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Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

 

Tommaso Forni

TF
Position(s): 
PhD Candidate
Department/Section: 
Italian
Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages & Linguistics
Contact details: 
College: 
Location: 

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics
Raised Faculty Building
University of Cambridge
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge
CB3 9DA
United Kingdom

About: 

I completed my BA (cum laude) in Italian Literature and my MA (cum laude) in Modern Philology at the Università Cattolica in Milan. After focusing on the twentieth-century poet Margherita Guidacci for my Bachelor’s dissertation, I dedicated my Master’s thesis to the textual variants in the manuscript tradition of Petrarch’s Triumphs.

In 2019, I started my PhD in Italian at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, with a project on early modern reference books, supervised by Prof. Abigail Brundin and funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s & Selwyn Sykes Scholarship.

Research:

My PhD research explores how reference books contributed to the organisation and transmission of literary knowledge through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With a main focus on Mirabellius’ Polyanthea and a comparative approach to other representative reference works, the thesis examines the working methods, sources and citational modes of early modern compilers.

My broader research interests include the ways of managing knowledge in different ages, textual criticism, stylistics and contemporary literature.

Scholarships/Prizes

Vice-Chancellor’s & Selwyn Sykes Scholarship

Teaching interests: 

Conference papers

  • “Floriferis ut apes in saltibus. Gli strumenti dell’intertestualità rinascimentale”, Nuove prospettive sull’intertestualità e sugli studi della ricezione. Il Rinascimento italiano, University of Lausanne (Lausanne, 10 December 2021)
  • “Sulla genesi dei Trionfi. Uno studio del sistema stilistico petrarchesco”, Laureatus in Urbe. Seminario annuale di Studi petrarcheschi, V edizione, organised by Roma Tre University, in collaboration with the Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway (Rome, 27-28 September 2021).
  • “Cicero through the Polyanthea and Its Compilers”, Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America (online, 13-22 April 2021).
  • “La riscrittura delle fonti nella Polyanthea di Domenico Nano Mirabelli”, La copia. Un dialogo tra arte, cinema, filologia, filosofia, letteratura e storia, Convegno dottorale interdisciplinare, University of Parma (online, 25-26 November 2020).
  • “Il primo Triumphus cupidinis di Francesco Petrarca attraverso i collettori di varianti”, Viaggiare nel testo. Scritture, libri e biblioteche nella storia. Seminari Aldo Manuzio, seminar organised by the CRELEB of the Università Cattolica of Milan (Sermoneta, 24-26 May 2019).
  • “Gli esordi poetici di Margherita Guidacci”, Convegno di studi su Margherita Guidacci a venticinque anni dalla morte (Florence, 9-10 February 2018).
Published works: 
  • “Pratiche compilatorie nella Savona rinascimentale: note sulla Polyanthea di Domenico Nano Mirabelli”, Atti e Memorie della Società Savonese di Storia Patria, n.s., 57 (2021), 51-63.
  • “Sullo stile de La sabbia e l’Angelo”, in Margherita Guidacci. Preghiere per la notte dell’anima (Firenze: Edizioni Feeria, 2019), pp. 79-96.