About

Alessio Cotugno joined the University of Warwick in 2014 as Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow and he is now Research Fellow (ERC project Aristotelianism in the Italian Vernacular).

Dr Cotugno holds a PhD ('Dottorato di eccellenza') in Philology from the University of Neaples 'Federico II', Scuola Superiore per l'Alta Formazione Universitaria-Istituto di Scienze Umane (SUM), Florence. After his PhD, he was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Venice 'Ca' Foscari' (2008-2013; 2016-2017), where he is still Research Assistant ('Cultore della materia') in the History of the Italian Language. He also held courses as principal Lecturer ('Professore a contratto') for BA and MA students at various Universities ('Ca' Foscari', Venice IUAV, Udine, Warwick) and he has supervised and co-supervised BA, MA and PhD theses on linguistic and Renaissance subjects at Ca' Foscari and Warwick. In 2011 he was invited as a visiting Lecturer by the Department of Italian of the University of Split (Croatia). He is a member of the editorial board of the 'Annals of the University of Craiova. Series Philology, Linguistics' and of the peer-reviewed journal 'Philosophical Readings'. He is also directing a book series on the History of the Italian Language ("Profili di Parole", Marcianum Press). Since 2012 he is among the contributors to the Lessico etimologico italiano (LEI), directed by Prof Max Pfister (Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken).

Research interests

Dr Cotugno is mainly interested in the following subjects:

• Renaissance Italian translations of Aristotle and Ovid

• linguistic aspects of Renaissance vernacular Aristotelianism

• Renaissance theory of language and literature (grammar, rhetoric and poetics)
• theory and practice of translation in the Renaissance
• history of linguistic thought (history of Italian linguistics)
• intellectual and cultural history of language
• Italian lexicography and historical semantics
• aspects of applied linguistics

A relevant part of his research interests focuses on XVIth-century 'volgarizzamenti' from Aristotle (logic, ethics, rhetoric and poetics) and Ovid (Metamorphoses), as well as on the history of the intellectual vocabulary.

Before coming to Warwick, Dr Cotugno took part in a research project financed by the Ministry for Universities and Scientific Research (PRIN 2006) on material culture between Latin and vernacular, and he was part of a research group on Political language (2010-2012) and of a research programme on Italian for critical and professional writing (2010-2013), all coordinated by Prof Francesco Bruni (University of Venice 'Ca' Foscari'). On an international level, he has participated in Dr Lines’ AHRC grant (‘Vernacular Aristotelianism’) and Leverhulme International Network (‘Renaissance Conflict and Rivalries’). In 2012 he obtained a research grant in order to work at the Lessico etimologico italiano (LEI), under the supervision of Prof Max Pfister (Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken).

Teaching and supervision

Courses taught

(2015-2016)

IT 329 The Making of the Italian Language: From Dante to the Present (Term 1): 09:00-10:00, Monday, H4.01 (reading group); 13:00-15:00, Thursday, H4.03 (lecture) https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/currentstudents/undergraduate/italian/modules/modulesyears34/it3yy/ 

IT 309 Comparative Literature: Italian and English Short Fiction (Term 1 Module): 14:00-16:00, Tuesday, H4.03 (lecture); 15:00-16:00, Wednesday, H4.01 (reading group)

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/currentstudents/undergraduate/italian/modules/modulesyears34/it309/

(2014-2015)

(with Dr David Lines) IT 321 Renaissance Rivalries: power, magic and language: sessions on The 'disputa delle arti' (Alberti and Leonardo); Language(s) and textual culture(s); Reinterpreting the Classics: the case of Aristotle; Patronage and its forms.

(with Dr David Lines) IT 904 The Shapes of Knowledge in Early Modern Italy (ASO): sessions on Renaissance treatises on rhetoric and poetics and on Leonardo Da Vinci's Treatise on Painting

Community course on Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition (organized by Dr Lines): session on the Renaissance reception of Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric

Students supervised

Nicholas Fontana, Martial's Legacy in Sixteenth-Century Italy (MA dissertation by research)

(with Prof Simon Gilson) Alex Hoare, Aretino’s Anti-Renaissance Satire: Subverting Language, Sex, and Courtesy in the Ragionamento (MA dissertation by research)

(with Prof Simon Gilson) Nino Ciglio, Textuality and functional writing in Italian School. Institutional reforms, curricula, schoolbook, 1990s to the present day (PhD dissertation)

(with Dr David Lines) Martina Grzesiak, Giovanni Fratta's Della dedicatione dei libri (1590) (BA dissertation)

(with Dr David Lines and Prof Simon Gilson) Giacomo Comiati, The reception of Horace in Sixteenth-Century Italy (PhD dissertation)

Selected recent publications

• Giovanni Andrea Dell’Anguillara, Le Metamorfosi d’Ovidio, ed. by A. Cotugno (Manziana: Vecchiarelli, forthcoming 2017), 2 vols.
• 'Rinascimento' e 'Risorgimento' (Venice: Marcianum Press, 2017)
• 'Dalla traduzione all'imitazione. Sperone Sperone fra Erasmo, Bembo e Pomponazzi', Lingua e stile, 2 (2017), 199-239

Professional associations

• Associazione per la Storia della lingua italiana (ASLI)
• Renaissance Society of America (RSA)
• Society for Italian Studies (SIS)

Editorial activities

• Member of the Editorial board of the Annals of the University of Craiova. Series Philology, Linguistics 
• Member of the Editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Philosophical Readings
• Director of a book series on the History of the Italian Language (Venice: Marcianum Press)
• Contributor to the Lessico Etimologico Italiano (LEI) (Wiesbaden: Reichert)
• Contributor to the Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy (Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer)
• Coordinator of the first full translation (10 vols.) of the Opera omnia by Saint Lorenzo Giustinani (1381-1456) (Venice: Marcianum Press, 2008-2012)

Qualifications

• Maturità classica (Liceo ginnasio 'Marco Foscarini', Venice)
• MA ('laurea quadriennale', University of Venice 'Ca' Foscari' - thesis directed by Prof Francesco Bruni)
• PhD (University of Neaples 'Federico II'-Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane (SUM), Florence - thesis directed by Prof Alberto Vàrvaro)

 

Workshop on the Renaissance 'Questione della lingua'