A great account of the inquisition of a miller who can read and think independently which turns into a major problem in the 16th century. His own personal religion is a bizarre collection of folk wisdom and logic applied to a theology of which he only partially understands the orthodox version in the first place. He's also stubborn and unrepentant enough to come back for seconds after getting clemency for a sentence that nearly kills him. Fascinating character. ( )

‘The sequence cheese-worms-angels-holy majesty-God, the most powerful of the men-angels, had been abbreviated along the way to that of cheese-worms-men-God, the most powerful among men.’

Such an engrossing analysis of a 16th century heresy trial, Menocchio is such an inspiring figure (aside from his all too human lapses and contradictions when he becomes too verbose and realises he won’t achieve clemency, denying what he had previously said and in the process demeaning himself). His individual musings on Christian theology, with his radical humanist assertion that the love of one’s neighbour supersedes the love of God in importance, as well as his invocations of oral traditions and influences ranging from the Quran to pantheism to the Anabaptists to the Lutherans even through to the Greek conception of chaos, were immensely enjoyable to read. I feel like him and Judge Schreber would have recorded an absolutely great podcast over goblets of mead in some tavern.

It’s also darkly amusing to reflect on just how willing religious authorities were to employ methods of torture and months of interrogations on a man who everybody was pretty much assured posed no real threat - it’s so strange to think that the Pope himself stooped so low as to sign and intensely follow the progress of this man’s death warrant. He was externally submissive to the daily trappings of the Church (following Pascal’s advice a whole century before he penned it), had no real interest in converting those around him to his fancies (he himself was always careful to say he never wished his family to share his views, and that his thoughts were mere opinions and not the truth) and was a greatly appreciated member of his society, even being allowed to work in the Church after being branded a heretic and forced to don the habitello which he hated so much. In spite of the torture, the years of prison he endured and the illness and frailty he fell prey to, he never once ratted on those companions to who he may have indulged both his mind and tongue on rare occasions. Shoutout to Menocchio, the man who made the Inquisition his bitch in the only way a self-taught Miller could. ( )

PRATELEIRA EUNICE LIVRO 112
Um obscuro herege do século XVI é resgatado do esquecimento por Carlo Ginzburg em O queijo e os vermes. A partir daí nasce não uma dissertação acadêmica, mas uma das mais apaixonantes histórias sobre a Inquisição e sobre a cultura popular e erudita da época, por meio da vida de Menocchio, o moleiro, e sua espantosa cosmogonia: "[...] tudo era um caos, isto é, terra, ar, fogo e água juntos, e de todo aquele volume se formou uma massa, do mesmo modo como o queijo é feito do leite, e do qual surgem os vermes, e esses foram os anjos..."."O trabalho de reconstrução é brilhante, o estilo extremamente agradável e, ao fim do livro, o leitor que seguiu os passos de Carlo Ginzburg, em seu passeio através da mente labiríntica do moleiro de Friuli, abandonará com pesar a companhia dessa estranha personagem."The New York Review of Books

This is a most unusual book. It is a summary of the Inquisition's heresy trial of a 16-century Italian miller. The Inquisition kept detailed, verbatim records from their heresy trials and the transcript of this trial was unusually long as a result of the miller's unusual theological and cosmological ideas. One of his ideas about the origin of the world compares the creation of the world to the way cheese is made and the existence of angels is compared to the appearance of maggots out of the cheese.

The author summarizes the trials and tries to determine where the miller's ideas came from based upon the books he said that he had read. The author also finds that some of his ideas likely originated from an oral tradition of the Italian peasants.

The book is interesting for both it's picture of 16th century Italian peasant culture as well as for the miller's unusual ideas. The book should be interesting for people interested in 16th century European history, the Reformation, the Inquisition and theology. The weakness of the book is found in the footnotes which fail to offer the background information a casual reader would like to have. ( )

I read this in Portuguese many years ago. A recent discussion made me think of it. The 4 stars goes to the fact that close to 20 years later, I still remember so much about it. Also because I am drawn to thinkers, nerds and rebels - they do change the world eventually. ( )