This paper examines how the medieval history of the Italian segnatura, a vernacular healing practice combining traced signs and spoken formulas, can serve as both a research subject and a pedagogical tool for connecting medieval sources with contemporary audiences. Drawing on inquisitorial records from sixteenth-century Modena, Bologna, and Parma, I explore how women’s ritual gestures, often involving the sign of the cross accompanied by biblical fragments and local incantations, occupied a liminal position between orthodox blessing and illicit superstition. The analysis situates these practices within the broader context of late medieval concerns over sacramental authority, domestic care, and gendered access to sacred power. I then trace the segnatura’s survival into the early modern period and its reframing in modern ethnography, highlighting its value for teaching archival interpretation, reading silences in the record, and understanding the politics of categorisation in religious history.

In my academic work on esotericism and Italian witchcraft, these medieval sources become the basis for research projects that blend historical method with reflexive analysis, while my public work through Angela’s Symposium adapts them for a broader audience through digital media. The segnatura thus offers a case study in how medievalists can bridge specialist research, critical pedagogy, and public engagement while addressing questions of authenticity, appropriation, and the resilience of vernacular religious traditions.