Dr GABRIELE FERRARIO
curriculum vitae
(aggiornato al 20/08/2022)
Indirizzo (lavoro): Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione – Via Zamboni 38 – Bologna
Indirizzo (casa): via San Donato 153 – 40127 – Bologna
E-mail: gabriele.ferrario@unibo.it [mailto:gabriele.ferrario@unibo.it] ; gabriele.ferrario@gmail.com [mailto:gabriele.ferrario@gmail.com]
Telefono: 0039-379-1759297
FORMAZIONE
• 2004-2007 – Dottorato di Ricerca in ‘Studi Orientali’ – Università di Venezia “Ca’ Foscari”, con borsa di studio. Tesi: “Il Libro degli allumi e dei Sali. Edizione e traduzione dei testimoni arabo ed ebraico”
• 1998-2003 – Laurea Quadriennale in Lingue Orientali (Arabo, Ebraico), Università di Venezia “Ca’ Foscari” (110 e lode)
ESPERIENZA PROFESSIONALE
• 2022 – presente Ricercatore a Tempo Determinato di Fascia B (RTDB) – Dipartimento di Filosofia e Comunicazione – Università di Bologna
[• 2021 Assistant Professor of the History of Science – Department of History – Boğaziçi University
Istanbul, Turkey – Offerta rifiutata]
• 2020-2022 Assegnista di Ricerca – Università di Bologna – Progetto ERC AlchemEast: ‘Alchemy in the Making: From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions’ https://alchemeast.eu/
• 2017-2020 Visiting Assistant Research Professor, History of Science Department / Program in Islamic Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (MD), USA
• 2010-2017 Research Associate, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, University of Cambridge, UK
• 2013-2016 Research Fellow in the Arts and Social Sciences at Clare Hall College, University of Cambridge, UK
• 2009-2017 Manuscript Expert – World Digital Library Project (Library of Congress, Washington D.C. - www.wdl.org/en ) – descrizione di manoscritti arabi, ebraici e latini per pubblicazione online.
• 2008-2009 Field researcher, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Database of Medieval Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania, USA
BORSE DI STUDIO E FELLOWSHIP
[• 2018-2019 Frances A. Yates Long Term Fellowship in Intellectual, Cultural and Art History (The Warburg Institute – University of London) – Offerta rifiutata]
• 2015-2017 Wellcome Trust Grant (come parte della Genizah Research Unit – Cambridge University Library)
• 2012-2015 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant (come parte della Genizah Research Unit)
• 2011-2012 Newton Trust Grant (come parte della Genizah Research Unit)
• 2010 Cambridge University Library Foundations Project Grant (come parte della Genizah Research Unit)
• 2008 Roy G. Neville Fellowship, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, PA
• 2007 Frances A. Yates Fellowship, Warburg Institute, University of London
PUBBLICAZIONI
Monografie
• On Alums and Salts by Pseudo-Rāzī. The Arabic and Hebrew traditions, (“Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry, vol. 2”), supplemento alla rivista Ambix (Milton Park, Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis), publicazione 2022 – accettato dall’editore e in produzione.
