Threads and Traces: True False Fictive

and#147;Carlo Ginzburg weaves a spell-binding web of learning and surprises as he explores the question of truth in history and fiction and his own multiple engagement with the past. Whether dealing with Montaigneand#8217;s cannibals, Italian shamans, or anti-Semitic forgeries, Threads and Traces is a powerful and moving statement of the stakes in historical knowledge from one of our greatest historians.and#8221; and#151;Natalie Zemon Davis, author of Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds

Previous Praise for Carlo Ginzburg

and#147;Ginzburg is a historian with an insatiable curiosity, who pursues even the faintest of clues with all the zest of a born detective until every fragment of evidence can be fitted into place.and#8221; and#151;J.H. Elliott, New York Review of Books

and#147;Carlo Ginzburg has many claims to be considered the outstanding European historian of the generation which came of age in the late Sixties. Certainly few have equalled him in originality, variety and audacity.and#8221; and#151;Perry Anderson, London Review of Books

and#147;Ginzburg's scholarship is dazzling and profound.and#8221; and#151;Publisherand#8217;s Weekly

and#8220;Ginzburgand#8217;s range is remarkable . . . rich in references to and insights about diverse historical perspectives.and#8221;

and#8220;A collection of essays by the profoundly original, intellectually wide-ranging, Italian-Jewish historian Carlo Ginzburg . . . an illuminating collection of chapters, deftly translated from the original Italian by Anne C. and John Tedeschi.and#8221;

and#8220;No other living historian approaches the range of [Ginzburgand#8217;s] erudition. Every page of Threads and Traces, his latest work to appear in English, offers an illustration of it.and#8221;

and#8220;These essays humanely and generously explore the question of how history ought to be written.and#8221;

and#8220;Surprising pace, intellectual range, and learned discourse is typical throughout the book. . . . Artfully constructed essays.and#8221;

“These essays humanely and generously explore the question of how history ought to be written.” Benjamin Ivry - Forward

“Surprising pace, intellectual range, and learned discourse is typical throughout the book. . . . Artfully constructed essays.” Jonathan Beckman - The Literary Review

“This is a brilliant text, the product of a scholar of rare breadth and knowledge.” Raymond Grew, University of Michigan - Jrnl Of Interdisciplinary History

and#8220;This is a brilliant text, the product of a scholar of rare breadth and knowledge.and#8221;

Carlo Ginzburgand#8217;s brilliant and timely new essay collection takes a bold stand against naive positivism and allegedly sophisticated neo-skepticism. It looks deeply into questions raised by decades of post-structuralism: What constitutes historical truth? How do we draw a boundary between truth and fiction? What is the relationship between history and memory? How do we grapple with the historical conventions that inform, in different ways, all written documents? In his answers, Ginzburg peels away layers of subsequent readings and interpretations that envelop every text to make a larger argument about history and fiction. Interwoven with compelling autobiographical references, Threads and Traces bears moving witness to Ginzburgand#8217;s life as a European Jew, the abiding strength of his scholarship, and his deep engagement with the historianand#8217;s craft.

Carlo Ginzburg is retired from Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (Italy). He is the author of numerous books that have been translated into English including The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller.

List of Illustrations

Introduction

1. Description and Citation

2. The Conversion of the Jews of Minorca (A.D. 417and#150;418)

3. Montaigne, Cannibals, and Grottoes

4. Proofs and Possibilities:

Postscript to Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre

5. Paris, 1647: A Dialogue on Fiction and History

6. The Europeans Discover (or Rediscover) the Shamans

7. Tolerance and Commerce: Auerbach Reads Voltaire

8. Anacharsis Interrogates the Natives:

A New Reading of an Old Best Seller

9. Following the Tracks of Israand#235;l Bertuccio

10. The Bitter Truth: Stendhaland#8217;s Challenge to Historians

11. Representing the Enemy:

On the French Prehistory of the Protocols

12. Just One Witness:

The Extermination of the Jews and the Principle of Reality

13. Details, Early Plans, Microanalysis:

Thoughts on a Book by Siegfried Kracauer

14. Microhistory: Two or Three Things That I Know about It

15. Witches and Shamans

Notes

Index