Academic Background

I completed my academic education at the University of Milan (2015 Bachelor; 2017 Master; 2021 PhD). Before joining the sub-faculty of Byzantine and Modern Greek, I was a researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna (2021–2) and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Ghent University (2022), where I am still a research affiliate at the Department of Linguistics. 

I am currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty and a Supernumerary Fellow at Exeter College. I am also associated with the Faculty of Classics. 
 

Research

I am a philologist and a literary scholar focusing on Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Greek literature. My research explores how the Greek language changed throughout time and how it was taught and used in different contexts. I also investigate when, why, and how (Greek) literature was composed, experienced, used, and transmitted in the premodern world.

My British Academy project will result in a multidisciplinary reconsideration of eleventh-century schedography, a method of teaching Greek grammar that significantly impacted text production in Greek for more than five centuries. My research aims to explore the development of and interaction between different forms of the Greek language and their poetics in literary texts.

I have studied Greek poetry from the Hellenistic period to the Renaissance with the aim of comprehending the forms, the contents, and the status of poetry throughout space and time. I have worked on individual poets (from Callimachus to Theodoros Gazes) and works (Ioannes Mauropous’ poetry book and hymns; Ioannes Tzetzes’ Little and Big Iliad, Manuel Philes’ Metaphrasis of the Psalms).

Here in Oxford, I am the Principal Investigator of the TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World, a platform to discuss premodern poetry from a global perspective. With Rebecca Menmuir, I am the co-organiser of GLARE – Greek and Latin Reading Group at Exeter and Lincoln Colleges. At Ghent University, I co-organise the Ghent Seminars on the Greek Language.
 

Teaching

For the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, I contribute to the course of Modern Greek (Hilary Term 2024, Trinity Term 2025) and teach Italian Prose Y2 (2024–2025). For the MSt/MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, I taught the Byzantine Literature Lectures and the Byzantine Text Seminar (2023–2024); this year, I will teach Byzantine Greek and Medieval Latin (Hilary and Trinity Terms 2025). I also give tutorials to undergraduates in Classics (Greek Composition, Thucydides, Byzantine Greek Language) and Modern Greek (Digenis Akritis, dimotika tragoudia).

 

Publications

– Books
[in progress] Giovanni Mauropode, Poesie. Byzantinisches Archiv (DeGruyter). 

Die metrische Psalmenmetaphrase des Manuel Philes. Byzantinisches Archiv 44 (De Gruyter: Berlin – Boston, 2024). With Anna Gioffreda and Andreas Rhoby. 

– Edited volumes
[in progress] Interfacing with Linguistic Norms. With Chiara Monaco. 

[in progress] Mount Athos in the middle Byzantine period. Communities between Constantinopolitan culture and periphery. With Alberto Ravani. 

(S)proporzioni. Scala, taglia e dimensione tra visuale e testuale, Consonanze 27 (Milano: Ledizioni, 2022). With Patrizia Piacentini, Giovanni Colzani, Maddalena La Rosa, Irene Sozzi.

– Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters
[forthcoming] “The reuse of ancient epigram in Byzantine poetry. An overview”, in M. Hinterberger – J. Signes Codoñer – I. Pérez Martín (eds.), Handbook for rewriting in Byzantium (Rutledge: London, 2025)

[forthcoming] “Voicing political relief through Psalms. The Composition in Form of a Psalm by Manuel II Palaiologos”, in F. Bernard – R. Ceulemans – R. Ricceri (eds.), David, our Orpheus. Byzantine poetry and the Psalms.

“The learned bishop and the unicorn: Michael Choniates, Poem 5 Lampros”, in N. Zagklas – B. van den Berg (eds.), Poetry in Byzantine Literature and Society (1081–1204) (Cambridge: CUP, 2024), 389–408.

“Manuel Philes und die Psalmen im griechischen Mittelalter. Der synoptische Psalmentext in der Edition von Philes’ Psalmenmetaphrase, in F. Albrecht – R.G. Krantz (eds.), Editing the Greek Psalter (Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht: Göttingen, 2024), 523–537.

“Greek and Latin epigrams on the death of Theodoros Gaza”, in K. Kubina (ed.), Poetry in Late Byzantium, The Medieval Mediterranean 139 (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 191–235.

“L’uso di versi olospondaici nel dodecasillabo prosodico bizantino”, Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medievale 65.2 (2023): 513–550.

“John of all trades. The Μικρομεγάλη Ἰλιάς and Tzetzes’ ‘didactic’ programme”, in E.E. Prodi (ed.), Τζετζικαὶ ἔρευναι, Eikasmos – Studi Online 4 (Bologna:  Pàtron editore, 2022): 237–259.

“La grandiosa ira di Achille in miniatura. Tensioni tra grande e piccolo nella Μικρομεγάλη Ἰλιάς di Giovanni Tzetze”, in P. Piacentini et alii (eds.), (S)proporzioni. Scala, taglia e dimensione tra visuale e testuale (Milano: Ledizioni, 2022): 119–134.

“L’epigramma di Antipatro per Erinna (Ep. 58 HE = T8 Neri = AP 7.713)”, Aevum Antiquum N.S. 21 (2021 [2022]): 295–308.

“Un’incoronazione imperiale nel monastero di Sostenio (Giovanni Mauropode, Carm. 80)”, Incontri Triestini di Filologia classica 20 (2020–2021): 267–298.

“Composing the Μικρομεγάλη Ἰλιάς. Macro- and microstructure of a Byzantine Homeric poem”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 114.1 (2021): 325–354.

“Il silenzio di Lazzaro nel Carm. 80 di Cristoforo Mitileneo”, Bisanzio e l’Occidente 3 (2021): 11–18 [repr. in C. Castelli – M. Della Valle – A. Torno Ginnasi (eds.), Cultura letteraria e artistica tra Bisanzio e l’Occidente, Hendiadys. Momenti e passaggi della tradizione antica 1 (Milano: Ledizioni, 2021): 53–63].

“La preoccupazione filosofica dei corvi nel fr. 393 Pf. di Callimaco”, Acme 70.1 (2017): 61–72.

– Reviews
Gregorios Antiochos, Reden und Briefe, ed. Alexander Sideras (Vienna: Verlag der ÖAW, 2021), «Bryn Mawr Classical Review» 2024.04.13, https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2024/2024.04.13/.

F. Spingou (ed.), The visual culture of later Byzantium (1081–c.1350) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022),  «Bryn Mawr Classical Review» 2023.09.16, https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2023/2023.09.16/.

– Essays
“Fuor del dritto amore: la rappresentazione dell’incesto e la dinastia comnena”, in S. Quadrelli, E. Subrani (eds.), I figli di Eolo. Il motivo mitico e letterario dell’incesto tra antico e moderno, Il portico. Biblioteca di lettere e arti 187, Ravenna, Longo Editore, 2020): 103–113.