Carlo Ginzburg, one of the most important Italian historians of the twentieth century, has died. From microhistory to The Cheese and the Worms, here’s who he was, his most famous books and the cultural legacy that changed the way history is told.
The passing of Carlo Ginzburg marks the end of one of the most authoritative and influential voices in contemporary historiography. Who died on the night of 17 June 2026 in Bologna at the age of 87, Ginzburg was one of the best known and most translated Italian historians in the world, capable of revolutionizing the way of studying and recounting the past through an approach that left a profound imprint far beyond the confines of the academy.
For many readers his name is linked to books that have become true classics of historical non-fiction, but his importance goes far beyond editorial success. Ginzburg taught generations of scholars that great history can also be understood starting from the lives of ordinary people, from forgotten archives and from seemingly insignificant details.
Who was Carlo Ginzburg
Born in Turin on 15 April 1939, Carlo Ginzburg belonged to one of the most important families of twentieth-century Italian culture. He was the son of the anti-fascist writer and intellectual Leone Ginzburg and the writer Natalia Ginzburg, two figures who profoundly marked the cultural life of the country.
After studying at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, he embarked on a brilliant academic career which led him to teach in the most prestigious Italian and international universities, including the University of Bologna, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and UCLA in the United States.
His books have been translated into over twenty languages, transforming him into one of the very rare Italian historians capable of influencing the world cultural debate.
The revolution of microhistory
The name of Carlo Ginzburg is inextricably linked to the birth of the so-called “microhistory”, an approach that radically changed the way of observing the past. Instead of focusing exclusively on major political events, kings, governments or wars, Ginzburg decided to shift attention to ordinary individuals, marginal communities and seemingly secondary events.
The intuition was simple and revolutionary at the same time: to truly understand a society it is not enough to observe who holds power, but it is also necessary to listen to the voices that traditional history tends to leave on the margins.
This perspective has influenced scholars from all over the world and has contributed to profoundly renewing international historical research.
The most important books by Carlo Ginzburg
Among the works that marked his career, the most famous title probably remains The Cheese and the Worms, published in 1976. The book reconstructs the worldview of Menocchio, a sixteenth-century Friulian miller tried by the Inquisition, transforming an apparently marginal story into an extraordinary window on European popular culture.
Other fundamental works include I benandanti, dedicated to the agrarian cults and popular beliefs of Northern Italy, Miti emblemi spies, considered one of his most methodologically influential works, and Storia notte, a vast investigation into the cultural and anthropological roots of beliefs about the Sabbath and witchcraft.
During his career he has also dealt with art history, popular religiosity, historical research methodology and the relationship between memory and truth, always maintaining an original and often counter-current perspective.
The cultural legacy of a global historian
Reducing Carlo Ginzburg to the definition of historian would be limiting. His work has crossed different disciplines, interacting with anthropology, literature, philosophy, art history and social sciences.
In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious Balzan Prize, one of the most important international awards in the field of human sciences.
His cultural heritage lies above all in his method. Ginzburg taught that historical research does not just consist of accumulating documents, but of knowing how to read clues, question sources and reconstruct complex worlds starting from apparently insignificant fragments.
In an era dominated by the speed of information and the spread of fake news, his constant call to verify sources and search for historical truth appears more relevant today than ever. (rsi)
With his passing, Italy loses one of its greatest contemporary intellectuals. However, his works remain, translated and studied all over the world, and a teaching that continues to speak to historians, students and readers: behind every great event there are always individual stories that deserve to be told.
