Explore the best books on Italian Witchcraft or Stregheria, including fiction, nonfiction, folklore, magic, and superstitious lore. The old religion, or Stregheria (translation is witchcraft), originated in southern Italy but made its way to Italian America. Read more about the Italian version of Salem in The Triora Witch Trials: The Italian Salem.
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Italian Witchcraft
Below are sixteen of the best books on Italian witchcraft. Italian healing traditions, grimoires, spells, legends, lore, magic, and historical and fictional perspectives are included.
1 | Ways of Strega: Italian Witchcraft: Its Legends, Lore, & Spells
BY RAVEN GRIMASSI
Llewellyn Publications, First Edition, February 8, 2000
Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
In Ways of the Strega, Raven Grimassi describes modern-day Strega or witch practices and traditions. It also provides a history of ritual, tradition, beliefs, and practices of Italian witchcraft that once dominated Southern Europe.
2 | Under the Devil’s Spell: Witches, Sorcerers, and the Inquisition in Renaissance Italy
BY MATTEO DUNI
Syracuse University Press, November 7, 2007
Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
Matteo Duni reconstructs Italy’s “Tribunal of Faith” from 1400-1600 in Under the Devil’s Spell. Duni examines the ideology of its judges and takes a closer look at the witches and their clients as recorded in the State Archives of Moderna.
3 | The Strega and the Dreamer
BY THERESA C. DINTINO
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, June 13, 2012
Historical Fiction
In The Strega and the Dreamer, Theresa C. Dintino tells of a man who is willing to give up everything to pursue his dream of living in America and the woman he loves, who is a Strega, midwife, and healer, and is committed to the people in her village.
4 | The Grimoire of Jana: Grimoire of Italian Witchcraft
BY JANA MARI
Independently Published, April 8, 2018
Magical Realism
Jana Mari explores the power of magic and traditional spells of Italian witches through herbs, flowers, and words of power in The Grimoire of Jana.
5 | The Book of the Holy Strega
BY RAVEN GRIMASSI
Old Ways Press, January 6, 2012
Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
The Book of the Holy Strega is a seminal work that combines historical and folkloric sources. Raven Grimassi provides a view of the misconceptions of “historical witchcraft” and presents a new approach to understanding how fantasy became regarded as fact.
6 | Burn A Black Candle: An Italian American Grimoire
BY DEE NORMAN
Watkins Publishing, September 13, 2022
Magical Studies
In Burn A Black Candle, Dee Norman shares unwritten secrets of an Italian-American family’s magical tradition passed down from generation to generation. This spellbook provides introductions to the basics of authentic Italian-American magical practice.
7 | The Rituals: A Strega’s Grimoire
BY PATRICIA DELLA-PIANA
Lulu.com, June 24, 2007
Religion & Spirituality
Patricia Della-Piana shares a collection of age-old rituals in A Strega’s Grimoire. Some were written for friends and have elements of Wicca or any other of the several pathways practiced today. Some are distinctly Strega, and all have the kiss of Stregoneria in them.
8 | Strega: A Novel
BY JOHANNE LYKKE HOLM
Riverhead Books, November 15, 2022
Gothic Fiction
In modern gothic tradition, Johanne Lykke Holm, in Strega, tells the story of nine young women sent to work at a remote Alpine hotel and what happens when one goes missing.
9 | The Cimaruta and Other Magical Charms From Old Italy
BY RAVEN GRIMASSI
CreateSpace, September 21, 2012
Raven Grimassi describes the old lore of Italy in The Cimaruta. He explains the cimaruta charm in both folk magic and witchcraft. Grimassi explores each symbol of the charm and provides his insights on them.
10 | Italian Folktales
BY ITALO CALVINO
Mariner Books, August 26, 2013
Folklore & Mythology, Fairy Tales
Italo Calvino shares over 200 hundred tales of kings and peasants, saints and ogres, plants and animals in a humorous, sometimes nonsensical tone in Italian Folktales.
11 | Italian Folk Magic
BY MARY-GRACE FAHRUN
Weiser Books, May 1, 2018
Witchcrafts Religion & Spirituality, Magic Studies
A reader will journey through the heart of everyday Italian folk magical practices in Italian Folk Magic. Mary-Grace Fahrun describes magical practices for healing, sex, love, and revenge along with the malocchio, or the evil eye, and how to get rid of it.
12 | Italian Witchcraft Charms & Neapolitan Witchcraft
BY VARIOUS AUTHORS
Pierides Press, August 3, 2010
Magical Studies, Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
Italian Witchcraft Charms & Neapolitan Witchcraft provides articles on the early 1900s rural Southern Italian witchcraft, including its superstitions and beliefs.
13 | Stregheria: Italian Traditional Witchcraft
BY CHARLES LELAND
CreateSpace, February 18, 2015
Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
In Stregheria, Charles Leland shares the results of his research, including several magic formulas, tales, and poems.
14 | Italian Witchcraft: The Old Religion of Southern Europe
BY RAVEN GRIMASSI
Llewellyn Publications, February 8, 2000
Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
In Italian Witchcraft, Raven Grimassi shares the history of this ancient Italian tradition, its legends and myths, and the rituals and rites that are valid today.
15 | Magick at the Crossroads: Italian Folk Magic & The Old Religion
BY GIANMICHAEL SALVATO
Lulu.com, June 1, 2019
Occultism, Witchcraft Religion & Spirituality
Gianmichael Salvato shares in Magick at the Crossroads his family’s tradition and the tradition of thousands of other Italian and Sicilian practitioners from antiquity to the postmodern world.
16 | Italian Magic: Secret Lives of Women
BY KARYN CRISIS
Karyn Krol-Tiso, October 31, 2020
Spirituality
Karyn Crisis shares in Italian Magic the holistic system of daily sacred magic indigenous to Italy and her islands, whose traditions existed in all rural communities regardless of cultural influences
Do you have any titles to add to the list of the best books on Italian witchcraft? Please add your suggestions in the comments below.
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