Reference I Love V (mind of a man)

Back when I worked for an environmental consulting firm, one of the engineers I worked with found out that I was a fan of Medieval History.  He shared my enthusiasm and we had a short, but animated discussion on the subject (we were billing clients by the hour after all).  For Christmas that year he dropped off a little gift in my cube (which is the subject of this post) that I enjoyed immensely.  I ended up leaving the company soon after, but will always remember his generosity of spirit.

 





The Cheese and the Worms, by Carlo  Ginzburg, is an examination of the sixteenth century through the lens of a miller on trial before the Inquisition.  According to the Translators' Note (p. ix), the transcription of these trials was taken very seriously including, "not only all the defendant's responses and any statements he might make, but also what he might utter during the torture, even his sighs, his cries, his laments and tears" (E. Masini, Sacro Arsenale [Genoa, 1621], p. 123). First published in Italy 1976, this is the only account I have read which attempts to access the world through a common man's eyes, as described in his own words.
    Domenico Scandella (a.k.a. Menocchio) was brought up on trial for heresy in 1583.  Menocchio consistently identifies himself as a faithful Catholic throughout the course of the proceedings.  However, many of his utterances (he admits to them) deviate wildly from Church doctrine.  The inquisitors do their best to discover how these ideas came to be.  They come to understand that the accused has an inquisitive and somewhat scientific mind.  He can read and write and has used these skills to try to make sense of the world around him through synthesis of the information he has acquired.  The title of the book is taken from the accused's description of creation, "All was chaos, that is earth, air, water, and fire were mixed together; and out of that bulk a mass formed--just as cheese is made out of milk--and worms appeared in it, and these were the angels." (taken from the back cover and somewhere else in the book, I'm sure.  How many bloggers do you know who give any notation? Harrumph).
    This is not a beach read.  The main body of the text is only 128 pages (in a large format), but you do work for every one.  However, as a scholarly work, it is surprisingly accessible.  The author takes great pains to include detail requisite for the layman to understand the meat of the issue at hand.  The Table of Contents is a bit obscure upon first viewing (for example, "15 Blind alley?"), but serves as a good reference for returning to areas of interest on subsequent visits.  Naturally, there are copious notes and an index of names.  This is a work that bears rereading and one you should probably only tackle with notebook at the ready for the first go round.  As a window into the world of the common man, it serves to put a human face on a group that was traditionally ignored by historians and is difficult to study in general.