Charles G. Leland

ARADIAor the

Gospel of the Witches

Charles G. Leland

A New Translation

by

Mario P azzaglini, Ph.D.

and

Dina Pazzaglini

with additional material by

Chas S. CliftonRobert Mathiesen

Robert E. Chartowich

foreword by

Stewart Farrar

PHOENIX PUBLISHING INC.Maddalena

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I

Charles G. Leland and the

Witches of Italy: The Origin of

Aradia

Robert Mathiesen'

Introduction

Every great book has its hidden history, which in many cases

is as interesting as the book itself. So it is with Charles God-frey Leland's Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches. It waswritten in 1897, but published only in 1899, when Leland was

in his seventy-fifth year, almost at the end of his long life.

Leland's Life in Magic

Only a few days after his birth (August 15, 1824), theinfant Charles vanished from his nursery, to the dismay of his

family. The mystery was soon solved, however: he was dis-

covered lying on his back in the attic, with a Bible, a key and

a knife on his breast, and with lighted candles, money and aplate of salt at his head. This was the work of his old Pennsyl-

vania-German nurse, a reputed mistress of the secret arts, to

ensure that the child should rise in life, growing up to be a

25

scholar and a wizard.2This happened in Philadelphia-a city already rich in mys_

teries and legends of ghosts and witches and ominou. pt.-tents-the capital of a state founded on religious toleration, inwhich seers and mystics, astrologers and Rosicrucians, hadlong found a safe

,harbor. Here young Leland could easilyencounter Swedenborgians, Mesmerists and, in his youngadult years, Spiritualists.

Leland's family had moved to pennsylvania from NewEngland; the Lelands on his father's side were from Massa-chusetts, the Godfreys on his mother's from Rhode Island (theother great bastion of unsanctioned beliefs in colonial NorthAmerica). Every summer his family returned to Massachu_setts, where his mother kept up an old acquaintance with theTranscendentalists at Brook Farm, while young Leland madehis first friends among the Native Americans ai Mendon.

Even as a schoolboy, Leland was a romantic and buddingmystic, with uncommonly eccentric interests-and the intelli-gence and luck needed to pursue them. When he was fourteenhis father gave him a share in the Free Library of phiraderphia,and this allowed him to use its very rich colrections.'Lan-guages, whether living or dead, came easily to him even in hisyouth. He had read Henry Cornelius Agrippa,s Occult phi_losophy in Latin before he turned eighteen, as well as theworks of Rabelais and Villon in French.

In his eighteenth year, young Leland went off to princeton,where he spent most of his time and energy on subjects outsidethe college's curriculum. He studied Neo-pratonic philoso-phy-and theurgy!-and the Hermetic writings, learned erenmore languages, and wrote poetry. When he graduated fromPrinceton, his father gave him enough money to exploreEurope for three years and to pursue advanced studies th"r".Leland soon betook himserf to Heiderberg, where the originarRosicrucian movement had been raunchei in the early 1i00s,and he enrolled in the ancient university there. At Heiderberghe learned for the first time how to play, and also how to fighiBy the time he left Heiderberg, he knew how to use the saber,

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the dirk and the pistol. By then he had grown uncommonly tall

(6 foot 4 inches), towering over most other men of his era with

a large and powerful frame.Leland was in Europe from 1846 through 1848. These

were years of intense revolutionary fervor, which had its seat

and stronghold in many of Europe's liberal old universities.Leland was caught up in the fervor. Indeed, since he happened

to be in Paris on February 24, 1848, he joined in the fighting,

and went out into the streets with his fellow students to build

barricades and to kill the soldiers of the King of France.When his money ran out, Leland returned to America to

make a career for himself, trying his hand first at law, then atjournalism. His first satisfactory position was with P. T. Bar-num as the associate editor of that showman's iournal, TheIllustrated News. One can hardly think of another employerwho might have suited Leland so well as Barnum. When thatwork ended, other similar positions followed. He continuedworking at journalism, with some time out to fight in the war

between the states, until 1869. During these years he alsofound a calling as a writer, achieving considerable fame with

his humorous, mock-German Bollads of Hans Breitmann. He

acquired many curious friends during the war years. Among

them was Colonel Henry Steele Olcott, then a soldier and a

Spiritualist, but not yet a Theosophist. In 1856 he marriedIsabel Fisher and, to judge by his letters, it was a very happymarriage throughout the forty years and more that they were

together.

By 1869 Leland had secured his financial position, andwas generally able to order his life to suit himself and his wife.

So back to Europe they went, and to such exotic lands asTurkey, Egypt and Russia. Here his real adventures began, for

he was a man "whose every thought, whose every emotionsteered straight for the marvellous," as Elizabeth Pennell, his

niece and confidant, characterized him. "If I were in solitaryconfinement," he wrote in one of his scrapbooks, "l shouldhave adventures, for my dreams would make them."3

It was in England that Leland first fell in with the Romany

26 27

scholar and a wizard.2This happened in philadelphia-a city already rich in mys_

teries and legends of ghosts and witches and ominou. pt.-tents-the capital of a state founded on religious toleration, inwhich seers and mystics, astrologers and Rosicrucians, hadlong found a safe

,harbor. Here young Leland could easilyencounter Swedenborgians, Mesmerists and, in his youngadult years, Spiritualists.

Leland's family had moved to pennsylvania from NewEngland; the Lelands on his father's side were from Massa-chusetts, the Godfreys on his mother's from Rhode Island (theother great bastion of unsanctioned beliefs in colonial NorthAmerica). Every summer his family returned to Massachu_setts, where his mother kept up an old acquaintance with theTranscendentalists at Brook Farm, while young Leland madehis first friends among the Native Americans ai Mendon.

Even as a schoolboy, Leland was a romantic and buddingmystic, with uncommonry eccentric interests-and the intelli-gence and luck needed to pursue them. When he was fourteenhis father gave him a share in the Free Library of phiraderphia,and this allowed him to use its very rich colrections.'Lan-guages, whether living or dead, came easily to him even in hisyouth. He had read Henry Cornelius Agrippa,s Occult phi_losophy in Latin before he turned eighteen, as well as theworks of Rabelais and Villon in French.

In his eighteenth year, young Leland went off to princeton.where he spent most of his time and energy on subjects outsidethe college's curriculum. He studied Neo-pratonic phiroso-phy-and theurgy!-and the Hermetic writings, learned erenmore languages, and wrote poetry. When he graduated fromPrinceton, his father gave him enough money to exploreEurope for three years and to pursue advanced studies th"r".Leland soon betook himserf to Heiderberg, where the originarRosicrucian movement had been raunchei in the early 1i00s,and he enrolled in the ancient university there. At Heidelberghe learned for the first time how to play, and also how to fighiBy the time he left Heidelberg, he knew how to use the saber,

26 27

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$

F.l

the dirk and the pistol. By then he had grown uncommonly tall

(6 foot 4 inches), towering over most other men of his era with

a large and powerful frame.Leland was in Europe from 1846 through 1848' These

were years of intense revolutionary fervor, which had its seat

and stronghold in many of Europe's liberal old universities.Leland was caught up in the fervor. Indeed, since he happened

to be in Paris on February 24,1848, he joined in the fighting,and went out into the streets with his fellow students to build

barricades and to kill the soldiers of the King of France.When his money ran out, Leland returned to America to

make a career for himself, trying his hand first at law, then atjournalism. His first satisfactory position was with P. T. Bar-

num as the associate editor of that showman's iownal, TheIllustrated News. One can hardly think of another employerwho might have suited Leland so well as Barnum. When thatwork ended, other similar positions followed. He continuedworking at journalism, with some time out to fight in the war

between the states, until 1869. During these years he alsofound a calling as a writer, achieving considerable fame with

his humorous, mock-German Ballads of Hans Breitmann. He

acquired many curious friends during the war years. Among

them was Colonel Henry Steele Olcott, then a soldier and a

Spiritualist, but not yet a Theosophist. In 1856 he marriedIsabel Fisher and, to judge by his letters, it was a very happymarriage throughout the forty years and more that they were

together.

By 1869 Leland had secured his financial position, andwas generally able to order his life to suit himself and his wife.

So back to Europe they went, and to such exotic lands asTurkey, Egypt and Russia. Here his real adventures began, for

he was a man "whose every thought, whose every emotionsteered straight for the marvellous," as Elizabeth Pennell, his

niece and confidant, characterized him. "If I were in solitaryconfinement," he wrote in one of his scrapbooks, "l shouldhave adventures, for my dreams would make them."3

It was in England that Leland first fell in with the Romany

(or Gypsies, as they were then freely called) and fell in lovewith the mysteries of their unwritten language and lore. Tack-ling these mysteries with volcanic enthusiasm and energy, hesought out the Romany wherever he could find them, howeverfar off the beaten track of polite society they might be. He tooka mystic's delight in his and their common humanity, enjoyedtheir company, gave them good reason to enjoy his,

-learnei to

speak their language fluently, and drank deeply from the riverof their folklore. (These were the days when the Romany oftenkept their language secret from outsiders.) It was among theRomany that he first discovered for himserf the ethnogra-pher's and folklorist's art of working with informants inlhefield. The results of his field work were published in severalbooks from I 879 to 1891 . He also served as the first presidentof the Gypsy Lore Society, founded in 1ggg.

