The Cheese and the Worms: A 16th-Century Miller's Cosmic Vision
'The Cheese and the Worms' by Carlo Ginzburg Review
Carlo Ginzburg's microhistory, first published in 1976, reconstructs the worldview of Menocchio, a literate Italian miller executed for heresy in 1599. Through his trial records, Ginzburg reveals a unique blend of peasant culture, radical religious ideas, and personal imagination. This new edition, with a revised translation and postscript, celebrates the book's enduring influence on historical methodology.
For him, the universe emerged from chaos through a process akin to putrefaction. God and the angels, in his words, 'were produced by nature, just as worms are produced from a cheese.'