Dr Margherita Mantovani
University of Bologna – Alma Mater Studiorum
ORCID iD: 0009-0001-7735-4363
margherita.mantovan4@unibo.it
Academic Positions
2024
University of Bologna – Alma Mater, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Assegnista di ricerca)
2023
University of Hamburg, Institut für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion, Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Lehrstuhl für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Project: “PESHAT in Context”
2022–2023
Scientific Coordinator (December-February) in the frame of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Project: “PESHAT in Context”
2022
University of Hamburg, Institut für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion, Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Lehrstuhl für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion, DFG Project: “PESHAT in Context” (Premodern Philosophic and Scientific Hebrew Terminology in Context. An Online Thesaurus, ed. by R. Leicht and G. Veltri)
2021–
Laboratoire d’études sur les monothéismes LEM – CNRS (UMR 8584), Paris, chercheuse associée
2020–
Laboratoire d’Excellence HASTEC (École Pratique des Hautes Études), membre associé
2020
École Pratique des Hautes Études–PSL, Contrat de recherche postdoctoral, Laboratoire d’Excellence HASTEC (Histoire et Anthropologie des savoirs, des techniques et des croyances), Paris; Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (section hébraïque) – CNRS (UPR 841), Paris, chercheuse affiliée; Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, chercheuse résidente
2019
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung / Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Postdoctoral Fellow (Research Unity: Dynamiken in der Religionsgeschichte zwischen Asien und Europa, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Centre for Religious Studies)
2018-2019
Sapienza University of Rome, Adjunct Professor in Jewish History
2018-2019
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Raffaele Pettazzoni Postdoctoral Fellow; University of Pisa, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Visiting Fellow
2017–2018
The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, Londra, Albin Salton Fellow
The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, Londra, Frances A. Yates Fellow
Education
2017: Joint PhD in Religious Studies, triennial doctoral scholarship (Italian Ministry for University and Research), Sapienza University of Rome – École Pratique des Hautes Études / Paris Science et Lettre: Acqua di vita» ed esegesi biblica nella versione latina del Sefer Sha‘are Orah. Supervisors: J.-P. Brach e G. Lettieri.
2016: Oxford Centre of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, «Academic Visitor» (June-July).
Main Doctoral Research Stays: Bibliothèque et Archives de l’Alliance Israélite Universelle, Paris; Bibliothèque de l’Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (CNRS), Paris; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris; Bibliothèque d’études ouest-sémitiques – Collège de France, Paris; Bibliothèque des Sciences religieuses – EPHE, Paris; Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC, INALCO), Paris; Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library – Haifa University; Biblioteca y Archivo de la Escuela de Estudios Árabes – Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Granada.
2014: Visiting Student, Pontificio Istituto Biblico (Rome). Course attended: Jewish History and Literature of the Hellenistic Period, seminar title: “Le «regole» di Qumran” (“Qumran «Rules»”), Supervisor: J. Sievers. Final grade (written exam): 9.7/10.
2013: M.A. in Jewish Studies, Sapienza University of Rome (110 cum laude /110)
Laureato Eccellente Prize, Fondazione Sapienza – Alumni
2011: Visiting Student, Pontificio Istituto Biblico (Rome). Course attended: Aramaic Language and Literature (Syriac). Supervisor: C. Morrison. Final grade (written exam): 10/10.
2010: B.A. in Jewish Studies, Sapienza University of Rome (110 cum laude /110)
2007: Maturità classica (High School Leaving Qualification in Classical Studies), Liceo Classico Statale Socrate, Rome (final grade: 100/100).
