The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller

— —

Carlo Ginzburg (Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies, UCLA) John Tedeschi

The Cheese and the Worms

The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller

Carlo Ginzburg (Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies, UCLA), John Tedeschi, Carlo Ginzburg (Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies, UCLA) , Anne C. Tedeschi

$60.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Johns Hopkins University Press
15 October 2013

European history; Early modern history: c 1450 to c 1700; Social & cultural history; Legal history

"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 religious and social conflicts of the society Menocchio lived in. 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 formed-just as cheese is made out of milk-and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels."" Ginzburg's influential 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 Menocchio's story as he considers the discrepancy between the intentions of the writer and what gets written. The Italian miller's story and Ginzburg's work continue to resonate with modern readers because they focus on how oral and written culture are inextricably linked. Menocchio's 500-year-old challenge to authority remains evocative and vital today."

By: Carlo Ginzburg (Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies UCLA)
Preface by: Carlo Ginzburg (Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies UCLA)
Translated by: John Tedeschi, Anne C. Tedeschi
Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9781421409887
ISBN 10: 1421409887
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 15 October 2013
Recommended Age: From 13
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Carlo Ginzburg has taught at the University of Bologna, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. The recipient of the 2010 International Balzan Prize, he is author of The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries and Clues, Myths, and the Historical Method, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Reviews for The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller

A wonderful book... Ginzburg is a historian with an insatiable curiosity, who pursues even the faintest of clues with all the zest of a born detective until every fragment of evidence can be fitted into place. The work of reconstruction is brilliant, the writing superbly readable, and by the end of the book the reader who has followed Dr. Ginzburg in his wanderings through the labyrinthine mind of the miller of the Friuli will take leave of this strange and quirky old man with genuine regret. -- J. H. Elliott New York Review of Books Ginzburg has excavated a marvelous and melancholy tale. Lay readers know that historical work of this order requires formidable skills and dogged research... Ginzburg's discovery of Menocchio is a dazzling entry into the historical world of popular culture. -- Lauro Martines Washington Post