Leland also became extremely proficient at one of thetraditional Romany crafts, the art of dukkering, or fortune-tell-ing. He took to this as a duck takes to water, and it was to standhim in very good stead later. Among his papers in the BritishLibrary is a handwritten copy of Dukkerin' Lit,his own thirty-two-page summary of this art, ,,with fantastic illustrations.i,aIn the same vein, the last of his several books on the Romanywas about Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling (1g91).

From the Romany it was only a short step for Leland toexplore other kinds of people who lived on the open road.Here, too, his love of mystery led him to another unstudiedlanguage, even more obscure than Romany. He was the firstoutsider to note the existence of Shelta, an unwritten tongueused primarily by tinkers; he was arso the first to determ]nethat much of its vocabulary was of Celtic origin.

All this happened whire the Lerands had their principarhome in England, from 1869 to 1879. During the next flwyears they made their home once again in the United States.Here, too, Leland was able to satisfy his curiosity about un_written languages and the folklore transmitted in them. InI 882 and 1883 he turned his attention to Native Americans, inparticular to the Passamaquoddy of New Brunswick and

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Maine, and in yet other books he gave what he had collectedto the world.5

But this was just an interlude; the Lelands returned toEurope in 1884, and by the end of 1888 they had settled inFlorence, where they would remain for the rest of their years.

It was in Florence, as we shall soon see, that Leland foundmysteries which he alone could begin to unravel and wouldoccupy him in doing so for a decade and more.

On July 9, 1902, Leland's wife died. Some nine monthslater he followed her, on March 20, 1903. His heirs broughttheir ashes back to Philadelphia, where they rest in Laurel HillCemetery. All his many books and papers were retrieved andentrusted to Elizabeth Pennell as his literary executor whoused them to prepare Leland's biography.6 Later his workswere divided between several libraries and museums.

Most of his early letters and writings, as well as the sur-viving drafts and proof sheets of many of his later literaryworks and translations, went to the Historical Society of Penn-sylvania.T His early printed books, about 150 volumes in all,went to the old Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art, whichlater became the Philadelphia Museum of Art; they are nowhoused in the museum's print room and are accessible onlyunder conditions appropriate to objects of art, not to booksmeant to be read and studied.8 His ethnographic and linguisticmaterials on the gypsies were donated to the library of theBritish Museum.e Elizabeth Pennell retained the rest ofLeland's papers, including his numerous scrapbooks (whichhe titled Memoranda) and most of his letters, for some years.Eventually they were given to the Library of Congress, wherethey form a small part of the very large Whistler-PennellCollection.ro

It was in two of these libraries that I had the good fortuneto find the materials which are the subject of the rest of thiswriting, and which shed much new light on the origin ofLeland's book, Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches.

28 29

(or Gypsies, as they were then freely called) and fell in lovewith the mysteries of their unwritten ranguage and lore. Tack-ling these mysteries with volcanic enthusiasm and energy, hesought out the Romany wherever he could find them, howeverfar off the beaten track of polite society they might be. He tooka mystic's delight in his and their common humanity, enjoyedtheir company, gave them good reason to enjoy his,-learned tospeak their language fluently, and drank deeply from the riverof their folklore. (These were the days when the Romany oftenkept their language secret from outsiders.) It was among theRomany that he first discovered for himserf the ethnogra-pher's and folklorist's art of working with informants in-thefield. The results of his field work were published in severalbooks from 1 879 to 1891. He also served as the first presidentof the Gypsy Lore Society, founded in lggg.

Leland also became extremely proficient at one of thetraditional Romany crafts, the art of dukkering, or fortune-tell-ing. He took to this as a duck takes to water, and it was to standhim in very good stead later. Among his papers in the BritishLibrary is a handwritten copy of Dukkerin' Lit,his own thirty-two-page summary of this art, "with fantastic iilustrations.i,aIn the same vein, the last of his several books on the Romanywas about Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling (lggl).

From the Romany it was only a short step for Leland toexplore other kinds of people who lived on the open road.Here, too, his love of mystery led him to another unstudiedlanguage, even more obscure than Romany. He was the firstoutsider to note the existence of Shelta, an unwritten tongueused primarily by tinkers; he was arso the first to determ]nethat much of its vocabulary was of Celtic origin.

All this happened while the Lerands had their principarhome in England, from 1869 to 1g79. During the next flwyears they made their home once again in the United States.Here, too, Leland was able to satisfy his curiosity about un_written languages and the folklore transmitted in them. In1 882 and 1883 he turned his attention to Native Americans, inparticular to the Passamaquoddy of New Brunswick and

F

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Maine, and in yet other books he gave what he had collectedto the world.5

But this was just an interlude; the Lelands returned toEurope in 1884, and by the end of 1888 they had settled inFlorence, where they would remain for the rest of their years.

It was in Florence, as we shall soon see, that Leland foundmysteries which he alone could begin to unravel and wouldoccupy him in doing so for a decade and more.

On July 9, 1902, Leland's wife died. Some nine monthslater he followed her, on March 20, 1903. His heirs broughttheir ashes back to Philadelphia, where they rest in Laurel HillCemetery. All his many books and papers were retrieved andentrusted to Elizabeth Pennell as his literary executor whoused them to prepare Leland's biography.6 Later his workswere divided between several libraries and museums.

Most of his early letters and writings, as well as the sur-viving drafts and proof sheets of many of his later literaryworks and translations, went to the Historical Society of Penn-sylvania.T His early printed books, about 150 volumes in all,went to the old Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art, whichlater became the Philadelphia Museum of Art; they are nowhoused in the museum's print room and are accessible onlyunder conditions appropriate to objects of art, not to booksmeant to be read and studied.8 His ethnographic and linguisticmaterials on the gypsies were donated to the library of theBritish Museum.e Elizabeth Pennell retained the rest ofLeland's papers, including his numerous scrapbooks (whichhe titled Metnoranda) and most of his letters, for some years.Eventually they were given to the Library of Congress, wherethey form a small part of the very large Whistler-PennellCollection.ro

It was in two of these libraries that I had the good fortuneto find the materials which are the subject of the rest of thiswriting, and which shed much new light on the origin ofLeland's book, Arqdia, or the Gospel of the Witches.

r*i

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28 29

Maddalena and the Witches of Italy

In 1886 Leland first met the remarkable witch womanwhom he calls Maddalena in all his subsequent works. Havingwon her confidence by a display of his own skills in otheitraditions of magic. he managed, with her assistance, to pene_trate the secret world of the fortune-tellers and spell casters ofthe region lying between Forli and Ravenna, and especially atFlorence. After Leland and his wife settled more or less per-manently in Florence, during the winter of l88g- l gg9, he wasable to explore these hidden traditions in great detail fornearly a decade.

Maddalena was not this woman,s legal name, but one thatLeland gave her to guard her privacy. His niece, ElizabethRobins Pennell, who also knew her, is equally discreet, thoughshe reproduces a striking old photograph of Maddaleru u, uyoung fortune-teller.rr But another writer and folklorist, RomaLister, reveals her real given name:

In Mr. Leland's company I interviewed the witches ofFlorence. One of them, Margherita, lived in a tower nearthe Ponte Vecchio. Her family, she averred, dated fromEtruscan days. Her people had been priests of the oldreligion. Indeed, as she used the little known names ofEtruscan deities in familiar talk, this is quite possible: theItalians, notably among the peasantry, retain in theirmemories curiously long and quaint pedigrees. Mar_gherita is the heroine of Mr. Leland,s Florentine books,especially the "Legends of Florence.,, She was stillgood-looking and one not to be forgotten day I went withthe master to take coffee with her. It was a curious expe_rience-like all Italians in her walk of life, she receivedus with the manner of a great lady. The coffee was servedus with true peasant luxury, bright cups and spotlessnapkins, and the little cakes with colored icing dear topeasant fancy. The conversation turned upon ancient ritu_als known to Margherita and her folk long before Romeruled. We were told stories of enchantments into which

medirval beliefs obtruded-a medley of lore and super-stition not easy to keep apart any more than the ageswhich the mind's eye spanned looking from her window

over the Arno, where yonder San Miniato towered abovethe shade of Michael Angelo, his name a yesterday.l2

Maddalena soon became not merely Leland's foremostinformant on the witch lore of Florence and its environs, butalso one of his best friends in that city, as is clear from thenumerous references to her in his letters to Elizabeth Pennell.Although Leland eventually met other women-and, rarely, aman-who possessed this same witch lore, most of the mate-rial which he published came directly from Maddalena orthrough her intermediation. Elizabeth Pennell, with all ofLeland's letters, papers and notebooks in her study, tells usthat Maddalena "wrote often, sending him legends and incan-tations and odd news of the witches her friends; her letters andmanuscripts rival in bulk the letters and manuscripts, withnews of the Red Indians, from Louis Mitchell."r3

Leland, too, wrote in his Etruscan Roman Remains inPopular Tradition (1892) that she had sent him many texts,including one large manuscript in her own hand:

I have been assured that there is in existence a manu-script collection of charms and spells such as are now inuse-in fact, it was promised me as a gift, but I have notsucceeded in obtaining it. I have, however, a large MS.of this kind which was written for me from collection andmemory, which I have used in writing this book.la

Leland mentions Maddalena frequently in all of his bookson Italian witch lore, and also in his letters and scrapbooks.r5It is clear from all these references that he eventually obtainedseveral hundred pages of Italian text from her, in addition tothe large manuscript just mentioned.