Further Academic Formation
2023: Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS), online course of Judaeo-Arabic (F. Schmidt)
2022: Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS), online course of Judeo-Greek (J. G. Krivoruchko)2022: Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS), online course of North-Eastern Judeo-Neo-Aramaic (D. Molin)
2021–22: Pontificio Istituto Orientale (Rome), hybrid course of Sahidic Coptic (Ph. Luisier, final exam, final grade: 9/10)
2021: University of Hamburg, ReIReS Course on Digital Humanities and Jewish Studies (19-21 April, online) 2021–2022: Freie Universität de Berlin, Member of the Working Group: “Knowledge, Material Texts, and Jewish History”, organized by A. Paluch and A. Stillmann
2020: Neo-Latin Course, The Warburg Institute (L. Nicholas, online sessions, 29 June-3 July)
2018–2019: Egyptian Aramaic, academic course (Prof. P. G. Borbone), University of Pisa
2018: Workshop in Hebrew Paleography and Codicology (Judith Schlanger - Mauro Perani), Laboratory of Hebrew Epigraphy and Codicology, «Dipartimento di Beni Culturali», Alma Mater University of Bologna (24-26 September 2018)
2017: University of Leiden, Summer School in Languages and Linguistics. Courses attended: Advanced Biblical Hebrew (A. Gianto); Epigraphic Old Syriac (H. Gzella); Manichaean Middle-Persian (D. Durkin-Meisterernst)
2016: Oxford Centre of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Clarendon Institute & Weston Library (University of Oxford), Summer Workshop in Hebrew Manuscript Studies: Codicology, Palaeography, Textual History, 3-15 July 2016. Frontal lessons (E. Haverkamp, J. Olszowy Schlanger, M. Beit-Arié, C. Merchán-Hamann, N. Pasternak, S. Brookes, A. Honey, E. Schrijver, S. Shalev-Eyni) and Practice Exercises (analysis of Medieval fragments and codices).
2015: Workshop in Hebrew Palaeography and Codicology (Judith Schlanger, EPHE – Paris; Mauro Perani, Alma Mater – University of Bologna), Laboratory of Hebrew Epigraphy and Codicology, «Dipartimento di Beni Culturali», Alma Mater University of Bologna (19-21 October 2015).
2015: University of Haifa, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Scholarship for an intensive Summer Ulpan.
2014: Workshop in Hebrew Palaeography and Codicology (Judith Schlanger, EPHE – Paris; Mauro Perani, Alma Mater – University of Bologna), Laboratory of Hebrew Epigraphy and Codicology, «Dipartimento di Beni Culturali», Alma Mater University of Bologna (18-19 November 2014).
Teaching Experience
A.A. 2023-2024 (Summer Semester), University of Hamburg: course in Jewish Philosophy / Semitic Religions (Advanced Seminar): «Introduction to the History of Jewish Mysticism»
A.A. 2022–2023 (Summer Semester), University of Hamburg: course in Jewish Religion / Semitic Religion (Vorlesung, Studium Generale): «Gershom Scholem und die Geschichte der Jüdischen ‚Mystik‘: Eine Einführung» (German and English)
A.A. 2022–23 (Winter Semester): University of Hamburg, course in Jewish Philosophy (Hauptseminar): «The Encounter between Jewish Thought and Italian Renaissance: Historiographical Perspectives, Manuscript Studies, Hebrew-into-Latin Translations»
A.A. 2021–2022: University of Strasbourg, Teaching Affiliate (2 hours), Winter School: «Altérité – Identité», 1-4 March 2022 (online)
2021: 2021: University of Padua, Seminar within the Course of History of Religions, Prof. Emma Abate (M-STO 06)
A.A. 2020–2021: Sapienza University of Rome, Teaching Affiliate, Winter School: «Religions and Peaceful Coexistence» (2+2 hours)
A.A. 2020–2021: Sapienza University of Rome, Teaching Affiliate, ‘Corso di Formazione’ in Donne, Diritti Pari Opportunità tra Passato e Presente (2 hours)
Academic Year 2018–2019: Seminar within the Course of History of Religion (Prof. A. Saggioro), Sapienza University of Rome
A.A. 2017-2018: attività didattica (lezioni frontali), Corso di Alta Formazione in Storia ebraica-storia generale: formazione, ricerca, didattica, Sapienza Università di Roma.
