1697 In a small Piedmontese village, Giovan Battista Chiesa, a priest who carried out mass exorcisms against the orders of the archbishop, was arrested. The conviction and subsequent disappearance of the protagonist becomes the starting point of a study in which the history of an individual life is correlated with the general theoretical concepts put forward by scientists in relation to the 17th century. Giovanni Levi, one of the founders of the microhistorical approach, reconstructs in detail the biographies of all the village residents who left a documentary trace, and with the help of these materials offers a new interpretation of important aspects of European life of the early modern period - from the mechanisms of the functioning of the land market and family strategies to the formation of local political layers and cultural characteristics of opposing social groups. The story of Giovan Battista Chiesa shows that one of the key problems of everyday village life under the Ancien Regime was the preservation of intangible values across generations: power, prestige, positions, professional skills. Using this example, the author demonstrates how many events that determine the development of society happen at a time when, at first glance, absolutely nothing happens in people’s lives. Giovanni Levi is an Italian historian, emeritus professor at the University of Ca' Foscari.