While the bulk of my work focuses on political philosophy, I have also written on history of political thought, legal philosophy, and cinema.
These interests are intertwined in my main project, Political Teratology: The Monster as a Political Concept in the Early Modern Period. In this project, I focus on the phenomenon of the “monster” in European cultures. I explore the status of the norm, the normal, and the pathological in their relationship with the monstrous. My primary objective is to construct the concept of political teratology through a critical engagement in the history of ideas. From a theoretical and conceptual point of view, the monster shows a deviation from the norm, yet at the same time the monster claims its independence and autonomy from that norm. I intend to raise the possibility of a positive concept of “free monstrosity” (libera monstruositas) that escapes and departs from the norm of representation and its judgment that has historically been based on the pairs “model/copy” and “original/derived.”
In 2019 I have published a monograph entitled Monsters in Thought: Philosophies of Otherness in the Ancient World. This is a systematic investigation into the concept of monstrosity in ancient philosophy and culture. I suggest that far from being a peripheral problem, monstrosity is one of the main conceptual challenges for every philosophical system. Ancient authors explores metaphysics, ontology, theology, politics attempting to respond to the threat presented by the radical alterity of monstrous manifestations, both in nature and in thought. It is a research in the field of ancient philosophy, carried on by developing a continental approach to the history of Greek and Latin culture, both pagan and early Christian, on and around all the major aspects related to the concept of monstrosity.
A previous research project was published in 2009 as Conflict, Law and Multitude in Machiavelli and Spinoza: Tumult and Indignation. A French, Turkish and Iranian translation were also published. In this book, I analyse the relationship between the thought of Niccolò Machiavelli and that of Baruch Spinoza to show the profound influence that early modern Italian culture has had on European thought. The work of Machiavelli--one of the greatest intellectuals of the 16th century--produced deep and long lasting effects on continental culture as a whole and particularly on Spinoza. By focusing on Machiavelli’s “realism,” I highlight the ways that medical, legal, diplomatic and military cultures intersect, and I show Machiavelli not only as a political thinker but as a post-Renaissance intellectual par excellence who stands at the origin of a literature that challenges the categories of Classic Republicanism and Civic Humanism.
My second monograph, The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, presents a new, critical introduction to Machiavelli's thought. Geared towards the requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Machiavelli's ideas, I have conceived it as the companion to the study of this influential and challenging philosopher. The book introduces Machiavelli's life and the historical and theoretical context within which he developed his ideas; it contains detailed examinations of Machiavelli's major texts, including The Prince, The Discourses, The Florentine Histories and The Art of War; it critically analyses Machiavelli's most important concepts and shows how they continue to reverberate within Western political philosophy, paying particular attention to Machiavelli's language and central themes such as Virtue, Fortune, Conflict, History and Religion.
I am one of the founders of the research centre for Spinoza studies Sive Natura (https://site.unibo.it/sivenatura/it) and a member of the teaching board of the PhD in Philosophy at the University of Padua.
Some of the projects that I have coordinated in Bologna can be found here:
The History of Philosophy as Political Philosophy (2023): https://site.unibo.it/intcoop/en
Representing the Absence: Transitional Justice and Shared Memory (2023): https://site.unibo.it/representing-the-absence/en
Hortus Spinozanum: Philosophy in a Time of Crisis (2004): https://site.unibo.it/sivenatura/it
Segnalibri Filosofici (2024): https://site.unibo.it/segnalibri/it
