A Spanish Midwife's Uses of the Word: The Inquisitorial Trial (1485/86) of Joana Torrellas

Joana Torrellas, alias "la paridera valenciana" [the Valencian midwife], was tried as a sorceress by the Inquisition of Teruel between 1485 and 1486. The prosecuting attorney accused her of a number of heretical acts, among them conjuring demons to predict future events (5r), cutting the fingernails and toenails off the bodies of the dead in order to work her spells (6r), carrying out the devil's orders by murdering newborns before their baptism (5v), and placing talismans containing the names of demons upon the bodies of women in childbirth (5v). For these reasons, the prosecutor asked that Joana be condemned as a heretic and receive the corresponding punishment (6v).