The Cheese And The Worms: The Cosmos Of A Sixteenth-Century Miller

Ginzburg begins by summarizing Menocchio’s life leading up to the trials in 1584 and 1599. He was born in 1532 and lived in the Friulian village of Montereale, was married with 11 children, worked as a miller, and had at various points served as mayor and church administrator for the town. Other details, such as his precise financial circumstances and his educational background, can only be inferred through context clues. In September 1583, a complaint was brought against Menocchio to the Roman Inquisition office, accusing him of habitual heresy. Community members recalled hearing him speak out against the Catholic Church and its teachings on multiple occasions over the course of many years (2).

In Chapter 2, Ginzburg addresses the inherent difficulties in trying to understand community responses to Menocchio’s heretical behavior; widespread fear of the Inquisition ensured that no villager would admit to entertaining Menocchio’s ideas. At the same time, testimonies suggest that few villagers harbored any ill-will towards the miller (3). Rather, he was reported to the Inquisition by Don Odorico Vorai, the town priest, with whom he had an ongoing personal dispute. With this in mind, it seems that Menocchio primarily had bad relations with the clergy, whose authority he repeatedly questioned and mocked.