Cause naturali e influssi diabolici: Cardano sulle streghe e i demoni

Abstract

This contribution proposes an interpretation of Girolamo Cardano’s views on witchcraft. To this end, the paper offers a reading of chapter LXXX of Cardano’s De rerum varietate (1557), where he exam-ines the nature of the so-called witches, in light of the broader framework of Cardano’s philosophy, relating it back to the concepts of varietas and subtilitas, as well as his focus on the conjecturales dis-ciplinae. Then, Cardano’s thought is contrasted with two late-medieval authors, namely John Buridan (with the figure of the vetula) and Peter of Abano (with his views on demonic influxes). Against the background of this analysis, it emerges that Cardano views witchcraft as belonging to the natural and human sphere, as a phenomenon that ultimately rests on a series of social and physiological factors, though he does not exclude completely the eventuality of supernatural influxes on worldly affairs: this complex picture cannot thus be reduced to one of the opposing poles of the Renaissance debate on the nature of witchcraft.