Investigating the ‘Case’ of the Agnus Dei in Sixteenth-Century Italian Homes

On 26 July 1582, Giulia Diamante signed a deposition against her Spanish husband Francisco da Cordoba in front of the Vicar of the Neapolitan Archbishop, who acted on behalf of the Roman Inquisition.1 Giulia started her statement by recounting episodes of her unhappy married life: Francisco, who was extremely poor, had only married her for her large dowry and had tried to kill her many times over the years. However, this was not what brought Giulia to the Inquisition tribunal. Rather, she was spurred to denounce her husband on account of a borsetta di fattocchierie, ‘a pouch full of magical items’, that Francisco had been carrying around his neck and under his shirt for about three months. Giulia knew what the pouch contained because the previous Friday, while Francisco was asleep, she had stolen it to look at its contents. Shocked by what she saw, Giulia took it to the Inquisitor’s vicar who, without further ado, initiated the trial against Francisco. Witnesses were called to testify against him; their testimonies, which repeated the same story, signalled the object’s inexplicable mysterious charge. As one witness stated: