Carlo Ginzburg's The Cheese And The Worms

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Recommended: Social changes in the 16th century

Carlo Ginzburg’s, “The Cheese and the Worms”, displays the life of Mennochio, a miller in the 16th century that has been accused of heresy because of his radical beliefs. Mennochio is interrogated and eventually sentenced to death, but through his trials we learn his ideas and the social and religious problems of Europe in the 16th century. As a miller, Mennochio is able to gain knowledge and access to books, despite his lower class upbringing, which allows him to challenge these traditional views on religion and social matters. In Mennochio’s trials he cites close to a dozen books that he has not only gaining meaningful knowledge from, but also has created new ideas and ways to view the world from. Menocchio challenges the status quo of …show more content…

He would digest the knowledge and history learned from these novels and create new ideas. Mennochio also would apply his views and ideas to the stories he was reading within the literature. “Sir, I have never met anyone who holds these opinions; my opinions came out of my head”. Menocchio explains in the novel, that despite all of the acquired information through his readings, he himself orchestrated the ideas and came up with his own thoughts. During the trials, inquisitors mention Nicola da Porcia, a painter and friend of Menoccio who could have aided him in his controversial ideas. But during the trials on numerous occasions Menoccio continues to reveal that it was his own doing and that he solely established his ideas being questioned. Of the books Menocchio read, almost all of them were lent to him, except for one in which he bought. Despite this, there are a lot of questions surrounding who specifically gave Menocchio most of his literature as most of the books have been disseminated in a variety of homes that hold different class stations. Nicola Da Porcia gave Menocchio, “Il Sogno”, which is why the inquisitors assumed his assistance in helping formulate Menocchio’s ideas, but Menocchio proved to be more radical as he questioned the scripture and God’s divinity. Mennochio illustrates his ideas through oral history given the platform of his class station and trials in

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