-
tific and religious discourses.
Weber analyzed the beginning of the disenchantment process through, first, the
impact of religion (for example, Judaism and later the Protestant ethic and its doc-
trine of predestination), and, second, the development of instrumental rationality in
collusion with new scientific methods. Some even argue that scientific discourse did
not have much work left to do, as the logic of predestination was assumed to have
eliminated all possibility of magic, and that in the seventeenth century (according to
Thomas Khun) the partnership between science and magic had already ended
(Tambiah 1990). Religion, until the heyday of modernity, and science, since indus-
trialization, became the dominant ideologies, but their conflict with magic did not
go according to plan. Their proponents might have attempted to eradicate magic,
and if they realized that this attempt was not working, they believed that it was only
a matter of a few further years of educational and scientific development before
eradication would be complete. This never happened. Today, in late modernity, and
1 Introduction 3

especially in a Western context, with religion and science no longer dominating

political and civil societies, magic, this tertium quid that was never actually absent,
is remerging from the shadows and from our unconscious. This does not mean that
our lives are now better or worse – just different.
While some commentators (e.g. Hume and McPhillips 2006) will see this world-
view as presenting a positive alternative or complement to calculative rationality
and as an alternative to a logocentric view of the world, others such as the Spanish
painter Goya would see it as the awakening of monsters while reason sleeps. Indeed,
not everything dealing with the supernatural world is positive – today, for example,
more and more people believe in the Devil. As this book details, the need for exor-
cism was felt in the early phase of modernity, and today, in the late phase of moder-
nity, there is increasing demand for exorcists to deal with issues arising from the
supernatural. Today the key question to ask is no longer, “Is magic returning or
not?” but “How, in modernity, does belief in magic impact on people and their soci-
eties, and how do people adapt themselves to these changes?”

1.1 Science, Religion, and Magic

In his classic work on magic, science and religion, the famous anthropologist
Malinowski (2013, pp. 86–87) argues that the ‘primitive’ person uses a type of sci-
entific reasoning:
Magic is akin to science in that it always has a definite aim intimately associated with
human instincts, needs, and pursuits. The magic art is directed towards the attainment of
practical aims. Like the other arts and crafts, it is also governed by a theory, by a system of
principles which dictate the manner in which the act has to be performed in order to be
effective… Both science and magic develop a special technique… Thus both magic and
science show certain similarities, and, with Sir James Frazer, we can appropriately call
magic pseudo-science… Magic is based on specific experience of emotional states in which
man observes not nature but himself, in which the truth is revealed not by reason but by the
play of emotions upon the human organism. Science is founded on the conviction that expe-
rience, effort, and reason are valid; magic on the belief that hope cannot fail nor desire
deceive. The theories of knowledge are dictated by logic, those of magic by the association
of ideas under the influence of desire… Both magic and religion arise and function in situ-
ations of emotional stress: crises of life, lacunae in important pursuits, death and initiation
into tribal mysteries…

By ‘science,’ Malinowski was not referring to the scientific methods developed dur-
ing the Enlightenment, but to a specific frame of mind that involves a methodologi-
cal way of thinking aimed at resolving a problem. It is when this scientific (or
rigorous) way of thinking fails, that magic comes into play to find a solution to
whatever issue needs to be addressed. As he states in his key work on this topic:
We do not find magic wherever the pursuit is certain, reliable, and well under the control of
rational methods and technological processes. Further, we find magic where the element of
danger is conspicuous… The integral cultural function of magic, therefore, consists in the
bridging-over of gaps and inadequacies in highly important activities not yet completely
4 A. Possamai and G. Giordan

mastered by man. In order to achieve this end, magic supplies primitive man with a firm
belief in his power of succeeding; it provides him also with a definite mental and pragmatic
technique wherever his ordinary means fail him… Magic is thus akin to science in that it
always has a definite aim intimately associated with human instincts, needs, and pursuits.
The magic art is directed towards the attainment of practical ends; like any other art or craft
it is also governed by theory, and by a system of principles which dictate the manner in
which the act has to be performed in order to be effective. (Malinowski 2013, p. 140)

Indeed, depending on what needs to be achieved, magic or science will be applied

in a different fashion to solve a problem. Malinowski’s understanding of science
has, of course, been critiqued as being far from, let’s say, Popper’s perspective that
science is strictly about testing theories against experience, and not about solving
problems. With a stretch of the imagination, it could be argued that this perspective
on science is akin to that of an early twentieth century monotheist theologian cri-
tiquing the popular classical religion of polytheism. This is still religion, but of a
different type, and the same can be said about science. Western societies are scien-
tifically developed and it is evident that we do not share the same lifestyle as the
informants of Malinowski’s researches, and that science and religion are indeed
different. But what about magic?
During the early phase of modernity, scientific views were dominant in public
discourse and were even changing the nature of faith. Indeed, in this age of rational
knowledge, religions were forced, despite some resistance, to rid themselves of any
magical components. In order to maintain their relevance in this new world of cal-
culative and scientific reasoning, dominated by science, anything that was seen as
superstitious had to be eliminated; religion had to become more rational to be
socially and politically acceptable. This, also, was a time of crisis; adapting large
populations to the changes brought about by industrialization created difficulties.
There were problems of overpopulation, rural exodus, rapid urban growth, and fam-
ine in the early stages of the industrialization of society. Beliefs in the supernatural
still existed at that time, but they did not emerge sufficiently from the social under-
ground for any growing trend to be perceived, even if many new occultist and eso-
teric groups developed during that period (see, for example, McIntosh’s (2011)
study of the rebirth of magic in France in the nineteenth century). For example, it
was only with the late Pope John Paul II at the end of the previous century that the
Catholic Church started to evaluate again its cult of saint and of the Virgin, and to
reinvigorate pilgrimages, after years of having denigrated aspects of popular reli-
gion within its faith (e.g. eradication of some of its processions, blessings, and exor-
cist activities) (e.g. Voyé 1998). Another example is the one provided by Goossaert
(2003). In China, around 1900, there were approximately one million temples open
dedicated to what we would call from a western point of view a popular religion.
Today, we are left with only a few thousands left open as religious sites, and a few
other thousands as museums. These temples were part of China’s mainstream reli-
gion before the birth of the nineteenth century and were the centre of worship of
ancestors and of the cults of deities that held together a community around a local
religious figure (like a saint in a Christian interpretation). Many Chinese thinkers
(e.g. Kang Youwei (1858–1927) in the early twentieth century became so influenced
1 Introduction 5

