Dalla carta al muro. Graffiti e rituali nelle segrete dello Steri

Abstract

The article traces, among the manuscript and printed books (many of which are forbidden by the librorum prohibitorum indexes) consulted, copied and reproduced by Sicilian nigromanti, testimonies attributable to some drawings, graffiti, writings left by prisoners on the walls of the prisons of Palermo’s Steri. The essay documents the esoteric mystical value of some graphic manifestations and of the note descensio ad Inferos portrayed in cells 2 and 3, ground floor, based on the analogical correspondence, produced by necromantic rituals, between graphic representation and request, need, i.e. desired outcome.