Professional position:
Since 2023 – Dirigente di ricerca (Research Director). Institute for the History of Philosophy and Science in Modern age – National Research Council (ISPF-CNR), Naples.
2013-2022 – Primo ricercatore (Senior Researcher). ISPF-CNR, Naples.
2001-2013 – Ricercatore (Researcher). ISPF-CNR, Naples.
Other current affiliations:
Since 2022 – Associated member. Institut d’Histoire Moderne et contemporaine (IHMC), Paris.
Since 2018 – Associated member. PhD Program in Anthropology, History, Religion, Sapienza University of Rome.
Since 2013 – Associated member. Laboratoire d’excellence Histoire et anthropologie des savoirs, des techniques et des croyances (LabEx Hastec), Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris Sciences Lettres.
Since 2013 – Associated member. Centre d’études en Sciences sociales du religieux (CéSor), EHESS/CNRS (Paris).
Qualifications:
2023 - National Scientific Habilitation (ASN), scientific area 11/A3 (M STO02), Modern History, first class.
2018 - National Scientific Habilitation (ASN), scientific area 11/A3 (M STO02), Modern History, second class.
Education:
1996-1997 – Postdoctoral Fellowship in Historical Disciplines. Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
1995 – PhD in «Socio-economical and religious history of Europe». University of Bari.
1990 – Graduation in Humanities (Modern History). University of Rome «La Sapienza».
1987 – Diploma in Archival Sciences. State Archive of Rome.
Main research interests:
Social, cultural and political aspects of animal magnetism.
The cultural origins of the French Revolution.
Italy in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic ages.
History of the Catholic Church in the 18th and 19th centuries.
History of the Roman Inquisition.
Conspiracy theories
Feudalism in early modern Italy.
Giambattista Vico.
Teaching experience:
2021 – Visiting professor. Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux, EHESS/CNRS (Paris).
2012 – Visiting professor. Centre d’Anthropologie Réligieuse Européenne, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).
1996-2011 – Assistant Professor of Modern History. University of Rome, «La Sapienza.
Research and editorial responsibilities
Since 2022 – Responsible for the CNR research unit in the0 PRIN project “Censorship and communication in modern Age (XVI-XIX Centuries)” (Italian Ministry of University and Research).
Since 2019 – Co-responsible for the Labex-Hastec project “Harmonia universalis. Du mouvement mesmériste à l’internationale magnetiste”.
Since 2018 – Co-director of the book collection Gli orchi. Collana interdisciplinare di storia, published by Aracne.
Since 2018 – Member of the Scientific Board of the e-journal Giornale di storia, https://www.giornaledistoria.net/.
Since 2015 – Co-director of the book collection I quaderni del LAB, published by the ISPF-CNR.
2013-2016 – Co-responsible for the Labex-Hastec project “Base de données Harmonia Universalis: pour une prosopographie de la Société de l’Harmonie Universelle (1783-1786)”
Since 2009 – Co-director of Laboratorio dell’ISPF, the on-line journal of the ISPF-CNR, http://www.ispf-lab.cnr.it/.
2009-2013 – Co-responsible for the project of the Historical Atlas of Italy in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Age, Ecole Française de Rome.
Since 2003 – Member of the editorial board of the Bollettino del centro di studi Vichiani.
1997 – Principal Investigator of the CNR project “La giurisdizione feudale dei Colonna nello “Stato” di Genazzano. Aspetti istituzionali, storici, archivistici” [Colonna Family’s Feudal Jurisdiction in the State of Genazzano. Institutional, Historical and Archival Aspects].
Fellowships and grants
2022 – Directeur d’études associé. Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris)
2018 – CNR Short-Mobility Program. Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux, EHESS/CNRS (Paris)
2016 – Directeur d’études associé. Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris)
2009 – Visiting Scholar. Office for the History of Science and Technology, University of California, Berkeley.
2008 – CNR Short-Mobility Program. Centre d’Antrhopologie Réligieuse Européenne, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris)
2008 –Bakken Research Grant. Bakken Library, Minneapolis, Mn., USA
1996-1997 – Postdoctoral Fellowship in Historical Disciplines. Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.
Organized meetings and seminars (last seven years)
2023 Ambiguities of the ancient: conservative uses of the past in 18th century culture and politics, panel at the 16th Congress of the International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, Antiquity and the Shaping of the Future in the Age of Enlightenment, Rome, 3-7 July 2023.
Cures, patient.e.s et thérapeutes dans l’histoire du magnétisme animal (Labex Hastec, IHMC, CéSor, ISPF), Paris, 19 May.
2022 – International Meeting Animal Magnetism in Motion: Reconfigurations and Circulations, 1776-1848 (Labex Hastex, Université de Fribourg, IHMC, ISPF, Gotha-Erfurt University), Fribourg, 20-21 October.
