Jesus M. Usunariz Garayoa, Professor of Modern History at the University of Navarra, is the author of the Malefficium that has been installed in the Archivo Real de Navarra. Curator of the exhibition Navarra and the witch hunt (14th-17th centuries). The aim is to publicise a set of documents that are unique in Europe. It consists of judicial proceedings initiated in the 14th century and witnesses the evolution that this phenomenon has had until the 17th century in various parts of the kingdom of Navarra.
The exhibition was presented today by the Director-General of Culture, Ignacio Apeztegui, and the Commissioner. As you have explained, the Royal Archive of Navarre contains one of Europe’s most comprehensive documents on the origin and evolution of witch hunting. The reason for the presence of these materials today is the preservation of numerous judicial processes that reflect the incidence of this phenomenon in the Kingdom of Navarra and its chronological range. Thanks to this, it is possible to know in great detail what happened in a very long time, from the earliest cases detected at the beginning of the 14th century to the famous episode of Zugarramurdi in 1609.
Exposure
Exhibition Muraria S.L. It will be offered through an assembly made by the company and will present to the public a selection of the most relevant documentation, with summaries of different passages, in order to understand the dimension that this phenomenon had in the mind of complainants, courts and victims, which for centuries conditioned the coexistence of the Navarra society.
The exhibition is divided into five blocks. The first shows the invention and the process of making the figure of the witch through treaties against demonology and superstition. The second defines the stereotypes that involve the collective imaginary of witches in the face of the social reality of the defendants. The third focuses on the jurisdictions that were understood in the cases of witchcraft. The fourth takes a historical tour of the main moments of persecution observed in the Kingdom of Navarre and offers a map of Europe in which it can be seen that it had less impact in Spain than in other countries in central Europe. Finally, the last chapter of the exhibition is devoted to the dramatic events of Zugarramurdi.
Original manuscripts
The exhibition consists of 45 pieces. Most are original manuscript documents from the funds of the Archivo Real y General de Navarra. Some of them are pieces of great value, such as the judicial process of 1370, in romance gas cón. This text reflects an imaginary about the spell, already perfectly conceived, being one of the first cases at European level.
There are also documents related to two fundamental milestones for the treatment that the Inquisition gave to this phenomenon. These are the witchcraft events of 1525 and the cases of Zugarramurdi, between 1609 and 1612.
