Elena Bonora

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Renaissance, Reformation and Counter-Reformation; Catholic Church and Roman Inquisition; Papal diplomacy in Early Modern Europe; Religious coexistence and conflicts in multi-denominational European societies (XVI-XVIII centuries); Censorship and self-censorship

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2015-present: Full Professor in Early Modern History, University of Parma (Italy)

2002-2015: Associate Professor in Early Modern History, University of Parma (Italy)

1998-2002: Assistant Professor in Early Modern History, University of Parma (Italy)

1997-1998: Post-doc research Fellow in Early Modern History Society (supervisor Prof. Claudio Donati), University of Milan (Italy)

1996 - PhD in History of European Society (supervisor Prof. Massimo Firpo, 1992-95), University of Turin (Italy)

1991 - MA with honours in Early Modern History (supervisor prof. Marino Berengo), University Ca' Foscari, Venice (Italy)

1989 - Diploma in Archival, Paleography and Diplomatic Sciences, Archivistic, Diplomatic and Paleography School of the Venice State Archives

1985 - MA with honours in Theoretical Philosophy (supervisor Prof. Emanuele Severino), University Ca' Foscari, Venice (Italy)

VISITING APPOINTMENTS AND FELLOWSHIPS 

2025- Senior Research Fellow at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz.

2018 - Professeur invité international, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)

2017 - Directeur d'études associé, FMSH-Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (France)

2015 - Professeur invité, Sorbonne University (France)

2010 - Liguria Study Center for The Arts and Humanities (Bogliasco, Genova) funded by the “Bogliasco Foundation”, Rockfeller Center-New York

2009 - Erasmus exchange programme for teachers, Sorbonne University (France),  UFR d’Histoire, Roland Mousnier Center

2008 - Erasmus exchange programme for teachers, Sorbonne University (France),  UFR (Unités de formation et de recherche) d’Histoire, Roland Mousnier Center

2006 - Newberry Library of Chicago (Illinois)

2005 - University of Madison (Wisconsin)

PUBLICLY FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS

-2019-present: Principal Investigator of the Project of National Interest (PRIN2017JMPYTA): “The Nuncio's Secret Archives: Papal Diplomacy and European Multi-denominational Societies Before the Thirty Years War” - ERC Sector SH6, 36 months (prolonged) - Funding: euros 575.770. The project is also supported by the Kenneth Spencer Research Library (University of Kansas) and the New York Public Library. Project website: project website: https://nsa.unipr.it/ 

-2008-2011: Member of the International Research Project “Hétérodoxies croisées et controverses doctrinales entre France et Italie, XVIe–XVIIe siècles”, funded by the Ecole française de Rome (Rome, Italy), Sorbonne University (France), University of Parma (Italy)

-Member in 4 Project of National Interest (PRIN) coordinated by the University of Parma (PI: prof. Gigliola Fragnito):

PRIN 2007 (2007-2009) : “Ecclesiastical control and cultures in 17th century France, Italy and Spain”

PRIN 2003 (2003-2005): “Intolerance, culture and religious life in the 17th and 18th centuries” (refunded)

PRIN 2001 (2001-2003): “Intolerance, culture and religious life in the 17th and 18th centuries”

PRIN 1999 (1999-2001): “Church and censorship in the Counter-Reformation Age”

BOARDS AND COMMITTEES

2024-present: Governing Board of the   «Berengo Segre Foundation for Historical Research» (Venice)

2024- present: Editorial Board of the series Poesia, arte, storia tra Cinquecento e Ottocento (ETS Editions, Pisa)

2019-present: Scientific Advisory Board of the De Cive - Laboratorio di storia del pensiero politico (University of Parma, University of Bologna, University of Milano ‘Statale’)  

2015-present: Editorial Board of «Studi Storici»  

2015-present: Scientific Advisory Board of «Rivista Storica Italiana» (Class A journal)  

2012-present: Accademia Ambrosiana di Milano, Classe di Studi Borromaici

2012-2016: Executive Board of the Italian Society of Early Modern History (SISEM) 

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES, LECTURES AND ADVANCED DOCTORAL SEMINARS (selected)

Goethe University (Frankfurt, October 2025); Leibniz Institute of European History (Mainz, September 2025); Scuola SISEM 2025 (Firenze, ottobre 2025), Università di Napoli Federico II (June 2025), Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom (Rome, October 2024); École Française de Rome (Rome, May 2024), Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 2024), IUAV (Venice, 2024),  University of Oxford (Early Modern Italian World Seminar, 2023), Université de Lausanne (2022), Academia Belgica (Rome, 2022), Aix Marseille Université-Istituto Italiano di Cultura Marseille (Marseille, 2022), Pontificia Università San Tommaso d’Aquino in Urbe (Rome, 2022), Università di Venezia-Cà Foscari (2022), Pontificium Institum Patristicum Augustinianum (Rome, 2022), European Academy of Religion-EUARE (Münster, Germany, 2021); Università di Padova (2021), Università di Milano (2021),  Fondazione Gramsci (Roma, 2020), Istituto Veneto di Lettere, Scienze ed Arti (Venezia, 2019), Università di Napoli Federico II (2019), University of Parma (“Seminari d’Europa”  2019), Auditorium Parco della Musica (“Lezioni di Storia degli Editori Laterza”, Rome, 2019), Fondazione Einaudi (Turin, 2019), Società di Studi Valdesi (Torre Pellice, 2019),   Fondazione Centro Studi Leon Battista Alberti (Mantova, 2019), Aix Marseille Université-Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme (Aix-en Provence, 2018), Università di Firenze (2019), Department of Education, Switzerland (Lugano, 2018), Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana (Roma, 2018), Université Paris IV-Sorbonne (2017), FMSH-Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris, 2017),  Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2017), Università di Cassino (2017), Scuola Galileiana di studi superiori (Padova, 2017), Università di Firenze (2016), Università di Firenze (2016), Scuola Normale Superiore  (Pisa, 2015 and 2016),  Università di Padova (2016), Università di Torino (2016), Università di Bologna (2015), Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris III (2015), École nationale des chartes (Paris, 2015), the Renaissance Society of America Annual Congress (New York, 2014), Auditorium Parco della Musica (“Lezioni di Storia degli Editori Laterza”, Rome, 2014), ISIG-Istituto per gli Studi storici italo-germanici (Trento, 2014), Università di Padova (2012), Università di Cagliari (2012), Università di Trieste (2012), Università di Siena (Arezzo, 2011), École nationale des chartes  (Paris, 2010), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2010), Biblioteca Palatina (Parma, 2009), ISIG-Istituto per gli Studi storici italo-germanici (Trento, 2009), Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento (Florence, 2008 and 2009),  Université Paris IV-Sorbonne (2008 and 2009),  Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani (Rome, 2008), Società italiana di storia moderna-SISEM (Brescia, 2007), Newberry Library (Chicago, 2006), Fondazione Luigi Firpo-Centro di Studi sul Pensiero Politico (Turin, 2003), Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme-laboratoire TELEMME (Aix-en-Provence, 2002), Université Paris VII-Denis Diderot (1998), the Sixteenth Century Studies Congress (Cleveland, Ohio, 2000)