Academic Year 2017-2018: Teaching Affiliate for: «Corso di Alta Formazione in Storia ebraica-storia generale: formazione, ricerca, didattica (Director: Prof. S. Di Nepi; Scientific Coordinator: Prof. M. Caffiero)», Sapienza University of Rome. Lecture Title: «Umanesimo e critica biblica», 26 June 2018 (two hours).
Academic Year 2017-2018: Teaching Affiliate for: «Corso di Alta Formazione in Storia ebraica-storia generale: formazione, ricerca, didattica (Director: Prof. S. Di Nepi; Scientific Coordinator: Prof. M. Caffiero)», Sapienza University of Rome. Lecture Title: «Fonti patristiche ed eresiologiche per lo studio della storia ebraica (I-II sec. e.v.)», 4 June 2018 (two hours).
Academic Year 2017-2018: Didactic Coordinator and Tutor in the frame of: «Corso di Alta Formazione in Storia ebraica-storia generale: formazione, ricerca, didattica (Director: Prof. S. Di Nepi; Scientific Coordinator: Prof. M. Caffiero)», Sapienza University of Rome.
Academic Year 2016-2017 (Spring Term), Teaching Affiliate: «Religions and Cultural Mediation» (First Level Master), Title: «Introduzione all’ebraismo» – Department of History Cultures Religions, Sapienza University of Rome (four hours).
Academic Year 2016-2017 (Spring Term): Teaching Affiliate, chair of History of Christianity (M-STO/07), Seminar Title: «The ‘Judaeo-Christian’ Gospels» (in Italian) – Department of History Cultures Religions, Sapienza University of Rome (two hours).
Academic Year 2015-2016 (Autumn Term), Teaching Affiliate: «Defining Religious Minorities» (Undergraduate Seminars organized by Prof. A. Saggioro), chair of History of Religions (M-STO/06) - Department of History Cultures Religions, Sapienza University of Rome (two hours).
2017, 2020: Academic committee, participation as supervisor and co-supervisor of M.A. dissertations (“tesi di laurea magistrale”), Sapienza University of Rome
Participation to Research Projects
2016-2017: Sapienza University of Rome, Project: ‘La recezione della Bibbia ebraica in lingua greca tra Egitto e Palestina (III sec. a.C. - II sec. d.C.): i libri storici.’ (P.I.: A. Catastini; Members: A. Camplani; M. Mantovani)
2021-2023: Sapienza University of Rome, Project: ‘Oggetti, luoghi e abitanti nelle storie sul Prete Gianni: aspetti transculturali ed emozionali di un mito plurisecolare tra coabitazione e contatti religiosi, secoli XII-XVI’ (P.I.: Marianna Ferrara)
2022–2023: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Project: ‘PESHAT in Context (Premodern Philosophic and Scientific Hebrew Terminology in Context. An Online Thesaurus, ed. by R. Leicht and G. Veltri)’. The project is based in the Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion at the University of Hamburg and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
2024: International Project ‘Books within books: Hebrew Fragments in European Libraries’ (PI: J. Schlanger; Scientific Coordinator: E. Abate), Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Paris
2024: PRIN Project (Progetto di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale): ‘Visualizing Jewish Cultural Heritage. Toward a Digital and Dynamic Atlas: People, Artifacts, Books and Manuscripts in Global Italy (15th-20th Centuries)’ (PI: Saverio Campanini, University of Bologna)
Organisation of Panels and Workshops
- Italian Association of Jewish Studies (AISG) 2024 International Conference, Panel: ‘Circolazione di libri e documenti ebraici nell’Europa medievale e moderna’ (organizer).