Unfortunately, although most of the other letters, papers,scrapbooks and texts cited by Leland (or by his niece in herbiography of him) are still to be found in one or another of the

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Maddalena and the Witches of Italy

In 1886 Leland first met the remarkable witch womanwhom he calls Maddalena in all his subsequent works. Havingwon her confidence by a display of his own skills in otheitraditions of magic. he managed, with her assistance, to pene_trate the secret world of the fortune-tellers and spell casters ofthe region lying between Forli and Ravenna, and especially atFlorence. After Leland and his wife settled more or less per-manently in Florence, during the winter of l88g- l gg9, he wasable to explore these hidden traditions in great detail fornearly a decade.

Maddalena was not this woman,s legal name, but one thatLeland gave her to guard her privacy. His niece, ElizabethRobins Pennell, who also knew her, is equally discreet, thoughshe reproduces a striking old photograph of Maddaleru u, uyoung fortune-teller.rr But another writer and folklorist, RomaLister, reveals her real given name:

In Mr. Leland's company I interviewed the witches ofFlorence. One of them, Margherita, lived in a tower nearthe Ponte Vecchio. Her family, she averred, dated fromEtruscan days. Her people had been priests of the oldreligion. Indeed, as she used the little known names ofEtruscan deities in familiar talk, this is quite possible: theItalians, notably among the peasantry, retain in theirmemories curiously long and quaint pedigrees. Mar_gherita is the heroine of Mr. Leland,s Florentine books,especially the "Legends of Florence.,' She was stillgood-looking and one not to be forgotten day I went withthe master to take coffee with her. It was a curious expe_rience-like all Italians in her walk of life, she receivedus with the manner of a great lady. The coffee was servedus with true peasant luxury, bright cups and spotlessnapkins, and the little cakes with colored icing dear topeasant fancy. The conversation turned upon ancient ritu_als known to Margherita and her folk long before Romeruled. We were told stories of enchantments into which

mediaval beliefs obtruded-a medley of lore and super-stition not easy to keep apart any more than the ageswhich the mind's eye spanned looking from her window

over the Arno, where yonder San Miniato towered abovethe shade of Michael Angelo, his name a yesterday.l2

Maddalena soon became not merely Leland's foremostinformant on the witch lore of Florence and its environs, butalso one of his best friends in that city, as is clear from thenumerous references to her in his letters to Elizabeth Pennell.Although Leland eventually met other women-and, rarely, aman-who possessed this same witch lore, most of the mate-rial which he published came directly from Maddalena orthrough her intermediation. Elizabeth Pennell, with all ofLeland's letters, papers and notebooks in her study, tells usthat Maddalena "wrote often, sending him legends and incan-tations and odd news of the witches her friends; her letters andmanuscripts rival in bulk the letters and manuscripts, withnews of the Red Indians, from Louis Mitchell."r3

Leland, too, wrote in his Etruscan Roman Remains inPopular Tradition (1892) that she had sent him many texts,including one large manuscript in her own hand:

I have been assured that there is in existence a manu-script collection of charms and spells such as are now inuse-in fact, it was promised me as a gift, but I have notsucceeded in obtaining it. I have, however, a large MS.of this kind which was written for me from collection and

memory, which I have used in writing this book.la

Leland mentions Maddalena frequently in all of his bookson Italian witch lore, and also in his letters and scrapbooks.r5It is clear from all these references that he eventually obtainedseveral hundred pages of Italian text from her, in addition tothe large manuscript just mentioned.

Unfortunately, although most of the other letters, papers,scrapbooks and texts cited by Leland (or by his niece in herbiography of him) are still to be found in one or another of the

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i.tfour libraries named above, not even a single page of all thiswitch lore in Maddalena's own hand seems to have been pre-served anywhere. I have found only one letter from her, pasted

into one of Leland's scrapbooks for 1895. It is dated June 17,1895, addressed to Leland as her "patron" and signed "Mad-dalena Talenti" (if I have read her difficult handwriting cor-rectly). It appears to discuss her impending marriage to an oldsuitor and their proposed emigration from Italy to the UnitedStates.l6

If Maddalena did in fact succeed in emigrating, it wouldseem to have been after the end of 1 896, when she sent Lelandthe manuscript of Aradia from Colle near Siena.rT Indeed, thismanuscript may be the very last text she sent Leland, to judge

by his books and papers. By 1896, however, Leland had grownso old and so physically weak that he was nearly housebound,so the absence of any further references to texts from her maybe due to his infirmity rather than her emigration.

Leland writes about Maddalena in several places, a few ofwhich are of interest to us here. He first described her in hisGypty Sorcery and Fortune Telling, published in 1891 butcompleted about two years earlier: she is a woman "who wasof the Tuscan Romagna and who looked Etruscan with a touchof gypsy blood, was a repertory of popular superstitions, espe-cially witch-lore, and a maker and wearer of fetishes, alwayscarrying a small bag of them."l8

Leland has other things to say about her elsewhere. In hisEtruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition, as in Aradia,he emphasizes that this witch lore is handed down in secretonly within a few families such as Maddalena's.1e In an unpub-lished letter to Elizabeth Pennell, written on Christmas Day(of 1894, from internal evidence), he gives a long descriptionof a ritual that Maddalena performed to free him from theeffects of the evil eye, and ends it by describing Maddalenaherself as o'a relic of old Etruscan shamanic witch faith."20

But Leland's fullest published account of Maddalena is tobe found in the "Preface to the First Edition" (1895) in thefirst volume of his Legends of Florence'.

In the year 1886 I made the acquaintance in Florence of

a woman who was not only skilled in fortune-telling, but

who had inherited as a family gift from generations, skill

in witchcraft-that is, a knowledge of mystical cures, the

relieving people who were bewitched, the making amu-

lets, and who had withal a memory stocked with a liter-

ally incredible number of tales and names of spirits, with

the invocations to them, and strange rites and charms'

She was a native of the Romagna Toscana, where there

still lurks in the recesses of the mountains much antique

Etrusco-Roman heathenism, though it is disappearingvery rapidly. Maddalena-such was her nsms-5ssn $s-

gan to communicate to me all her lore. She could read

and write, but beyond this never gave the least indication

of having opened a book of any kind; albeit she had an

immense library of folklore in her brain. When she could

not recall a tale or incantation, she would go aboutamong her extensive number of friends, and being per-

fectly familiar with every dialect, whether Neapolitan,

Bolognese, Florentine, or Venetian, and the ways and

manners of the poor, and especially of witches, who are

the great repositories of legends, became in time wonder-

fully well skilled as a collector. Now, as the proverb says,

"Take a thief to catch a thief," so I found that to take a

witch to catch witches, or detect their secrets, was an

infallible means to acquire the arcana of sorcery. It was

in this manner that I gathered a great part of the lore in

my "Etruscan Roman Remains." I however collectedenough, in all conscience, from other sources, and veri-

fied it all sufficiently from classical writers, to fully test

the honesty of my authorities. The witches in Italy form

a class who are the repositories of all the folklore; but,

what is not generally known, they also keep as strict

secrets an immense number of legends of their own,

which have nothing in common with the nursery or popu-

lar tales, such as are commonly collected and published.

The real witch story is very often only a frame, so to

32 JJ

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four libraries named above, not even a single page of all thiswitch lore in Maddalena's own hand seems to have been pre-served anywhere. I have found only one letter from her, pasted

into one of Leland's scrapbooks for 1895. It is dated June 17,1895, addressed to Leland as her "patron" and signed "Mad-dalena Talenti" (if I have read her difficult handwriting cor-rectly). It appears to discuss her impending marriage to an oldsuitor and their proposed emigration from Italy to the UnitedStates.l6

If Maddalena did in fact succeed in emigrating, it wouldseem to have been after the end of 1 896, when she sent Lelandthe manuscript of Aradia from Colle near Siena.rT Indeed, thismanuscript may be the very last text she sent Leland, to judge

by his books and papers. By 1896, however, Leland had grownso old and so physically weak that he was nearly housebound,so the absence of any further references to texts from her maybe due to his infirmity rather than her emigration.

