#2 Hutton has a frequent habit of lying like this. In fact, I caught him recently in a rather extreme lie! Hutton has claimed for several years during an interview with Caroline Tulley and not only are he and Carlo Ginzburg personal friends, but throughout his books he continues to insist that Ginzburg is in agreement with his assessment of Ginzburg's writings, as if they are on the same page. This is an attempt by Hutton to control the narrative of this subject! Therefore, I found it strange that in Hutton's more recent book, "The Witch" he would spend the better part of a chapter trying to debunk Ginzburg, who is one of Europe's most influential scholars! Then, a pace later, Hutton actually claims that Ginzburg no longer his views in "The Night Battles" and "Ecstasies" for no the reason than the supposed fact that Ginzburg hasn't published anything new on the subject.
I felt that this was all very unusual behavior for someone that you claim to be your friend, so I contacted Ginzburg directly to get his side of the story, and he seemed rather offended by how Hutton was misrepresenting him and his works. According to Ginzburg, he and Hutton are not friends in any sense of the term since he had met him only once at a single academic conference, which was enough to demonstrate that they are in complete disagreement with each other. Ginzburg has also not recanted his former arguments, in fact, he has republished them in Italian with an additional postscript. So, I am of the personal opinion that Hutton cannot be trusted in a very general sense.
Hutton also has a habit of reading into books that which isn't there! So, one wonders where he is drawing some of his ideas. For example, he cites Dr. Lyndal Roper's book, "Witch Craze" as having demonstrated there was NO paganism of any sort still thriving within medieval Germany, but Dr. Roper doesn't take any such claim. In fact, she doesn't even address the subject, since her thesis has her examining another direction entirely! It is my opinion that Hutton is a very poor scholar, and I have had several scholars tell me this in private over the years.
Be the first to post a message!