Monica Azzolini
I am a historian of early modern science, medicine and the environment, with particular focus on Italy but increasingly extending my research to transnational networks. After graduating from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, I obtained both my MPhil and PhD from the University of Cambridge. Since then, I taught at the University of Cambridge (U.K.), the University of Washington (U.S.A.), the University of New South Wales (Australia), and the University of Edinburgh (U.K.). I held prestigious fellowships at I Tatti - The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, The Warburg Institute, London, and the Shelby Cullom Davis Center at Princeton University. My research has been supported by the British Academy, The Leverhulme Trust, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, The Carnegie Trust, The European Commission, and The Global Challenges Research Fund (AHRC/NERC/EHSC). I published widely on Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical studies, Renaissance astrology, and courtly science. I joined the University of Bologna in the autumn of 2017 as Associate Professor in the History of Science.
Research Interests:
My research interests lie at the intersection of the history of science and the cultural, political, and religious history of Italy in the period ca. 1450-1750. Thematically, I am particularly interested in how 'scientific' knowledge is produced and circulates in early modern societies. I am also keen to explore how this knowledge shaped the lives of early modern men and women in practical ways. Within this broader framework I recently concentrated on the practice of astrology within Italian Renaissance courts to illustrate the many ways in which astrological counsel was used to shape both public and private action. The outcome of this research has now appeared in The Duke and the Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan (Harvard University Press, 2013) and a series of related articles.
My new research project, which is at the core of a planned second monograph, explores the relationship between the environment and society in early modern Italy, with a focus on how early modern Italians understood and responded to natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and other dramatic weather phenomena. Within this framework, I am concentrating particularly on the nexus religion-science and on the circulation of 'scientific' knowledge within and outwith the Italian peninsula.
I am also very keen to apply the methods of historical anthropology and environmental history to current debates about the environment and I have collaborated with human geographers, seismologists, colleagues in Digital Education, and NGO staff to study the way historical knowledge could contribute actively to enhancing disaster risk response and resilience among affected populations both in Italy and in non-European countries.
Research Interests:
My research interests lie at the intersection of the history of science and the cultural, political, and religious history of Italy in the period ca. 1450-1750. Thematically, I am particularly interested in how 'scientific' knowledge is produced and circulates in early modern societies. I am also keen to explore how this knowledge shaped the lives of early modern men and women in practical ways. Within this broader framework I recently concentrated on the practice of astrology within Italian Renaissance courts to illustrate the many ways in which astrological counsel was used to shape both public and private action. The outcome of this research has now appeared in The Duke and the Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan (Harvard University Press, 2013) and a series of related articles.
My new research project, which is at the core of a planned second monograph, explores the relationship between the environment and society in early modern Italy, with a focus on how early modern Italians understood and responded to natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods and other dramatic weather phenomena. Within this framework, I am concentrating particularly on the nexus religion-science and on the circulation of 'scientific' knowledge within and outwith the Italian peninsula.
I am also very keen to apply the methods of historical anthropology and environmental history to current debates about the environment and I have collaborated with human geographers, seismologists, colleagues in Digital Education, and NGO staff to study the way historical knowledge could contribute actively to enhancing disaster risk response and resilience among affected populations both in Italy and in non-European countries.
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Books by Monica Azzolini
Reviews:
"This book, as erudite as it is elegant, takes the reader deep into the court life of Renaissance Milan. Using a vast range of sources with great care and artistry, Monica Azzolini recreates the lost discipline of astrology. The Duke and the Stars restores and illuminates a lost world, as colorful, as complex and as full of vividly portrayed individuals as a great Renaissance fresco."—Anthony Grafton, Princeton University
"Azzolini’s impressive study adds a startling new dimension to our picture of Renaissance Milan. Taking us behind the scenes at the Sforza court, her book introduces us to the actual workings of astrology as a determinant of daily behavior. Her central argument—that Renaissance rulers took astrological calculations into serious account when making key policy decisions—is sure to spark lively debate."
--Gary Ianziti, University of Queensland
"Utilizing a vast range of archival and published sources, Azzolini ventures deep into the culture of the Renaissance court. Weaving together the methods and interests of the history of science and of Renaissance political and cultural history, Azzolini has produced a sophisticated, interdisciplinary analysis of a science and a profession that played a key role in the political life of the
Renaissance, challenging current assumptions about Renaissance politics and making important contributions both to the history of science and to early modern political and cultural history.
--William Eamon, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 44 (2014), 389-90."
"On the basis of astrological and medical manuscripts, letters and dedications to protectors, astrological charts and prognostics, and medical reports, Azzolini recounts the history of the Italian Quattrocento from an original viewpoint, namely, that of a dynasty, for which the private and the public spheres could not be kept apart, and its interactions with astrologers. This innovative use of sources permits her to overcome the difficulty to investigate scientific practices of the past. Her presentation of the everyday activity of forgotten practitioners and their patrons achieves an amazing degree of detail, and shall serve as a model for further comparative studies on early modern scientific culture."