- World Congress of Philosophy, 1-8 August 2024, Rome: “Medieval Philosophical Translations between East and West: Texts and Manuscripts” / DFG Panel: ‘PESHAT in Context’ (organizer)
- Maimonides Centre for Advanced Jewish Studies – International Workshop: ‘Questioning Authority: Kabbalah between Dialectical Disputes, Religious Dissent, and Proto-Academic Scholarship in Medieval and Early Modern Europe’, University of Hamburg – June 18-19, 2024 (organizer with Níels P. Eggerz).
- European Association of Jewish Studies, Panel: “Variations and Anomalies in Medieval Hebrew Philosophy and Science: Manuscripts, Sources, Terminology, and Comparison”, EAJS Congress, Frankfurt a.M., 16-20 July 2023 (organizer)
- PESHAT Workshop on Hebrew Medieval Logic, Speaker: Prof. Dr. Charles Manekin, University of Hamburg, 10 July 2023 (organizer)
- Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, ‘Journée des jeunes chercheurs du LabEx Hastec’, 24 September 2020 (organizer with Ilaria Calini and Marion Robinaud)
- International Congress: ‘Sabbateanism in Italy and Its Mediterranean Context’, Rome, 20-22 January 2019 (member of the organizing committee; Congress in the frame of the international research project: ‘Jews in Italy during the Long Renaissance’).
- Giornata di Studi con Carlo Ginzburg (III), 6-7 June 2018, Sapienza University of Rome (member of the organizing committee)
- Seminar on Leonico Tomeo’s Dialogi by Allegra Baggio Corradi (The Warburg Institute), Sapienza University of Rome, Laboratorio Erasmo, 14 February 2018 (organizer)
- Giornata di Studi con Carlo Ginzburg (II), 16-17 May 2016, Sapienza University of Rome (member of the organizing committee)
- National Congress of the Italian Society of History of Religions: ‘La storia delle religioni e la sfida dei pluralismi’, Sapienza University of Rome, 8-9 April 2016 (member of the organizing committee)
- Giornata di Studi con Carlo Ginzburg (I), 10 June 2015, Sapienza University of Rome (member of the organizing committee)
Ancient Languages
Ancient Greek; Classical and Renaissance Latin; Biblical and Medieval Hebrew; Biblical Aramaic; Syriac; Jewish-Babylonian and Jewish-Palestinian Aramaic (notions); Sahidic Coptic (notions); Middle Persian (notions); Classical Arabic (in progress); Classical Judeo-Arabic (in progress)
Modern Languages
Italian and Spanish (mother-tongue); English, German, and French: advanced level (Goethe Zertifikat C1; Diplôme d’études en langue française B2); Modern Hebrew: upper-intermediate (written exam, gimel+/level, score: 96/100); Standard Arabic: in progress; Judeo-Neo-Aramaic (Dohok and Zakho)
Scientific Peer-Review Reference
ASDIWAL. Revue genevoise d’anthropologie et d’histoire des religions
European Journal of Jewish Studies
Henoch Journal
Maimonides Review of Philosophy and Religion
Materia Giudaica
Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni
Ville de Paris, «Appel à projects Emergence(s)»
Memberships
Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)
Renaissance Society of America (RSA)
Fachverband Judaistik/ Jüdische Studien in Deutschland e.V./ German Association for Jewish Studies
European Association of Jewish Studies (EAJS)
2016–: member of the editorial board of the Journal Filosofia e Teologia
Publications
Book
- M. Mantovani, Il cabbalista aristotelico: Paolo Ricci tra Rinascimento e Riforma, Prefazione di Saverio Campanini, Rome: Viella 2024
Edited Volumes
- M. Engel – M. Mantovani, Translating Averroes into Hebrew, Leiden – Boston: Brill 2025 (forthcoming)
Journal Articles
- M. Mantovani, «Remarks on the Yezidi Religious Identity», Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 83, 2 (2017), pp. 422-435