Articoli
• “Pauca numero et utilibus plurima: Maimonides’ Treatise on Poisons and its Graeco-Arabic Sources”, in Mordeglia, C., Paravicini Bagliani, A. (eds.), Il Veleno. Conoscenza, usi, pratiche (Firenze: SISMEL - Edizioni del Galluzzo 2022), 177-199 (ISBN 978-88-9290-122-3)
• “Alchemy in the Jewish context”, in Burnett, C., Moureau, S. (eds.), A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Middle Ages (London: Bloomsbury 2022), 87-91 (ISBN: 9781474294928)
• “Alchemy in Medieval Egypt: the Nachlass of an Untidy Jewish Alchemist”, Asiatische Studien, 75, 2 (2021): 513-544 (https://doi.org/10.1515/asia-2021-0007 )
• (con Maud Kozodoy) “Sciences and Medicine”, in Ackerman-Lieberman, P. (ed.), The Cambridge History of Judaism, Vol. 5: ‘The Middle Ages’ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021), 825-863 (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139048873.032 )
• (con Mohammed Abattouy) “Note on a Steelyard Balance in an Arabic Manuscript in Hebrew Characters”, Nouvelles Chroniques du Manuscrit au Yémen 11 (2020): 58-75 (http://www.cdmy.org/cmy/cmy30.pdf )
• “Maimonides’ Book on Poisons and the Protection against Lethal Drugs”, in Wexler, P., Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (London: Elzevier, 2017), 31-42 (https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809554-6.00003-2 )
• (con C. Stokoe and B. Outhwaite), “In the Shadow of Goitein: Text Mining the Cairo Genizah,” Manuscript Cultures 7 (2014): 29-34 (https://www.manuscript-cultures.uni-hamburg.de/MC/articles/mc7_Stokoe_Ferrario_Outhwaite.pdf )
• “The Jews and Alchemy: Notes for a Problematic Approach,” in López Pérez, M., Kahn, D., Rey Bueno, M. (eds.), Chymia. Science and Nature in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), 19-30 (ISBN: 1-4438-2553-0)
• “Understanding the Language of Alchemy: The Medieval Arabic Alchemical Lexicon in Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS Sprenger 1908,” Digital Proceedings of the First Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 2, 1-14 (online: http://repository.upenn.edu/ljsproceedings/vol1/iss1/2 ; più di 4800 downloads al 01/03/2022)
• “An Arabic Dictionary of Technical Alchemical Words: MS Sprenger 1908 of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (ff. 3r-6r),” Ambix: Journal for the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 56 (2009): 36-48
http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/174582309X405219
• “Al-Kimiya. Notes on Arabic Alchemy,” Chemical Heritage Review 25 (2007). Ristampato in Lembright, R. (ed.), Annual Editions: Western Civilization, Volume 1: The Earliest Civilizations through the Reformation (New York, McGraw-Hill, 2011)
http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/magazine/articles/25-3-al-kimya-notes-on-arabic-alchemy.aspx
• “Origins and Transmission of the Liber de aluminibus et salibus,” in Principe, L. (ed.), Chymists and Chymistry: Studies in the History of Alchemy and Early Modern Chymistry (Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2007), 137-148 (ISBN: 0881353965)
• “Il Libro degli allumi e dei sali: status quaestionis e prospettive di studio,” Henoch 26 (2004): 275–296
Risorse Online
• Medicine in Medieval Egypt: Creating Online Access to the Medical Corpus of the Cairo Genizah (finanziato dalla Wellcome Trust), 2017 (catalogo di circa 1800 manoscritti arabi, giudeo-arabi ed ebraci di argomento medico delle Cambridge Genizah Collections)
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/taylor-schechter-genizah-research-unit/projects/medicine-medieval-egypt
Recensioni e Altre Pubblicazioni
• Recensione di Le De anima alchimique du pseudo-Avicenne (Sébastien Moureau, Firenze: Micrologus Library, Sismel-Edizioni del Galluzzo 2016), Aestimatio 2:1 (2021) (https://doi.org/10.33137/aestimatio.v2i1.37733 )
• “Plants on Maimonides’ Bookshelf: T-S Ar.41.41”, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit’s Fragment of the Month (gennaio 2017) (https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.28082 )
• Recensione di La Messe alchimique attribuée à Melchior de Sibiu (Didier Kahn, Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2015) Ambix, 64:1 (2017): 99-100(http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2017.1310425 )
