Italian Jewry
Cultural History
History of the Book
Archival and Manuscript Studies

 

Academia.edu:

https://huji.academia.edu/MartinaMampieri

https://www.martinamampieri.com

 

Current Projects: 

My research project seeks to cast new light on transatlantic Jewish culture and intellectual history from Fascist Italy to Postwar America, as seen through the case of a remarkable, but neglected, scholar, Isaiah Sonne, who was active in the crucial decades of the Fascist regime in Italy, left for Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Race Laws in 1938, and devoted the rest of his life in the United States to disseminating the Science of Judaism, as a research scholar, librarian, and private collector. Though a reconstruction of his life, I hope to write a new chapter in the history of the Jewish experience under Fascism and beyond.

 

Curriculum Vitae 

Fellowships and Grants (selection)

• 2023 Israel and Ione Massada Fellowship, Worcester College, University of Oxford

• 2020 Martin Buber Fellowship, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• 2020-2021 Moritz Stern Fellowship in Modern Jewish Studies, Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (declined)

• 2019-2020 Moritz Stern Fellowship in Modern Jewish Studies, Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

• 2019 Bursary, Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University of Oxford

• 2018-2019 Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University

• 2018 Fall Weekend Seminar Fellowship, Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC

• 2018 Part-time Postdoctoral Scholar, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes-CNRS, Paris (funded by Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe)

• 2018 Enhancement and Research Fellowship (to conduct independent research in Israel), Sapienza University of Rome

• 2017 Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Universität Hamburg

• 2016 Rabbi Theodore S. Levy Tribute Fellowship, The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati

• 2015 German Language Grant, DAAD (Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst)

• 2014 Modern Hebrew Language Grant, Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe

• 2014-2016 Doctoral Fellowship, University of Roma Tre

 

Prizes

• 2022 Giuseppe Alberigo Award 2021, Special Mention of Excellence, Junior category

• 2015 Placidia Coen Prize for Outstanding Master Thesis, Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose “Italo Mancini,” University of Urbino

• 2014 Distinguished Service Award “Donna, genere: Sapienza,” Sapienza University of Rome

• 2013 Master Thesis Degree Award, Laziodisu

• 2011 Bachelor Thesis Degree Award, Laziodisu

 

Education

• 2017 Double Ph.D. in History and Jewish Studies, University of Roma Tre and Universität Hamburg, Summa cum laude (Dissertation: Living under the Evil Pope: Paul IV and the Jews in the Hebrew Chronicle by Benjamin Neḥemiah ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche, 16th cent.)

• 2013 M.A. in Historical-Religious Sciences (Hebrew Language and Literature), Sapienza University of Rome, Summa cum laude

• 2011 B.A. in Historical-Religious Sciences (Hebrew Language and Literature), Sapienza University of Rome, Summa cum laude

Publications

Books

• Life in Ink: The Journey of a Bibliophile from Renaissance Italy to Postwar America (manuscript in preparation)

• Living under the Evil Pope: The Hebrew Chronicle of Pope Paul IV by Benjamin Neḥemiah ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche, 16th cent. (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2020)

 

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

• “Judeo-Italian Manuscripts in the Bodleian Collections,” in The Margins at the Centre: Jewish Languages in the Bodleian Collections, eds. Judith Olszowy-Schlanger and César Merchán-Hamann (Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing) (in preparation)

• “Nuovi dettagli sull'Inquisizione romana e il carcere di Ripetta alla morte di Paolo IV (1559)” (in preparation)

• “Nel vicolo delli hebrei. La presenza ebraica a Civitanova Marche tra Quattro e Seicento” (submitted)

• “Notes for a Biography: A Portrait of Isaiah Sonne (1887-1960),” Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture 19/1 (2022): 1-10

• “Zeh yihyeh lanu le-Zikaron. Memorie, note e appunti di ebrei italiani all’interno di alcuni libri a stampa (secc. XVI-XIX),” Materia Giudaica 26/2 (2021): 305-313

•  “Una famiglia di studiosi ebrei espulsi dall’Italia fascista: Isaiah, Sulamith e Daniel Sonne,” Giornale di Storia 35 (2021): https://www.giornaledistoria.net/saggi/la-famiglia-sonne-tre-studiosi-ebrei-espulsi-dallitalia-fascista/ 

