Narbona Dacal (The Healer)

Original illustration 

Nib and ink on Arches cotton paper 

300gsm / 140lb

20x26cm / 8x10.2in

2021

Unframed 

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About:

Narbona Dacal or D'Arcal or Narbonne Cenarbe or María d'Artal (b. Cenarbe - 12 February 1498, Zaragoza) was a Spanish healer in the 15th century who was condemned and executed by the Inquisition in 1498 after accusations of practicing witchcraft.

Dacal belonged to a family that practiced healing in her rural community using medicinal plants and substances. She had two brothers, Juan and María, and was married to Juan de Portañya, although she was abandoned by him and thereafter lived alone and supported herself as a healer.^[1] At the time, the highest concentration of witchcraft persecutions occurred in the rural areas of the Pyrenees near Aragon where she lived, as well as in the Aragon capital of Zaragoza, in Cinco Villas and in the Moncayo mountains.^[2]

The Inquisition's Holy Office, located in the Aljafería Palace in Aragon's capital city of Zaragoza, Spain, had Dacal arrested with other women accused of witchcraft and brought to the city. There, allegations were leveled at her by her neighbors. One accused her of giving poisonous grapes to his wife, who "died shortly after very suffering and with great passions in her womb." Another said Dacal and a company of other witches killed his daughter. Yet another testified to the death of a neighbor and said that Dacal had also bewitched the accuser so she could not have children.^[4]

On 12 February 1498, Dacal was convicted and burned at the stake in the Aljafería Palace. Her brothers, Juan and María, who were also accused of witchcraft,^[1] managed to escape.