Elisabetta Scapparone

Elisabetta Scapparone received his degree in Philosophy from the University of Florence (October 1985) under the supervision of Cesare Vasoli, with a dissertation on Francesco Giorgio Veneto’s religious and philosophical thought. In the following years she received scholarships from the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici in Naples (1986/87 and 1987/88), from the Scuola di Studi superiori-Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici in Naples (1988/89) and from the Istituto Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples (1990/91), engaging research projects about the relationships between religion and philosophy in Italian Renaissance, with particolar focus on the debates about the prophecy’s status and its specific features. She received a Ph. D. in Philosophy from the University of Trieste, under the supervision of Michele Ciliberto (1996), with a dissertation on the concepts of veritas and vanitas in Giovan Francesco Pico’s De rerum praenotione. From 1995 to 2002 she worked as Research Assistant at the Chair of History of Philosophy in the University of Pisa. During the academic year 2001/02 she was appointed Adjunct Professor of History of Medieval Philosophy in the University of Pavia, Faculty of Musicology.

From January 2015 she has been working at the Department of Philosophy and Communication in the University of Bologna: at first as Research Fellow (2005-2014); later, after having obtained the National Scientific Qualification (February 2014), as Associate Professor (starting from September 2014) of History of Philosophy and History of Philosophy from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment.

Research interests

Her main research interests are in the history of Renaissance and early modern philosophy. Her research has constantly focused on the following topics:

1. The philosophical lexicon of the Renaissance and early modern period, investigated both within the ontological-metaphysical thought, both in terms of ethical and religious dimension;

2. The philosophy of Giordano Bruno, with particular attention to his dialogue with classic and humanistic sources; to the religious and political implications of his «new philosophy»; to the methodological and philological issues related to the work of textual editing and translation of Bruno’s works;

3. History of the renewed presence, between the 15th and 16th century, of relevant aspects of the classical tradition and, particularly, of several platonic issues conveyed by the translations and reinterpretation of Marsilio Ficino;

4. Renaissance debates about prophecy, eschatology, heterodoxy about sin and salvation as well as the questions concerning libertas philosophandi and religious tolerance during the 16^th century (in these fields, she devoted studies to Marsilio Ficino, Giovan Francesco Pico and Jean Bodin).

Participation in national research programmes

She participated, as a member, in the reserarch projects PRIN 2006: Filosofie e teologie: fonti antiche, discussioni moderne. Da Bruno a Spinoza; PRIN 2008: Il concetto di potenza da Cusano a Spinoza; PRIN 2010-2011: Atlante della ragione europea (XV-XVIII secolo). Tra Oriente e Occidente, national coordinator prof. M. Ciliberto (Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa).

She is Scientific Director of the University of Bologna’s Research Unit in the reserrch project PRIN 2016: Nuovi approcci al pensiero della prima età moderna: forme, caratteri e finalità del metodo costellatorio, P.I. Simonetta Bassi (Università of Pisa).

Participation in international research programmes

Since 2012 she is a member of the International Research Network (GDRI) Arts, sciences et techniques de la Renaissance aux Lumières/Arts, Science and Techniques from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, established between CNRS, The University of Chicago, the Department of Philosophy and Communication in the University of Bologna and the Department of Mathematics in the University of Pisa.

Participation in scientific committees and publishing projects

Since 2011 she is a member of the international review «Rinascimento»’s Scientific Committee; since 2012 she is a member of the Scientific Committees of international collections «Studi e Testi», «Quaderni di Rinascimento», «Atti di Convegni», published by the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento of Florence.

Since 2018 she is a member of the Editorial Board for the publication of Giovanni Pico’s works in a new edition.

She is the editor and translator from Latin (with S. Bassi and N. Tirinnanzi) of G. Bruno’s Opere magiche (Milan 2000) and she is currently working (with. S. Bassi, S. Carannante, I. Russo) on a new volume: G. Bruno’s Opere aristoteliche (in preparation).

She is a member of the Editorial Board for the national publication of Bernardino Telesio’s works.

She is a referee of the international review «Rinascimento» as well as of the Collection Nutrix. Studies in Late Antique, Medieval and Renaissance Thought, published by Brepols.

Collaborations

Since 1997 she cooperated and ongoing cooperates with the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento in Florence. For the Istituto, she has been designated as coordinator of BIR-Bibliografia italiana di studi sull’Umanesimo e il Rinascimento (dal 1997 al 2005); as curator of the Italian section of the Bibliographie international de l’Humanisme et de la Renaissance (Genève, Droz); as coordinator of the Postgraduate Course in “Civiltà dell'Umanesimo e del Rinascimento” (2012-2014).

She also contributed to the organization of the Istituto’s scientific activities, addressing first the organization of a series of international conferences. Among the most relevant ones:

• La filosofia di Giordano Bruno (Naples 10-12 November 2000);

• Forme del neoplatonismo. Dall’eredità ficiniana ai platonici di Cambridge (Florence, 25-27 October 2001);

• Tra antica sapienza e filosofia naturale. La magia nell’Europa moderna. Tradizioni e mutamenti (Florence, 2-4 October 2003);

• Figure del corpo. Antichità, Rinascimento, mondo moderno (Florence, 23 October 2004);

• Enigmi della memoria. Essere, conoscere, ricordare (Florence, 15-17 December 2005);

• Aristotele nel ’500. Fonti, testi, fortuna (Florence, 14-16 December 2006);

• The Italian Renaissance and the British Isles / Il Rinascimento italiano e le isole britanniche (Florence, 23-24 October 2008);

• Filosofie e teologie nella cultura moderna: fonti e testi (Florence, 25-27 November 2008);

• Il concetto di ‘potenza’ in età moderna (Florence, 15-17 December 2011);

• Cesare Vasoli tra Medioevo e Rinascimento. Seminario in onore (Florence, 7th May 2014);

• Italia ed Europa tra Rinascimento e prima età moderna (Florence-Pisa, 10-12 December 2015.

  She collaborates with the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani and with the Istituto dell’Enciclpedia Italiana, with which, over the years 2011-2012, she worked for the realization of the volume: Enciclopedia italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti. Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero, Ottava Appendice: Filosofia, published in 2012 (Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana).

  She has worked in various capacities with the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and over  the years 2012-2014 she has partnered with the Edizioni della Normale to complete the volumes: Giordano Bruno. Parole, Concetti, Immagini, 3 voll., Pisa-Florence 2014.