by western reason that they wanted to modernise their country and this meant, para-
doxically, creating a totally new religious project for the whole country. To build the
new modern China, the country needed new schools, post offices, police stations,
local government buildings, and confiscated the local temples to turn them into
these new modern spaces. Before China became communist, these local cults were
seen by the new intelligentsia as superstitious and in need of being removed from
the new project of modernity. By bringing the modern and western model in their
country, Chinese officials had to distinguish religion (a term which appeared only in
Chinese as zongjiao in the twentieth century to reflect the modern and institution-
alised western model of official religion) from the superstition of its local cults.
At the present time, in late modern societies, science is no longer the dominant
paradigm and must engage more and more with religions; and religions, in turn,
must take magic on board. In this post-colonial, post-industrial, post-Fordist world,
Westerners are experiencing new types of crises that undermine the voices of the
intellectuals and the experts, and beliefs in the supernatural are again coming to the
fore. Science today is not dominant enough to curb this revival of magic, and this is
why we are talking about a ‘re-enchantment’ process in contemporary societies.
This, we want to state, is in fact a misnomer, as it is not a case of the re-emergence
of the existence of magic itself, but of the extent of its visibility and acceptance.
Jeanne Favret-Saada’s (2009) famous study on sorcery in rural France noted
how, in the 1920s, the Church moved to stop providing support to these types of
magical beliefs in rural environments and began instead to treat such beliefs and
associated practices as superstitious. Since that time, it has been the practice of the
Church to systematically ban or disqualify these atavistic approaches. As its collu-
sion with religion waned, sorcery changed, but did not disappear. Expertise in these
abnormal forces became more specialized, and also, paradoxically, became more
secularized: Satan was invoked less in the rituals.
In his book, The Problem of Disenchantment, Asprem (2014) provided an excel-
lent description of the plurality of claims by intellectuals about knowledges in the
heyday of industrialization and science at the end of the nineteenth and beginning
of the twentieth centuries. He proposed a synchronic analysis of these knowledge
exchanges, and discovered telling conceptual affinities between physics and occult-
ism, between experimental biology and psychical research, and between method-
ological challenges in psychology and the practice of ritual magic. These knowledge
exchanges were aimed at resolving enigmas, and recourse to a magical way of sys-
tematically investigating an issue was not deemed inadequate by all intellectuals. As
Asprem (2014, p. 27) stated, with regard to the revisionist approach detailed above:
…it may be more fruitful to look at how certain historical actors, predominantly intellectu-
als, have negotiated the issues conjured up by the ideal-typical image of a ‘disenchanted
world’ in a number of different ways, rather than differentiating two types of expressions
attributed to the parallel actions of disenchantment and re-enchantment processes. In short,
this means a shift in focus away from disenchantment and re-enchantment as processes,
towards a focus on disenchantment as a cluster of intellectual problems.

If the ‘primitive’ person from Malinowski’s research is simply using (first) scientific
and (second) magical methods for resolving pragmatic issues, according to Asprem’s
6 A. Possamai and G. Giordan

research, when it comes to science, systematized magical ways of thinking are

around the corner when science fails. Asprem’s work is key in pointing out how
mythic the re-enchantment process is, as magical beliefs were never really aban-
doned by Western societies.

1.2 Exorcism as a Social and Cultural Event

In recent years, interest in the occult world and in the rituals that release individuals
from demonic possession has increased, becoming more and more widespread
among broad segments of the population and thus justifying a renewed interest on
the part of certain religious institutions (Giordan and Possamai 2018).
In his study of the mass exorcism of Loudun in seventeenth-century France,
Michel de Certeau (2005) developed a theory that links the increase and spread of
exorcism with periods of profound social change. In this sense, the study of exor-
cism today offers an opportunity to describe not only the crisis and the drama of a
single individual, but also the crisis of the society in which the possessed lives.
Indeed, exorcism is a most powerful and significant site where new frontiers of the
relationship between social order and disorder are revealed, and where the boundary
between sacred and profane is constantly challenged and redefined.
The growing significance of the rite of exorcism, both in its more structured for-
mat within traditional religions (for example, Catholicism) and in its less controlled
and structured forms in the rites of deliverance within neo-Pentecostal movements,
sets up new relations of force within the religious field, reaffirming beliefs (such as
in the existence of the Devil and spirits) that, according to the Enlightenment, were
thought to be residual and disappearing. At the same time, the fight against demonic
possession underlines the way in which changes within the religious field, such as
the rediscovery of typical practices of popular religiosity, challenge the expectations
of the theory of secularization. Our argument is that if possession is a threat to the
individual and to the equilibrium of the social order, it is possible to re-establish a
certain balance and order through the ritual of exorcism and the power of the
exorcist.
Exorcism is often considered as a battle between the possessed and demons. It is
a combat with entities that are not part of our society and as such could be seen as
an event that is not regulated by any social norms. Social scientific research on this
topic, however, are quite clear that this is a social phenomon. As Durkheim wrote on
suicide, that the perceived most individualist act a human being could do is still part
of a social phenomenon and has social characteristics, the same can be said of one
of the most individualized religious experience, which is having an unwanted pres-
ence in one’s body. These possessed people, as Levack (2013), consciously or not,
act according to their own religious culture. In his analysis of the difference between
Catholics and Protestants in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
Levack (2013, p. 30) claims that people involved in these rituals acted according to
how they were expected to behave by the members of their religious communities.
1 Introduction 7

All illnesses are to some extent socially constructed, and demonic possession (and
its exorcism) is far from being an exception (Levack 2013, p. 114). In the same way
that we are able to make reference, sociologically, to the sickness role – that there is
a social and cultural way to be sick which is dependent on the expectation of certain
behaviours of a sick person and his or her society – the same can be stated of the
influence of demonic possession. In his historical research, Levack (2013, p. 135)
finds that displays of superior strength, contortionism, various manifestations of
ecstasy, and other extraordinary behaviours became part of the experience of pos-
session once it was well under way, or until the ritual of exorcism put an end to it.
Even if people can be (or believe themselves to be) possessed, unconsciously they
are still cultural performers. They act as they are expected to act within their culture.
As an example,
Catholic demoniacs often demonstrated a horror of material objects that were held as sacred
in Catholicism, such as relics, crucifixes, and other objects that had been blessed or conse-
crated. Protestants, however, considered such material objects magical and sources of false
worship; what was sacred in Protestantism was the Word of God. Protestant demoniacs,
therefore, reacted negatively to the presence or the reading of bibles; not so much to the
physical books themselves, but to the Word they embodied. (Levack 2013, p. 158)