RESEARCH EVALUATION

I served as reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals and scholarly collections, including Annali della ScuolaNormale Superiore di Pisa, Archivio storico italiano, Bollettino della Società di Studi Valdesi, Cuadernos de Historia, Moderna, Mediterranea, Rinascimento, Rivista Storica Italiana, Società e Storia; as well as for scholarly collections published by the École française de Rome and the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana.

I acted as external evaluator for international and national research programmes, including Marie Curie COFUND initiatives, ERC-related programmes, PRIN, SIR, and the “Rita Levi Montalcini” programme. Between 2009 and 2012, i was a member of the Research Evaluation Board of SISEM (Italian Society for Early Modern History), and until 2022 I was included in the Italian national register of expert peer reviewers for scientific evaluation(REPRISE)

BOOKS

1. The Roman Church and Multiconfessional Europe in the Early Modern Period, ed. by Elena Bonora, Roma, Viella, 2026
2. Waiting for the Emperor. Italian Princes, the Pope and Charles V, Roma, Viella, 2022 [revised and augmented edition of  Aspettando l'imperatore. Principi italiani tra il papa e Carlo V, Torino, Einaudi, 2014]
3. La Controriforma, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2020 (7th edition) [Spanish edition: La Contrarreforma, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 2023]
4. Roma 1564. La congiura contro il papa, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2011
5. Giudicare i vescovi. La definizione dei poteri nella Chiesa postridentina, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2007
6. I conflitti della Controriforma. Santità e obbedienza nell'esperienza religiosa dei primi barnabiti, Firenze, Le Lettere, 1998
7. Ricerche su Francesco Sansovino imprenditore librario e letterato, Venezia, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 1994

FORTHCOMING:

1. “Diego Hurtado de Mendoza nell’Italia di Carlo V”, in Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (1503-1575) à la croisée des cultures, Tournhout, Brepols 
2. “The Heresy of Bishops”, in  Brill's Companion to the Italian Reformation, ed. by Giorgio Caravale,  Leiden-Bosto, Brill
3. “Come si costruisce l’immagine di un grande cardinale? Giovanni Francesco Commendone tra Cinque e Settecento”, in Les miroirs de la pourpre. Les écrits relatifs à l’ethos et aux devoirs des cardinaux (XIe-XXe siècle), ed. by   Pierre Bénigne Dufouleur Jean Sénié,  Roma, Viella

How did institutions, communities, and individuals in the early modern period respond to radical political, cultural, and religious change? My research focuses on Italy's transition from the Renaissance to a new era marked by the breakdown of European religious unity following the Protestant Reformation and by the eclipse of a centuries-old vision of Europe. Yet, while the authority of the pope was being challenged elsewhere in Europe, it was simultaneously being strengthened in the Italian peninsula. Politically fragmented into numerous states, Italy was unique in that the pope was not only the spiritual leader of a transnational institution but also the ruler of the peninsula's most powerful territorial state. Accordingly, my research has examined the origins and distinctive features of the political and religious settlement commonly known as the Counter-Reformation Church. Beginning with the decisive phase of the Italian Wars and the confrontation between Emperor Charles V and the papacy, I have explored how the political and religious order that emerged under papal leadership ultimately prevailed-despite conflicts and resistance-over competing projects, ushering in transformations that shaped Italian history for centuries.

My research also examines how these transformations reshaped society and culture: how the boundaries of public expression shifted, how the distinction between licit and illicit religious practices was redefined, which books people were permitted to read and write. From this perspective, I have explored the complex relationships between censors and the censored, the dynamics of self-censorship, and the concept of "unnoticed censorship": the set of norms and practices through which books were silently expurgated, often without readers realising that a text had been substantially reworked by ecclesiastical censors. From a broader European perspective, I have also examined censorship in translation, showing how Italian versions of a work could convey views and opinions that differed radically from those expressed by the same author in the original language.

My most recent research addresses the following historical question: confronted, in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, with a European space shaped by the coexistence of multiple confessions, how did the Roman Church seek to secure the survival of Catholicism and safeguard papal authority? Which forms of knowledge, political cultures, and institutional interests informed its strategies? And what tensions and contradictions emerged within the highest levels of the Roman Curia as it sought to respond to this unprecedented challenge?