Leland writes about Maddalena in several places, a few ofwhich are of interest to us here. He first described her in hisGypty Sorcery and Fortune Telling, published in 1891 butcompleted about two years earlier: she is a woman "who wasof the Tuscan Romagna and who looked Etruscan with a touchof gypsy blood, was a repertory of popular superstitions, espe-cially witch-lore, and a maker and wearer of fetishes, alwayscarrying a small bag of them."r8

Leland has other things to say about her elsewhere. In hisEtruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition, as in Aradia,he emphasizes that this witch lore is handed down in secretonly within a few families such as Maddalena's.1e In an unpub-lished letter to Elizabeth Pennell, written on Christmas Day(of 1894, from internal evidence), he gives a long descriptionof a ritual that Maddalena performed to free him from theeffects of the evil eye, and ends it by describing Maddalenaherself as o'a relic of old Etruscan shamanic witch faith."20

But Leland's fullest published account of Maddalena is tobe found in the "Preface to the First Edition" (1895) in thefirst volume of his Legends of Florence:

In the year 1886 I made the acquaintance in Florence of

a woman who was not only skilled in fortune-telling, but

who had inherited as a family gift from generations, skill

in witchcraft-that is, a knowledge of mystical cures, the

relieving people who were bewitched, the making amu-

lets, and who had withal a memory stocked with a liter-

ally incredible number of tales and names of spirits, with

the invocations to them, and strange rites and charms'

She was a native of the Romagna Toscana, where there

still lurks in the recesses of the mountains much antique

Etrusco-Roman heathenism, though it is disappearingvery rapidly. Maddalena-such was her nsms-5ssn $s-

gan to communicate to me all her lore. She could read

and write, but beyond this never gave the least indication

of having opened a book of any kind; albeit she had an

immense library of folklore in her brain. When she could

not recall a tale or incantation, she would go aboutamong her extensive number of friends, and being per-

fectly familiar with every dialect, whether Neapolitan,

Bolognese, Florentine, or Venetian, and the ways and

manners of the poor, and especially of witches, who are

the great repositories of legends, became in time wonder-

fully well skilled as a collector. Now, as the proverb says,

"Take a thief to catch a thief," so I found that to take a

witch to catch witches, or detect their secrets, was an

infallible means to acquire the arcana of sorcery. It was

in this manner that I gathered a great part of the lore in

my "Etruscan Roman Remains." I however collectedenough, in all conscience, from other sources, and veri-

fied it all sufficiently from classical writers, to fully test

the honesty of my authorities. The witches in Italy form

a class who are the repositories of all the folklore; but,

what is not generally known, they also keep as strict

secrets an immense number of legends of their own,

which have nothing in common with the nursery or popu-

lar tales, such as are commonly collected and published.

The real witch story is very often only a frame, so to

32 JJ

speak, the real picture within it being the arcanum of along scongiurazione or incantation, and what ingredientswere used to work the charm.2l

Equally interesting is a manuscript note of Leland,s, pub_lished by Elizabeth pennell, which says:

I did not gather all the facts for a long time, but graduallyfound that she was of a witch famity, o, o* *tosemembers had, from time immemorial, told fortunes, re_peated ancient legends, gathered incantations andlearned how to intone them, prepared enchanted medi_cines, philtres, or spells. As a girl, her witch grand_mother, aunt, and especially her stepmother brouglt herup to believe in her destiny as a sorceress, and taught herin the forests, afar from human ear, to chant in .t.ung"prescribed tones, incantations or evocations to the ai_cient gods of Italy, under names but little changed, whoare now known asfolletti, spiriti,fate, or lari_the Laresor household goblins of the ancient Etruscans.22

After all this there should be no serious question thatMaddalena truly existed, and that she was more than able tosupply Leland with any desired quantity of witch lore in ex_:.h"-rg:

for his patronage and pay. The serious questions whichlie before us are far more subtle ones:

' How did Leland use this materiar as he prepared his booksfor publication?

. Yo* should we judge Maddalena,s material, to the extentthatwe can recover it from Leland,s books (so long ur,t"original texts that she sent him remain toit;Z Wu'. it unauthentic record of old tradition? Was it Maddalena,s owninvention to please her patron? Or does the truth Iie some_where between these two extremes?

The Gospel of the Witches (It Vangelo delle Streghe)On January l, l9g7, Leland received a post from Mad_

dalena with a manuscript in Italian "entitled Aradia, or theGospel of the l|titches." This manuscript was in her own hand,but Leland presumed, or was told by her, that she had copiedit from an older manuscript "setting forth the doctrines ofItalian witchcraft," which she had long assured him existed.Leland himself never saw this older manuscript.23

The casual reader of the published Aradia may well beginby supposing that Leland simply translated Maddalena,smanuscript into English and sent it to press; but even a hastyreading of the book reveals that things are not nearly so simpleas this.

There are, first of all, many passages in the published bookwhere Leland is clearly writing in his own person as a scholar,commenting on the text which he has just given in translation.These passages are easy to recognize, and are usually markedby the use of a larger font of type or square brackets. Obvi-ously, they cannot have been in Maddalena,s manuscript.

Yet this is not all. A somewhat more attentive examinationof the published Aradia reveals that many other parts of itwere not translated from this manuscript, either.

Leland himself says that the texts in chapters VII, XI, XII,XIII, XIV and XV were not in Maddalena,s manuscript ofAradia, but were found elsewhere-as a rule in some othermanuscript which he had already received from Maddalena.2aThe same is clearly true of the texts printed at the very end ofthe published book, after Leland's own scholarly appendix.Moreover, as Leland himself points out, the texts in chaptersXII, XIII and XV also appear by themselves in two of his otherbooks, the second volume of Legends of Florence (publishedin 1896), and Unpublished Legends of Virgit (published in1899, at the same time as Aradia). Likewise, a shorter versionof the text in chapter III is to be fOund in Legends o/Florence.25

Thus at least six or seven of the fifteen chapters in thepublished Aradia do not derive at all from the manuscript ofAradia which Leland had received from Maddalena on thefirst day of 1898.

re!'is;,,.

3435

)

speak, the real picture within it being the arcanum of along scongiurazione or incantation, and what ingredientswere used to work the charm.2r

Equally interesting is a manuscript note of Leland,s, pub_lished by Elizabeth pennell, which says:

I did not gather all the facts for a long time, but graduallyfound that she was of a witch family, o. o* *t,osemembers had, from time immemorial, told fortunes. re_peated ancient Iegends, gathered incantations andlearned how to intone them, prepared enchanted medi_cines, philtres, or spells. As a girl, her witch grand_mother, aunt, and especially her stepmother broug-ht herup to believe in her destiny as a sorceress, and taught herin the forests, afar from human ear, to chant in ,,.ung"prescribed tones, incantations or evocations to the ai_cient gods of Italy, under names but little changed, whoare now known asfolletti, spiriti,fate, or lari_the Laresor household goblins of the ancient Etruscans.22

After all this there should be no serious question thatMaddalena truly existed, and that she was more than able tosupply Leland with any desired quantity of witch lore in ex_:.h".ng:

for his patronage and pay. The serious questions whichlie before us are far more subtle ones:

' How did Leland use this materiar as he prepared his booksfor publication?

. Yo* should we judge Maddalena,s material, to the extentthat we can recover it from Leland,s books (so long as theoriginal texts that she sent him remain to.t;f Wi', it unauthentic record of old tradition? Was it Maddalena,, o*ninvention to please her patron? Or does the truth lie some_where between these two extremes?

The Gospel of the Witches (Il Vangelo delte Streghe)On January 1, 1897, Leland received a post from Mad_

dalena with a manuscript in Italian "entitled Aradia, or theGospel of the l4ritches." This manuscript was in her own hand,but Leland presumed, or was told by her, that she had copiedit from an older manuscript "setting forth the doctrines ofItalian witchcraft," which she had long assured him existed.Leland himself never saw this older manuscript.23

The casual reader of the published Aradia may well beginby supposing that Leland simply translated Maddalena,smanuscript into English and sent it to press; but even a hastyreading of the book reveals that things are not nearly so simpleas this.

There are, first of all, many passages in the published bookwhere Leland is clearly writing in his own person as a scholar,commenting on the text which he has just given in translation.These passages are easy to recognize, and are usually markedby the use of a larger font of type or square brackets. Obvi-ously, they cannot have been in Maddalena,s manuscript.

Yet this is not all. A somewhat more attentive examinationof the published Aradia reveals that many other parts of itwere not translated from this manuscript, either.