1.3 Content

The case studies presented in this book are Christian and global, and from the early
phase of modernity to the present, what we call the phase of late modernity. They
touch on various geographical areas in Europe, North and South America, and
Australia, and cover numerous Christian groups and denominations. We also
acknowledge that exorcism is not an exclusively Christian practice and that it can be
found as part of other religions, such as Buddhism (Kapferer 1991), Islam (see, for
example, Bubandt 2017; Dieste 2015; Drieskens 2006), or Judaism (Chajes 2009).
A similar study of exorcism in non-Christian contexts is warranted to tackle under-
standing of this growing phenomenon around the world.
Part I of this edited book focuses on cases during the early phase of modernity,
when scientific discourse was dominant in the public sphere. These three chapters
are historical, and demonstrate that exorcism did not disappear, even if secularism
relegated this practice to an ancient and ‘irrelevant’ time. The cases are from the
United States, France, and Brazil and concentrate on Catholicism. Since, already
during the Middle Ages, Protestant groups were attempting to eradicate rituals of
exorcism (even though they still occurred) as a form of demarcation from
Catholicism, it is within the Catholic ambit that cases of exorcism are less covert.
With the full emergence of Pentecostalism in late modernity, this near monopoly of
Catholicism within Christianity began to lose its grip. This is discussed in Part II of
this book.
Chapter 2, Joseph Laycock’s “The Secret History of the ‘Earling Exorcism’,”
details the various debates around a famous case of exorcism in Earling, Iowa,
20 J. Laycock

In Steiger’s story (as recounted through Vogl), Riesinger contacted him about a
woman in need of exorcism. Riesinger had received approval for this exorcism from
Thomas William Drumm, bishop of Des Moines, a detail that is supported by an
article that appeared on 23 September 1928, in The Des Moines Register. Steiger is
also described as speaking about the exorcism personally with his bishop (Vogl
2016, p. 58). Both Schmidt and Riesinger are described as arriving separately in
Earling by train for the exorcism. Where they were arriving from is not stated.
Schmidt is described as being 40 years old, but little else is said about her.
At the convent, Schmidt displayed numerous symptoms of possession, including
the ability to speak English, Latin, and German, and an aversion to everything holy.
She could tell whether or not food had been blessed. At one point she is described
as preternaturally leaping from the bed and clinging to the wall above the door
frame. Much description is given to her vomiting, which she did 10–20 times a day,
despite eating almost nothing. The author writes, “These came in quantities that
were humanly speaking impossible to lodge in a normal being” (Vogl 2016, p. 65).
This detail was almost certainly an influence on Blatty’s The Exorcist.
Various possessing entities identified themselves in the course of the exorcism,
including Lucifer and Beelzebub (apparently, two separate entities), and Judas. One
of the entities identified itself as Schmidt’s deceased father Jacob (or Jake in Bunse’s
account), who had somehow escaped from hell. Vogl (2016, p. 69) writes:
He now admitted that he had repeatedly tried to force his own daughter to commit incest
with him. But she had firmly resisted him. Therefore he had cursed her and wished inhu-
manly that the devils would enter into her and entice her to commit every possible sin
against chastity, thereby ruining her, body and soul… Even in hell he was still scheming
how to torture and molest his child.

The implication in this account is that Jacob’s ‘curse’ was the cause of Schmidt’s
possession. Jacob is also described as having been a scoffer of the Church while
alive. Finally there was a female entity named Mina, described as having been
Jacob’s mistress in life. Mina had also escaped from hell, where she was sent for her
immoral relationship with Jacob and also for murdering her own children. When
asked how many children she murdered, Mina answered, “Three – No, actually
four!” (Vogl 2016, p. 70). Mina especially enjoyed spitting on Steiger and Riesinger.
The other demons possessing Schmidt are not named, but there was apparently not
a finite number of them. Vogl (2016, p. 81) writes, “The number of silent devils was
countless.”
The exorcism lasted for 23 days, during which Schmidt did not eat and “nourish-
ment in liquid form was injected into her” (Vogl 2016, p. 84). At one point Steiger
states that he is “unhappy about the whole affair” (Vogl 2016, p. 74). In the end, the
exorcism is presented as both successful and final: “From that time on, the woman,
always sincerely good, pious and religious, visited the Blessed Sacrament and
assisted at the Holy Mass” (Vogl 2016, p. 91). The text does discuss how the
demons – forced by the exorcism to reveal their plans – explained that the Antichrist
would reign between 1952 and 1955 (Vogl 2016, p. 87). However, the emphasis of
the narrative is on the exorcism as a collective victory for the entire Church. Steiger
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
patrizii, sempre però con espressione allegorica. Ho già pur detto
che in seguito, nell’epoca del risorgimento, Italia predominò tutte le
altre nazioni nella perfezione di quest’arte. Impiegavasi questa
principalmente nel lavoro di anelli e sigilli, de’ quali, come dissi in
questa mia opera, usavasi moltissimo e però di pompejani se ne
hanno molti: e la glittica poi conta inoltre fra’ suoi capolavori una
maravigliosa coppa nel Museo napolitano summentovato.
 Gneo Pompeo. Vol. II Cap. XVIII. Belle Arti.

Finchè si provò allora la influenza greca, l’arte romana grandeggiò;

mano mano che scemava, amenenciva contemporaneamente di sua
degnità, e, abbandonata a sè, ricadde nel fare pesante, secco e
freddo.
Così ritengonsi di greci artefici i musaici, ai quali ho riserbato le
ultime parole in questo capitolo dell’Arti, e dei quali Pompei ne largì
di superbi, anzi il più superbo che si conti fra quanti si hanno
dell’antichità, nella Battaglia d’Arbela o di Isso, come dovrebbesi per
mio avviso più propriamente dire, ed a cui consacrerò peculiare
discorso.
Ma prima si conceda che rapidi cenni io fornisca intorno a quest’arte.
Ne derivano la denominazione da Musa; quasi il suo lavoro
ingegnoso fosse invenzione ispirata dalle figlie di Mnemosine, o
forse perchè se ne decorasse dapprima un tempio delle Muse. Ciò
che più importa sapere si è com’essa unicamente consista
nell’accozzamento di pietruzze, o pezzetti di marmo, di silice, di
materie vetrificate e colorate, adattate con istucco o mastice sopra
stucco e levigandone la superficie. Si chiamò dapprima pavimentum
barbaricum, quando del musaico si valse per coprire aree alle quali
si volle togliere umidità. Poi si disposero a disegni semplici, come a
quadrelli di scacchiere, onde si venne al tesselatum, che era formato
di pietre riquadrate. Progredendo l’artificio, ne seguì la specie del
sectile, formato di figure regolari combinate insieme, che è quel
lavoro che noi chiamiamo a commesso od a compartimento. Poi con
frammenti orizzontali di forme diverse si giunse a piegare l’artificio a
tutte le idee, capricci e disegni, come greche, festoni, ghirigori, ed a
tutto quanto insomma costituisce ciò che chiamavasi opus
vermiculatum, come si trova ricordato dal verso di Lucilio:

