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Francesco Borghesi

Laurea in Filosofia, University of Bologna (Italy); MA and PhD in Italian Studies, Brown University (USA)
Senior Lecturer
Room 725, Brennan MacCallum Building A18

+61 2 9036 7131

Francesco Borghesi was educated in Italy, Germany and the USA. He has been a DAAD Fellow at the Seminar für Geistesgeschichte und Philosophie der Renaissance at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (Germany), a Frances A. Yates Fellow at the Warburg Institute in London (UK), a Reseach Fellow at the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University (USA), and a Lauro de Bosis Fellow at Harvard University (USA). He taught at McGill University in Montreal (Canada) and lectured as visiting professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City. His research interests include: medieval and Renaissance philosophy, theology and literature, and the interactions between them; the comparative study of religions; magic, science, and religion during the Renaissance. As one of his research projects entails the edition of a humanist text, he has developed a strong interest in palaeography, philology, electronic textual editing, and, more generally, textual criticism as well as history of scholarship. He is a member of the Worldwide Advisory Board of the Virtual Humanities Lab (VHL) at Brown University, and a co-founder and co-ordinator of the Network of Italian Scholars Abroad (NISA), which provides a world wide network for Italian scholars in the humanities and the social sciences.

Research Areas

  • Renaissance philosophy and humanism
  • History of religious and political thought, 1200-1800
  • Textual criticism
  • History of the classical tradition

Current Projects

  • Critical edition of the letters of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (to be published in Italy by Olschki Editore in Florence and in the USA in the I Tatti Renaissance Library series by Harvard University Press).
  • A study on the diffusion of the ideal of concordia in European culture, in particular between the thirteenth and the seventeenth century.

Selected Publications

Books

  • Word and Image, East and West, eds. Giorgia Alù and Francesco Borghesi. Special Issue of Literature & Aesthetics 22/2 (2012). Forthcoming.
  • Pico della Mirandola. Rome: Carocci, 2012. Forthcoming.
  • Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man. An edition with commentary, eds. F. Borghesi, M. Papio and M. Riva. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. In press.
  • Concordia, pietas et docta religio. Le lettere di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Edizione e studio dell’incunabolo bolognese del 1496. Bologna: il Mulino, 2004.

Articles

  • “Interpretations.” Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man. An edition with commentary, eds. F. Borghesi, M. Papio and M. Riva. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. In press.
  • “Pro libertate nostra.” Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Su pensamiento, influencias y repercusiones, ed. E. Priani Saisó. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012: 31-55. In press.
  • “For the Good of All: Notes on the idea of concordia during the late Middle Ages.” Italian Poetry Review 5 (2010): 193-216 [published in 2012].
  • “Uma vida de obras.” Pico della Mirandola. Novo Ensaios, ed. M. V. Dougherty, trans. G. Schanoski Jr. São Paulo: Madras 2011: 237-256. Brazilian translation of “A life in works.”
  • “«Al posto della morte c’era la luce»: l’etica della lettura di Pier Cesare Bori.” In the Image of God: Foundations and Objections within the Discourse on Human Dignity. Proceedings of the Colloquium at Bologna and Rossena (July 2009) in Honour of Pier Cesare Bori, eds. A. Melloni and R. Saccenti. Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2010: 9-24.
  • "A life in works." Pico della Mirandola. New Essays, ed. M. V. Dougherty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008: 202-219.
  • “Presentazione: Un seminario sulla filologia digitale alla Columbia University.” Storicamente 4 (2008): http://www.storicamente.org/02_tecnostoria/archivio_4.htm
  • "Anima." Dizionario dei temi letterari, eds. R. Ceserani, M. Domenichelli and P. Fasano. Turin: Utet, 2007, vol. I (A-E): 93-97.
  • "Cos'è un 'problema storico'? Riflessioni metodologiche su Ginzburg e dintorni." Discipline filosofiche 16.1 (2006): 109-126.
  • "Per la pubblicazione delle lettere di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola." Rinascimento 43 (2003): 257-269 [published in 2004].
  • "Pico e la concordia. A partire da un dibattito recente." Schede umanistiche 17.2 (2003): 91-107.
  • “Tracce e congetture per un percorso nel genere epistolare: premessa a una recensio del carteggio pichiano.” Schede umanistiche 14.2 (2000): 33-98.

Areas of Teaching and Research Supervision

Teaching

  • ITLN3662 Machiavelli and Renaissance Italy
  • ITLN3691 Italian Literature, 1200-1860
  • ITLN3694 Dante and the Middle Ages
  • ITLN3695 Love in Italian Culture
  • EUST2607 Comparing Cultures: Europe and the East

Research Supervision

  • Italian literature, philology and philosophy.
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