Matteuccia de Francesco (died 1428) was an alleged Italian witch and nun, known as the "Witch of Ripabianca" after the village where she lived.
Matteuccia was put on trial in Todi in 1428, accused of being a prostitute, having committed desecration with other women and of the selling of love potions since 1426. She confessed having sold medicine and of having flown to a tree in the shape of a fly on the back of a demon after having smeared herself with an ointment made of the blood of newborn children. She was judged guilty of sorcery and sentenced to be burned at the stake. [1] [2]
Her case was one of the earliest witch trials in Europe, and perhaps the first case where a witch is mentioned flying in the air.
The Roman Inquisition, formally Suprema Congregatio Sanctae Romanae et Universalis Inquisitionis, was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes according to Catholic law and doctrine, relating to Catholic religious life or alternative religious or secular beliefs. It was established in 1542 by the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Paul III. In the period after the Medieval Inquisition, it was one of three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition, the other two being the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition.
Giuseppe "Pippo" Calò is an Italian mobster and member of the Sicilian Mafia in Porta Nuova. He was referred to as the cassiere di Cosa Nostra because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering. He was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment as part of the 1986/87 Maxi Trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1989 for organising the 1984 Train 904 bombing and was given several further life sentences between 1995 and 2002. He was also charged with ordering the murder of Roberto Calvi – nicknamed il banchiere di Dio – of the Banco Ambrosiano in 1982, but was acquitted in 2007 due to "insufficient evidence" in a surprise verdict.
Maria Barbella was an Italian-born American woman. Erroneously known as Maria Barberi at the time, she was the second woman sentenced to die in the electric chair. She was convicted of killing Domenico Cataldo in 1895, but the ruling was overturned in 1896 and she was freed. Her trial became a cause célèbre in the late 19th century.
The Barbaro 'ndrina is a powerful clan of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, Italy. The 'ndrina belongs to the locale of the town of Platì. According to the Direzione Investigativa Antimafia, the Barbaro 'ndrina is one of the most powerful 'Ndrangheta clans. The clan also operates in the northern Italian regions of Lombardy, Piemonte and overseas in Australia, in particular in the Griffith, New South Wales area.
Catherine de' Ricci, OP, was an Italian Catholic nun in the Third Order of St. Dominic. She is believed to have had miraculous visions and corporeal encounters with Jesus Christ. She is also said to have spontaneously bled with the wounds of the crucified Christ. She is venerated for her mystic visions and is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Genoese Dragnet is a 1952 Italian crime-melodrama film. The movie relates the story of Michele, a man accused of murdering a kidnapped girl and his fight to prove his innocence.
Ripabianca is a frazione of the comune of Deruta in the Province of Perugia, Umbria, central Italy. It stands at an elevation of 230 metres above sea level. At the time of the Istat census of 2001 it had 488 inhabitants.
Salvatore Riina, called Totò, was an Italian mobster and chief of the Sicilian Mafia, known for a ruthless murder campaign that reached a peak in the early 1990s with the assassinations of Antimafia Commission prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, resulting in widespread public outcry, legal change and a major crackdown by the authorities. He was also known by the nicknames la belva and il capo dei capi.
The Mammoliti 'ndrina is a powerful clan of the 'Ndrangheta, a criminal and mafia-type organisation in Calabria, southern Italy. The 'ndrina is based in Castellace and Oppido Mamertina in the plain of Gioia Tauro in southern Calabria on the Tyrrhenian coast. The clan is considered to be one of the more powerful in the area, and is closely linked to the Rugolo clan through intermarriage. They are often referred to as the Mammoliti-Rugolo clan.
Francesco Mario Pagano was an Italian jurist, author, thinker, and the founder of the Neapolitan school of law. He is regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. A moderate reformist, he is seen as a forerunner of the Italian unification.
Claudia Colla was an alleged Italian witch, and the ducal mistress of the sovereign Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma. She was convicted for witchcraft, accused of having caused the childess marriage of her former lover the Duke by use of witchcraft, alongside her mother Elena Colla and Antonia Zanini.
Silvestro Valeri was an Italian painter and educator. He taught at Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia.
The history or legend of the witches of Benevento is folklore dating from at least the 13th century, and one reason for the fame of Benevento, an ancient Samnite city. The popular belief—that Benevento would be the Italian witches' gathering place—has abundant implications, blurring the border between reality and imagination. Various writers, musicians, and artists have drawn inspiration from or referred to it.
Francesco Carnelutti was an Italian jurist and lawyer.
The Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia is a state conservatory in Rome.
The Circonvallazione massacre, in Italian Strage della Circonvallazione, was a Cosa Nostra attack that took place on June 16, 1982 on the Palermo ring road. The attack was directed against Catanese boss Alfio Ferlito, who was being transferred from Enna to the Trapani jail, and died with the three escort carabinieri and the 22-year-old Giuseppe Di Lavore, the driver of the private company tasked with the transportation of prisoners, who had replaced his father. The mandators of this massacre were Salvatore Riina and Bernardo Provenzano, in favor to Nitto Santapaola, who was in a year-long war with Ferlito for the dominance in the city of Catania territory.
De Francesco is an Italian surname. Notable people with this surname include:
Francesco Gianniti was an Italian jurist and humanist. He was Filippo Grispigni’s student at the University of Rome and Silvio Ranieri’s disciple at the University of Bologna.
The Mirandola witch trials took place in Mirandola in the Duchy of Mirandola between 1522 and 1525. It resulted in the death of ten people, who were burned alive at the stake for witchcraft on the square.
The Galatolo Mafia clan was a criminal family originating from the Acquasanta neighborhood of Palermo. They are one of the longest-running Mafia clans in the city, having held important positions throughout most of the 20th century and beyond and even coming to rule the entire Resuttana mandamento in the early 21st century.