Personale docente

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:

I graduated from the University of Venice-Ca' Foscari with honours in Theoretical Philosophy (1985, thesis supervised by Prof. Emanuele Severino) and in Early Modern History (1991, thesis title: Francesco Sansovino tra letteratura, storia e industria libraria, supervised by prof. Marino Berengo). In the same years I followed a two-year course at the Archivistic, Diplomatic and Paleography School of the State Archives of Venice and obtained a diploma in archival, paleography and diplomatic sciences in 1989. I received my PhD in “History of European Society” at the University of Turin in 1996 with a dissertationon: I conflitti della Controriforma: tra santità e obbedienza nell'esperienza religiosa dei primi barnabiti(supervisor Prof. Massimo Firpo, VII ciclo, 1992-95).After a period as a post-doc researcher at the University of Milan (1997/98, Department of Historical Sciences and Historical Documentation, supervisor prof. C. Donati), I becameAssistant Professor (“ricercatore a tempo indeterminato”) in Early Modern History (M-STO/02) at the University of Parma. Always at the same university I was promoted in 2002 Associate Professor and in 2015 I was appointed Full Professor. In the 2015/16 academic year I taught as “professeur invité” at the Paris IV-Sorbonne University, UFR d’Histoire (MA and doctoral seminars), and in 2017 I was appointed “Directeur d'études associé” at the FMSH (Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme), Paris, (see infra, 1.b)

BOOKS:

I am author of more than 60 scientific publications, among which 6 monographs stand out:

1.Aspettando l'imperatore. Principi italiani tra il papa e Carlo V, Torino, Einaudi, 2014.

2.Roma 1564. La congiura contro il papa, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2011.

3. Giudicare i vescovi. La definizione dei poteri nella Chiesa postridentina, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007.

4. La Controriforma, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2001.

5. I conflitti della Controriforma. Santità e obbedienza nell'esperienza religiosa dei primi barnabiti, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1998.

6. Ricerche su Francesco Sansovino imprenditore librario e letterato, Venezia, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 1994.

LECTURES AND SEMINARS:

I held lecturesat the Newberry Library of Chicago (2006), the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in Florence (2008 and 2009), the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2015, 2016), and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid(2017). I was an invited-speaker at several International Congresses and International Meetings, with subsequent proceeding publications: Université Paris VII-Denis Diderot(1998), the “Sixteenth Century Studies Congress” (Cleveland, Ohio, 2000), Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme-laboratoire TELEMME (Aix-en-Provence, 2002), “Fondazione Luigi Firpo-Centro di Studi sul Pensiero Politico” (Turin, 2003), Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani(Rome, 2008), Biblioteca Palatina di Parma (2009), ISIG-Istituto per gli Studi storici italo-germanici (Trento, 2009), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2010), Ecole nationaledes Chartes (Paris, 2010), University of Siena (Arezzo, 2011), “The Renaissance Society of America Annual Congress” (New York, 2014)ISIG-Istituto per gli Studi storici italo-germanici (Trento, 2014), University of Bologna (2015), Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III (2015), UniversitéParis IV-Sorbonne(2017), Université Aix-en Provence Marseille (2018), Università di Napoli Federico II (Naples, 2019). During the last ten yearsI also held advanced doctoral seminars at several academic institutions: UniversitéParis IV-Sorbonne (2008 and 2009), University of Trieste (2012), University of Cagliari (2012), University of Padua (2012), Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2015), University of Bologna (2015), Ecole nationale des Chartes (Paris, 2015), University ofTorino (2016), Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2016), University of Padova (2016), University of Firenze (2016), Scuola Galileiana di studi superiori (Padua, 2017), FMSH-Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris, 2017). 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE :

At the University of Parma, I am currently member of the Governingboard (Giunta) of my Department (“Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries”), Head of Department Staff for International Research, Head of the Historical Unity and Supervisor of the Historical Unit in the Interdipliscinary PhD Programme (“Philological, Literary, Historical, Philosophical Disciplines”). I was Director of the PhD Programme in History (2014-2016), member of the History PhD Programme Scientific Board (2000-2013), member of the Scientific Committee for the Research Evaluation ‘Area 11’ (2008-09), and member of the Governingboard of the History Department (2000-2005, 2011-2013).

MAIN AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

My main areas of expertise are: a) the religious crisis of the 16th century and the origins of Counter-Reformation; b) the institutional and political conflicts that accompanied the redefinition of the powers within the Roman Church; c) the influence of these transformations on Italian culture and society, as well as on ‘European Catholicisms’; d) the practices of censorship in the 16th and 17th centuries analyzed in a comparative key at European level.I have explored the impact of these historical processes by conceptualizing macro-contexts,as well as at the level of individual actors.In this framework, I have recently analyzed the respective roles of the regular orders, Roman Inquisition and nuncios in the European political-diplomatic sphere, in disagreement with the simplistic interpretations reducing the expansion of global catholicism to the exportation and application of Tridentine paradigms. From this main axis a new line of investigation on multiconfessional Europe has branched off, mainly regarding the Roman perception of the areas of coexistence and the definition of Roman policies in multi-confessional spaces. 

