Massimo Carlo Giannini received his PhD in Historical Sciences at the University of the Republic of San Marino (1997). He is Full Professor in Early Modern History at the Department of Communication of the University of Teramo, Italy. Since 2008, he has been member of the Accademia Ambrosiana - Classe di Studi Borromaici (Milan). In May and June 2014 he was associated researcher to the Casa de Velázquez, Madrid. He serves as coordinator of the PhD Program in History of Europe of the University of Teramo and Academic Director of the Istituto Sangalli per la storia e le culture religiose in Florence.
Since November 2017, he has been a member of the Rome Advisory Committee of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame (USA). He is also a member of the scientific committees of the series "Libri e biblioteche degli ordini religiosi in Italia alla fine del secolo XVI" (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City), the journal “Manuscrits. Revista d'història moderna” of the Departamento de Historia Moderna y Contemporanea at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), the journal "Archivum Historiae Pontificiae," and the journal “Eastern European History Review”. He has participated in various national and international research projects.
Currently, he is Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellow at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, with the project ChurchMove (H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2018/UNA4CAREER/GA No 847635). He authored multiple essays and books, among them: L’oro e la tiara. La costruzione dello spazio fiscale italiano della Santa Sede (1560-1620), Bologna, Il Mulino, 2003; I domenicani, Bologna, il Mulino, 2016; Per difesa comune. Fisco, clero e comunità nello Stato di Milano (1535-1659), Volume I, Dalle guerre d’Italia alla pax hispanica (1535-1592), Viterbo, Sette Città, 2017. He is editor of the book Papacy, Religious Orders, and International Politics in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Roma, Viella, 2013.
His recent research focuses on the relations between the Holy See and the Spanish Monarchy, particularly concerning the management of relationships with Catholicism in America and Asia.