Post by Andrea Brondino

Today is a very sad day for many, as we lose one of the greatest historians of all times. Carlo Ginzburg has been the object of my research since my PhD; I did not know him well. We had several email exchanges (the last one, very brief, two weeks ago), a couple of Skype calls, and we met in person, alas, only once. I was deeply amazed by his curiosity, by his honesty (some of my questions were quite impertinent), and by his availability; a genuine and rare example of academic rigour and intellectual interest. Two brief quotes that I particularly love, from his essay 'Giochi di pazienza' (1975) (now available in English under the title 'Puzzles'), a wonderful and experimental work, co-authored with Adriano Prosperi, detailing the results of a lively seminar (when seminars weren't common practice at all) involving students at the University of Bologna, investigating the mysterious origins and function of the 'Beneficium Christi'. Unlike traditional history books, in 'Puzzles' we find the story of how the research developed (with its gaps, mistakes, false paths), rather than the research outcomes: to borrow a sentence from the book, 'Puzzles' breaks the rules of traditional historiography by 'bringing the kitchen onto the table'. In the final pages of the book, Ginzburg and Prosperi reflect on how the experience of the seminar has led them to devise a series of practical (counter)methodological considerations. Two of these I am particularly fond, and mindful, of: 'The hypothesis is not, as methodology manuals claim, a disinterested attempt at verification, but rather a question charged with hope, addressed to the documentation'. 'You don’t always find what you’re looking for, but it’s very difficult to find what you don’t want to find'. Thanks for your time and for your extraordinary work, Carlo.