Current Position:
Associate Professor in the History of Science, Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna
University Education:
1998-2002 University of Cambridge, Ph.D.
1997-1998 University of Cambridge, M.Phil. (Distinction)
1992-1996 Università Cattolica del S. Cuore, Milan, MA in Languages and Literature (German and English) 110/110 cum laude (equivalent to 1*class).
Past Positions:
2013-2017 Senior Lecturer in History, 1500-1800, The University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
2007-2013 Lecturer in History, 1500-1800, The University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
2004-2007 Lecturer in Early Modern History, The University of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia)
2002-2004 Assistant Professor of Italian, The University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
Select Publications:
•Books:
2013. The Duke and the Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press), 392pp. Shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society’s Gladstone Prize (2013).
•Edited Volumes:
2017. Italian Renaissance Diplomacy: Texts in Translation (1350-1520), ed. Monica Azzolini and Isabella Lazzarini (Toronto: PIMS/Brepols, 2017) Durham Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Translations 6, 300 pp.
•Articles in Refereed Journals:
2019. “There Were No Medals to be Won: Scientific Duels in the Italian Renaissance,” in Prizes and Awards in Science before Nobel, ed. Marco Beretta and Ulf Larsson, special issue of Nuncius. Journal of the Material And Visual History of Science, 34.2.pp.258–283
2017. “Coping with Catastrophe: St Filippo Neri as Patron Saint of Earthquakes,” in special Issue of Quaderni Storici, ed. Michela Sara Barbot and Federica Favino, 52.3, pp. 1-24.
2017. “Talking of Animals: Whales, Ambergris, and the Circulation of Knowledge in Seventeenth-Century Rome,” Renaissance Studies, 31.2: 297–318.
2011. “Refining the Astrologer’s Art: Astrological diagrams in Bodleian MS Canon. Misc. 24 and Cardano’s Libelli quinque (1547),” Journal for the History of Astronomy, 42: 1-25.
2010. “The Political Uses of Astrology: Predicting the Illness and Death of Princes, Kings and Popes in the Renaissance,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, special issue Stars, Spirits, Signs: Astrology 1000-1800, edited by Lauren Kassell and Rob Ralley, vol. 41.2: 135-145 [13,000 words].
2008. “The Politics of Prognostication: Astrology, Political Conspiracy and Murder in Fifteenth-Century Italy,” History of Universities [special Issue: edited by Sven Dupré and Sachiko Kusukawa], 23.2: 6-34.
2008. “Annius of Viterbo Astrologer: Predicting the Death of Ferrante of Aragon, King of Naples,”Bruniana & Campanelliana 14.2: 575-588.
2005. “In Praise of Art: Text and Context of Leonardo’s Paragone and its Critique of the Arts and Sciences,” Renaissance Studies 19.4: 487-510. Awarded the Society for Renaissance Studies Essay Prize for the best essay published in 2005.
2004. “Anatomy of a Dispute: Leonardo, Pacioli, and Scientific Entertainment in Renaissance Milan,” Early Science and Medicine 9.2: 115-35.
•Chapters in Books:
2017. “Ritual” and “Medicine and Astrology.” In Monica Azzolini and Isabella Lazzarini, eds, Italian Renaissance Diplomacy: Texts in Translation (1350-1520) (Toronto: PIMS/Brepols).
—with Isabella Lazzarini. “Diplomacy and the Papacy.” In Italian Renaissance Diplomacy: Texts in Translation (1350-1520) (Toronto: PIMS/Brepols).
2014. Monica Azzolini and Adam Mosley, “Astronomy and Astrology.” In Philip Ford, Jan Bloemendal and Charles Fantazzi eds., Brill's Encyclopaedia of the Neo-Latin World (Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2014): 667-677.
2013. ““A Starry Gift: A New Horoscope for Cosimo I de’ Medici.” In Machtelt Isräels and Louis A. Waldman, eds, Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, 2 vols (Florence: Villa I Tatti-The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, 2013), vol. 2: 126-132.
2013. “L’insegnamento dell’astrologia e dell’astronomia.” In Dario Mantovani et al, eds. Almum Studium Papiense. Storia dell’Università di Pavia, vol. 1, t. 1 (Milan: Cisalpino Editore, 2013): 562-568.
2012. “Consiglieri celesti: astrologi e politica nel Rinascimento Italiano.” In Germana Ernst ed., Astrologia e divinazione nel Rinascimento (Rome: Carocci): 187-201.
2011. “Exploring Generation: A Context to Leonardo’s Anatomies of the Female and Male Bodies.” In Domenico Laurenza and Alessandro Nova eds, Leonardo da Vinci’s Anatomical World: Language, Context and “Disegno” (Venice: Marsilio Editore): 79-97.
2006. “Leonardo da Vinci’s Anatomical Studies in Milan: A Re-examination of Sites and Sources.” In Jean Givens, Karen Reeds, and Alain Touwaide, eds, Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550, AVISTA Studies in the History of Medieval Science, Technology and Art, Vol. 5 (Aldershot: Ashgate): 147-176.
2005. “Reading Health in the Stars: Prognosis and Astrology in Renaissance Italy.” In Günther Oestmann, H. Darrel Rutkin and Kocku von Stuckrad eds, Horoscopes and Public Spheres (Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter): 183-205.
