THE GRIMOIRE · PLACES AND MEMORY
Sixty Italian folk traditions, stories and practices, with Sardinia at the heart of the first section and new entries from many regions.
Religious celebrations retain their context; folk stories are not automatically historical facts and traditional healing practices do not replace medicine.
Sardinia (21)Abruzzo (2)Basilicata (3)Campania (7)Calabria (1)Friuli-Venezia Giulia (2)Lazio (3)Liguria (1)Lombardy (1)Molise (1)Piedmont (2)Puglia (3)Sicily (4)Tuscany (1)Umbria (3)Veneto (2)Marche (1)Emilia-Romagna (1)Italy (1)
Stories to read in their own place and time.
In Sardinian oral accounts, s’accabbadora is a woman said to have accompanied a dying person at the very end of life. Luras has a particularly strong connection with this…
READ THE ENTRY ↗In several parts of Sardinia, “eye medicine” names folk rites performed in response to what families call s’ogu or malocchio, a harmful gaze. Spoken formulas, water, oil and…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Su coccu is a small Sardinian pendant often associated with a dark bead held in a metal setting. It is given and worn as a protective sign against an envious or harmful gaze.…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Brebus is a Sardinian term used for formulaic words associated with local healing and protective traditions. Their importance lies as much in who speaks them and when they…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Mamoiada’s masked procession has two unmistakable roles. Mamuthones carry heavy bells and move in a measured rhythm; Issohadores, in brighter dress, carry ropes and engage…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Ottana’s carnival stages an uneasy relationship between animal and human. The Boes wear bovine masks and bells; the Merdules guide or struggle with them. The Filonzana, a…
READ THE ENTRY ↗In Oristano, the Sartiglia is a carnival equestrian event organised around the masked figure of su Componidori. The ritual dressing changes the rider’s public role; horses…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Sedilo’s Ardia is a fast equestrian celebration associated with San Costantino. Riders circle the sanctuary precinct while crowds gather in a charged meeting of devotion,…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Across Sardinia, rock-cut tombs known as domus de janas were made by prehistoric communities between the fifth and third millennia BCE. Some imitate features of houses in the…
READ THE ENTRY ↗In parts of Sardinia, children mark the season of the dead by visiting homes and receiving small gifts, nuts or sweets. Names such as is animeddas and su mortu mortu vary…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Around the feast of Sant’Antonio Abate in January, communities in Sardinia build and light communal fires. In Mamoiada, the season is also associated with the first…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Near Paulilatino stands the monumental well of Santa Cristina, an extraordinary example of nuragic stone architecture. Steps descend to a chamber with water, while the…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Canto a tenore is a Sardinian form of polyphonic singing in which four singers create contrasting vocal parts. Bitti is one of the places closely associated with this musical…
READ THE ENTRY ↗How rural observation of the moon connected weather, sowing, pruning and household time in Sardinian oral memory.
READ THE ENTRY ↗A cultural reading of the Sardinian doorway as a place of welcome, caution, blessing and household identity.
READ THE ENTRY ↗A page on spoken blessings and formulaic words as living memory, where exact wording and trusted transmission mattered.
READ THE ENTRY ↗How decorated breads turn grain, labour and feast days into objects of social memory and symbolic hospitality.
READ THE ENTRY ↗A respectful introduction to lament and remembrance as communal languages around death, kinship and continuity.
READ THE ENTRY ↗A look at weather lore shaped by coast, pasture and farming, where wind names and seasonal signs carried practical attention.
READ THE ENTRY ↗An entry on bees, honey, patience and abundance as images that join craft, household life and seasonal observation.