• (with Luca Andreoni), “«Tutta l’arte de rabini». Un caso di confisca di libri ebraici ad Ancona: controllo e conflitto (1728),” in L’Inquisizione e gli ebrei. Nuove ricerche, ed. Marina Caffiero (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2021), 49-81

• “From Frankfurt to Jerusalem. Italian Hebrew Manuscripts in the Nauheim Collection at the National Library of Israel,” Medaon. Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung 14, 27 (2020): 1-10: https://www.medaon.de/de/artikel/from-frankfurt-to-jerusalem-jewish-manuscripts-in-the-nauheim-collection-at-the-national-library-of-israel/

• “From Menasseh ben Israel to Solomon Proops. Amsterdam Jewish Druckwesen in the Library of Isaiah Sonne,” in The Jewish Bookshop of the World: Aspects of Print and Manuscript Culture in Early Modern Amsterdam, ed. Theodor Dunkelgrün, special issue of Studia Rosenthaliana 46/1 (2020): 97-116

• “When the Rabbi’s Soul Entered a Pig. Melchiorre Palontrotti and His Giudiata against the Jews of Rome” Jewish History 33/3-4 (2020): 351-375

• “Isaiah Sonne, 1887-1960,” in Il patrimonio archivistico e bibliografico delle Comunità israelitiche italiane. Ovvero, la Relazione di Isaia Sonne. Note a margine, ed. Stefania Roncolato (Milan: Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea, 2020), 4-6

• “Sara, Smeralda, Stella e le altre. Donne ebree a Civitanova Marche negli anni centrali del Cinquecento,” Proposte e Ricerche 80 (2018): 109-123

• “The Jews and Their Doubts: Anti-Jewish Polemics in the Fascicolo delle vanità giudaiche by Antonino Stabili (1583),” Yearbook of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies 1 (2016): 59-75

• “Aspettando il Messia: cronaca e metastoria nel Sefer Yuhasin di Abraham Zacuto (1452-1515 ca.),” Giornale di Storia 18 (2015): 1-24: https://www.giornaledistoria.net/saggi/articoli/martina-mampieri-aspetta...

 

Other

• “The Pope and Haman in Renaissance Italy,” Martina Mampieri, The Jerusalem Post (March 15, 2022)

•  “Notes from the Harry Starr Fellows,” CJS News, Spring Review (Cambridge, MA, 2019): 13-14

 

Presentations:

Invited Lectures and Seminars

• Alberigo Award Lecture, Author Meets Critique, Conference of the European Academy of Religion, Bologna (June 22, 2022)

• “For the Love of Books: The Story of Isaiah Sonne and His Collection,” The Zeev Rubin Forum, The Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies, Tel Aviv University (March 22, 2022) – online 

• “Life in Ink: The Journey of a Bibliophile from Renaissance Italy to Postwar America,” Martin Buber Colloquium, The Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (December 20, 2021)

• “A Jewish Historian in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Benjamin Nehemiah ben Elnathan’s Chronicle of Pope Paul IV,” Early Modern Scholarship and Religion Seminar, University of Cambridge (March 5, 2021) – online

• “Writing under the Evil Pope: A Moneylender from the Papal States and His Chronicle about Pope Paul IV (16th cent.),” JEWTACT Seminar, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva (January 21, 2021) – online

• “From the Printing Press to the Shelf: Early Jewish Books in the Isaiah Sonne Collection,” Forschungskolloquium zur Europäischen Geschichte der Frühen Neuzeit, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (February 5, 2020)

• “Mah Nishtanah? Why is This Night Different from all Other Nights? Italian Passover Haggadot in Manuscript and in Print,” Harvard University (April 12, 2019)

• “Studying and Collecting Medieval and Early Modern Judaica and Hebraica Treasures between Fascist Italy and Postwar America. Isaiah Sonne (1887-1960) and His Collection,” Starr Seminar, Center for Jewish Studies, Harvard University (April 4, 2019)

• “Isaiah Sonne: His Papers and Correspondence between Italy and the U.S. (1922-60),” The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati (May 10, 2016)

