The Cheese and the Worms

The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller

De: Carlo Ginzburg, Anne C. Tedeschi - translator, John Tedeschi - translator

Narrado por: P.J. Ochlan

The Cheese and the Worms is an incisive study of popular culture in the 16th 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 in which Menocchio lived.

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."

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 listeners because they focus on how oral and written culture are inextricably linked.

©1976 Giulio Einaudi editore; English translation copyright 1980 by The Johns Hopkins University Press and Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.; Edition with new preface copyright 2013 by The Johns Hopkins University Press (P)2019 Tantor

Review

Great Micro-History. Story about a very entertaining and the author uses Resources that are available to him the best he can while using historical imagination at the same time.

Interesting microhistory read

Such a specific tale and account of a random peasant in Europe. Kept me hooked

Worst. Narration. Ever.

The narrator. Has an odd speech pattern. Where it sounds like. He has ended a sentence. When in fact. He has just reached a comma. This becomes tedious. On a long audiobook.
Otherwise this is a classic book of historiography which I was supposed to read in grad school. Only took me 30 years to get to it.

Excellent

I was completely captivated. Its like one part historical analysis and one part detective story. Highly recommend for anyone interested in social history or medieval times.

entertaining history

Mennochio is great, very interesting glimpse into the past world. Ginsburg does a great job.

Great book, robotic narrator

It is surprising that the narrator of this book is an actual human and not a robot, because the reading and delivery is so mechanical and emotionless. This book is an absolute classic, and it is wonderful to have an audiobook version of the text. However the book suffers from the robotic delivery of the narrator, unfortunately.

Poor Mennochio!

This is the only historical text I've read that kept me just as attentive and interested as a novel. The central subject of this novel, Dominico Scandella, feels like someone I could sit and have a fascinating conversation about religion with, and the presentation of historical context around his life story is very interesting.

Simply Incredible

A book with staggering implications, and a classic example of micro history. Carlo is an outstanding historian and I hope to see more of his works on Audible in the future.

Couldn’t Take the Narrator

It’s a shame, because the subject matter is fascinating to me, but for whatever reason, I just found the narrator’s voice/tone too irritating. Couldn’t even get through the first chapter because of it.