The Cheese and the Worms is an incisive study of popular culture in the sixteenth century as seen through the eyes of one man, the miller known as Menocchio, who was accused of heresy during the Inquisition and sentenced to death. Carlo Ginzburg uses the trial records to illustrate the confusing political and religious conditions of the time. For a common miller, Menocchio was surprisingly literate. In his trial testimony he made references to more than a dozen books, including the Bible, Boccaccio's Decameron, Mandeville's Travels, and a 'mysterious' book that may have been the Koran. And what he read he recast in terms familiar to him, as in his own version of the creation: 'All was chaos, that is earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and of that bulk a mass formedjust as cheese is made out of milkand worms appeared in it, and these were the angels.'Ginzburgs influential book book has been widely regarded as an early example of the analytic, case-oriented approach known as microhistory. In a thoughtful new preface, Ginzburg offers his own corollary to Menocchios story as he considers the discrepancy between the intentions of the writer and what gets written. The Italian millers story and Ginzburgs work continue to resonate with modern readers because they focus on how oral and written culture are inextricably linked. Menocchios 500-year-old challenge to authority remains evocative and vital today.
Preface to the 2013 Edition Translators' Note Preface to the English Edition Preface to the Italian Edition Acknowledgments 1. Menocchio 2. The town 3. First interrogation 4. ""Possessed?"" 5. From Concordia to Portogruaro 6. ""To speak out against his superiors"" 7. An archaic society 8. ""They oppress the poor"" 9. ""Lutherans"" and Anabaptists 10. A miller, a painter, a buffoon 11. ""My opinions came out of my head"" 12. The books 13. Readers of the town 14. Printed pages and ""fantastic opinions"" 15. Blind alley? 16. The temple of the virgins 17. The funeral of the Madonna 18. The father of Christ 19. Judgment day 20. Mandeville 21. Pigmies and cannibals 22. ""God of nature"" 23. The three rings 24. Written culture and oral culture 25. Chaos 26. Dialogue 27. Mythical cheeses and real cheeses 28. The monopoly over knowledge 29. The words of the Fioretto 30. The function of metaphors 31. ""Master,"" ""steward,"" and ""workers"" 32. An hypothesis 33. Peasant religion 34. The soul 35. ""I don't know"" 36. Two spirits, seven souls, four elements 37. The flight of an idea 38. Contradictions 39. Paradise 40. A new ""way of life"" 41. ""To kill priests"" 42. A ""new world"" 43. End of the interrogations 44. Letter to the judges 45. Rhetorical figures 46. First sentence 47. Prison 48. Return to the town 49. Denunciations 50. Nocturnal dialogue with the Jew 51. Second trial 52. ""Fantasies"" 53. ""Vanities and dreams"" 54. ""Oh great, omnipotent, and holy God..."" 55. ""If only I had died when I was fifteen"" 56. Second sentence 57. Torture 58. Scolio 59. Pellegrino Baroni 60. Two millers 61. Dominant culture and subordinate culture 62. Letters from Rome Notes Index of Names
""Why should we reread the story of Menocchio thirty-eight years after its publication? First, this new edition is a timely update. Ginzburg has penned a new preface and bibliographical information has been augmented. Second, because it is a work of rare scholarship that no student should forget, despite the fact that the context in which this book was crafted has significantly changed.""