Arte pavimento, atque emblemata vermiculato

E qui piacemi avvertire come tutto questo processo non abbiasi a

confondere con quello che dicevasi opus signinum, nome dato ad
una peculiare sorta di materiale adoperato pure a far pavimenti,
consistente in tegole poste in minuzzoli e mescolate con cemento,
quindi ridotte in una sostanza solida colla mazzeranga. Ebbero
questi lavori il qualificativo di signini, dalla città di Signia, ora Segni,
famosa per la fabbricazione delle tegole e che prima introdusse
questo genere di pavimentazione.
Tutti questi primitivi saggi non erano ancora il musaicum
propriamente detto, ma quel che i Greci chiamavano litostrato; per
giungere al musivum opus, che rappresenta oggetti d’ogni natura,
emblemata, non bastavano per avventura i marmi e ciottoli:
convenne fabbricare de’ piccoli cubi di cristalli artifiziali colorati.
Tornò facile il connettere le asarota, ossia musaici rappresentanti
ossa e reliquie di banchetto, o un pavimento scopato, che con tanta
naturalezza fu imitato, da ingannare chiunque.
Così, avanti ogni altro paese, in Grecia si spiegò il lusso de’
pavimenti e, prima di ogni altra città, presso gli effeminati sovrani di
Pergamo. Citansi di poi i musaici del secondo piano della nave di
Gerone II, che in tanti quadretti di meravigliosa esecuzione
rappresentava i fatti principali dell’Iliade, tutti condotti a musaico;
quindi i lavori eguali del magnifico palazzo in Atene di Demetrio
Falereo.
È probabile che similmente si lavorasse a Roma coll’introdursi
dell’arte greca; e quanto si rinvenne in Pompei potrebbe essere
irrecusabile prova, se già noi non sapessimo come in questa città usi
e costumanze vi fossero eziandio speciali e dedotti da Grecia, e
come di colà vi si rendessero agevolmente artisti. Tuttavia dal
seguente passo di Plinio, pare che ai giorni di Tito imperatore, ne’
quali Ercolano e Pompei toccarono l’estrema rovina, questa del
musaico fosse nuova importazione, e che appena facesse capolino
in Roma verso il tempo di Vespasiano.
Plinio adunque, dopo aver detto che i terrazzi grecanici a musaico
vennero da’ Romani adottati al tempo di Silla e citato ad esempio il
tempio della Fortuna a Preneste, dove quel dittatore vi fece fare il
pavimento con piccole pietruzze; così sostiene che l’introduzione de’
pavimenti di musaico nelle camere con pezzetti di vetro fosse affatto
recente: Pulsa deinde ex humo pavimenta in cameras transiere, e
vitro: novitium et inventum. Agrippa certe in Thermis, quas Romæ
fecit, figlinum opus encausto pinxit: in reliquis albaria adornavit: non
dubio vitreas facturus cameras, si prius inventum id fuisset, aut a
parietibus scenæ, ut diximus, Scauri pervenisset in cameras [342].
Checchè ne sia, se recente consideravasi a’ tempi di Plinio il
Vecchio l’introduzione in Italia del musaico, questo si presenta
nondimeno fiorentissimo d’un tratto e grande nelle opere pompejane.
Gli scavi offrirono saggi appartenenti a tutte le epoche di progresso
di quest’arte, e in ognuno si manifesta una prodigiosa fecondità
d’invenzione negli artisti della Magna Grecia, e chi si assunse di
riprodurli con disegni ne ammanì interessantissimi volumi.
Non è possibile dunque occuparmene qui per ricordarli tutti; solo mi
restringerò a dire de’ più importanti.
Un musaico quadrato di circa cinque piedi e tre pollici, fu rinvenuto
nella casa detta di Pane, rappresentante un genio alato che a
cavalcion d’un leone si inebbria. L’espressione del fanciullo è
mirabile, come mirabile è la mossa del leone: la cornice a foglie, a
frutti ed a maschere teatrali compiono la perfetta esecuzione.
Un altro di forma circolare, di sette piedi di diametro, trovato nella
casa appellata del Centauro, rappresenta allegoricamente la Forza
domata dall’Amore, in un leone ricinto da alati amori che gli
intrecciano di fiori la fulva chioma. Nella parte superiore del musaico
vedesi una sacerdotessa che fa una libazione; nella parte inferiore
stanno l’una di fronte all’altra due donne sedute. Se non il disegno,
che lascerebbe desiderj, l’esecuzione e l’effetto de’ colori sono
sorprendenti.
Nella casa detta di Omero, nel tablinum si trovò un musaico istoriato
raffigurante un choragium, o luogo in cui si facevano le prove
teatrali, come già sa il lettore, per quel che ne ho detto nei capitoli
intorno ai Teatri. Sono diverse figure in piedi, attori che stanno
intorno al corago, o direttore, che li sta istruendo, il manoscritto della
commedia alla mano. Un tibicine soffia nelle tibie, come
accompagnando la recitazione del corago, perocchè paja veramente
che ogni teatrale rappresentazione fosse dal suon delle tibie
secondata. Vi hanno maschere disposte per gli attori e uno sfondo
pure interessante: il tutto condotto con una rara maestria.
Nella stessa casa detta di Omero, sulla soglia si vide un musaico
rappresentante un cane incatenato colla leggenda cave canem. Si
raccoglie da tal lavoro artistico come all’usanza comune presso i
Latini di tenere alla porta della casa un vero cane, quasi a custodia
di essa, si fosse sostituito in tempi più civili una pittura del cane,
eseguita in musaico e collocata, varcato appena il limitare, sul suolo
colla suddetta leggenda; o altre parole, composte pure in musaico,
bastassero, come salve, giusta quanto si vede nella casa delle
Vestali, o salve lvcrv, ecc. consuetudine quest’ultima che vediamo
copiata in molte case signorili de’ nostri giorni.
Ma eccoci alla casa del Fauno. In essa, ove già trovammo sorgere
dal mezzo dell’impluvium la stupenda statuetta in bronzo che forma
altra delle opere più preziose degli scavi, si rinveniva altresì nel
tablinum un musaico quadrato incorniciato da una greca assai
corretta e dipinta a svariati colori, nel cui mezzo è un leone, che in
uno stupendo scorcio, sembra stia per islanciarsi, così da incutere
spavento a chi lo guarda. È a rimpiangere che sia assai
danneggiato.
Nella stessa casa v’ha inoltre la maraviglia di quest’arte del musaico,
la giustamente famosa Battaglia d’Arbela, o di Isso, o il passaggio
del Granico che si voglia ritenere, che per grandezza, invenzione ed
esecuzione sorpassa quanti musaici si conoscano finora. Mette
conto che qui ne dica più largamente che non degli altri.
Anzitutto noto che esso misura un’altezza di otto piedi e mezzo, e
una larghezza di sedici piedi e due pollici, senza calcolare il fregio,
che a mo’ di cornice circonda il soggetto; onde hassi a ragione a
proclamarlo per il più grande musaico conosciuto.
Ora eccone la descrizione.
A manca di chi riguarda, che è anche la parte più guasta, vedesi su
d’un corsiero un giovane guerriero, che tosto distinguesi per il posto
concessogli di fronte al capo dell’esercito nemico, come il capo esso
pure dell’una delle armate. Ha la lorica di finissimo lavoro al petto e
la purpurea clamide agli omeri ondeggiante. Ha scoperto il capo,
perocchè il cimiero gli sia nel calor della mischia caduto, e stringe
nella destra la lancia, che sembra aver egli appena ritratta dal fianco
d’un guerriero, cui è caduto sotto il cavallo ferito di strale che gli
rimase confitto. L’agonia di questo infelice guerriero è espressa con
toccante verità. Dietro di lui ve n’ha un altro, che comunque ei pur
vulnerato, combatte tuttavia: ambi formanti intoppo a suntuosa
quadriga, i cui cavalli veggonsi disordinati, ma che indubbiamente
traggono altro importante personaggio, il qual rivolge l’attenzione sui
due feriti e intima a’ suoi di venir loro in aiuto; mentre un soldato
tiengli presso un corsiero in resta, su cui potrà quel personaggio
montare appena ei ne abbia l’opportunità e pigliar diversa parte
all’azione. Lo scorcio di questo cavallo è d’una prodigiosa bellezza.
