PhD in CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY AND ITS RECEPTION: ARCHAEOLOGY,
PHILOLOGY, HISTORY

Francesco D’Aiuto (born at Rome, December 18th, 1967) is full professor of Byzantine Philology and History at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. In the field of philology, he works primarily on Byzantine hymnography and hagiography, two genres to which he has devoted numerous studies and some critical editions of previously unpublished texts. His studies of the manuscript tradition for medieval Greek texts often combine paleographic and decorative analyses of the relevant  manuscripts, or the comparative study of Greek and Oriental manuscript witnesses (especially those from the Caucasus). He is also interested in the paleographical study of Greek codices (especially from Constantinople and the Middle-East) and in the study of the contacts between Byzantine and Eastern literary and manuscript production (in Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, and Syriac). In 2003 this last-mentioned area offered him the startling surprise of the discovery, in a 9th-century Syriac palimpsest, of fragments of a late antique Greek codex of Menander’s comedies (from the ‘Dyskolos’, and an almost unknown play entitled ‘Titthe’): their ‘editio princeps’, conducted in collaboration with Prof. Nigel G. Wilson (Oxford), is in progress. In the last decade, he has also cultivated interests in Byzantine epigraphy from the “peripheral” regions of the Empire (Anatolia, mainland Greece, and Italy, with Rome in particular).

 

POSITIONS, ACADEMIC ACTIVITY:

(1998-2002) keeper of Greek manuscripts for the Vatican Library;

(2000) the main curator of the exhibition «I Vangeli dei Popoli», organized by the Vatican Library on the occasion of the Bimillenary celebration of Christ’s birth (June 21st-December 10th, 2000);

(2002-2018) associate professor, then (2018-...) full professor for Byzantine Studies (“Civiltà bizantina”, Hell-01/C) at the University of Rome Tor Vergata;

(2003-...) teaching as a guest professor at the «Scuola Vaticana di Biblioteconomia» (Vatican Library, Vatican City). Title of the course: «Introduction to the manuscript book: from ancient to modern times»;

(2003-2006) scientific director of the international (Vatican-Greek-Spanish) project for the commentary volume to the facsimile edition (published in 2006) of «Basil II’s Menologium» (ms. Vat. Gr. 1613);

(2004-...) a member of the redaction of the «Bibliographische Abteilung» of the «Byzantinische Zeitschrift»;

(2004-...) he founded (2004) and has since then directed, together with prof. Santo Lucà, the international journal for Byzantine studies Nea Rhome, published by the University of Rome Tor Vergata;

(2008-...) he founded (2008) and has since then directed, together with prof. Santo Lucà, the series of monographs entitled «Quaderni di Nea Rhome», published by the University of Rome Tor Vergata;

(2009-...) he founded (2009) and has since then directed, together with Donatella Bucca and Luigi D'Amelia, the monthly online newsletter Aisbnews, published by the «Associazione Italiana di Studi Bizantini» (AISB);

(2011-...) a member (and, since November 2014, the secretary) of the «Comitato Vaticano di Studi Bizantini» (CVSB), a national committee which is affiliated to the «Association Internationale des Études Byzantines»;

(2016-...) a member («socio ordinario») of the «Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici “Bruno Lavagnini”» (Palermo).

(2018) visiting professor («directeur d’études invité»: May-June 2018) at the «École pratique des hautes études» (Université de Paris Science et Lettres). Title of the course: «Aux frontières orientales de Byzance: textes, manuscrits, types d’écriture grecque».

 

(2018-...) elected (September 15th, 2018) a permanent member of the «Comité International de Paléographie Grecque» (CIPG);

(2018-...) a member (from its foundation on November 19th, 2018) of the «Comitato Italiano per l’edizione e lo studio delle Fonti Musicali Bizantine» (CIFMB); later chosen (February 15th, 2019) as vice-president of the same committee;

(2021-...) a member (from January 15th, 2021) of the «comité de direction» of the international journal Scriptorium (Wetteren, Cultura / Paris, IRHT).

(2023-...) he was elected (June 22nd, 2023) and has since been a «socio corrispondente» of the «Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia».

 

He was or still is P.I. of various PRIN projects («Progetti di rilevante interesse nazionale»): – 2008 «Per un Corpus dei manoscritti innografici bizantini “antiquiores”»; – 2015 «Censimento dei manoscritti italogreci conservati nelle biblioteche d’Italia» (after the retirement of the P.I. prof. Santo Lucà): – 2022 «EByRome. Epigraphy of “Byzantine” Rome: medieval Greek inscriptions from/in Rome and Latium (6th-15th cent. AD)».

He is a member of the editorial boards of various journals and series of monographs: Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici (Roma «Sapienza»: 2001-...); «Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae» (København: 2005-...); «Fundamentis novis. Studi di letteratura cristiana antica, mediolatina e bizantina» (Roma: 2012-...); «Byzantinistische Studien und Texte» (Münster: 2013-...); Cahiers de l’Institut du Moyen Âge Grec et Latin (København: 2017-...); «Testi dell’Oriente greco tardoantico e bizantino» (Genova: 2019-...); Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik (Wien: 2024-...).