– Under the Power of God: Trembling, Shaking & Convulsions in Early Modern religious practices and imagination, EMoDIR session, Renaissance Society of America 2022 Meeting, Dublin, 21 March.
2021 – Workshop L’Harmonie. Questions sur les usages et enjeux d’une notion polysémique (Labex - Hastec, IHMC - Université Paris 1, CéSor - EHESS/CNRS, ISPF-CNR, Paris 14 October).
– Online Workshop Le tournant de 1814 et la renaissance du mouvement magnétiste à la Restauration (Labex - Hastec, IHMC - Université Paris 1, CéSor - EHESS/CNRS, ISPF-CNR, Videoconference, 6 May).
– Online Workshop Écritures du magnétisme animal (Labex - Hastec, IHMC - Université Paris 1, CéSor - EHESS/CNRS, ISPF-CNR, 8 April).
2020 – Online Workshop Du mouvement mesmérien à l’internationale magnétiste. Présentation de l’opération Harmonia Universalis (Labex - Hastec, IHMC - Université Paris 1, CéSor - EHESS/CNRS, ISPF-CNR, 9 October)
2018 – Incontri di storia a partire da Vico [History meetings moving from Vico]. Conferences in the framework of the celebrations for the 350th anniversary of Giambattista Vico’s birth (Naples, 9 October 2018 - 30 January 2019).
Publications:
a) books
– La Repubblica in collegio. Gli scolopi romani fra cultura dei Lumi e Rivoluzione [The republic at school. Roman Piarists between the Enlightenment culture and the Revolution], Naples, ISPF, 2023.
– Quasi sovrani o semplici privati. Feudalità, giurisdizione e giustizia nello Stato pontificio dall’antico regime alla Restaurazione [Almost sovereigns or just private individuals. Feudality, jurisdiction and justice in the Papal state from the old regime to the restoration], Roma, Aracne, 2020.
– Barone, vassalli e governo pontificio. Gli stati dei Colonna nel Settecento [Baron, vassals and pontifical government. The Colonna’s states in XVIIIth century], Roma, Biblink, 2018 (2nd edition, Roma, Viella, 2022).
– Settimo contributo alla bibliografia vichiana (2001-2005) [VIIth contribution to Vico’s bibliography], Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2008 (with M. Riccio).
– Una rivoluzione difficile. La repubblica romana del 1798-1799 [A difficult revolution. The Roman republic of 1798-99], Pisa-Roma, Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali, 2000 (with M. Cattaneo and M. P. Donato).
b) edited books and journal issues
– Ripensare Ellenberger. Percorsi della psicoterapia e del non cosciente prima della psicoanalisi [Re-thinking Ellenberger: Pathways in psychotherapy and the non-conscious before psychoanalysis], special issue, Il sogno della farfalla, 2023, 4 (with A. Iacarella).
– Du mesmérisme au magnétisme animal. Diffusion et résurgences entre les XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, special issue, La Révolution française, 24, 2023 (with B. Belhoste, J.-L. Chappey and C. Gantet) https://journals.openedition.org/lrf/7065
– Le mesmérisme et la Révoluton française, special issue, Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, 391, 2018, 1, pp. 3-208 (with B. Belhoste).
– Atlante storico dell’Italia rivoluzionaria e napoleonica [Historical Atlas of Italy in the Revolutionary an Napoleonic Era], Roma, Ecole Française de Rome, 2013 (with M.P. Donato, M. Cattaneo, J.-F. Chauvard).
– Vico e l’Oriente: Cina, Giappone, Corea [Vico and the Orient: China, Japan, Korea], Roma, Tiellemedia, 2008 (with F. Masini and M. Sanna).
c) articles and book chapters (selction of the last seven years)
– “Memories and Narratives of the Roman Inquisition in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. Silences, Apologies, Denunciations”, in F.J. Ramón Solans (ed.), Memories of Intolerance. Nationalism, Religious Violence, and Hate-Speech in Nineteenth-Europe, New York, Routledge, 2024 (in press).
– “A Case of Failed Syncretism? Animal Magnetism in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, between European Science, Magical Tradition and Catholic Reaction”, in F.P. De Ceglia (ed.), Souls of Naples. Corporeal Ghosts and Spiritual Bodies in Early Modern Naples,, Rome, Viella, 2023, pp. 141-155.
– “Baldassarre II Odescalchi”, “Giambattista Casti”, and “Alberto Guglielmotti”, in D. Thomas - J. Chesworth (eds), Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, vol. XXI, South-western Europe (1800-1914), Leiden, Brill, 2024, pp. 545-554, 727-730.
