Carlo Ginzburg, Pioneering Microhistory Scholar, Dies at 87

Carlo Ginzburg, an Italian historian whose innovative approach to historical research gave voice to marginalized people and transformed contemporary historiography, died Wednesday at age 87 in Bologna. The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, where he studied and later served as professor emeritus, confirmed his death.

Ginzburg was a leading pioneer of microhistory, a methodology that examines small, specific units of analysis—such as individuals, communities, or singular events—to reveal broader historical themes and societal patterns. He developed what scholars call the "evidential paradigm," a rigorous analytical method based on interpreting clues, traces, and seemingly minor details to reconstruct the experiences and perspectives of people excluded from dominant historical narratives. The Scuola Normale Superiore stated that he "changed the way of practicing the historian's craft" and "restores voice to those who lack it."

Born in Turin in 1939 to writer Natalia Ginzburg and anti-fascist activist Leone Ginzburg, Ginzburg's early research focused on the "benandanti," a 16th- and 17th-century pagan fertility cult in the Friuli region whose members were accused of heresy by the Inquisition. This work resulted in his first book, published in 1966. His landmark 1976 work "The Cheese and the Worms" remains widely regarded as one of the most important contributions to Italian historiography. The book reconstructed the trial of a 16th-century Friulian miller accused of holding unorthodox beliefs, using inquisitorial records to demonstrate how power and resistance operate within the same documents and to illuminate tensions between elite and popular culture.

Ginzburg taught at prestigious universities including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and UCLA, and his numerous books were translated into more than 30 languages. He received major international honors, including the Prix Aby Warburg, the Balzan Prize, the Antonio Feltrinelli Prize, and the Humboldt Research Award. In a 2023 interview, Ginzburg reflected that his historical approach could extend beyond academic research and should be applied "in everyday life" to better understand others.

He is survived by his two daughters, Silvia, an art historian, and Lisa, a writer and essayist, from his marriage to late historian Anna Rossi-Doria.