READ THE ENTRY ↗How places gather stories through repeated visits, seasonal customs and the long memory of communities.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
Cocullo’s feast of San Domenico Abate is known for serpents gathered by local serpari and placed around the saint’s statue during the procession. The encounter is striking…
READ THE ENTRY ↗An entry on segnatura, a family practice of signs and prayers, presented as heritage and never as a replacement for care.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
At Accettura, the Maggio is a celebration in which large trees are selected, transported and joined for a festival connected with San Giuliano. The undertaking makes the…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Matera’s feast of the Madonna della Bruna centres on a decorated cart that is carried through the city and broken apart at the end of the celebration. What appears fragile is…
READ THE ENTRY ↗A page on the maciare, figures shaped by village stories, suspicion, cures and the ambivalent power attributed to knowledge.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
In Naples, the red cornicello is a recognisable gift against misfortune and the feared jettatura. Its tapering, curved silhouette appears as jewellery, a key ring and a…
READ THE ENTRY ↗The munaciello is a small hooded presence in Neapolitan stories, named for a likeness to a little monk. He can hide things, unsettle a household or leave unexpected gifts,…
READ THE ENTRY ↗The smorfia links images, events and dreams to numbers traditionally associated with the lotto. A person tells a dream; a shared repertory turns its characters into playable…
READ THE ENTRY ↗In Naples, the devotional culture of the anime pezzentelle concerns unidentified dead, remembered and cared for at sites such as the Fontanelle cemetery. Accounts describe an…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Benevento is closely linked in Italian storytelling with the janare, nocturnal witches, and with a legendary walnut tree where they were said to gather. The stories have…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Nola’s Gigli festival brings tall processional structures through the city in honour of San Paolino. Teams of bearers carry and move them to music, turning a street into a…
READ THE ENTRY ↗A cultural reading of the cimaruta, the silver sprig amulet whose tiny symbols gathered protective meanings in Naples.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
In Friuli, pignarûl are bonfires lit around Epiphany, often in a village gathering. People watch the flame and smoke while sharing food and conversation. In some local…
READ THE ENTRY ↗A historical page on the benandanti, known through inquisitorial records and best read with care for their difficult sources.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
Ancient Roman sources describe the Lemuria as days associated with the dead and domestic rites. Ovid’s Fasti offers a literary account involving a householder and restless…
READ THE ENTRY ↗In Roman religion the Lares were linked to places and households; the Lares Compitales had a connection with neighbourhood crossroads, or compita. Shrines and community…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Each year in Viterbo, bearers called facchini carry an illuminated tower through the dark city in honour of Santa Rosa. Its height and narrow route demand coordination that…
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In 1587–88, people in Triora were investigated and accused of witchcraft. The local ethnographic museum recounts the trials. This is history about legal proceedings, hunger,…
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In Brianza and nearby Lombard communities, the Giubiana is a figure represented by an effigy burned in a public winter gathering. Stories about the woman differ from town to…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
For Corpus Christi, Campobasso carries the Misteri, structures designed to support tableaux of people who appear suspended around sacred scenes. Metal frames, costumes and…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
Torino is often advertised through a map of light and dark magic: particular squares, statues and streets are said to mark hidden forces. The architecture and monuments are…
READ THE ENTRY ↗A regional entry on Piedmontese masche, where the same figure could be feared, consulted or blamed.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
Historical accounts of Salentine tarantism describe people experiencing distress that their communities associated with a spider’s bite. Music and movement formed a social…
READ THE ENTRY ↗In Novoli, Salento, an enormous bonfire is assembled for the feast of Sant’Antonio Abate. Bundles of vine shoots and the labour of building turn agricultural material into a…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Affascino names a family of beliefs about a gaze that can unsettle someone, encountered in Salento and elsewhere in the south under different words. Blessings, gestures and…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
Catania’s feast of Sant’Agata brings devotees, the saint’s relics and long processions into the streets. Stories about the veil of Agata and protection from lava form part of…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Palermo’s devotion to Santa Rosalia connects an urban procession with Monte Pellegrino and the cave associated with the saint. The annual Festino gives the city a moving…
READ THE ENTRY ↗In Sicilian family traditions around the commemoration of the dead, children may receive sweets or small gifts associated with departed relatives. Palermo is one place where…
READ THE ENTRY ↗A regional entry on the Sicilian evil eye, its domestic vocabulary and the line between family custom and modern invention.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
At Easter in Florence, the Scoppio del Carro brings a decorated cart into the city’s religious celebration. A mechanical dove, the colombina, travels from the cathedral to…
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Each May, three tall wooden structures called ceri are carried through Gubbio in honour of Sant’Ubaldo and other saints. The people carrying them, their colour-coded groups…
READ THE ENTRY ↗Orvieto marks Pentecost with a ceremony known as la Palombella, centred on the image of a dove descending toward the cathedral precinct. The mechanical movement makes an…
READ THE ENTRY ↗How Norcia became associated with magic in European imagination, and why that reputation should be read through books, trade and legend.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Stories to read in their own place and time.
Around Epiphany, parts of Veneto gather around a bonfire called panevin. The fire brings neighbours together at a point when winter is still dark and the year feels new.…
READ THE ENTRY ↗A page on water spirits of the Veneto and Alpine foothills, where landscape, danger and imagination meet.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Entries to read in their own place and time.
How Calabrian traditions named unwanted influence and used prayer, gesture and trusted people to answer it.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Entries to read in their own place and time.
A historical-folkloric look at the vergara, a regional witch figure surrounded by stories, nocturnal meetings and social fear.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Entries to read in their own place and time.
A seasonal folk figure whose public ritual joins satire, winter, community and the imagination of starting again.
READ THE ENTRY ↗Entries to read in their own place and time.
A comparative page on Italian practices against the evil eye, preserving regional differences rather than inventing a uniform ritual.
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