From about 1893 to at least February 1897, Lister worked as one of Leland’s trusted research assistants, securing — from the Florentine populace and contacts further afield in the Castelli Romani — reams of folktales, fairy lore, and incantations for at least three of Leland’s books (the two-volume Legends of Florence, published 1895–96; and 1899’s Unpublished Legends of Virgil). After Aradia’s publication, Lister still retained contact with local magical practitioners, and in 1901, she was even sought out by Sir James George Frazer (author of The Golden Bough). Frazer, who was intrigued by Lister’s ties to “native” witches, said that she knew of “many” in the Italian countryside who were “thoroughly pagan, with only a thin veneer of Christianity”. Notably, Lister was acquainted with Leland’s informant, Maddalena, and it was from her — according to Leland — that she learned the “sublime art of battezare le carte, or telling fortunes by cards, and other branches of the black art”.