Tutto il resto dello spazio a destra non è che una scena di
desolazione e scompiglio, comunque una selva di picche accenni
che l’impeto de’ combattenti da ambe le parti prosegue.
Quanti studiarono la composizione di questo musaico, ne inferirono
che le assise de’ guerrieri vinti, come la forma della quadriga, esser
non possano che d’un esercito persiano, avendo tutti la tiara, propria
di questo popolo, come si vede in altri antichi monumenti, e più
ancora si distinguano per Persiani ai grifi ricamati sopra le anassiridi,
o calzoni come essi portano, e sopra le selle.
Se dunque il guerriero vittorioso e feritore vestito alla greca, per la
somiglianza al tipo assegnatogli da statue e medaglie è Alessandro il
Grande: il capo de’ Persiani non può essere allora di necessità che
Dario, perchè avente la tiara diritta, che solo aveva diritto il re di così
portare [343]; com’egli solo la candice, o mantello di porpora, e la
tunica listata di bianco [344] ed egli solo l’arco di sì straordinaria
grandezza, ond’ebbero que’ della sua dinastia il nomignolo di
Cojanidi, cioè arcieri.
Constatati i due capi principali degli eserciti nel musaico raffigurati,
nelle persone dei due re, Alessandro e Dario, il soggetto allora deve
rappresentare la Battaglia di Isso, non il passaggio del Granico, nè il
combattimento di Arbela. Imperocchè il primo fu operato in estate; i
Persiani in esso si servirono di carri falcati, che qui non si veggono,
nè i due re si trovarono a fronte, e nulla poi indichi l’esistenza di un
fiume, ciò che dall’artista non si sarebbe negletto di riprodurre a
segnalare quel fatto, s’egli avesse inteso d’esprimere il passaggio
del Granico. Egualmente la battaglia di Arbela fu combattuta ai primi
di ottobre; v’ebbero pure carri falcati ed Alessandro incontro a Dario
non si valse della lancia, come vedesi nel mosaico, ma dell’arco con
cui uccise l’auriga del re. Ora l’albero, che qui si vede tutto privo di
foglie, esclude inoltre che non si potesse essere nè in estate, nè in
ottobre, mentre in Assiria tutto un tal mese gli alberi serbino intatto
l’onore delle frondi; ma nel verno, venendo anche da Plutarco
ricordato che la battaglia di Isso fosse combattuta in dicembre,
quando le piante dovevano essere, come nel musaico, prive di
foglie. Diodoro Siculo e Quinto Curzio narrano per di più che a tal
battaglia assistessero i dorifori, o guerrieri armati di lance, scelti per
la guardia del re fra i dieci mila immortali, coi loro abiti ricamati d’oro
e coi loro monili, e qui li vediamo appunto.
Tutte queste particolarità si raccolgono dai Cenni publicati dal dotto
cav. Bernardo Quaranta [345], ravvicinandovi altresì i particolari storici
che spiegano ognor meglio la composizione del musaico.
Dario tentò dapprima di decidere il combattimento d’Isso con l’ajuto
della cavalleria; e già i Macedoni si vedevano accerchiati,
allorquando Alessandro chiamò a sè Parmenione con la cavalleria
tessala. Allora la mischia divenne terribile: Alessandro, scorto da
lunge il re di Persia che incoraggiava i suoi dall’alto del suo carro ed
alla testa della sua cavalleria, combatte egli come semplice soldato,
per penetrare fino a colui che riguardava come suo nemico
personale e sperava la gloria di ucciderlo di sua mano. Ma ecco che
offresi una scena sublime di coraggio e di devozione. Osoatre,
fratello del re di Persia, vedendo il Macedone ostinato a cogliere
Dario, spinge il suo cavallo dinnanzi la reale quadriga e trascina
sopra tal punto la cavalleria scelta che egli comanda: ivi segue una
spaventevole carnificina; ivi mordono la polve Atiziete e Reomitrete e
Sabacete, Alessandro stesso vi è ferito nella coscia. Finalmente
Dario prende la fuga, abbandonando la candice e l’arco reale.
Io plaudo e convengo pertanto col dotto illustratore, credendo sia qui
veramente trattata la Battaglia d’Isso, e non altro combattimento
d’Alessandro il Grande.
Tutto poi, per quanto riguarda esecuzione, è in questo musaico
stupendamente trattato. Il guerriero che spira, cogli intestini lacerati,
è di una verità insuperabile: i cavalli non potrebbero essere più belli
e animati. Correzione di disegno, espressione di teste, movenza di
figure, disposizione di gruppi, sapienza di scorci, colorito ed ombre,
tutto vi è con una incredibile superiorità trattato.
«Or bene, conchiude un illustratore di questa insuperata opera, tutte
siffatte bellezze non sono che quelle d’una copia: quei vivi lumi sono
soltanto riflessi, perocchè il musaico fu imitato certamente da un
quadro. Che dobbiamo dunque pensare dell’originale? A chi
attribuirlo? A Nicia, a Protogene, ad Eufranore, che dipinsero
Alessandro? o piuttosto a quel Filosseno di Eretria, discepolo di
Nicomaco, la pittura del quale, superiore a tutte le altre, a detta di
Plinio, e fatta pel re Cassandro, rappresentava il combattimento di
Alessandro e di Dario? Non si andrebbe per avventura più d’accosto
al verisimile, pensando al divo Apelle stesso, che accompagnò
Alessandro nella sua spedizione, e che solo ottenne in seguito il
dritto di pingere il suo ritratto, come Lisippo quello si ebbe di gittarlo
in bronzo, e Pergotele di scolpirlo sopra pietre preziose.»
Dopo ciò, mi trovo in debito di avvertire che il disegno che ho
procurato per questa edizione del rinomatissimo musaico, appare
completato dal lato sinistro, — che, come ho già avvertito, fu non so
dire se dall’ultimo cataclisma toccato a Pompei, o dal precedente, o
fors’anco dall’incuria di chi lo sbarazzò dalle rovine, come or si vede
al Museo Nazionale, guasto, — per opera del ch. pittore napolitano
Maldarelli padre, da un acquarello del quale, fornitomi dal mio
eccellente amico Adolfo Doria, l’ho fatto ricavare perchè il lettore
avesse un’idea esatta della maravigliosa composizione.
Non tenni conto più sopra, onde non interrompere il corso della
storia dell’arti, delle botteghe o studj di scultura, che emersero dagli
scavi di Pompei: trovi qui il cenno di essi il proprio posto.
Nell’uscire dalla nuova Fullonica, e discosto di poco dalla medesima,
designata dal N. 5, fu scoperto uno studio di scultura, riconosciutosi
tale dalla esistenza di più un blocco di marmo, già digrossato e
abozzato, e diversi arnesi atti appunto a lavorare il marmo e
condurre oggetti d’arte.
Ma uno studio di scultura, anzi tutta una dimora, più interessante
all’epoca di sua scoperta, che fu verso la fine del passato secolo
(1795-98), perocchè adesso lo si ravvisi nel più deplorevole stato di
abbandono e di rovina, sorgeva nella casa presso il tempio di Giove
e di Giunone, nella via di Stabia. Ivi pure, nell’atrio della casa, si
raccolsero statue appena abozzate, talune presso ad essere
compite, elegantissime anfore di bronzo, blocchi di marmo, fra i quali
uno appena segato colla sega vicina ed altri utensili artistici. Vi si
trovò pure un orologio solare, un uovo di marmo da collocarsi nel
pollajo, per correggere la chiocciola onde non rompa i suoi, un
bacino e un vaso di bronzo, con basso rilievo.
In una città come Pompei, nella quale, se non al pari di Ercolano,
certo nondimeno in modo non dubbio le Arti erano in onore, così che
ci avvenne trovarne capolavori nelle più umili dimore, doveva essere
impossibile che gli scavi non ci additassero magazzeni e studj di
scultura; nè è presumere troppo il pronosticare che pur ne’ futuri
sterramenti se ne troveranno altri.
La città si risvegliava da quel mortale letargo, in cui l’aveva gittata il
terremuoto del 63, e sgomberando le rovine e rimettendosi a nuovo,
era naturale che artisti giungessero, chiamati d’ogni dove ed
aprissero studj e botteghe per tanto lavoro.

