Maleficia Exhibition

Maleficia is an exhibition revealing the secrets and mysteries of the ancient Serenissima: inquisition, torture, and witchcraft between the 15th and 18th centuries. It showcases ancient documents and instruments used by the Holy Office in the persecution of witchcraft.

Planning your visit

Venice's Inquisition was a peculiar institution. The Republic insisted on lay magistrates sitting alongside the clerical tribunal, kept jurisdiction over its own subjects, and consequently ran one of the more restrained inquisitions in Catholic Europe — but it ran one, and the records survive in detail.

Maleficia presents that material: trial documents, denunciations, and the instruments used, covering the period from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Most Venetian cases concerned love magic, healing and divination rather than the diabolic conspiracy prosecuted so violently north of the Alps, and the accused were frequently women working as healers.

Exhibitions of torture instruments are a common tourist format and often thin; this one is anchored in the specific archive of the Serenissima, which gives it more substance than most.

The content is grim by nature and unsuitable for young children.

Allow an hour. Current availability is shown below.