Carlo Ginzburg (; born April 15, 1939) is an Italian historian and proponent of the field of
microhistory Microhistory is a genre of history that focuses on small units of research, such as an event, community, individual or a settlement. In its ambition, however, microhistory can be distinguished from a simple case study insofar as microhistory aspires ...
. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: ''
The Cheese and the Worms
''The Cheese and the Worms'' ( it, Il formaggio e i vermi) is a scholarly work by the Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, published in 1976. The book is a notable example of cultural history, the history of mentalities and microhistory. It is "pr ...
''), which examined the beliefs of an Italian heretic,
Menocchio, from
Montereale Valcellina
Montereale Valcellina ( fur, Montreâl) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the northeast Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The comune is located about northwest of Trieste and about north of Pordenone. The comune was formerly part of the Pro ...
.
In 1966, he published ''
The Night Battles'', an examination of the ''
benandanti
The ("Good Walkers") were members of an agrarian visionary tradition in the Friuli district of Northeastern Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries. The claimed to travel out of their bodies while asleep to struggle against malevolent witches ...
'' visionary folk tradition found in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
Friuli
Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giuli ...
in northeastern Italy. He returned to looking at the visionary traditions of early modern Europe for his 1989 book ''
Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath''.
Life
The son of
Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg (, ; ; 14 July 1916 – 7 October 1991) was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, ...
, a novelist, and
Leone Ginzburg
Leone Ginzburg (, , ; 4 April 1909 – 5 February 1944) was an Italian editor, writer, journalist and teacher, as well as an important anti-fascist political activist and a hero of the resistance movement. He was the husband of the renowned auth ...
, a philologist, historian, and literary critic, Carlo Ginzburg was born in 1939 in
Turin, Italy. His interest for history was influenced by the works of historians
Delio Cantimori and
Marc Bloch. He received a PhD from the
University of Pisa in 1961. He subsequently held teaching positions at the
University of Bologna, the
University of California, Los Angeles (1988–2006), and the ''
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa''. His fields of interest range from the
Italian Renaissance to early modern
European history, with contributions to
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
,
literary studies, and the theory of
historiography.
[A conversation with Carlo Ginzburg](_blank)
''Thehindu.com'', 21 November 2007
In 1979, Ginzburg formally requested that the former
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
open the
Inquisition Archives. While the immediate response of the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
has not yet come to light, a limited group of scholars had been granted access by 1991. In January 1998 the archives were formally opened to "qualified researchers." Cardinal Ratzinger (who later became
Pope Benedict XVI) credited Ginzburg, and his 1979 letter, as having been instrumental in the Vatican's decision to open these archives. Ginzburg had his doubts about using statistics to reach a judgment about the period. “In many cases, we don’t have the evidence, the evidence has been lost,” said Ginzburg.
Along with
Paul Ginsborg, Marcello Flores, Sergio Luzzatto,
Claudio Pavone,
Enzo Traverso
Enzo Traverso (born 14 October 1957) is an Italian scholar of European intellectual history. He is the author of several books on critical theory, the Holocaust, Marxism, memory, totalitarianism, revolution, and contemporary historiography. His bo ...
, etc., Ginzburg called, in January 2002, for the rejection of a bill, presented by Justice Minister
Clemente Mastella
Mario Clemente Mastella (born 5 February 1947) is an Italian politician who has served as the mayor of Benevento since 20 June 2016. He is the leader of Union of Democrats for Europe, a minor centrist Italian party. He was Minister of Labour i ...
, that would have outlawed
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements:
* ...
. They argued that Italy's legislation was sufficient to cope with such acts. The amended bill finally restricted itself to reinforcing sentences concerning
hate speech.
He was awarded the 2010
Balzan Prize
The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organizations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the br ...
and was elected an International Member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 2013.
Work
In ''The Night Battles'' and ''Ecstasies'', Ginzburg traced a complex path from certain European
witch persecutions to the ''
benandanti
The ("Good Walkers") were members of an agrarian visionary tradition in the Friuli district of Northeastern Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries. The claimed to travel out of their bodies while asleep to struggle against malevolent witches ...
'' and a wide variety of practices which he describes as evidence of a substrate of
shamanic cults in Europe. His 1999 work, ''The Judge and the Historian'', sought to expose injustice in the trial of
Adriano Sofri
Adriano Sofri (born 1 August 1942) is an Italian intellectual, a journalist and a writer. The former leader of the autonomist movement ''Lotta Continua'' ("Continuous Struggle") in the 1960s, he was arrested in 1988 and sentenced to 22 years of p ...
, but failed to win a new trial. His book was not only about Sofri, but was also a general reflection on the scientific methods used by a historian, and their similarity to the work of a judge, who also has to correlate testimonies with material evidence in order to deduce what really happened. Thus, he explains how the judicial model of early historiography made it focus on easily verifiable facts, resulting in studies that centered on individuals or on what
Lucien Febvre
Lucien Paul Victor Febvre (, ; 22 July 1878 – 11 September 1956) was a French historian best known for the role he played in establishing the Annales School of history. He was the initial editor of the ''Encyclopédie française'' together wit ...
and
Marc Bloch called in the ''
Annales d'histoire économique et sociale
''Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales'' is a French academic journal covering social history that was established in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. The journal gave rise to an approach to history known as the ''Annales'' School. The journ ...
'' an "evenemential history". In his book ''History, Rhetoric, and Proof'' (1999), he contrasts the ancient rhetoric of Aristotle with the modern rhetoric of Nietzsche.
Bibliography
* (First published in Italian as ''Il formaggio e i vermi'', 1976)
* (First published in Italian as ''I benandanti'', 1966)
*
* (revised edition, 2000)
*
* (First published in Italian as ''Storia notturna: Una decifrazione del Sabba'', 1989)
*
* (First published in Italian as ''Il giudice e la storico'', 1991)
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
*
Leone Ginzburg
Leone Ginzburg (, , ; 4 April 1909 – 5 February 1944) was an Italian editor, writer, journalist and teacher, as well as an important anti-fascist political activist and a hero of the resistance movement. He was the husband of the renowned auth ...
(father),
Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg (, ; ; 14 July 1916 – 7 October 1991) was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, ...
(mother)
*
Vatican Secret Archives
*
Menocchio, accused of heresy
References
External links
Ginzburg UCLA HomepageCarlo Ginzburgat the International Balzan Prize Foundation
– Ginzburg interview
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ginzburg, Carlo
20th-century Italian historians
Jewish historians
Microhistorians
1939 births
Living people
Jewish Italian writers
Viareggio Prize winners
Writers from Turin
20th-century Italian male writers
Italian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa faculty
Italian male non-fiction writers
20th-century Italian Jews
21st-century Italian historians