FINE DEL VOLUME SECONDO.

 INDICE

CAPITOLO XII. — I Teatri — Teatro Comico

— Passione degli antichi pel teatro —
Cause — Istrioni — Teatro Comico od
Odeum di Pompei — Descrizione —
Cavea, præcinctiones, scalæ, vomitoria —
Posti assegnati alle varie classi —
Orchestra — Podii o tribune — Scena,
proscenio, pulpitum — Il sipario — Chi
tirasse il sipario — Postscenium —
Capacità dell’Odeum pompejano — Echea
o vasi sonori — Tessere d’ingresso al teatro
— Origine del nome piccionaja al luogo
destinato alla plebe — Se gli spettacoli
fossero sempre gratuiti — Origine de’ teatri,
teatri di legno, teatri di pietra — Il teatro
Comico latino — Origini — Sature e
Atellane — Arlecchino e Pulcinella —
Riatone, Andronico ed Ennio — Plauto e
Terenzio — Giudizio contemporaneo dei
poeti comici — Diversi generi di commedia:
togatæ, palliatæ, trabeatæ, tunicatæ,
tabernariæ — Le commedie di Plauto e di
Terenzio materiali di storia — Se in Pompei
si recitassero commedie greche — Mimi e
Mimiambi — Le maschere, origine e scopo
— Introduzione in Roma — Pregiudizj
contro le persone da teatro — Leggi teatrali
repressive — Dimostrazioni politiche in
teatro — Talia musa della Commedia Pag. 5
CAPITOLO XIII. — I Teatri — Teatro Tragico
— Origini del teatro tragico — Tespi ed
Eraclide Pontico — Etimologia di tragedia e
ragioni del nome — Caratteri — Epigene,
Eschilo e Cherillo — Della maschera
tragica — L’attor tragico Polo —
Venticinque specie di maschere —
Maschere trovate in Pompei — Palla o
Syrma — Coturno — Istrioni —
Accompagnamento musicale — Le tibie e i
tibicini — Melpomene, musa della Tragedia
— Il teatro tragico in Pompei — L’architetto
Martorio Primo — Invenzione del velario —
Biasimata in Roma — Ricchissimi velarii di
Cesare e di Nerone — Sparsiones o
pioggie artificiali in teatro — Adacquamento
delle vie — Le lacernæ, o mantelli da teatro
— Descrizione del Teatro Tragico — Gli
Olconj — Thimele — Aulæum — La Porta
regia e le porte hospitalia della scena —
Tragici latini: Andronico, Pacuvio, Accio,
Nevio, Cassio Severo, Varo, Turanno
Graccula, Asinio Pollione — Ovidio tragico
— Vario, Lucio Anneo Seneca, Mecenate
— Perchè Roma non abbia avuto tragedie
— Tragedie greche in Pompei — Tessera
teatrale — Attori e Attrici — Batillo, Pilade,
Esopo e Roscio — Dionisio — Stipendj
esorbitanti — Un manicaretto di perle —
Applausi e fischi — La claque, la clique e la
Consorteria — Il suggeritore — Se l’Odeo
di Pompei fosse attinenza del Gran Teatro 53

