OF ALCHEMISTS AND MAGICAL ARTS: A NEW READING AND INTERPRETATION OF MANUSCRIPT NO. 40 PRESERVED AT THE HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF MONTEMONACO

At the end of the 1990s an ancient manuscript was found at the historical archive of the municipality of Montemonaco, a small hamlet sitting at the very foot of Mount Sibyl, in central Italy. The parchment sheet contains a most rare sentence of acquittal rendered in 1452 by a judge of the Papal States in favor of the «Priors, population, municipality and all the men in the land of Montemonaco». They all were charged with momentous «spiritual» crimes: they allegedly assisted and supported a number of foreign alchemists who dared climb the steep slopes of the Sibillini Mountain Range to reach the «Lake of the Sibyl» and perform their magical, fiendish rituals to consecrate spellbooks to the demons. Montemonaco was already mentioned by fifteenth-century author Antoine de la Sale as a main location that provided a convenient access to the renowned legendary sites of the Sibyl's Cave and the Lake of Pilate: a hamlet that was visited by scores of foreign travellers who wished to make personal, forbidden encounters with the dark legends, known throughout Europe, which lived on the high cliffs of Mount Sibyl and Mount Vettore. The manuscript retrieved in Montemonaco is a fascinating trove that fully confirms the might and fortune of the sibilline lore across the fifteenth century, as it opens an unprecedented window on a real, astounding legal case: a trial involving the Apennine Sibyl, held before a papal court. Michele Sanvico, currently the world leading expert in the legendary tradition of Mount Sibyl and the Lake of Pilate in Italy, examines the Montemonaco manuscript in full depth, providing a new interpretation of the historical framework in which the proceedings are set. In the paper, specific insight will be devoted to the actual role of the inhabitants and local authorities of the small hamlet in the promotion of the legendary traditions that thrived on the cliffs of the neighbouring mountains at the time. Were they all alchemists and magicians, too, as assumed by some scholars basing on simplistic considerations and a number of unproven surmises? The answer is actually different, and much more reasonable, as Michele Sanvico will unveil in this compelling, innovative research paper.