Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese And The Worms

The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg lets us understand the life and times of a miller, from the rural mountain town of Montereale, made to stand trial for his views on God and religion. In this story, we are able to see how the life of a commoner does not need to be shown through statistics. Through the lens of Menocchio’s trial documents, we have the ability to see how one man saw the world and how he interacted with others in his small town. Through his interactions with other citizens of his time, we are able to draw conclusions about the world around him. Stories such as Menocchio’s give us an important understanding of relationships in cultures lost to history. With Menocchio’s story, we are better equipped to understand his

Thus, this shows us the uniqueness of Menocchio compared to others who renounced their heresy to the court. Not only this, but he takes sole responsibility for his words. For this, we have a record of him. Had he not had the courage to stand up to his inquisitor we would not have had this amount of records from the courts. Thusly, this shows how Menocchio had more courage than his fellow heretics. Menocchio told the court his beliefs in a somewhat eloquent fashion and had the ability to argue on his own behalf. He had no education beyond primary school and his training to operate the mill. He had the courage to stand up for himself and state to the priests that they did not follow the true path of righteousness, that the church created the sacraments for money, and that the church and state hid behind Latin to conspire against the poor. These would have seemed as damning attacks against the hierarchy. Consequently, we understand that Menocchio stayed true to his word to rebuke his superiors. Menocchio carved for himself a place in history because he had the braveness to stand up to the

Consequently, this gave him access to the world larger than his geographical boundaries. Additionally, it gave him a higher position in his local community. Not everyone was literate in that time period and Menocchio did not necessarily need to learn how to read or write. In learning how to read, Menocchio gave himself a better understanding of how his world worked. He taught himself logic and reasoning to the point that he could represent his fellow tenets in court against his lord, showing us how well he had the respect of those around him. While he would not have had the ability to do this if the printing press did not succeed, it still shows the initiative that Menocchio had to bolster himself. learning to read Menocchio took knowledge from multiple sources and created, for himself, a new idea. In doing this Menocchio created his own cosmogony based on a mix of oral traditions and written works. Menocchio had the ability to secure his place in history because he learned to read. Without this, he would not have had the ability to postulate as complicated of ideas or argue with the priests as fluently. Thus, we can conclude that Menocchio would not have made history had he not learned to read. His reading, and his job as a miller gave him more legitimacy in his town which made him more influential in his