- M. Mantovani, «La versione latina a cura di Paolo Ricci del Sefer Sha‘are Orah», Materia Giudaica 23 (2018), pp. 317-331
- M. Mantovani, «Reflets messianiques sur les manuscrits hébreuxdes lettres du Prêtre Jean», Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 89/1 (2023), pp. 56-81
- M. Mantovani, «From Fatimid North Africa to Renaissance Italy: A Note on Jacob Mantino and the Judeo-Arabic Version of Isaac Israeli’s Kitāb al-Ḥummayāt (Book on Fevers)», Materia Giudaica 28 (2023), pp. 111-121
- M. Mantovani, «Yosef Romanus (Paolo Riccio) on the Notion of Material Intellect: between Averroism and Kabbalah», Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture (2024), pp. 1-25
Book Chapters
- M. Mantovani, «Influssi ismaeliti sul pensiero ebraico medievale. Incroci storici e filologici», in S. Botta, M. Ferrara, A. Saggioro (eds.), La Storia delle religioni e la sfida dei pluralismi. Atti del Convegno della Società Italiana di Storia delle Religioni – Roma, Sapienza, 8-9 aprile 2016 [Quaderni di Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 18], Brescia: Morcelliana 2017, pp. 269-279
- M. Mantovani, «Notes on the Transmission and Reception of the Sefer Hekhalot in the Renaissance», in D. Cappa, J. E. Christie, L. Gay, H. Gentili, F. Schulze-Feldmann (eds.), Cultural Encounters: Tensions and Polarities of Transmission from the Late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, Wilmington: Vernon Press 2018, pp. 73-92
- M. Mantovani, «Il Cristo di Reuchlin», in Cabbala. Cahier d’Accademia. Révue de la Société Marsile Ficin 11, ed. by F. Buzzetta, Lucca: San Marco Litotipo 2018, pp. 43-60
- M. Mantovani, «La storia notturna di Scholem», in C. Presezzi (ed. by), Streghe, sciamani, visionari: In margine a Storia Notturna di Carlo Ginzburg, Rome: Viella 2019, pp. 241-263
- M. Mantovani, «La Parabola dei Tre Anelli: A proposito di alcuni antecedenti in siriaco e in ebraico rispetto alle versioni di Giovanni Boccaccio e di Gotthold E. Lessing» in Definire il pluralismo religioso, a cura di A. Saggioro [Quaderni di Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 25],Brescia: Morcelliana 2020, 57–67
- M. Mantovani, «Altri vangeli protocristiani non canonizzati», in A. Annese, F. Berno, M. Fallica, M. Mantovani, Le origini cristiane: Testi e autori (secoli I-II), Rome, Carocci 2021, pp. 207-234
- M. Mantovani, «Atti apocrifi», in A. Annese, F. Berno, M. Fallica, M. Mantovani, Le origini cristiane: Testi e autori (secoli I-II), Rome, Carocci 2021, pp. 235-261
- M. Mantovani, «Tre benedizioni della liturgia ebraica quotidiana», in Religioni e Parità di Genere. Percorsi accidentati, a cura di Alessia Lirosi e Alessandro Saggioro, Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura 2022, pp. 79-92
- M. Mantovani, «The Arabic-into-Hebrew Version of Averroes’s Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s De coelo and the Exclusion of the Principle of Contrariety from the Heavenly Physics», in M. Engel – M. Mantovani, Translating Averroes into Hebrew, Leiden – Boston: Brill 2025 [forthcoming]
Reviews
- Review of Philosophical Translations in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages: In Memory of Mauro Zonta, edited by Francesca Gorgoni, Irene Kajon, Luisa Valente, Rome: Aracne 2022. In: Rassegna Mensile di Israel 88, 2-3 (2022), 335-338
- Review of Paulus Ricius. Schriften zur christlichen Kabbala. Band 1. Sal foederis (1507/1511/1514/1541). Kritisch herausgegeben und übersetzt von Frank Böhling. Mit einer Einleitung versehen von Frank Böhling und Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann. (Clavis Pansophiae, 11,1). Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog 2022. In: Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique, vol. 119, 3-4 (2024), 830-833
