Carlo Ginzburg, the Italian historian whose groundbreaking work gave voice to the persecuted and vanquished of history, died last week at the age of 87. His passing removes one of the last living links with a remarkable postwar generation of historians who reshaped the discipline.
The Cheese and the Worms: A Microhistory Masterpiece
Ginzburg's most famous work, The Cheese and the Worms, published 50 years ago and translated worldwide, remains a supreme exemplar of historical research devoted to ordinary lives. The book emerged from Ginzburg's immersion in the trial of Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio, a 16th-century miller burned by the Roman Inquisition. Ginzburg wrote that by delving into the trial, he turned a possible footnote into a book.
The work reconstructs Menocchio's dangerously egalitarian views, formed from a mishmash of peasant and pagan culture, religious chronicles, and Boccaccio's The Decameron. Menocchio's fate was sealed when he disclosed pantheistic beliefs to inquisitors, comparing angels to worms emerging from rotten cheese. Ginzburg noted that a childhood friend had desperately urged the miller “not to talk too much.”
Connections to History from Below and the Annales School
Ginzburg's passion for reconstructing the fabric of previously marginal lives aligned with E.P. Thompson's “history from below” movement and the Annales school in France. His use of medieval and renaissance court records related to heretics, witches, and shamans influenced researchers of women's history and oppressed minorities, who similarly sought to read between the lines of documents written by the powerful.
Ginzburg noted with satisfaction that his works gained enthusiastic reception in postcolonial societies, where imperial administrations left treasure troves of official documents. During the 1990s, he deployed his detective methods to contest the dubious conviction of leftwing radical Adriano Sofri, found guilty of ordering the 1972 murder of a police commissioner during Italy's “years of lead.”
Personal Roots in Oppression
In later life, Ginzburg realized his commitment to history's victims sprang from his own past. During the Nazi occupation of Italy, his father, Leone, was tortured and murdered. As a young boy, Ginzburg was forced to disguise his Jewish identity and go into hiding. In a postscript to the 50th anniversary edition of The Cheese and the Worms published this year, he mused that this had been an internally suppressed connection.
Urgent Relevance Today
As the rise of 21st-century authoritarianism creates new generations of scapegoats and misfits, Ginzburg's approach speaks directly to our times. In the postscript, he recalled that Menocchio told his interrogators: “My mind … wished for a new world.” Ginzburg argued that in 2026, “these words, pronounced nearly five centuries ago, are more urgent than ever. Menocchio is with us, speaks to us.” The same will surely continue to be true of Ginzburg's own work.