Leland himself says that the texts in chapters VII, XI, XII,XIII, XIV and XV were not in Maddalena,s manuscript ofAradia, but were found elsewhere-as a rule in some othermanuscript which he had already received from Maddalena.2aThe same is clearly true of the texts printed at the very end ofthe published book, after Leland's own scholarly appendix.Moreover, as Leland himself points out, the texts in chaptersXII, XIII and XV also appear by themselves in two of his otherbooks, the second volume of Legends of Florence (publishedin 1896), and Unpublished Legends of Virgil (published inI 899, at the same time as Aradia). Likewise, a shorter versionof the text in chapter III is to be fOund in Legends ofFlorence.25

Thus at least six or seven of the fifteen chapters in thepublished Aradia do not derive at all from the manuscript ofAradia which Leland had received from Maddalena on thefirst day of 1 898.

ffiit;ii;

3435

)

The careful reader can take this line offurther, for Leland himself has described theof Maddalena's manuscript more fully in twopreface he writes:

reasoning evenwhole contents

passages. In the

I may say that witchcraft is known to its votaries as /avecchia religione, or the old religion, of which Diana isthe Goddess, her daughter Aradia (or Herodias) the fe_male Messiah, and that this littre work sets forth how thelatter was born, came down to the earth, estabrishedwitches and witchcraft, and then returned to heaven.with it are given the ceremonies and invocations or in-cantations to be addressed to Diana and Aradia, the ex_orcism of Cain, and the spells of the holy-stone, rue, andverbena, constituting, as the text declares, the regularchurch service, so to speak, which is to be chanted orpronounced at the witch meetings. There are also in_cluded the very curious incantations or benedictions ofthe honey, meal, and salt, or cakes of the witch supper,which is curiously classical, and evidently a relic #tn"Roman Mysteries.26

His other, more discursive account of the contents in thepublished book's appendix occupies several pages. It is toolong to quote in full here, but it says that much of Maddarena,sItalian text was in ,,prose-poetry,,, which Leland has ,,ren_dered in metre or verse,,, and that it covered the followingtopics in order:27. that Aradia is the daughter of Diana (Goddess of the

Moon) and her brother Lucifer (God of the Sun). that Diana, in association with Aradia, is eueen of the

Witches and the Goddess and protectress of the oppressed,the outcast, the ungodly and the god-forsaken

. that she is in some relation to Cain, who dwells as aprisoner in the moon

. that the witches of old were people oppressed under feu_dalism, revenging themselves on theii iords in every way

36 3t

sDkEE6sF6

!.Fl'

i

ii'1. a

:

and holding orgies to Diana which the Church misrepre-sented as the worship of Satan

how the supper of the witches is to be conducted, with itscakes of meal, salt and honey in the form of crescentmoons, and its conjuration of the meal or bread

that there is a relationship between the brightness of thegrains of wheat and the brightness of fireflies

how the Goddess may be compelled by threats to grant theprayers of her worshippers

how a holy stone (i.e. a stone with a hole through it) is tobe charmed, and rue and verbena or vervain are to begathered

These two accounts of the manuscript's contents agreesufficiently with one another for us to regard them as reliable.It is noteworthy that all of these topics are covered only andwholly in chapters I and II and the first half of chapter IV inthe publishe d Aradia, and that they are treated there in j ust theorder in which Leland mentions them. All the rest of the book,then, must be added text-not just chapters III, VII and XIthrough XV (as Leland himself indicated), but also chapters V,VI and VIII through X.

In characterizing most of the published Aradict as materialadded by Leland to Maddalena's short manuscript of Aradia,I do not want to be understood as implying that he inventedthese added texts. Rather, he found them among the manytexts which he had already collected from Maddalena, and hechose to include them because he supposed that they wouldappropriately supplement her newest manuscript, the shorttext titled Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches.2s That all, oralmost all, of these additional Italian texts were also in thehand of a single person, that is, in Maddalena's own hand, maybe deduced from what Leland himself writes about them in thepublished book:

I would remind certain very literal readers that if theyfind many faults of grammar, misspelling, and worse in

The careful reader can take this line of reasoning evenfurther, for Leland himserf has described the whore contentsof Maddalena's manuscript more fully in two passages. In thepreface he writes:

I may say that witchcraft is known to its votaries as /avecchia religione, or the old religion, of which Diana isthe Goddess, her daughter Aradia (or Herodias) the fe_male Messiah, and that this little work sets forth how thelatter was born, came down to the earth, establishedwitches and witchcraft, and then returned to heaven.with it are given the ceremonies and invocations or in-cantations to be addressed to Diana and Aradia, the ex_orcism of Cain, and the spells of the holy_stone, rue, andverbena, constituting, as the text declares, the regularchurch service, so to speak, which is to be chanted orpronounced at the witch meetings. There are also in_cluded the very curious incantations or benedictions ofthe honey, meal, and salt, or cakes of the witch supper,which is curiously-classical, and evidently a relic Jtn"Roman Mysteries.26

His other, more discursive account of the contents in thepublished book's appendix occupies several pages. It is tooIong to quote in full here, but it says that much of Maddalena,sItalian text was in ,,prose-poetry,,, which Leland has ,,ren_dered in metre or verse,,, and that it covered the followingtopics in order:27. that Aradia is the daughter of Diana (Goddess of the

Moon) and her brother Lucifer (God of the Sun). that Diana, in association with Aradia, is eueen of the

Witches and the Goddess and protectress of the oppressed,the outcast, the ungodly and the god_forsaken

. that she is in some relation to Cain, who dwells as aprisoner in the moon

. that the witches of old were people oppressed under feu_dalism, revenging themselves on theii iords in every way

3637

and holding orgies to Diana which the Church misrepre-sented as the worship of Satan

how the supper of the witches is to be conducted, with itscakes of meal, salt and honey in the form of crescentmoons, and its conjuration of the meal or bread

that there is a relationship between the brightness of thegrains of wheat and the brightness of fireflies

how the Goddess may be compelled by threats to grant theprayers of her worshippers

how a holy stone (i.e. a stone with a hole through it) is tobe charmed, and rue and verbena or vervain are to begathered

These two accounts of the manuscript's contents agreesufficiently with one another for us to regard them as reliable.It is noteworthy that all of these topics are covered only andwholly in chapters I and II and the first half of chapter IV inthe publishedAradia, and that they are treated there injust theorder in which Leland mentions them. Allthe rest of the book,then, must be added text-not just chapters III, VII and XIthrough XV (as Leland himself indicated), but also chapters V,VI and VIII through X.

In characterizing most of the published Aradia as materialadded by Leland to Maddalena's short manuscript of Aradia,I do not want to be understood as implying that he inventedthese added texts. Rather, he found them among the manytexts which he had already collected from Maddalena, and hechose to include them because he supposed that they wouldappropriately supplement her newest manuscript, the shorttext titled Aradia, or the Gospel of the lV'itches.28 That all, oralmost all, of these additional Italian texts were also in thehand of a single person, that is, in Maddalena's own hand, maybe deduced from what Leland himself writes about them in thepublished book:

I would remind certain very literal readers that if theyfind many faults of grammar, misspelling, and worse in

the Italian texts in this book, they will not, as a distin-guished reviewer has done, attribute them all to the igno-

rance of the author, but to the imperfect education of the

person who collected and recorded them'2e

Leland further alludes to this process of selection andcompilation in two other places, where he writes that thepublished Aradia could have been made much longer, and that

it is merely the "initial chapter" in a much longer volumewhich might be compiled to preserve "the Scripture of Witch-

craft," the "principal tenets, formulas, medicaments, andmysteries" of la vecchia religione, the old religion, of thewitches of Italy, which has been "the faith of millions in the

past." Indeed, he says that "(I) would gladly undertake thework if I believed that the public would make it worth thepublisher's outlay and pains."3o

Behind the Scenes in Leland's Study

The preceding could have been worked out by anyonefrom the published Aradia alone. However, thanks to a fortu-

nate discovery, I have now been able to look a bit more deeply

into the way in which Leland compiled his book. Some years

ago, as I was going through the boxed bundles of Leland'sloose papers preserved in the library of the Historical Society

of Pennsylvania, I recognized several sheets of paper withfamiliar text. Assembling all of these scattered sheets in their

indicated order-they had been numbered-I found that I hadbefore me the text in Leland's own hand, in English and ltal-

ian, of Aradla as he had published it in 1899.3'It was not Maddalena's original manuscript, obviously.

The present location of all the manuscripts which she prepared

for Leland still remains an unsolved mystery.32 Yet it was thenext best thing to that lost original, for it was Leland's owncareful working draft of his translation and commentary, with

many additions and corrections on the original sheets and also

on slips of paper which he had pasted to these sheets' Thisdraft, as it happened, was neat and clean enough for him to

send directly to his publisher, where it was marked up by an

editor and handed over to the typesetters to serve as their

working copy. When the editor and the typesetters had fin-

ished theirwork, the draft was returned to Leland, who never

got around to discarding it in the course of the last few, diffi-

cult years of his life.From these handwritten pages we can learn more about

how Leland compiled the text of the published Aradia from

the mass of material which Maddalena had collected for him'

There is no need to describe all the detail ofthe process here,

for most of his changes were stylistic, or were additions to the

commentary which occurred to Leland as afterthoughts'13Only two observations bear directly on the questions that we

are considering here.

The more important of these two observations is thatLeland was still revising his English text-his translations and

his commentaries alike-as he wrote out the manuscript for

his publisher, but that he did not revise the Italian text that he

included in his manuscript. All the deletions, insertions and

other corrections in the English text show that Leland was not

just copying out a work that he had already written and pol-

ished, but was still improving his text as he prepared themanuscript for the printer. In sharp contrast to this, the texts

in Italian are written almost without any corrections. The few

corrections he made to the Italian are precisely the sort that a

proofreader would make as he compared his copy to the origi-

nal.

