This is an IHeart podcast.

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Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A Production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

People have been making wine in the Saint-Julion region of France for centuries.

The wine harvested from their grapes is their pride and joy.

But like any product that depends on a plant in order to survive,

the wine production there is vulnerable to crop failure.

The year was 1545. That season, the vineyards were utterly ravaged by insects, devastating the winemakers of the region. So, what did they do? Well, if it was you or I, the most we could do

is start from scratch and hope that things turned out better next season.

But remember, this was France in the early Renaissance.

For all the advancements in art and culture, it was still a very spiritually driven society.

And there was recourse for the average person who felt that they had been wronged by an

animal.

They could take that animal to ecclesiastical

court. And so that year, the people of San Julien decided to do just that to a species of weevil

that they blamed for the destruction of their vineyards. They hired Pierre Ducault to be their

legal representative, and he filed a complaint with the court. It named the weevil species,

Rinkaitis, oractus, as the culprit and demanded punishment for the offending insect.

The state appointed a legal team to defend the weavels, and the trial was set.

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