--Pietro Daniel Omodeo in H-PhysicalSciences, H-Net Reviews. December, 2013.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38920
Edited Volumes by Monica Azzolini
Papers - Environmental History by Monica Azzolini
Papers - Natural History/History of Science by Monica Azzolini
naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. By examining a series of examples related to
unknown and wondrous species like dragons and exotic fish, I aim to highlight
how rumours, testimony, and proof intersected in oral and written
sources produced in the sixteenth century. Rumours and descriptions of
monstrous animals (real or fake) circulated widely, making the realm of the
possible much broader in the early modern period than it is today.
Aldrovandi avidly sought out unusual specimens: their rarity, as well as the
challenges of classifying them, made the search for such creatures a natural
goal for him. I contend that for early modern naturalists like Aldrovandi
hearsay had a heuristic value even if this was not at par with direct experience.
It was part of the way new knowledge was constructed and compared
with classical sources and first-hand experience. I therefore argue
that reliance upon hearsay and second-hand information, both from expert
informants and from unverified sources, contributed significantly to the
production of new knowledge in the work of Aldrovandi and other sixteenth-
century naturalists.
Rienk Vermij, Thinking on Earthquakes in Early Modern Europe: Firm Beliefs on
Shaky Ground. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. 266 pp. isbn:
9780367492182.
Strata: William Smith’s Geological Maps, ed. Oxford Museum of Natural History,
with an introduction by Douglas Palmer and with a Foreword by Robert
Macfarlane. London: Thames and Hudson, 2020. 256 pp. 500 color plates. isbn:
9780500252475.
Papers - History of Astrology by Monica Azzolini
Available on FriendFeed: http://m.friendfeed-media.com/cc80993a9edff53034044a394a3635c4414bd109
Papers - Leonardo da Vinci by Monica Azzolini
Reviews:
"This book, as erudite as it is elegant, takes the reader deep into the court life of Renaissance Milan. Using a vast range of sources with great care and artistry, Monica Azzolini recreates the lost discipline of astrology. The Duke and the Stars restores and illuminates a lost world, as colorful, as complex and as full of vividly portrayed individuals as a great Renaissance fresco."—Anthony Grafton, Princeton University
"Azzolini’s impressive study adds a startling new dimension to our picture of Renaissance Milan. Taking us behind the scenes at the Sforza court, her book introduces us to the actual workings of astrology as a determinant of daily behavior. Her central argument—that Renaissance rulers took astrological calculations into serious account when making key policy decisions—is sure to spark lively debate."
--Gary Ianziti, University of Queensland
"Utilizing a vast range of archival and published sources, Azzolini ventures deep into the culture of the Renaissance court. Weaving together the methods and interests of the history of science and of Renaissance political and cultural history, Azzolini has produced a sophisticated, interdisciplinary analysis of a science and a profession that played a key role in the political life of the
Renaissance, challenging current assumptions about Renaissance politics and making important contributions both to the history of science and to early modern political and cultural history.
--William Eamon, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 44 (2014), 389-90."
"On the basis of astrological and medical manuscripts, letters and dedications to protectors, astrological charts and prognostics, and medical reports, Azzolini recounts the history of the Italian Quattrocento from an original viewpoint, namely, that of a dynasty, for which the private and the public spheres could not be kept apart, and its interactions with astrologers. This innovative use of sources permits her to overcome the difficulty to investigate scientific practices of the past. Her presentation of the everyday activity of forgotten practitioners and their patrons achieves an amazing degree of detail, and shall serve as a model for further comparative studies on early modern scientific culture."
--Pietro Daniel Omodeo in H-PhysicalSciences, H-Net Reviews. December, 2013.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38920
naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi. By examining a series of examples related to
unknown and wondrous species like dragons and exotic fish, I aim to highlight
how rumours, testimony, and proof intersected in oral and written
sources produced in the sixteenth century. Rumours and descriptions of
monstrous animals (real or fake) circulated widely, making the realm of the
possible much broader in the early modern period than it is today.
Aldrovandi avidly sought out unusual specimens: their rarity, as well as the
challenges of classifying them, made the search for such creatures a natural
goal for him. I contend that for early modern naturalists like Aldrovandi
hearsay had a heuristic value even if this was not at par with direct experience.
It was part of the way new knowledge was constructed and compared
with classical sources and first-hand experience. I therefore argue
that reliance upon hearsay and second-hand information, both from expert
informants and from unverified sources, contributed significantly to the
production of new knowledge in the work of Aldrovandi and other sixteenth-
century naturalists.
Rienk Vermij, Thinking on Earthquakes in Early Modern Europe: Firm Beliefs on
Shaky Ground. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. 266 pp. isbn:
9780367492182.
Strata: William Smith’s Geological Maps, ed. Oxford Museum of Natural History,
with an introduction by Douglas Palmer and with a Foreword by Robert
Macfarlane. London: Thames and Hudson, 2020. 256 pp. 500 color plates. isbn:
9780500252475.
Available on FriendFeed: http://m.friendfeed-media.com/cc80993a9edff53034044a394a3635c4414bd109
During the period ca. 1350–ca. 1520 covered by the present volume, diplomatic sources became extremely rich and abundant. This sourcebook presents a selection of primary materials, both published and unpublished, which are mostly unavailable to English readers: a broad range of diplomatic sources, thematically organized, are introduced, translated, and annotated by an international team of leading scholars of the Italian Renaissance.
Monica Azzolini and Isabella Lazzarini will be in conversation with Sam Cohn e Stefano Dall'Aglio.