Eva Del Soldato

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Associate Professor of Italian Studies

Graduate Chair, FIGS
Graduate Group Member, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature & Literary Theory, and History

215-898-6028

551 Williams Hall

Eva Del Soldato was trained in Philosophy and Intellectual History at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Her research is primarily devoted to Renaissance thought and culture, with a special attention to the Aristotelian and Platonic traditions. She also cultivates interests in history of the book, history of libraries and universities, and in twentieth-century cultural institutions. She is the author of the monographs Simone Porzio (Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2010), the first book-length study focused on this sixteenth century philosopher, and Early Modern Aristotle. On the Making and Unmaking of Authority (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), devoted to the strategic uses of Aristotle (and Plato) as authorities in the early modern period. She has also published several articles and editions, including the Italian translation of Bessarion's In calumniatorem Platonis (2014). She has co-edited the volumes City, Court, Academy. Language Choice in Early Modern Italy (Routledge, 2017), Harmony and Contrast. Plato and Aristotle in the Early Modern Period (Oxford University Press, 2022), and Plato in the Italian Universities (Brepols, 2024). She received - among others - fellowships from the Scuola Normale Superiore, Villa I Tatti, the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuettel, the Huntington Library in Pasadena, and she has been a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Warwick, UK. She is one of the coordinators of the project “Biblioteche filosofiche private in età moderna e contemporanea” (http://picus.unica.it), a co-director of Bibliotheca Dantesca, and a member of several editorial boards, including Rinascimento and Manuscript Studies, and an editor of the Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana. She has been the interim Director (2019/2020) of the Global Medieval Studies Program at Penn, and she is currently the Executive Secretary of the American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS). She has been a visiting professor at the University of Milan and at the University of Bergamo, and the 2022/2023 Charles Speroni Chair at UCLA.

 

Recent Awards and Visiting Positions 

Charles Speroni Chair (Spring 2023), UCLA 

Penn Mellon Fellow (2022/23)

STaRS Programme Visiting Professorship, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Dipartimento di Letteratura, Filosofia e Comunicazione (2022)

Senior Visiting Professorship, Università Statale di Milano, Dipartimento di Filosofia "Piero Martinetti" (2019)

Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Publications Grant, Villa I Tatti-The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (2019)

SAS Conference Grant-URF Conference Grant (2018)

Huntsman Program Faculty Award (2017)

Trustees’ Council of Penn Women Faculty Research Fellowship, Alice Paul Center, University of Pennsylvania (2016-2017)

Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society (2015)

Salvatori Research Grant, Center for Italian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, (2014, 2016, 2020)

Office Hours
Spring 2024: R 1:30-3:30pm or by appointment