Carlo Ginzburg (1939-2026): Studying History's Misspellings
Translated from Greek, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
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- Historian Carlo Ginzburg, known for his microhistory approach, has died at age 87.
- Ginzburg's influential works include "The Benandanti," "The Cheese and the Worms," and "Night Battles."
- He explored folk beliefs, witchcraft, and the hidden histories of ordinary people, challenging traditional historical narratives.
The death of historian Carlo Ginzburg, who passed away at 87, has evoked significant emotion within academic circles. Ginzburg was celebrated as one of history's most original thinkers, leaving behind not grand syntheses, but exemplary books and articles on historical methodology, style, and ethics.
He did not leave us monumental compositions, but exemplary books and articles on the methodology, the style, but also the ethics of History.
Born into a prominent intellectual family in Italy, Ginzburg was the son of acclaimed writer Natalia Ginzburg and Leone Ginzburg, a professor and anti-fascist intellectual who died in Nazi custody. Identifying as Jewish, not by religion but by the weight of persecution, this experience profoundly shaped his early research.
His seminal works include "The Benandanti" (1966), which used Inquisition archives to explore folk cults surviving beneath official religion. His most famous book, "The Cheese and the Worms" (1976), examined the cosmology of a 16th-century miller, revealing how common people constructed their understanding of the world. Ginzburg presented this as the "other half" of history, contrasting with the scientific revolution unfolding in the upper echelons of society.
Like the worms that are created by cheese.
His third major book, "Night Battles" (1989), decoded nocturnal witch gatherings. While "The Cheese and the Worms" exemplified microhistory, "Night Battles" broadened his scope across Eurasia, tracing the transmission of ecstatic states and folk knowledge. Ginzburg's widespread influence, with his works translated into numerous languages and adopted in university curricula, stems largely from his methodological innovation, focusing on specific details rather than grand historical narratives.
If we know half the world, the one that created science and the Enlightenment, he presents us with the other half, which was persecuted and lost.
DistantNews Editorial
Originally published by Kathimerini in Greek. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.
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