• Recensione di Art and Alchemy. The mystery of transformation (Wismer, Von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk, Dupré eds. – Düsseldorf, Hirmer 2014), Ambix63 (2016): 71-72 (https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2016.1201297 )
• “The earliest known fragment of Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’s Book on Numbness: T-S K6.194”, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit’s Fragment of the Month (settembre 2015) (https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.8549 )
• Recensione di La Conoscenza del Fare. Ingegneria, arte e scienza nel De la Pirotechnia di Vannoccio Biringuccio (Andrea Bernardoni, Roma: «L’Erma» di Bretschneider 2011), Ambix 61 (2014): 200-201 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/0002698014Z.00000000054 )
• “Medieval Scientific Texts”, in G. Khan et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, (Leiden: Brill 2013): v. 3: 460-462 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2212-4241_ehll_EHLL_COM_00000289 )
• Recensione di Matteo Martelli, Pseudo-Democrito. Scritti alchemici con il commentario di Sinesio (Paris: S.É.H.A. 2011), Ambix: 60 (2013): 182-183
http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/0002698013Z.00000000030
• “The affair of the purloined cows, T-S Misc.22.310”, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit’s Fragment of the Month (marzo 2011) (https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.56321 )
• Recensione di Ahmad Y. Al-Hassan, Studies in Al-Kimiya’. Critical Issues in Latin and Arabic Alchemy and Chemistry (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag,2009), Hyle: International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry 16 (2010): 130-134 (http://www.hyle.org/journal/issues/16-2/rev_ferrario.htm )
• (con Ronny Vollandt), “A Judaeo-Arabic version of Ibn Bahrīz’s treatise on logic, T-S K6.181”, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit’s Fragment of the Month (settembre 2010) (https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55279 )
• Recensione di Michael H. Morgan, Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists (Washington: National Geographic Society 2007) e di George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of European Renaissance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 2007), Chemical Heritage Review 26,1 (2008): 44-45
• Relazione sul Convegno Internazionale Judaism of Southern Italy in the Mediterranean Context: New Contributions (Siracusa, 25-27 Settembre 2005), European Journal of Jewish Studies 1 (2007): 189-194 (https://doi.org/10.1163/187247107780557290 )
• Relazione sul Convegno Internazionale Guerra santa, guerra e pace dal Vicino Oriente antico alle tradizioni ebraica, cristiana e islamica (Ravenna, 11 Maggio 2004; Bertinoro FC, 12-13 maggio 2004), Henoch 26 (2004): 224-236
Traduzioni
• M. ‘A. Amir-Moezzi and I. Zilio-Grandi (eds.), Dizionario del Corano. Milan: Mondadori, 2007. Traduzione di circa 200 pagine dall’originale francese Dictionnaire du Coran (Paris: Bouquinis – Laffont 2007)
PRESENTAZIONI (selezione)
• “Sleeping in Medieval Cairo. The Evidence from the Cairo Genizah”, Convegno Internazionale Micrologus: Le sommeil. Théories, Représentations et Pratiques” (Lausanne, Université de Lausanne, ottobre 2021)
• “Pauca numero et utilibus plurima. Il trattato sui veleni di Maimonide e le sue fonti greco-arabe”, Convegno Internazionale Micrologus: Poison. Knowledge, Uses, Practices (Trento, Università degli Studi di Trento, dicembre 2019)
• “Sorting the pieces: towards a typology of Judaeo-Arabic alchemical fragments”, ERC AlchemEast Workshop: Exempla Trahunt: Specimens of Alchemical and Scientific Manuscripts – Arabic & Syriac (Bologna, Univeristà di Bologna, giugno 2019)
• “Alchemy in Motion: The Trilingual Tradition of a Medieval Alchemical Recipe Book”, Virginia Fox Stern Center for the Study of the Book in the Renaissance – Faculty in Focus (Baltimora, Johns Hopkins University, novembre 2018)
• “Dealing with Abundance and Paucity: Notes on the Historiography of Medieval Arabic and Hebrew Alchemy”, CAIN Conference: Historiographies of Modern Chemistry and the Life Sciences (Philadelphia, Science History Institute, ottobre 2018)
• “Alchemy in Medieval Cairo. New Evidence of Theory and Practice in the Judaeo-Arabic Fragments from the Cairo Genizah”, Gotha Manuscript Workshop: Alchemy in the Islamicate World (Gotha, Forschungsbibliothek, settembre 2018)
