Nailing the 95 Theses to the Church door in Wittenberg. I'm told the doors themselves served as community bulletin boards, and it was common to post happenings there. Still, it finally put into motion what a lot of folks had already thought. And about that time it marked an increase in the literacy of Western Civilization. There are some decent biographies out there on Martin Luther. The one I happen to have at the moment is Martin Marty, Martin Luther, (New York: Viking Penguin, 2004).
For a good microhistory about a 16th-century peasant-miller named Menocchio, check out Carlos Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980, 1992). Have you read this yet JJ or AI? Pretty good. Pretty good. Unlike Luther, however, Menocchio was eventually burned at the stake -- for years, the guy just wouldn't shut up about heresey!
Anyhow, happy Protestant Day.
Monday, October 30, 2006
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Yes, I've read it, in the context of a history of science course. It was good, but my enjoyment of it was undermined by an overseeing instructor [Allchin, meet him MFT?] at Minnesota who kept insisting that if I was reading the little work correctly I would understand it as a searing indictment of that pathological set of bourgeious lies which sees progress in the course of science. On the one hand my sympathies lay with the poor gutsy well intended bookish bloke, only averagely a crank in a crankish age, and on the other my sympathies were not with the Prof.s intended moral that the "science" of the Cheese and the Worms was "as good Science as any other".
Whenever I read it, probably like you I can see myself enjoying the company of Menocchio, but also loathing the man because it seemed as though he wouldn't shut up -- ever. Try enjoying a sunset in silence? No way.
As for Ginzburg, there are points in the microhistory where Menocchio enters into conversation with friends, but we're never informed as to where these particular sources come from.
And yes AA: you were wrong to not see how right Menocchio was even though his science was wrong.
And Footnotes!?! HA!!! Who needs footnotes!?! Not Dr. Douglas Allchin.
That's Dougie....but, in his defense, his PhD was in philosophy [conceptual foundations of science], and so has not been formally trained, at least, by an official department of history.....But, hey, who am I kidding? He does work in a program of history of science, and so he does put his money where his mouth is, and so,,,,, In any case, Autoplagiarism is for Peasants
You couldn't nail political pamphlets to a bronze door in Florence. Stupidity and poverty make for splitters.
Yeah, I saw those JJ. Aren't they a part of the Duomo? Or are they right near the Duomo?
Anyhow, you need good oak from the northern forests of Europe if you're going to start a Reform. Fuck this bronze shit. Maybe you could forward this theory in your next historical work, JJ. It kind of has that Jared Diamond zaniness element to it.
Good idea! No cork doors, no clamoring unclean.
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