On the basis of these areas of expertise, I am a Reviewer of academic peer-reviewed journalsand collections(“Collection de l'Ecole française de Rome”,Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi, Rivista Storica Italiana, Società e Storia, Studi Storici). Moreover, I wasExternal Reviewer for the European Research Council in the Marie Curie COFUND - EU 7th Framework Program (ERC, SH6) for the following Programmes: PISCOPIA Fellowship Programme co-funded by Marie Curie Actions-University of Padova, call 2014;Fernand Braudel-IFER (International Fellowships for Experienced Researchers)Programme, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, call 2014; BeIPD-COFUND Programme, Université de Liège call 2015 and call 2016; Programma per Giovani Ricercatori “Rita Levi Montalcini”, call 2015.On a national level, I was Reviewer for the MIUR (Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca) in the following Programmes: SIR (Scientific Independence of Young Researchers), call 2014; PRIN (Research Project of National Interest), call 2015. Between 2009 and 2012 I also was a member of the Research Evaluation Board of the SISEM (Società Italiana per la Storia dell'Età Moderna).

MAIN RESEARCH PROJECTS:

I have developed a significant experience in research, organization and financial skills in a PI’s Unit, working as a member in 4 funded Project of National Interest (PRIN) coordinated at the University of Parma by G. Fragnito:

PRIN 2007- 2009 : Controllo ecclesiastico e culture nel Seicento in Francia, Italia e Spagna

PRIN2003-2005 : Intolleranza, cultura e vita religiosa nel Seicento e nel Settecento (refunded).

PRIN 2001-2003: Intolleranza, cultura e vita religiosa nel Seicento e nel Settecento

PRIN 1999-2001: Chiesa, censura e italiano nell'età della Controriforma

2008-2011: member of the International Research Project Hétérodoxies croisées et controverses doctrinales entre France et Italie, XVIe–XVIIe siècles,   coordinated by G. Fragnito and A. Tallon and funded by the Ecole française de Rome, Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, University of Parma. 

2015-2016, member of the project coordinated by Prof. Neville Morley (University of Bristol, [UK]; “Crisis and Cohesion: European Identities and the Uses of the Ancient Past”; funding request: €1,145,290), which reached the final stage of the selection process in the context of the Joint Research Programme HERA 2015 “Uses of the Past” (evaluation: 40/45, “Very Good”).

Prin 2017: Principal Investigator  of the project: “The Nuncio's Secret Archives: Papal Diplomacy and European Multi-denominational Societies Before the Thirty Years War - Gli archivi segreti del nunzio: diplomazia papale e società multiconfessionale europea prima della Guerra dei Trent’anni”  - ERC Sector SH6, 36 months. Website: https://nsa.unipr.it

FELLOWSHIPS AND SHORT VISITING APPOINTMENTS: 

Since 2008 I closely collaborate with the Roland Mousnier Center of the UniversitéParis IV-Sorbonne (UFR d’Histoire), at first within the frame of an Erasmus exchange programme (2008 and 2009), later following the establishment of an international research agreement (2008-2011), and finally (2015) as “Professeur invité” on the invitation of prof. Alain Tallon. More recently, I have been Directeur d'études associé at the FMSH (Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, 2017), and Professeur invité international at the UniversitéParis I Panthéon-Sorbonne (2018, declined). 

I was also awarded fellowships at the University of Madison (Wisconsin) in 2005, the Newberry Library of Chicago (Illinois) in 2006, and the Liguria Study Center for The Arts and Humanities funded by the “Bogliasco Foundation”, Rockfeller Center-New York in 2010.

OTHERS:

Since 2015, I have been on the Scientific Advisory Board of Rivista Storica Italiana(Journal of Modern History, CLASS A) and I have been on the Directive Board of Studi storici(Journal of Modern History, CLASS A); since 2012 I have also been a member of the Accademia Ambrosiana di Milano, Classe di Studi Borromaici. From 2012 to 2016 I was on the Directive Board of the SISEM (Italian Society of Early Modern History). I was awarded grants and prizes sponsored by “Fondazione Luigi Firpo-Centro di Studi sul Pensiero Politico” (Turin, 1996), “Fondazione Parini-Chirio” (Turin, 1997), “Centro di studi sulla civiltà del tardo medioevo” (San Miniato, 1997).