Evidence of magic use and witch trials were prevalent in the Early Modern period, and Inquisitorial prosecution of witches and magic users in Italy during this period was widely documented. Primary sources unearthed from Vatican and city archives offer insights into this phenomenon, and notable Early Modern microhistorians such as Guido Ruggiero, Angelo Buttice and Carlo Ginzburg (among others), have defined their careers detailing this topic. In addition, Giovanni Romeo's monograph Inquisitori, esorcisti e streghe nell'Italia della Controriforma (1990) was considered pioneering and marked an important step forward in inquisitorial and witchcraft studies dealing with early modern Italy.In last 25 years a jurist and researcher on trials against witches, add many informations: the names of people involved in witchcraft, their jobs, the meetings. Monia Montechiarini in 'Stregoneria: Crimine Femminile', 'Streghe, eretici e benandanti del Friuli Venezia Giulia' and 'Streghe, Avvelenatrici e Cortigiane di Roma' discovered new secrets. Benandanti The existence of the Benandanti, an agrarian fertility cult, was first documented by microhistorian Carlo Ginzburg in The Night Battles. The male Benandanti believed that four times a year (on “Ember days”) they would fall into a trance and ride off "in spirit," astride hares, cats, and other animals, doing battle against evil witches and warlocks. Armed with branches of fennel, their goal was to protect the fertility of their crops and their communities. Female Benandanti, by contrast, rode off to participate in the processions of the dead and to serve as intermediaries between their fellow villagers and the deceased ancestors of their neighbors and friends. "The Female Benandanti during the trials" writes Montechiarini, "affirmed their innocence and to fight on the right side". Despite the repeated efforts of the Benandanti to convince their ecclesiastical judges not only of their innocence but also of their own efforts to impede, as good Christians, the malevolent actions of witches, inquisitors could not help but superimpose their own interpretation on the cult. In the eyes of the Franciscan fathers who investigated these beliefs, the benandanti, with their accounts of night-flying, metamorphosis into animals and secret gatherings, fit only too easily into the learned stereotype of witches. Particularly the image of the witches' sabbath as it had been elaborated and codified in demonological treatises and inquisitorial manuals over the course of the previous three centuries would gradually, under the suggestive pressure of the trials held against them, cause the benandanti to eventually define themselves as witches,