<P><I>The Cheese and the Worms</I> is an incisive study of popular culture in the 16th century as seen through the eyes of one man the miller known as Menocchio who was accused of heresy during the Inquisition and sentenced to death. Carlo Ginzburg uses the trial records to illustrate the religious and social conflicts of the society in which Menocchio lived.</P><P>For a common miller Menocchio was surprisingly literate. In his trial testimony he made references to more than a dozen books including the Bible Boccaccio's <I>Decameron</I> Mandeville's <I>Travels</I> and a 'mysterious' book that may have been the Koran. And what he read he recast in terms familiar to him as in his own version of the creation: 'All was chaos that is earth air water and fire were mixed together; and of that bulk a mass formed — just as cheese is made out of milk — and worms appeared in it and these were the angels.'</P><P>In a thoughtful new preface Ginzburg offers his own corollary to Menocchio's story as he considers the discrepancy between the intentions of the writer and what gets written. The Italian miller's story and Ginzburg's work continue to resonate with modern listeners because they focus on how oral and written culture are inextricably linked.</P>
