Stefania Pastore (Normale, Pisa and Centro Linceo Interdisciplinare "B. Segre") 'Italian Renaissance and Iberian Diasporas (1492-1630)'

The paper will draw from Stefania Pastore's ongoing research titled ‘Diasporic Renaissance,’ which aims to expand the cultural and religious boundaries of the long Italian Renaissance. Spanning a period from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth century, the paper studies the intellectual influence and legacies of the two main diasporas of early modern Europe on Italian culture: the more famous Sephardic diaspora and the lesser-known Morisca, or Ibero-Muslim, diaspora. The paper will also present a relational database that Pastore uses to identify and analyze a large number of books printed in Italy, related  to the two diasporas as well as to the individuals (publishers, dedicatees, censors, readers) and documents that can be associated with each volume. The database can be searched according to multiple criteria, which in turn generate multiple visualizations. It thus offers new insights into the cultural exchanges between the Italian and Iberian peninsulas during the early modern period.

Stefania Pastore is associate professor at the Scuola Normale of Pisa, and is currently serving on the project ‘Diasporic Renaissance’ at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome.