In this post I find the summary of "La Chimera" (Einaudi), written by Sebastiano Vassalli
Summary: The Chimera
In a Winter's Night of 1590, on the back of the House of Charity San Michele, in Novara, was abandoned a child, with eyes, skin and dark hair, a monster, at the time. She was named Antonia Renata Judith Spagnolini. The girl grew up very quickly, became very beautiful and precisely because of this feature had placed their hopes of leaving the orphanage fact, the ladies retain only those who had exhibited some physical defect, to prevent the men of the house falls in love . In addition, the arrival of the new bishop Baschurch, wise and learned man, who had put an end to the fun and freedom of priests and nuns, the girls could not be given in evidence in any future husband, who would have abandoned after had told them the they are pregnant. So the only possible destiny of the exposed was to grow old in the convent of the Sisters. But Antonia was not so. She attained the age of ten years, was adopted by Bartolo Nidasio and Francesca, two farmers and residents of low Zardino, a small village. Here, the women criticized the gesture of taking Nidasio un'esposta, now that would have been in contact with their children and who knows what would have caused trouble. As the months passed, the newcomer began to know different people: Don Michael, quistone, replaced then by a real priest, who was flying, Don Teresa Maffiolo Pietro, a former soldier and adoptive grandfather Antonia Biagio monkey ( as he was named in the acts of the process ...) suffering from a mental illness, the gossips, gossiping and summer, and during the winter in the stables, with regard to companies Caccetta, and a large landowner Novarese thief and murderer, beheaded in Milan the year before the death of Antonia i risaroli, exhausted from work inhuman; of Oltrepò Bertolino, who painted the Madonna of exactly the same to her, fifteen, thus unleashing the wrath and envy of the wives and sisters Borghesini, neighbors and enemies of Nidasio, owner of Biagio ; Bishop Baschurch, that the body alive, as he called himself, sent by the Pope against his will in Novara, the lancers, the German soldiers, who terrorized Don Teresa ... But above all he met Gasparo, said Tosetto a walker which she fell in love madly, as he told the sea of \u200b\u200bGenoa, was the great promise, telling her he would marry her, but then he did not. The two met secretly on the Tree Knoll, a hill where there was a large chestnut tree, famous for the alleged Sabbath (meeting of witches). Antonia did not say anything about his parents and Gasparo, sometimes, had been met by the Christian Brothers, who sought the risaroli escaped.
When Antonia is twenty years old, in the stables of Zardino winter, they told strange events that occurred in her presence, people who lose their voice, animal that sick cows that were not more milk, children who had fever ... all events that would have occurred even if she had not been there, but in that village entries Novarese mattered much, and no one bothered to find out if those rumors were true, but jumping to hasty conclusions, which were crucial in the life of the girl. Some "experts" said that Antonia was a witch and Don informed Teresa that, after having excommunicated from the church for having danced (without realizing it) with the Antichrist, that is, with the lancers, the complaint before the inquisitor Manini at the Sant ' Office of Novara as heretical and industry (witch). He proceeded immediately with the questioning of witnesses that the girl they deemed a witch: they were people with whom he had perhaps never spoken Antonia (excluding Borghesini that the accused had made Biagio fall in love with its beauty devil, and Teresa friends, who told the truth about the Tosetto), but were aware of all the events of his life, and knew them better than she herself! Manini wanted to conclude this process quickly to speak again in the state of the Ecclesiastical Court of Milan, Novara, in Baschurch took control after the death of Buell, the predecessor of the inquisitor of Antonia. Therefore, without the knowledge of the bishop, and while this was in Rome, did everything he had for his career, quite significantly after the story of the girl called, therefore, the defendant and questioned her, it was, despite the concerns of Francesca, a conversation rather "quiet" in which his daughter had managed to silence what he thought of the priests as Don Teresio, interested only in money. But then, worried about the return of Baschurch from Rome, officials of the Inquisition speed operations: Antonia arrested, interrogated a number of other times when he wanted to confess preposterous crimes they confer, torture and making her scream in pain insult his captors, Taddeo and Bernardo, obtaining what they wanted, and when, in spite of the tortures, he did not confess, they said that its strength was due to absence of this devil in her, and many other trifles of this kind, which were intended solely to blame. They were also questioned Nidasio, who had to bear, then all the costs of the process, falling apart, but this interrogation, such as Teresina and Maffioli, were useless for Manini, I hardly listened to them, because it hampered his plans , then realized: that is, those to burn Antonia. During the talks between the interrogator and the witnesses, the witch was imprisoned in the prison of the Inquisition, where to the torments suffered, were added including those caused by aides Manini, Taddeo and Bernard, who raped her. The sentence was handed down in August, in the presence of all those "accounts" Novara said (and it is likely that the accusation was the same in other cases of witchcraft) that Antonia was a witch and heretic, and that during the interrogation, did not reveal any signs of repentance: it is logical that she could not repent, considering the pressing questions and torture. It was delivered to the secular arm, because the church did not judge or punish! Later, unaware of the sentence, was transferred to another prison (civil) where reunited with Rosalina, un'esposta known to Casa Pia. The witch spent the last days there, suffering from the heat and insect bites. Then came that September 1610. She was taken to Zardino: on the street, and even there on the hill where the tree was cut to create the fire, there were thousands of people who applauded the Executioner, and she rejoiced ..., the industry, not heard or seen nothing. And then it was no longer Antonia. Capacity at the stake, he died as the sun was setting, as the flames flared up around her. Everyone was happy, the fireworks exploded. Life in Novara and around he went on, forgetting the history of witch Zardino, lost in the noise and indifference.
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