'The Sky in Place of The Nile': Climate, Religious Unrest and Scapegoating in Post-Tridentine Apulia

This article investigates how extremely adverse climatic and weather conditions in early modern southern Italy played a part in disrupting social coexistence among groups and individuals of different confessions and beliefs in what until then had been top-down sanctioned or tolerated multi-confessional communities. It focuses on the dramatic fate of the Waldensian colonies in Calabria and Apulia, and the little-studied case of witchcraft panic that broke out in the town of Bitonto in 1593. By examining different ways of dealing with environmental crises (rogatory processions, apocalyptic scapegoating, witchcraft panics), the article contributes to a history of intolerance from the 'inside out'.