While researching regional folklore in Tuscany during the late 19th Century, American folklorist Charles Leland was given a hand written document, the "Vangel", by a mysterious woman named Maddelena. Allegedly, this was the last recorded remnants of an ancient Roman folk witchcraft religion. The autheniticity of "Aradia" has always been questioned, but this book undoubtedly contains at least a few grains of Truth about the subject, and this book has without question influenced and shaped the modern neo-pagan movement.