Mary Laven
(Professor of Early Modern History, Cambridge University), Principal Investigator
Mary’s work is grounded in the social and cultural history of early modern Italy and Europe, and she has particular interests in religion, gender, sociability, and material culture. She is responsible for the Creative Encounters strand of the project, which focuses on people and their creative engagement with the material world. This strand will establish and analyse a new body of sources for understanding how interactions between people of different ethnic origin fuelled the cultural vibrancy for which the Renaissance is famed.
Emily Michelson
(Professor of History, University of St Andrews), Co-Investigator
Emily is a cultural historian of religion in early modern Italy, with a special focus on religious minorities, diversity and encounter, and a growing interest in mobility and walking. She is responsible for the Spaces of Encounter strand of the project, which focuses on spaces as a means of uncovering the interconnections between minority groups, and investigates the myriad moments in which outsiders from different groupings collaborated, competed, communicated and clashed in ways that shaped the culture of the Renaissance.
Matteo Chirumbolo
(Research Associate, University of Cambridge)
Matteo is an art and architecture historian specialising in the early modern period. He takes over from Federica the Objects of Encounter strand of the project and collaborates with the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, developing new narratives around objects in the collection. His research project examines how groups of non-local settlers contributed to the creation of cultic and visual traditions in the Italian peninsula, and particularly in the southern region of Calabria, throughout the ‘long Renaissance’. The project aims to understand entire communities as agents of cultural and visual change, recentring the experiences of marginalised people within the history of art.
Federica Gigante
(Research Associate, University of Cambridge)
Federica is a historian of the early modern Mediterranean with a particular interest in the circulation of knowledge and material culture between the Islamic world and Italy. She was originally responsible for the Objects of Encounter strand of the project, which focuses on objects either produced by minority groups or embodying diversity in their materials, designs, technologies and labour imported from elsewhere. Federica’s research concentrates on the role of Muslim galley slaves in the importation of artistic, material and technological knowledge to Italy. She is currently a fellow at Villa I Tatti.
Alexandros Hatzikiriakos
(Research Associate, University of St Andrews)
Alexandros is a cultural historian of sound, specialising in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean. His research lies at the intersection of auditory history, literary studies, and material culture. He is also responsible for the Textual Encounters strand of the project, which focuses on the written traces that illuminate the cultural diversity of early modern Italy. Through a comparative analysis of printed and manuscript sources and their circulation, as well as an examination of the technologies and materials used in their production, this strand aims to reassess traditional approaches to the learned Renaissance.
Gabriella Di Luca
(Project Manager, University of Cambridge)
Gabriella has a professional background in administrative and project management roles, having worked for many years in various private sector organisations. More recently she has completed an MA in Translation Studies and has worked as a professional linguist from Italian and French to English. She has a keen interest in history and art, along with a love for her country of origin, Italy. Her role as Project Coordinator on the ItalianROSE project allows her to combine her professional skills while working on a project of immense personal interest.
Research Assistants in Italy
ItalianROSE is supported in part by a network of experienced archival researchers who are closely involved in the project.
Andrea de Meo Arbore (Puglia)
Andrea is an architect and architecture historian. He graduated from the Scuola Normale di Pisa. His research has been supported by the Paul Mellon Centre, The Warburg Institute, and University College London. For ItalianROSE, he is investigating the relationships between Puglia and the Balcans, focusing on archival collections in Bari, Manfredonia, Foggia, and Barletta
Niccolò Fattori (Marche)
Niccolò is an independent researcher specialising in the history of the Greek communities in the Marche region. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Royal Holloway and his dissertation was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2019 as a monograph entitled Migration and Community in the Early Modern Mediterranean – The Greeks of Ancona (1510-1595). For ItalianROSE, he is investigating the archives in Ancona, Fano, Pesaro, and Macerata.
Linda Iacuzio (Naples)
Linda is a freelance researcher at the State Archive of Naples. She has degrees from the Universities of Naples “Federico II” and “Orientale” as well as from the palaeography schools in Naples and at the Vatican. For ItalianROSE, she is conducting extensive research in a range of state and private archives in Naples.
Andrea Lercari (Genoa and Liguria)
Andrea is an independent researcher and external archival collaborator of the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendence of Liguria and the State Archive of Genoa, consultant for the Ligurian Nobiliary Association. He graduated from the School of Palaeography of the State Archive in Genoa, and authored and co-edited multiple volumes on the history of Genovese and Ligurian aristocratic families. For ItalianROSE, he is researching the presence of slaves and foreigners in both private and state archives in Genoa.
Samuela Marconcini (Livorno and Tuscany)
Samuela is an expert in the religious minorities of Livorno. She has degrees in medieval and modern history from the university of Florence and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, as well as extensive training in archival work, paleography, diplomatics, and Jewish history. For ItalianROSE she is working on foreigners in Tuscany, with a specific focus on Livorno between 1450 and 1650.
Chiara Pancot (Treviso and Veneto)
Chiara is a freelance archivist based in Treviso, Northern Italy. She studied at the Universities of Bologna and Ca’ Foscari of Venice. She has collaborated with public and private institutions to promote and preserve the archival heritage in the Veneto region, both doing research and organising collections. For ItalianROSE she is investigating practices and cultural materiality of German and other migrant communities in Treviso.