Before I had examined the manuscript carefully, I was sti11

somewhat of two minds whether Leland might have invented

Aradia by himself, Italian and English texts alike. Now, how-

ever, I am convinced that Leland had clearly written Italiantexts, such as he said that Maddalena had sent to him. He

seems to have translated these Italian texts as he went along,

and he continued to polish his English translations and com-

mentaries as he wrote them out. When he gave the text of some

spell in Italian as well as English, he already had a final copy

of the Italian before him, which he could simply transcribe

38 39

the Italian texts in this book, they will not, as a distin-guished reviewer has done, attribute them all to the igno-

rance of the author, but to the imperfect education of the

person who collected and recorded them'2e

Leland further alludes to this process of selection andcompilation in two other places, where he writes that thepublished Aradio could have been made much longer, and that

it is merely the "initial chapter" in a much longer volumewhich might be compiled to preserve "the Scripture of Witch-

craft," the "principal tenets, formulas, medicaments, andmysteries" of la vecchia religione, the old religion, of thewitches of Italy, which has been "the faith of millions in the

past." Indeed, he says that "(I) would gladly undertake thework if I believed that the public would make it worth thepublisher's outlay and pains."3o

Behind the Scenes in Leland's Study

The preceding could have been worked out by anyonefrom the published Aradia alone. However, thanks to a fortu-

nate discovery, I have now been able to look a bit more deeply

into the way in which Leland compiled his book. Some years

ago, as I was going through the boxed bundles of Leland'sloose papers preserved in the library of the Historical Society

of Pennsylvania, I recognized several sheets of paper withfamiliar text. Assembling all of these scattered sheets in their

indicated order-they had been numbered-I found that I hadbefore me the text in Leland's own hand, in English and ltal-

ian, of Aradia as he had published it in 1899.3'It was not Maddalena's original manuscript, obviously.

The present location of all the manuscripts which she prepared

for Leland still remains an unsolved mystery.32 Yet it was thenext best thing to that lost original, for it was Leland's owncareful working draft of his translation and commentary, with

many additions and corrections on the original sheets and also

on slips of paper which he had pasted to these sheets' Thisdraft, as it happened, was neat and clean enough for him to

send directly to his publisher, where it was marked up by an

editor and handed over to the typesetters to serve as their

working copy. When the editor and the typesetters had fin-

ished theirwork, the draft was returned to Leland, who never

got around to discarding it in the course of the last few, diffi-

cult years of his life.From these handwritten pages we can learn more about

how Leland compiled the text of the published Aradia ftom

the mass of material which Maddalena had collected for him'

There is no need to describe all the detail ofthe process here,

for most of his changes were stylistic, or were additions to the

commentary which occurred to Leland as afterthoughts'13Only two observations bear directly on the questions that we

are considering here.

The more important of these two observations is thatLeland was still revising his English text-his translations and

his commentaries alike-as he wrote out the manuscript for

his publisher, but that he did not revise the Italian text that he

included in his manuscript. All the deletions, insertions and

other corrections in the English text show that Leland was not

just copying out a work that he had already written and pol-

ished, but was still improving his text as he prepared themanuscript for the printer. In sharp contrast to this, the texts

in Italian are written almost without any corrections. The few

corrections he made to the Italian are precisely the sort that a

proofreader would make as he compared his copy to the origi-

nal.

Before I had examined the manuscript carefully, I was sti11

somewhat of two minds whether Leland might have invented

Aradia by himself, Italian and English texts alike. Now, how-

ever, I am convinced that Leland had clearly written Italiantexts, such as he said that Maddalena had sent to him. He

seems to have translated these Italian texts as he went along,

and he continued to polish his English translations and com-

mentaries as he wrote them out' When he gave the text of some

spell in Italian as well as English, he already had a final copy

of the Italian before him, which he could simply transcribe

38 39

into his own manuscript-with all its original errors in spell-ing, as he informed us.3a This fact is further valuable supportfor Leland's own statement that he was working from existingtexts in Italian which had been sent to him.

The other of these two observations is of nearly equalimportance. All the chapter divisions and titles in the publish-ed Aradia were added by Leland himself, and were not in theItalian texts which he had received from Maddalena. The draftmanuscript reveals that Leland divided the early part of Ara-dia into chapters only after he had written out the first 37sheets of that manuscript. Moreover, these 37 sheets containprecisely the text*that is, chapters I and II and the first halfof chapter IV-which corresponds in its contents to Mad-dalena's original manuscript of Aradia, as Leland himself de-scribed it (see the previous section of this essay).35

It is difficult to convey the details of this to a reader whois not in a position to look at the draft manuscript himself(either in the original or on microfilm), but I shall try to do sofor the sake of those readers who need to weigh the evidencefor themselves.

The first thing that one sees is that the final headings forchapter II and chapter IV were added by Leland, on insertedsheets of paper, sometime after he wrote the first part of themanuscript.

When Leland wrote out the first part of his draft, the placewhere chapter II now begins fell towards the bottom of sheet33 in the manuscript, and originally had no chapter number ortitle. The text continues on the sheet that immediately fol-lowed this one, but is now numbered 35. Sheet 34 is an in-serted half sheet, which contains only the heading of chapterII (its number and its title) and the first few words of thechapter which were at the bottom of sheet 33.

Similarly, the place where chapter IV now begins felltowards the bottom of sheet 53 in the manuscript, and had nochapter number or title originally. The text continues on thesheet that immediately followed this one, but is now numbered61. Here two things happened. First, a sheet (now numbered

40 41

60) was inserted, which contains only the heading of chapter

IV (its number and its title) and the first few words of thechapter which were at the bottom of sheet 53. Second, anentire new chapter-the present chapter III-

into his own manuscript-with all its original errors in spell-ing, as he informed us.3a This fact is further valuable supportfor Leland's own statement that he was working from existingtexts in Italian which had been sent to him.

The other of these two observations is of nearly equalimportance. All the chapter divisions and titles in the publish-ed Aradia were added by Leland himself, and were not in theItalian texts which he had received from Maddalena. The draftmanuscript reveals that Leland divided the early part of Ara-dia into chapters only after he had written out the first 37sheets of that manuscript. Moreover, these 37 sheets containprecisely the text-that is, chapters I and II and the first halfof chapter IV-which corresponds in its contents to Mad-dalena's original manuscript of Aradia, as Leland himself de-scribed it (see the previous section of this essay).35

It is difficult to convey the details of this to a reader whois not in a position to look at the draft manuscript himself(either in the original or on microfilm), but I shall try to do sofor the sake of those readers who need to weigh the evidencefor themselves.

The first thing that one sees is that the final headings forchapter II and chapter IV were added by Leland, on insertedsheets of paper, sometime after he wrote the first part of themanuscript.

When Leland wrote out the first part of his draft, the placewhere chapter II now begins fell towards the bottom of sheet33 in the manuscript, and originally had no chapter number ortitle. The text continues on the sheet that immediately fol-lowed this one, but is now numbered 35. Sheet 34 is an in-serted half sheet, which contains only the heading of chapterII (its number and its title) and the first few words of thechapter which were at the bottom of sheet 33.

Similarly, the place where chapter IV now begins felltowards the bottom of sheet 53 in the manuscript, and had nochapter number or title originally. The text continues on thesheet that immediately followed this one, but is now numbered61. Here two things happened. First, a sheet (now numbered

40 4t

FrE

rs&,

r

rF

r

f

l

I,

r

:

:

60) was inserted, which contains only the heading of chapter

IV (its number and its title) and the first few words of thechapter which were at the bottom of sheet 53' Second, anentire new chapter-the present chapter III--on 6 new sheetswas inserted between the sheets now numbered 53 and 60.

(See following pages.)These three insertions-sheet 34, sheets 54 through 59,

and sheet 60-were all made at the same time, since the chap-

ter numbers which they bear are consistent with one another:

"Chapter Second" on sheet 34, "Chapter Third" on sheet 54,and "Chapter Fourth" on sheet 60. At the same time the first

few words of chapter II which were originally at the bottom ofsheet 33 were cut away, and the first few words of chapter IV

which were originally at the bottom of sheet 53 were crossed

out (but can still be read).All this happened after Leland wrote the sheets that are

now numbered 61 through 66 (which contain the first half ofchapter IV), but before he wrote the sheets now numbered 67through 73 (which contain the second half of chapter IV)' Thiscan be seen from the fact that sheet 67 originally began with

the words "Chapter Fifth" and a chapter title. The heading"Chapter Fifth" on this sheet was soon crossed out, for whatis now chapter V begins on sheet 74, and at the top of sheet 74

stood-and stands-the same heading, "Chapter Fifth."Now Leland had intended to divide his book into chapters

from the beginning of his work on it, for the very first sheet ofthe main text (after the preface and table of contents) openswith the words "Aradia / or the Gospel of the Witches /Chapter First."36 Therefore he must also have planned from

the beginning to supplement Maddalena's brief manuscript ofAradia with other texts that he had already received from her.

