“The Judge and the Historian” is a unique detective investigation by Italian historian Carlo Ginzburg, dedicated to the famous trial of Adriano Sofri. The former leader of the radical leftist organization Lotta continua, Sofri was arrested in 1988, charged and convicted in the 1972 murder of police commissioner Luigi Calabresi. Ginsburg analyzes court materials to determine whether the investigation was able to prove Sofri's guilt. How do the experience and skills of a professional historian help Ginzburg understand the essence of a legal incident? What are the similarities and differences between a historian and a judge? Is the humanities capable of performing important social functions in the modern digital world? The author answers these and other pressing social questions in his landmark work. Carlo Ginzburg (b. 1939) is one of the creators of the “microhistorical” method, the author of many books and articles devoted to the intellectual history of the Renaissance, Modern and Contemporary times.