• “The Secret of Salt: Salts and their Use in Medieval Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Alchemy”, 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, University of Michigan, maggio 2018)
• “Graeco-Arabic Science among the Medieval Jews of Cairo: The Fragmentary Evidence”, The Morris W. Offit Symposium on Muslim, Christians and Jews in the Mediterranean World (Baltimora, Johns Hopkins University, marzo 2018)
• “Graeco-Arabic Science in Jewish Attire: New Evidence from the Cairo Genizah”, ‘History of Science Colloquium’ (Princeton, Princeton University – Department of History, novembre 2017)
• “Discovering the Known: Text Mining the Cairo Genizah”, Workshop ‘Digitized Hebrew Manuscripts: British Library and Beyond” (Londra, The British Library, novembre 2016)
• “Theory, Allegory and Practice in Medieval Alchemy: Jewish Sources and their Context,” ERC Project ‘Calendars in Antiquity and the Middle Ages’ workshop: Science versus popular culture in Medieval Jewish Society (Londra, University College London, novembre 2015)
• “Graeco-Arabic Natural Sciences in Jewish Garb: Evidence from the Cairo Genizah,” International Symposium Greek Alchemy: from the late Antiquity to the early Modernity (Atene, University of Athens, giugno 2015)
• “The Alchemical Corpus Preserved in the Genizah Collections at Cambridge University Library,” Rencontre Internationale ARC ‘Speculum Arabicum’: Byzance, Bagdad, Tolède, Paris: la translatio studii dans les sciences médiévales (Bruxelles, Villa Empain, maggio 2015)
• “Problems in the transmission of the per pastillum technique from Antiquity to the Middle Ages” (Los Angeles, The Getty Institute, maggio 2014)
• “Ebrei e alchimia nel Medioevo: una relazione controversa”, Conferenza: Elisir mercuriali e immortalità. Capitoli per una storia dell’alchimia nell’Eurasia antica (Napoli, Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’, novembre 2013)
• “From Overseas: Lapis Lazuli, Ultramarine Blue and their Journey through Centuries and Cultures”, 24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine - Symposium: Reworking the History of Chemistry: practice, revolution, visualization and exchange (Manchester, University of Manchester, luglio 2013)
• “The Pigment that Came from Overseas: Ultramarine Blue in Medieval Arabic Alchemy.” EMPHASIS - Early Modern Philosophy and the Scientific Imagination Seminar (Londra, University College London, giugno 2011)
• “Materia Alchemica and Materia Medica in Medieval Islamic Lands. New Evidence from the Cairo Genizah.” International Conference “Alchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenment” (Cambridge, Peterhouse College, settembre 2011)
• “Alchemy in the Land of Hermes. New Evidence from the Taylor-Schechter Collection.” International Conference of the Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies “Judaeo-Arabic Culture and the Arabic Speaking World: Linguistic, Textual and Social Crosspollination” (Cambridge, Magdalene College, luglio 2011)
• “The Poetry of Alchemy, the Alchemy of Poetry. Preliminary Notes on the Shudhur al-Dhahab, Ibn Arfa‘ Ra’s’ Alchemical Poem.” International Workshop “On the Fringes of Alchemy” (Budapest, Central European University, luglio 2010)
• “The Rotation of the Heavens and of the Stars around the Four Elements: Islamic mineralogy and its alchemical implications.” Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting (Venezia, Università Ca’ Foscari, aprile 2010)
• “A Medieval Arabic Alchemical Lexicon: Ms Sprenger 1908 of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and Mss Egerton 709 and Or. 1593 of the British Library.” First Annual Lawrence J. Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, ottobre 2008)
• “Ms. 514 Orient. Klein, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin: A Handbook of Practical Alchemy.” International Conference CHYMIA: Science and Nature in Early Modern Europe (1450-1750), (Madrid, El Escorial, settembre 2008)
• “Origins and transmission of the Liber de aluminibus et salibus.” International Conference on the History of Alchemy and Chymistry (Philadelphia, Chemical Heritage Foundation, luglio 2006)
COLLABORAZIONI
• 2012-2017: Ricercatore a progetto per la mostra ‘Art of Alchemy’, apertura ottobre 2016, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/alchemy/
