The Etruscans are one of history's great mysteries -- a sophisticated society that flourished at the heart of the Classical world and then vanished, leaving relatively few archaeological remains and few records of their culture. The Etruscans were adept at magic, and Etruscan books of spells were common among the Romans but they have not survived. While greatly influenced by the Greeks, the Etruscans retained elements of an ancient non-Western culture, and these archaic traits contributed greatly to the civilization once thought of as purely Roman (gladiators, for example, and many kinds of divination). Leland retrieves elements of Etruscan culture from the living popular traditions of remote areas of the Italian countryside where belief in "the old religion" survives to an astonishing degree. Recorded when many of these secret beliefs and practices were fading away, this remarkable volume deals with ancient gods, spirits, witches, incantations, prophecy, medicine, spells, and amulets, giving full descriptions, illustrations, and instructions for practice.

This Elibron Classics title is a reprint of the original edition published by T. Fisher Unwin in London, 1892. This book contains color illustrations.

THERE is in Northern Italy a mountain district known as La Romagna Toscana, the inhabitants of which speak a rude form of the Bolognese dialect. These Romagnoli are manifestly a very ancient race, and appear to have preserved traditions and observances little changed from an incredibly early time. It has been a question of late years whether the Bolognese are of Etrurian origin, and it seems to have been generally decided that they are not. With this I have nothing whatever to do. They were probably there before the Etruscans. But the latter at one time held all Italy, and it is very likely that they left in remote districts those traces of their culture to which this book refers. The name Romagna is applied to their district because it once formed part of the Papal or Roman dominion, and it is not to be confounded with La Romagna proper. Roughly speaking, the region to which I refer may be described as lying between Forli and Ravenna. Among these people, stregeria, or witchcraft--or, as I have heard it called, "la vecchia religione" (or "the old religion")--exists to a degree which would even astonish many Italians. This stregeria, or old religion, is something more than a sorcery, and something less than a faith. It consists in remains of a mythology of spirits, the principal of whom preserve the names and attributes of the old Etruscan gods, such as Tinia, or Jupiter, Faflon, or Bacchus, and Teramo (in Etruscan Turms), or Mercury. With these there still exist, in a few memories, the most ancient Roman rural deities, such as Silvanus, Palus, Pan, and the Fauns. To all of these invocations or prayers in rude metrical form are still addressed, or are at least preserved, and there are many stories current regarding them. All of these names, with their attributes, descriptions of spirits or gods, invocations and legends, will be found in this work.

This book contains many vivid and authentic tales of ancient Italian folklore, originating mainly in the Tuscany region. First published in 1892, Charles Godfrey Leland's chronicle lays bare the traditions, poetry and stories told among the peoples of Ancient and Medieval Italy. By profession, the author was not a cultural anthropologist or a classical scholar, but a journalist with a history of working with everyday newspapers in the 19th century United States. At the time a revived interest in ancient pagan and folklore traditions led Leland to travel to Europe, where he branched out to researching and transcribing the continent's myths and legends into books. The tone we witness here is neither dry nor particularly rigorous in the academic sense: Leland's intention was never to conform to the precise scholarly principles of research and sources, but instead to present the pagan folklore to the popular audience in a manner easily enjoyed and digested by the reader. The price of Leland's colorful approach was his loss of authority in academic circles: something to which he paid little mind. The stories in this lengthy volume approach the subject in an embracing manner: tales of witchcraft, of pagan Gods (including the prominent Goddess of Truffles revered by rural communities) and various cautionary tales of morality among those included in this book. There are many allusions to festivals and pagan offerings, and the pastoral Italian traditions surrounding food and drink. Frequent quotations of poetry and occasional imagery of the warm and rugged Italian countryside also populate this book. Something of an underappreciated lost classic, Leland's exhaustive efforts to shed light onto Italy's enormous folk traditions are offered to the reader anew.