LAMAMIMET

Carlo Ginzburg was born on 15 April 1939 in Turin to a Jewish family; his father was a philologist and his mother a novelist, fostering an early interest in history. He earned his PhD from the University of Pisa in 1961 and began a distinguished academic career that spanned several institutions, including the University of Bologna, UCLA, and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.

Ginzburg became a leading figure in microhistory, a methodological approach that examines the lives of ordinary individuals to illuminate broader historical processes. His groundbreaking 1976 work The Night Battles explored visionary folk traditions in Friuli, and his 1978 book The Cheese and the Worms brought him international acclaim for its detailed study of a sixteenth‑century miller’s heretical beliefs. He continued to investigate early‑modern European culture with titles such as Ecstasies and History, Rhetoric, and Proof, influencing generations of scholars.

In addition to his scholarship, Ginzburg was active in public intellectual life, advocating for the opening of the Vatican’s Inquisition archives and opposing legislation that threatened free speech. He received the 2010 Balzan Prize and was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. Ginzburg died in the early hours of 17 June 2026 in Bologna, aged 87, leaving a lasting legacy in the study of cultural and intellectual history.