The only thing that changed was where he would place the

chapter divisions.

Originally, he intended that Maddalena's entire text of

Aradia would be the first chapter of the compilation which he

was making. Sometime after he had drafted this original chap-

ter in its entirety, but before he had done much more work, he

2

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Sheet 53

The following illustrations are reproductions of Leland,s manuscript showinghow the original text was broken to add more material. sheets 55 to sg, whichare not reproduced here, contain the balance of chapter 3.

42 43

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44 45

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Sheet 60

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Sheet 61

decided to insert what is now chapter III into this text abouttwo-thirds of the way toward its end. Needing to keep thischapter as a distinct unit, he then divided the original firstchapter into three parts by inserting two further sheets. Lettingthe first of these three parts remain chapter I, he labeled theothers chapter II and chapter IV.

He then proceeded to write a further additional chapter,"Chapter Fifth / The Spell or Conjuration / of the RoundStone," which occupies sheets 67 through 73. But he soonchanged his plan here, realizing that this short chapter blendedwell with the previous short chapter about stones with holesthrough them. Accordingly, he crossed out the heading "Chap-ter Fifth" on sheet 67,but wrote the same words at the top ofsheet 74, where chapter V in the published Aradia begins.From here onward there are no further revisions in the chapterheadings, but everything proceeds in the draft manuscript asin the published Aradia.

As I already pointed out, the bottom of sheet 66 is exactlywhere Maddalena's manuscript of Aradia seems to haveended, to judge by Leland's accounts of its contents. Theformer existence of a chapter division at this point stronglyconfirms this conjecture. When Leland crossed out the head-ing "Chapter Fifth" on sheet 67, he effectively masked thepoint at which Maddalena's manuscript of Aradia ended, butwith his manuscript draft we can lift the mask.

The manuscript draft, with all these additions and correc-tions, was finished early in 1897, and sent promptly to aprospective publisher, David Nutt. There it remained untilearly 1899, when Leland finally wrote to reclaim it, presum-ably to send it to some other publisher. Nutt responded byfinally accepting the manuscript for publication. It seems tohave reached the bookstores by July, I 899, atthe very latest.37How it fared at the hands of the reading public remains to bestudied.38

46 47

How Should we Judge Aradia?

When all is said and done, what are we to think of Leland,spublished Aradia? In the past, extreme views have predomi-nated. Some have thought that the whole of Aradia (apart fromthe obviously added scholarly commentary) is a straightfor-ward, accurate translation of a single text, long kept secret bythe witches of Italy. Others have voiced their suspicions thatLeland made the whole of Aradia up out of his imagination.3e

We have seen that neither of these extreme views can becorrect. As often happens, the truth lies somewhere in themiddle. The evidence which we have examined strongly com-pels us to regard the published Aradia as a compilation madeby Leland from a number of written texts and oral materialscollected mostly (or entirely) from just one very unusual Ital-ian informant, whom he named Maddalena.

As a compilation, of course, the publish ed Aradia reflectsthe views and interests of its compiler; it could not be other-wise, given Leland's own high degree of personal involvementwith the themes of these texts. We have already stated thatLeland himself was from his youth onwards a romantic and amystic. It remains to be noted that by the time he met Mad-dalena he had-as many mystics will-arrived at his ownhighly individual views on the basic questions of religion andthe effectiveness of magic, which were very different fromthose of any established church of his era.a0 He seems also tohave come to hold strong views on the equality of men andwomen which were unusual in his age.al

So strong-minded and individualistic a scholar as Leland,so deeply involved with the magic and lore of his informantsin an age when folklore was just becoming a scholarly disci-pline, could not help putting a lot of himself in his books. Anobituary notice by F. York Powell has this to say aboutLeland's folklore research:

He could and did make careful and exact notes, but whenhe put his results before the public he liked to give themthe seal of his own personality and to allow his fancy to

decided to insert what is now chapter III into this text abouttwo-thirds of the way toward its end. Needing to keep thischapter as a distinct unit, he then divided the original firstchapter into three parts by inserting two further sheets. Lettingthe first of these three parts remain chapter I, he labeled theothers chapter II and chapter IV.

He then proceeded to write a further additional chapter,"Chapter Fifth / The Spell or Conjuration / of the RoundStone," which occupies sheets 67 through 73. But he soonchanged his plan here, realizing that this short chapter blendedwell with the previous short chapter about stones with holesthrough them. Accordingly, he crossed out the heading "Chap-ter Fifth" on sheet 67,but wrote the same words at the top ofsheet 74, where chapter V in the published Aradia begins.From here onward there are no further revisions in the chapterheadings, but everything proceeds in the draft manuscript asin the published Aradia.

As I already pointed out, the bottom of sheet 66 is exactlywhere Maddalena's manuscript of Aradia seems to haveended, to judge by Leland's accounts of its contents. Theformer existence of a chapter division at this point stronglyconfirms this conjecture. When Leland crossed out the head-ing "Chapter Fifth" on sheet 67, he effectively masked thepoint at which Maddalena's manuscript of Aradia ended, butwith his manuscript draft we can lift the mask.

The manuscript draft, with all these additions and correc-tions, was finished early in 1897, and sent promptly to aprospective publisher, David Nutt. There it remained untilearly 1899, when Leland finally wrote to reclaim it, presum-ably to send it to some other publisher. Nutt responded byfinally accepting the manuscript for publication. It seems tohave reached the bookstores by July, I 899, atthe very latest.37How it fared at the hands of the reading public remains to bestudied.38

46 47

How Should we Judge Aradia?

When all is said and done, what are we to think of Leland,spublished Aradia? In the past, extreme views have predomi-nated. Some have thought that the whole of Aradia (apart fromthe obviously added scholarly commentary) is a straightfor-ward, accurate translation of a single text, long kept secret bythe witches of Italy. Others have voiced their suspicions thatLeland made the whole of Aradia up out of his imagination.3e

We have seen that neither of these extreme views can becorrect. As often happens, the truth lies somewhere in themiddle. The evidence which we have examined strongly com-pels us to regard the published Aradia as a compilation madeby Leland from a number of written texts and oral materialscollected mostly (or entirely) from just one very unusual Ital-ian informant, whom he named Maddalena.

As a compilation, of course, the publish ed Aradia reflectsthe views and interests of its compiler; it could not be other-wise, given Leland's own high degree of personal involvementwith the themes of these texts. We have already stated thatLeland himself was from his youth onwards a romantic and amystic. It remains to be noted that by the time he met Mad-dalena he had-as many mystics will-arrived at his ownhighly individual views on the basic questions of religion andthe effectiveness of magic, which were very different fromthose of any established church of his era.ao He seems also tohave come to hold strong views on the equality of men andwomen which were unusual in his age.4l

So strong-minded and individualistic a scholar as Leland,so deeply involved with the magic and lore of his informantsin an age when folklore was just becoming a scholarly disci-pline, could not help putting a lot of himself in his books. Anobituary notice by F. York Powell has this to say aboutLeland's folklore research:

He could and did make careful and exact notes, but whenhe put his results before the public he liked to give themthe seal of his own personality and to allow his fancy to

play about the stories and poems he was publishing, sothat those who were not able quickly to distinguish whatwas folklore and what was Leland were shocked, andgrumbled (much to his astonishment and even disgust)and belittled his real achievements. He thought clearly,and many of his "guesses" have been or are being con-firmed.a2

So the published Aradia definitely reflects something ofLeland's views on religion, on magic and on women. Theseviews are, for the most part, overtly expressed in his commen-tary; but they may also have somewhat colored his transla-tions, and they have without question colored his selection ofsupplementary texts in the published Aradia.a3

But the published Aradia also reflects the views of Mad-dalena: the Italian texts which Leland gave in the original andin translation were all (or almost all) in her handwriting, andwere either composed or edited by her before Leland ever sawthem.

Maddalena presented herself (and her fellows) to Lelandas streghe (witches) and also-the two are not necessarily thesame thing-as followers of la vecchia religione (the old re-ligion), in other words, as custodians of a secret tradition ofmagic and "counter-religion" which had survived from Ro-man antiquity, and even from the Etruscans who were therebefore the Romans, in Florence and the Tuscan territoryaround it.44 The texts which he received from her, as we canread them in his transcriptions and translations, reflect thisview of Maddalena's over and over again.

As we have shown, Leland did not invent Maddalena. Shewas a real person, whom scholars may still be able to tracethrough the civil and ecclesiastical records of Florence. Shewas also Leland's principal source for all his books on Italianwitch lore, including Aradia. Whatever we may concludeabout the anliquity of Maddalena's witch lore, there should nolonger be any question that it was originally hers, notLeland's.45

48 49

But there is a real likelihood that Maddalena to a certainextent invented herself in response to the interests and enthu-siasms of her friend Leland, who also employed her to collectItalian witch lore and thus became her patron as well as herfriend.a6 Maddalena, before Leland met her, worked at manytrades, but mostly as a professional fortune-teller and spellcaster. Now a professional fortune-teller, whatever her otherskills, must be able to "read" the unspoken desires and fearsof her clients from the many subtle clues and cues which theygive aS the consultation progresses. (There is nothing super-natural about this ability, which is also a part of the stock intrade of many a good psychiatrist and many a successful sales-man.) It is clear, even from the relatively little we know abouther, that Maddalena was highly skilled at her craft of fortune-teller and spell caster.

