Matteuccia de Fransesco

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Matteuccia de Fransesco, (d. 1428), was an alleged Italian witch and nun, known as the "Witch of Ripabianca" after the village were she lived.

Matteuccia was put on trial in Rome in 1428, accused of being a prostitute, having comitted desecration with other women and of the selling of love potions since 1426. She confessed having sold medicine and of having flown to a trea in the shape of a fly on the back of a demon after having smeared herself with an ointment made of the blood of newborn children. She was judged guilty of sorcery and sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Her case was one of the earliest witch trials in Europe, and the perhaps first case where a witch is mentioned flying in the air.