How has Carlo Ginzburg influenced the practice of history, and what has been the value of this influence
to our discipline?
Carlo Ginzburg (1939-present) is a celebrated Italian historian
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, noted for his groundbreaking work in the
field of microstudy: a form of intensive historical study defined by an emphasis or focus on one small-
scale idea or experience relative to the wider are of study. Ginzburg first focused on microhistory in his
1976 work, The Cheese and the Worms
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, which focused on the life of Menocchio: a miller in 16th century
Italy who was burned at the stake for his philosophical teachings, which were considered by the Catholic
Church to be heretical. This method of study was a marked difference from the practices of historians in
ages past, which primarily focused on the economic, political and military aspects of greater society –
otherwise defines as “macro–history”.
The purpose and value of such study in a historiographical sense is, to use of the words of Charles
Joyner, about finding answers to “large questions in small places” by critically analyzing the minute
details of a single event, person, place, et cetera, and comparing the findings to the contemporary
mainstream reality.
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The benefit of this is that by doing so one can gain a more complete picture of what
life was like for an individual (and through the individual, society) in the timeframe, as opposed to
brushing over the little details in favor of focusing on the grander themes or developments. History is,
thereby, personified and solidified in a way that macrohistory cannot achieve.
Although Ginzburg worked alongside other historians (notably Giovanni Levi
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and Simonna Cerutti) to
popularize the term in the late 70’s, Ginzburg is generally credited as having the greatest impact upon
the discipline of history with his work on microhistory, which is arguably largely due to the relative
success of The Cheese and the Worms and his engaging style which was largely critical of the relativist
historiography employed by macro-historians.
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Ginzburg mostly concerned himself with aspects of history which occurred in the early pre-modern era.
Whilst this was by no means an area which was hitherto untouched, what separated Ginzburg from his
