The mill rented by Domenico Scandella, known as Menocchio, at the end of the 16th century is located on the right bank of the Cellina, a little lower than the Church of Santa Maria, now San Rocco. No trace of it remains now. Scandella is also the administrator of the pieve. He can read, write and count. He represents the encounter between high culture and popular knowledge. He was condemned to death as a heretic by the courts of Aquileia and Concordia and burned at the stake in Portogruaro in 1599.
The story of Menocchio was brought to light in 1976 by historian Carlo Ginzburg in Il formaggio e i vermi, a text translated into 26 languages, which made the miller of Montereale famous throughout the world. The Circolo Menocchio was founded in 1989 as an offshoot of the municipal library. The Circle’s projects and publishing series aim to enhance talent and the local dimension, opening up to the world. Aldo Colonnello, one of the founders, says: Work in the cultural field is not easy. But it is – or should be – a public service. And as such, it must aim to open up or signal new avenues of interest and insight, even locally, in order to avoid the devastating closure in asphyxiating and self-gratifying localism.
The film Menocchio by the Friulian director Alberto Fasulo, presented at the Locarno festival, came out in 2018.