CAPITOLO XIV. — I Teatri — L’Anfiteatro — 103

Introduzione in Italia dei giuochi circensi —
Giuochi trojani — Panem et circenses —
Un circo romano — Origine romana degli
Anfiteatri — Cajo Curione fabbrica il primo
in legno — Altro di Giulio Cesare — Statilio
Tauro erige il primo di pietra — Il Colosseo
— Data dell’Anfiteatro pompejano —
Architettura sua — I Pansa — Criptoportico
— Arena — Eco — Le iscrizioni del Podio
— Prima Cavea — I locarii — Seconda
Cavea — Somma Cavea — Cattedre
femminili — I Velarii — Porta Libitinense —
Lo Spoliario — I cataboli — Il triclinio e il
banchetto libero — Corse di cocchi e di
cavalli — Giuochi olimpici in Grecia —
Quando introdotti in Roma — Le fazioni
degli Auriganti — Giuochi Gladiatorj —
Ludo Gladiatorio in Pompei — Ludi
gladiatorj in Roma — Origine dei Gladiatori
— Impiegati nei funerali — Estesi a
divertimento — I Gladiatori al lago Fùcino
— Gladiatori forzati — Gladiatori volontarj
— Giuramento de’ gladiatori auctorati —
Lorarii — Classi gladiatorie: secutores,
retiarii, myrmillones, thraces, samnites,
hoplomachi, essedarii, andabati,
dimachæri, laquearii, supposititii,
pegmares, meridiani — Gladiatori Cavalieri
e Senatori, nani e pigmei, donne e matrone
— Il Gladiatore di Ravenna di Halm — Il
colpo e il diritto di grazia — Deludiæ — Il
Gladiatore morente di Ctesilao e Byron —
Lo Spoliario e la Porta Libitinense — Premj
ai Gladiatori — Le ambubaje — Le Ludie —
I giuochi Floreali e Catone — Naumachie
— Le Venationes o caccie — Di quante
 sorta fossero — Caccia data da Pompeo —
Caccie di leoni ed elefanti — Proteste degli
elefanti contro la mancata fede — Caccia
data da Giulio Cesare — Un elefante
funambolo — L’Aquila e il fanciullo — I
Bestiarii e le donne bestiariæ — La legge
Petronia — Il supplizio di Laureolo —
Prostituzione negli anfiteatri — Meretrici
appaltatrici di spettacoli — Il Cristianesimo
abolisce i ludi gladiatorj — Telemaco
monaco — Missilia e Sparsiones

CAPITOLO XV. — Le Terme — Etimologia —

Thermæ, Balineæ, Balineum, Lavatrinæ —
Uso antico de’ Bagni — Ragioni — Abuso
— Bagni pensili — Balineæ più famose —
Ricchezze profuse ne’ bagni publici —
Estensione delle terme — Edificj contenuti
in esse — Terme estive e jemali — Aperte
anche di notte — Terme principali — Opere
d’arte rinvenute in esse — Terme di
Caracalla — Ninfei — Serbatoi e
Acquedotti — Agrippa edile — Inservienti
alle acque — Publici e privati — Terme in
Pompei — Terme di M. Crasso Frugio —
Terme publiche e private — Bagni rustici —
Terme Stabiane — Palestra e Ginnasio —
Ginnasio in Pompei — Bagno degli uomini
— Destrictorium — L’Imperatore Adriano
nel bagno de’ poveri — Bagni delle donne
— Balineum di M. Arrio Diomede —
Fontane publiche e private — Provenienza
delle acque — Il Sarno e altre acque —
Distribuzione per la città — Acquedotti 183
CAPITOLO XVI. — Le Scuole — Etimologia 231
— Scuola di Verna in Pompei — Scuola di
Valentino — Orbilio e la ferula — Storia de’
primordj della coltura in Italia — Numa e
Pitagora — Etruria, Magna Grecia e Grecia
— Ennio e Andronico — Gioventù romana
in Grecia — Orazio e Bruto — Secolo d’oro
— Letteratura — Giurisprudenza —
Matematiche — Storia naturale —
Economia rurale — Geografia — Filosofia
romana — Non è vero che fosse ucciditrice
di libertà — Biblioteche — Cesare incarica
Varrone di una biblioteca publica — Modo
di scrivere, volumi, profumazione delle
carte — Medicina empirica — Medici e
chirurghi — La Casa del Chirurgo in
Pompei — Stromenti di chirurgia rinvenuti
in essa — Prodotti chimici —
Pharmacopolæ, Seplasarii, Sagæ —
Fabbrica di prodotti chimici in Pompei —
Bottega di Seplasarius — Scuole private

