Prof. em. Carlo Ginzburg

Carlo Ginzburg, born on April 15, 1939, died on June 16, 2026, was Professor for European Cultural History at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Following his years of work in Rome, Bologna, and Lecce, he was the Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1988 to 2006. He has held fellowships at Princeton, Paris, Chicago, the Warburg Institute in London, the Getty Center, the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin, Columbia University, and the Siemens Foundation in Munich. Ginzburg was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a corresponding member of the British Academy, member of the Accademia Raffaello, Urbino, and an Honorary Member of the ZfL. His work has been honored with numerous recognitions, including the Premio Salento, the Premio Viareggio, the Aby M. Warburg Prize of the City of Hamburg, as well as the prestigious Balzan Prize. Upon nomination by the ZfL, Carlo Ginzburg was also awarded the Humboldt Research Award in 2008. He used this award to finance several research stays at the ZfL.

Carlo Ginzburg was one of the most internationally renowned historians of our times. His philologically informed studies engaged extensively with the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, but also extended to the present. One of the founders of microstoria, or micro-history, he demonstrated how an extensive analysis of an individual, an event, or a place can bring forth new insights into the ideas, mentalities, or cultural patterns of a given period. Whether Ginzburg was reconstructing the worldview of a heretical miller around 1600 based on documents from the Inquisition, whether he interpreted Picasso’s “Guernica” or formulated broad epistemological questions on historical perspective, he always conducted his study of traces and images of the past with a detective-like precision. His works have been translated into more than 15 languages.

Obituaries

• Sigrid Weigel: Carlo Ginzburg – Erinnerung an einen Grandseigneur der Kulturwissenschaft, in: ZfL Blog, 1 Jul 2026
• Martin Treml: Carlo Ginzburg: Aufklärer nach der Aufklärung, in: Die Furche, 24 Jun 2026
• Lothar Müller: Ein Mann der Fährten und Spuren, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 18 Jun 2026
• Patrick Bahners: Hexenmeister und Erzrationalist, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17 Jun 2026
• Urs Hafner: Der Historiker Carlo Ginzburg ist gestorben, in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 17 Jun 2026
• Anne Dujin: Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, founding figure of microhistory, has died, in: Le Monde in English, 17 Jun 2026

Events with Carlo Ginzburg at the ZfL

• Celebratory event, 17 Jul 2015
  ZfL – Das zwanzigste Jahr
• Conference, 9–10 Jul 2015
  Mourning, Magic, Ecstatic Healing. Ernesto de Martino
• Wednesday lecture, 4 Jul 2012
  A Conversation about Miracles. La Flèche 1735–1737
• International Summer Academy at the ZfL, 10–15 Jul 2011
  Die ‘Erste Kulturwissenschaft’ und ihr Potential für die Gegenwart
• Symposium, 23–25 Mar 2010
  Gesichter – Faces
• Panel, 7 Jul 2009
  Actors of History. Georges Didi-Huberman and Carlo Ginzburg in conversation
• Wednesday lecture, 11 Jul 2007
  Fear, Reverence, Terror. Reading Hobbes Today
• ZfL Annual Conference, 30 Oct – 1 Nov 2003
  Fälschungen. Autorschaft und Beweis in Wissenschaften und Künsten
• Wednesday lecture, 9 Jul 2003
  Latitude, Slaves, and the Bible. An Experiment in Microhistory
• ZfL Annual Conference, 19 Oct 2001
  Figuren des Europäischen
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