#32813
Mentioned in 2 episodes

The Cheese and the Worms

Book • 2013
The book delves into the life of Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio, a miller from 16th-century Italy.

Menocchio's unique religious beliefs and cosmogony, which included the idea that the universe began as chaos and formed like cheese with worms emerging as angels, led to his trials and eventual execution by the Roman Inquisition.

Ginzburg's work uses Menocchio's case to explore broader cultural shifts, literacy, and resistance among the peasant class during this period.

The book is a significant example of microhistory, shedding light on the intersections of written and oral culture in shaping peasant thought.

Mentioned by

Mentioned in 2 episodes

Mentioned by Peter Adamson as a modern scholarship about the 16th century.
HoP 457 - Take Your Medicine - Oliva Sabuco and Camilla Erculiani
Mentioned by Peter Adamson as a famous attempt to investigate ideas within an oral context in Europe.
HoP 458 - Outsider Philosophy - The Cheese and the Worms
Mentioned by Jason Ananda Josephson Storm as an example of a book about an Italian miller's unique cosmology.
Jason Storm:  Myth of Disenchantment

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