SIF 4th Cohort Fellows - Matteo Leta, University of Warwick

Curriculum Vitae

• Education

Ph.D. Sorbonne Université (France). 28.06.19. French Literature.
MA. Università della Calabria (Italy). 21.07.16. Modern Philology.
BA. Università della Calabria (Italy). 28.10.14. Classics.

 

• Experience

01.06.24-31.09.24. Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher. University of Trier (Germany). Research project on medical authorship in Italian and French Renaissance theatre.
10.09.23-31.06-23: Teaching Fellow in Italian. University College Dublin (Ireland). Teaching of Italian language, literature and culture.
04.07.21-30.06-22: Postdoctoral Researcher. University of Toronto (Canada). Research project on the representation of “otherness” in 16th-century Italian theatre.
01.01.21-31.05.24: Sessional Lecturer. Luiss (Italy). Teaching of Courses on Italian Literature.
19.01.20-18.03.20: Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher. Max Planck Institute for the History of Sciences (Germany). Research Project on the literary depiction of charlatans between France and Italy in the Renaissance.
01.01.20-31.12.20: Postdoctoral Researcher. Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici (Italy). Research project on the intersections between philosophy and theatrical production of Neapolitan Renaissance philosophers.

 

• Publications/Research achievements

Research Project:

Giovambattista Della Porta (1535-1615) was a Neapolitan writer and natural philosopher, renowned for his intriguing scientific experiments and for his plays, which served as a model for 17th-century dramatists. This study will focus on two of his comedies, Lo Astrologo (1606) and La Furiosa (1609), in which Della Porta discusses the scientific culture of the time, including his own personal knowledge and beliefs around astrology, alchemy, medicine, and physiognomy. The plays thus serve as a vehicle for reflection on the natural world and its secrets, a theme that Della Porta also explores in a substantial corpus of scientific and philosophical writings. Nevertheless, Della Porta's theatrical works are also situated within a comedic tradition, which he reinterpreted in a manner consistent with his theoretical explorations, characterised by a similar experimental approach. His emphasis on exploring the full range of possibilities inherent in the theatrical tradition, as exemplified by the topos of the invasion of the Turks, is consistent with his inclination to examine the various capabilities and functions of natural elements. The objective of this project is to develop a digital edition of Lo Astrologo and La Furiosa, with annotations. In addition, two related academic articles and an online database will be published. The latter will provide a comprehensive listing of each printed edition of Della Porta's entire 16th and 17th-century theatrical oeuvre, accompanied by detailed bibliographical and location information. This will offer a detailed overview of the circulation of the plays written by one of the most prolific Renaissance dramatists and philosophers. The outputs have been designed with the specific intention of enhancing the accessibility of Della Porta's comedies to scholars, with the goal of facilitating a more nuanced understanding of the intertwining of playwriting and science during the Renaissance.