A correspondent of the Times sends a curiously interesting paper
on " Dante as a Sorcerer," based on the recently published documentary records of the processes instituted at Avignon by Pope John XXII. against Matteo Visconti and his son Galeazzo of Milan. The Visconti were charged with having resorted to witchcraft in order to injure the Pope, and Bartolomeo Canholati, the chief witness against them, declared that in an interview with Galeazzo the latter stated that he had conferred with Dante. The evidence, which is in Latin, makes no definite charge against Dante. All that Canholati alleges is that Galeazzo had caused Dante to come to him on this business ; and the general impression of his evidence is " that Dante had an uncanny reputation for some people, and that Galeazzo may have hoped that he would consent to exert his .maleficent powers against a man whom he (Galeazzo) hated." The particular method resorted to in this case was the " subfumigation" of an image so that as the image was consumed with heat so would the person be consumed "against " whom the image was made ; and we have Dante's own testimony in the " Purgatorio " (XXV. 23) that he believed in the efficacy of that form of witchcraft.
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