CAPITOLO XVII. — Le Tabernæ — Istinti dei 271

Romani — Soldati per forza — Agricoltori
— Poca importanza del commercio
coll’estero — Commercio marittimo di
Pompei — Commercio marittimo di Roma
— Ignoranza della nautica — Commercio
d’importazione — Modo di bilancio —
Ragioni di decadimento della grandezza
romana — Industria — Da chi esercitata —
Mensarii ed Argentarii — Usura — Artigiani
distinti in categorie — Commercio al minuto
— Commercio delle botteghe —
Commercio della strada — Fori nundinari o
 venali — Il Portorium o tassa delle derrate
portate al mercato — Le tabernæ e loro
costruzione — Institores — Mostre o
insegne — Popinæ, thermopolia, cauponæ,
œnopolia — Mercanti ambulanti —
Cerretani — Grande e piccolo commercio
in Pompei — Foro nundinario di Pompei —
Tabernæ — Le insegne delle botteghe —
Alberghi dì Albino, di Giulio Polibio e Agato
Vajo, dell’Elefante o di Sittio e della Via
delle Tombe — Thermopolia — Pistrini,
Pistores, Siliginari — Plauto, Terenzio,
Cleante e Pittaco Re, mugnai — Le mole di
Pompei — Pistrini diversi — Paquio
Proculo, fornaio, duumviro di giustizia —
Ritratto di lui e di sua moglie — Venditorio
d’olio — Ganeum — Lattivendolo —
Fruttajuolo — Macellai — Myropolium,
profumi e profumieri — Tonstrina, o
barbieria — Sarti — Magazzeno di tele e di
stofe — Lavanderie — La Ninfa Eco — Il
Conciapelli — Calzoleria e Selleria —
Tintori — Arte Fullonica — Fulloniche di
Pompei — Fabbriche di Sapone — Orefici
— Fabbri e falegnami — Præfectus
fabrorum — Vasaj e vetrai — Vasi vinarj —
Salve Lucru

CAPITOLO XVIII. — Belle Arti — Opere sulle 345

Arti in Pompei — Contraffazioni —
Aneddoto — Primordj delle Arti in Italia —
Architettura etrusca — Architetti romani —
Scrittori — Templi — Architettura
pompejana — Angustia delle case —
Monumenti grandiosi in Roma — Archi —
Magnificenza nelle architetture private —
Prezzo delle case di Cicerone e di Clodio
— Discipline edilizie — Pittura — Pittura
architettonica — Taberna o venditorio di
colori in Pompei — Discredito delle arti in
Roma — Pittura parietaria — A fresco —
All’acquarello — All’encausto — Encaustica
— Dipinti su tavole, su tela e sul marmo —
Pittori romani — Arellio — Accio Prisco —
Figure isolate — Ritratti — Pittura di
genere: Origine — Dipinti bottegai —
Pittura di fiori — Scultura — Prima e
seconda maniera di statuaria in Etruria —
Maniera greca — Prima scultura romana —
Esposizione d’oggetti d’arte — Colonne —
Statue, tripodaneæ, sigillæ — Immagini de’
maggiori — Artisti greci in Roma — Cajo
Verre — Sue rapine — La Glittica — La
scultura al tempo dell’Impero — In Ercolano
e Pompei — Opere principali — I Busti —
Gemme pompejane — Del Musaico — Sua
origine e progresso — Pavimentum
barbaricum, tesselatum, vermiculatum —
Opus signinum — Musivum opus —
Asarota — Introduzione del musaico in
Roma — Principali musaici pompejani — I
Musaici della Casa del Fauno — Il Leone
— La Battaglia di Isso — Ragioni perchè si
dichiari così il soggetto — A chi appartenga
la composizione — Studj di scultura in
Pompei
 NOTE:

1. Lib. VII c. 2.

2. Cajo Quinzio Valgo, figlio di Cajo, e Marco Porcio, figlio di Marco,

duumviri, hanno, per decreto dei duumviri, fatto fare il teatro coperto e i
medesimi lo hanno collaudato.

3. «L’Odeo che s’incontra a sinistra nell’uscire dal teatro.»

4. Apologia c. VI. Ne hieme voluptas impudica frigeret.

5. Cap. XLIV.

6. Trad. di Vincenzo Lancetti.

7. Marco Oculazio Vero, figlio di Marco, duumviro sopra i giuochi —

Bréton, pel contrario, constatando essersi qui scritto Olconius e non
Holconius, come più spesso altrove, ne fa maraviglia; ma maggiore in
me avrebbe a fare vedendo che, ammonito pure da ciò, non volle
leggere, come altri lessero, invece di Olconius, Oculatius.

8. Svet. Nero, c. 12; Juven. Sat., II. v. 147.

9. Lib. V. c. 7.

10.

Tal se ’l teatro il ricco arazzo adorna,

Mentre s’innalza al ciel la seta e l’opra,
Delle varie figure, ond’ella è adorna,
Prima lascia apparir la testa sopra;
Poi, secondo che al panno alzan le corna
Le corde, fa che il busto si discopra:
Come poi giugne al segno, ivi si vede
D’ogni effigie ogni membro insino al piede.

Trad. di Gio. Andrea Dell’Anguillara, Lib. X, ott. 37.

11. Diz. delle Antich. alla voce Aulæa.

12. Epist. II. I. 189.

13. Metam. lib. III.

14. «Calato sotto l’auleo, e ripiegati i siparii, si disporrà la scena.» Lib. X.

Discorre Apulejo di ciò, come se avesse luogo nella rappresentazione
d’un balletto pantomimico, il cui soggetto era il Giudizio di Paride.

15. Georgica 3. 24:

Come volte le fronti a un tratto muti

Nel teatro la scena ed i Britanni
Tolgan gli auléi purpurei, in cui ritratti
Appajon essi.

Lo che significa che sui scenarj fossero tessute le vittorie, tra cui quelle
singolarmente di Giulio Cesare nella Britannia, da cui i diversi schiavi o
mancipi venuti di colà erano stati applicati a’ teatrali uffici.

16. C. IV. v. 1186.

17. Lib. V. c. 3 e 5. De Theatri vasis.

18. «Turbato dallo schiamazzo che nel mezzo della notte facevano coloro
che avevano ad occupare nel Circo i posti gratuiti.»

19.

Non assediin gli schiavi i posti ond’essi

Per i liberi sien, a men che ognuno
Paghi un asse per testa e, ove non l’abbia,
Ritorni a casa.

Così nel prologo della commedia.

20. «Sorgon in luogo eletto i tre teatri.»

21.

Sovente assisi sulla molle erbetta,

Lungo il margin d’un rivo e al rezzo amico
D’un’arbore frondosa, allegramente
Senza dispendi avean essi riposo,