ESPERIENZA DIDATTICA
• 2017-2020: Visiting Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University. Corsi: ‘Jews, Muslims and Christians in the Medieval World’ (2020, 2019, 2018); ‘Introduction to Islam’ (2018, 2017); ‘Islam and Its Cultural and Religious Diversity (600-1600 CE) (2019); (con Prof. L. Principe) ‘History of Science: Antiquity to Renaissance’ (2019, 2018, 2017); Seminari per graduates e dottorandi: ‘Themes in Medieval Islamic Thought’ (2018, 2019, 2020); ‘Scripta Manent: Manuscript Cultures East and West’ (2018); supervisione del progetto di ricerca individuale: ‘One Flawed Science: Maimonides on Astronomy and Astrology’ (2018-19)
• 2015-2017: Guest Lecturer: scienza e medicina medievali (History and Philosophy of Science: Part II, Paper 1; Biological and Biomedical Sciences: Part II, Minor Subject 113; History Faculty, Specified Subject 11), University of Cambridge, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science
• 2014: Valutazione delle relazioni annuali dei dottorandi - University of Cambridge, Faculty of Divinity
• 2014: Docente alla Einstein Summer School ‘The Transmission of ideas between religious communities in the medieval world of Islam’, Freie Universität – Berlin
• 2010-2011: Supervisione studenti – University of Cambridge – Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies e Faculty of Divinity
• 2008-2010: Lezioni sulla scienza nell’Islam medievale per il corso di Laurea in Lingue e Civiltà Orientali – Dipartimento di Studi Eurasiatici – Università di Venezia ‘Ca’ Foscari’
ORGANIZZAZIONE CONVEGNI E SEMINARI
• Workshop internazionale mensile What’s in a recipe? Epistemology and Practical Understanding of Recipe Literature, University of Bologna, October 2021-June 2022
• Workshop internazionale Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry, University of Bologna, July 2021
• (con Lawrence Principe) The 2018 Morris W. Offit Symposium on Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Mediterranean World: Art and Architecture, Science and Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD, July 2018
SOCIETÀ, FUNZIONI ACCADEMICHE
• 2021-presente: Managing editor of the journal Aldovrandiana. Historical Studies in Natural History, Universiy of Bologna Press
• 2021-presente: Società Italiana di Storia della Scienza (SISS)
• 2017-2020: Membro dell’Academic Board del Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Book in the Renaissance (Johns Hopkins University)
• 2011-presente: Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC)
• 2014-2016: European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS)
• 2011-2012: Society for Judaeo-Arabic Studies (SJAS)
ATTIVITÀ DIVULGATIVE
• Aprile-Maggio 2017: Curatela della piccola mostra ‘Discovering Medieval Medicine in the Cairo Genizah’, Cambridge University Library
• Marzo 2016: Organizzazione di un evento per bambini per il Cambridge University’s Science Festival: ‘The Balance of Health: Enter the World of Medieval Medicine’
• Gennaio 2016: Curatela della piccola mostra ‘The Fame of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine: A view from the Cairo Genizah’, Cambridge University Library
• 2014–2016: Presentazioni pubbliche su alchimia, medicina, magia e vita quotidiana nella Cairo medievale al Limmud (evento di educazione pubblica) a Manchester (febbraio 2014, 2015 and 2016) e Leeds (november 2015)
• 2011–2013: Produzione (in collaborazione con la compagnia di radio Nightjar (http://nightjar.co.uk [http://nightjar.co.uk/] ) di un programma radio in 5 episodi sulle Cambridge Genizah Collections e la Genizah Research Unit. Il programma è stato trasmesso da BBC 3 - The Essay a maggio 2013 e nell’estate 2015
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01slm5m
• Ottobre 2012; Ottobre 2011: Organizzazione di 3 eventi per Cambridge University’s Festival of Ideas: ‘Demons, scorpions and nightmares’ (2012, per bambini 5-11 anni); ‘Lives in fragments: (2011, per adulti); ‘Angels, demons and scorpions’ (2011, per bambini 7-11)
• 2010 – 2017: Lezioni pubbliche, presentazioni e visite guidate alle Genizah Collections per gruppi disparati
COMPETENZE LINGUISTICHE
Italiano, Inglese, Arabo (lettura, comunicazione orale, scrittura); Ebraico Antico, Ebraico Moderno, Latino, Francese, Spagnolo, Greco Classico (lettura); Aramaico, Siriaco, Tedesco (lettura base)