– “Après la Révolution. L’Inquisition romaine et la France dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle”, in A. Burkard – J.-P. Gay (eds.), L’Inquisition romaine et la France à l’“âge tridentin” (XVe–XIXe siècles), Rome, Ecole française de Rome, 2023, pp. 315-344.
– “L’invenzione della scoperta. Il sonnambulismo magnetico tra Mesmer e Puységur” [Inventing a discovery. Magnetic somnambulism between Mesmer and Puységur], Il sogno della farfalla, 2023, 4, pp. 47-74.
– “L’harmonie au prisme du mesmérisme: recompositions scientifiques, politiques et morales au tournant des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles”, La Révolution française, 24, 2023, (with B. Belhoste, J.-L. Chappey and C. Gantet) https://journals.openedition.org/lrf/7470.
– “Raffaele Ciocci e il romanzo dell’Inquisizione” [Raffaele Ciocci and the novel of the Inquisition], in I “misteri” di Roma. Personaggi e stereotipi della Roma ottocentesca, ed. by M. Formica, Roma, Istituto nazionale di studi romani, 2022, pp. 101-113.
– “Scienza e poesia nelle scuole pie romane nella seconda metà del Settecento” [Science and poetry in the Roman Pious Schools in the second half of the eighteenth century], in Scienza e poesia scientifica in Arcadia (1690-1870) [Science and Scientific Poetry in Arcadia, 1690-1870], ed by E. Appetecchi, M. Campanelli, A. Ottaviani and P. Petteruti Pellegrino, Roma, Accademia dell’Arcadia, 2022, pp. 313-335.
– “Ricerche vichiane in Cina (2005-2020)” [Vico studies in China, 2005-2020], Bollettino del Centro di studi vichiani», LII, 2022, pp. 155-170 (with Jiang Wen and Zhang Xiaoyong).
– “The 19th century debate on animal magnetism viewed from Rome: the Holy Office’s decrees”, Laboratorio dell’ISPF, XIX, 2022, (11), DOI: 10.12862/Lab22RMD.
– “Fluidi, sonnambuli e spiriti fra Napoli, Roma e l’Europa” [Fluids, somnambules, spirits between Naples, Rome and Europe], in “I demoni di Napoli”. Naturale, preternaturale, sovrannaturale a Napoli e nell’Europa di età moderna, ed. by F.P. De Ceglia and P. Scaramella, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2021, pp. 181-205.
– “Napoli, Roma, Vienna: conflitti e comunicazione politica nella congiura di Macchia” [Naples, Rome Vienna: conflicts and political communication in the conspiracy of the Prince of Macchia], Bollettino del Centro di studi vichiani, LI, 2021, pp. 322-332.
– “Ebrei e inquisitori nella Restaurazione fra Ancona, Roma e Parigi. Una Lettre d’un Juif a Gregorio XVI” [Jews and inquisitors during the Restoration between Ancona, Rome and Paris. A Lettre d’un Juif to Gregor XVI], in L’Inquisizione e gli ebrei. Nuove ricerche, ed. by M. Caffiero, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2021, pp. 129-148
– “L’argine e il remo. Inquisizione e gesuiti nella Restaurazione romana” [The bank and the oar. The Inquisition and the Jesuits in the Roman restoration], in La Compagnie de Jésus des anciens régimes au monde contemporain (XVIIIe-XXe siècles), ed. by P.-A. Fabre, P. Goujon and M.M. Morales, Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu - Ecole française de Rome, Rome 2020, pp. 257-273.
– “Faire face à l’infection révolutionnaire. L’Inquisition romaine entre action locale et aspirations globales”, Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, 401, 2020, pp. 111-134 (with M. Cattaneo).
– “Valenti Gonzaga, Silvio”, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, XCVII, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 2020.
– “L’Armonia discorde. Sviluppo e dinamiche del movimento mesmerista alla fine dell’Antico regime” [Discording Harmony. The mesmerist movement, its development and dynamics at the end of the Old regime], Rivista storica italiana, CXXXI, 2019, 3, pp. 847-888.
– “Crises magnétiques, convulsions politiques: les mesméristes à l’Assemblée constituante”, Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, 391, 2018, 1, pp. 129-152. English version: https://www.cairn-int.info/journal-annales-historiques-de-la-revolution-francaise-2018-1-page-129.htm .
– “Le mesmérisme entre la fin de l’Ancien régime et la Révolution: dynamiques sociales et enjeux politiques”, Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, 391, 2018, 1, pp. 3-26 (with B. Belhoste). English version: https://www.cairn-int.info/journal-annales-historiques-de-la-revolution-francaise-2018-1-page-3.htm .
d) database
Harmonia Universalis, a prosopographic database of the mesmerist movement, 2016 (with B. Belhoste). https://harmoniauniversalis.univ-paris1.fr, doi: 10.19267/hubd01.