It is very likely, therefore, that Maddalena could ,,read,,Leland as she read her clients, and that during the ten years oftheir acquaintance she learned to understand him very wellindeed. It would have been easy for so competent acraftswoman as Maddalena to have selected-and even tohave adapted-from the vast amount of lore at her disposalprecisely those texts and practices, those legends and spells,which would most fascinate her patron, which would bestserve to hold his interest by meeting the desires and satisfyingthe passions ofhis very unusual intellect.

This means that all of Leland's books on Italian witch loredocument for us, ultimately, the magic and counter-religion ofone remarkable, strong-minded woman from Florence. Al-though she claimed to be a representative of a secret tradition,and may truly have been what she claimed, she is almost thesole voice from that tradition that we can hear in Leland,sbooks. Moreover, what we find in these books is only a smallpart of all her witch lore, which she clearly had selected-andno doubt adapted-in order to delight and satisfy one remark-able, strong-minded man from Philadelphia. Aradia was thefinal product of the interaction between these two people,somewhat as iron is shaped between the hammer and the anvil.

play about the stories and poems he was publishing, sothat those who were not able quickly to distinguish whatwas folklore and what was Leland were shocked, andgrumbled (much to his astonishment and even disgust)and belittled his real achievements. He thought clearly,and many of his "guesses" have been or are being con-firmed.a2

So the published Aradia definitely reflects something ofLeland's views on religion, on magic and on women. Theseviews are, for the most part, overtly expressed in his commen-tary; but they may also have somewhat colored his transla-tions, and they have without question colored his selection ofsupplementary texts in the published Aradia.a3

But the published Aradia also reflects the views of Mad-dalena: the Italian texts which Leland gave in the original andin translation were all (or almost all) in her handwriting, andwere either composed or edited by her before Leland ever sawthem.

Maddalena presented herself (and her fellows) to Lelandas streghe (witches) and also-the two are not necessarily thesame thing-as followers of la vecchia religione (the old re-ligion), in other words, as custodians of a secret tradition ofmagic and "counter-religion" which had survived from Ro-man antiquity, and even from the Etruscans who were therebefore the Romans, in Florence and the Tuscan territoryaround it.44 The texts which he received from her, as we canread them in his transcriptions and translations, reflect thisview of Maddalena's over and over again.

As we have shown, Leland did not invent Maddalena. Shewas a real person, whom scholars may still be able to tracethrough the civil and ecclesiastical records of Florence. Shewas also Leland's principal source for all his books on Italianwitch lore, including Aradia. Whatever we may concludeabout the antiquity of Maddalena's witch lore, there should nolonger be any question that it was originally hers, notLeland's.45

48 49

But there is a real likelihood that Maddalena to a certainextent invented herself in response to the interests and enthu-siasms of her friend Leland, who also employed her to collectItalian witch lore and thus became her patron as well as herfriend.a6 Maddalena, before Leland met her, worked at manytrades, but mostly as a professional fortune-teller and spellcaster. Now a professional fortune-teller, whatever her otherskills, must be able to "read" the unspoken desires and fearsof her clients from the many subtle clues and cues which theygive aS the consultation progresses. (There is nothing super-natural about this ability, which is also a part of the stock intrade of many a good psychiatrist and many a successful sales-man.) It is clear, even from the relatively little we know abouther, that Maddalena was highly skilled at her craft of fortune-teller and spell caster.

It is very likely, therefore, that Maddalena could ,,read,,Leland as she read her clients, and that during the ten years oftheir acquaintance she learned to understand him very wellindeed. It would have been easy for so competent acraftswoman as Maddalena to have selected-and even tohave adapted-from the vast amount of lore at her disposalprecisely those texts and practices, those legends and spells,which would most fascinate her patron, which would bestserve to hold his interest by meeting the desires and satisfyingthe passions ofhis very unusual intellect.

This means that all of Leland's books on Italian witch loredocument for us, ultimately, the magic and counter-religion ofone remarkable, strong-minded woman from Florence. Al-though she claimed to be a representative of a secret tradition,and may truly have been what she claimed, she is almost thesole voice from that tradition that we can hear in Leland,sbooks. Moreover, what we find in these books is only a smallpart of all her witch lore, which she clearly had selected-andno doubt adapted-in order to delight and satisfy one remark-able, strong-minded man from Philadelphia. Aradia was thefinal product of the interaction between these two people,somewhat as iron is shaped between the hammer and the anvil.

Yet despite their strong individuality, all the texts which

Maddalena copied out for Leland, and all the practices which

she taught him, constitute one authentic variety of Italianmagic and Italian counter-religion. A fortune-teller and spell

caster like Maddalena does not cease to be authentic when she

practices her crafts for a foreigner, even though she will treathim differently than she would treat an Italian client. After all,

she cannot treat all Italian clients alike, either, if she is to besuccessful at her trade.

There are two traps we must avoid as we try to judge

Aradia and Leland's other writings on Italian witch lore. First,

we must not suppose that what has been collected from an

individual like Maddalena is representative, or typical, simply

because it is authentic. Second, we must not suppose that what

has been collected by an individual like Leland is not authen-

tic simply because it is not representative, or not typical. Anauthentic piece of folklore and a typical piece of folklore are

two utterly different things, even though most pieces of folk-

lore are both at once. Each is valuable for itself and each is

important to us in its own waY.This, then, is how we should judge Aradia.It is authentic,

but not representative. It offers a selection and adaptation offamily lore, which may not even be folklore in the strictest

sense of the term. This lore is witch lore, that is, it is partlyabout witches and their magic, and it serves to transmit thelegends and practices of that magic from generation to genera-

tion. But this witch lore is not limited to magic; it also trans-mits a counter-religion, that is, a religion held in deliberate

opposition to the prevailing norms of the society and culture

in which its adherents live. In Italy the normative religion at

that time was the Catholic Church, so the counter-religion ofAradia is naturally anti-Catholic and antihierarchical (anti-

clerical, antifeudal, etc.). No outside influence need be posited

to account for these features ofthe texts published in Aradia.

There is one remaining question, which unfortunately can-

not be answered in this essay. Is the counter-religion of Aradia

also an old, pre-Catholic religion (as Maddalena's term, /4

50 5l

vecchia religione, suggests)? If not, how much does it trulypreserve of the earlier rerigions-and conceivabry of earliercounter-religions-which once flourished in Tuscan Italy be_fore.christianity prevailed there, and how much of it is of laterorigin? This question must be left to another scholar, whoseexpertise will have to rie in different fierds than mine. ourinvestigation must end here with this rast great question stirlunanswered.

Yet despite their strong individuality, all the texts which

Maddalena copied out for Leland, and all the practices which

she taught him, constitute one authentic variety of Italianmagic and Italian counter-religion. A fortune-teller and spell

caster like Maddalena does not cease to be authentic when she

practices her crafts for a foreigner, even though she will treathim differently than she would treat an Italian client. After all,

she cannot treat all Italian clients alike, either, if she is to besuccessful at her trade.

There are two traps we must avoid as we try to judge

Aradia and Leland's other writings on Italian witch lore' First,

we must not suppose that what has been collected from an

individual like Maddalena is representative, or typical, simply

because it is authentic. Second, we must not suppose that what

has been collected by an individual like Leland is not authen-

tic simply because it is not representative, or not typical. Anauthentic piece of folklore and a typical piece of folklore are

two utterly different things, even though most pieces of folk-

lore are both at once. Each is valuable for itself and each is

important to us in its own waY.This, then, is how we should judge Aradia.It is authentic,

but not representative. It offers a selection and adaptation offamily lore, which may not even be folklore in the strictest

sense of the term. This lore is witch lore, that is, it is partlyabout witches and their magic, and it serves to transmit thelegends and practices of that magic from generation to genera-

tion. But this witch lore is not limited to magic; it also trans-mits a counter-religion, that is, a religion held in deliberate

opposition to the prevailing norms of the society and culture

in which its adherents live. In Italy the normative religion at

that time was the Catholic Church, so the counter-religion ofAradia is naturally anti-Catholic and antihierarchical (anti-

clerical, antifeudal, etc.). No outside influence need be posited

to account for these features ofthe texts published in Aradia.

There is one remaining question, which unfortunately can-

not be answered in this essay. Is the counter-religion of Aradia

also an old, pre-Catholic religion (as Maddalena's term, /4

50 5l

vecchia religione, suggests)? If not, how much does it trulypreserve of the earlier rerigions-and conceivably of earliercounter-religions-which once flourished in Tuscan Italy be_fore.christianity prevailed there, and how much of it is of laterorigin? This question must be left to another scholar, whoseexpertise will have to rie in different fierds than mine. ourinvestigation m