 

Conference Papers: 

• “The Jew Who Married an Ox: An Alleged Blood Libel against the Jews of Hamburg,” The 68th Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, The Convention Centre Dublin (March 30, 2022)

• “From Galicia to Fascist Italy: Isaiah Sonne (1887-1960) and Italy’s Jewish Cultural Heritage,” Conference Jewish Crossroads: Between Italy and Eastern Europe, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (July 22, 2021) – online

• “Il piacere dell’archivio. Fare ricerca archivistica tra Italia, Israele e Stati Uniti,” Giorno dei Ricercatori, University of Roma Tre (April 8, 2021) – online

• Book discussion, Conference Cultura e religione in Italia tra Medioevo ed età moderna, Stroncature. Cantiere storico-filologico (February 13, 2021) – online

• “Book Lists through Four Centuries: A Source for the Jewish Presence in Early Modern Mediterranean Europe,” International Conference #DHJewish – Jewish Studies in the Digital Age, University of Luxembourg (January 13, 2021) – online

• “What Jewish Authors Wrote about the Popes in the Early Modern Era,” The AJS 52nd Annual Conference, Washington DC (December 13-17, 2020) – online

• “Gli ebrei a Civitanova Marche sotto Paolo IV ed i Cesarini. La cronaca di Benjamin ben Elnathan (Guglielmo di Diodato, XVI sec.),” Civitanova Marche (September 12, 2020)

• “Neophytes, Slanderers, and Jewish Dogs: Imagining and Defining the Jews at the Outskirts of the Papal States (16th century),” Conference Imagining the Renaissance/Defining the Jews, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem (January 12-15, 2020)

• “Zeh yehì lanu le-Zikaron. Memorie, note, appunti di famiglia all’interno di alcuni libri della collezione di Isaiah Sonne (secc. XVI-XIX),” The 33rd AISG International Congress, University of Bologna, Ravenna (September 2-4, 2019)

• “Footprints for the History of Italian Jewry in the Early Modern Era,” The 65th Annual RSA Meeting, Sheraton Centre, Toronto (March 17-19, 2019)

• “Reading, Detecting, and Encoding Manuscript Variants. Sefer ha-Shorashim and Its Challenges,” Launch Workshop of the Project RACINES. Critical Edition of David Qimḥi’s Sefer ha-Shorashim and its Latin Translation, in Digital Form, IRHT-CNRS, Paris (February 26, 2019)

• “Fantastic Books and Where to Find Them: Isaiah Sonne and the Quest for Hebrew Books,” The AJS 50th Annual Conference, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Boston (December 16-18, 2018)

• “Christian Hebraism in a Polemical Key. The Case of Melchiorre Palontrotti,” Fall Weekend Seminar The Many Faces of Hebraism in Early Modern Europe directed by Anthony Grafton and Joanna Weinberg, Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC (September 2018)  

• “From Frankfurt to Jerusalem. Italian Hebrew Manuscripts in the Nauheim Collection at the National Library of Israel,” The 11th Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow (July 15-19, 2018)

• “היהודים במחוז למארקה התיישבות [La vita ebraica nelle Marche nelle generazioni],” Conference Le Marche. «O bel paese con li dolci colli…» organized by the Dante Alighieri Society of Jerusalem, The Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem (May 10, 2018) [in Hebrew]

• “Melchiorre Palontrotti and the First Giudiata against the Jews of Rome (1647-48),” The 64th Annual RSA Meeting, Hilton New Orleans Riverside, New Orleans (March 22-24, 2018)

• “Nel vicolo delli hebrei: la presenza ebraica ai margini dello Stato della Chiesa nell’età dei ghetti,” International seminar Intorno al confine. Esperienze religiose tra marginalità ed esclusione in Europa e America, University of Roma Tre (January 15, 2018)

• “Writing the History of Popes in the Renaissance. The Chronicle on Paul IV by Benjamin Nehemiah ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche (16th cent.),” The 17th World Congress of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus Campus (August 9, 2017)

• “History in Translation. Translating a Hebrew Chronicle of Renaissance Italy,” Nachwuchstagung Judaistik - Fifth Conference for Young Researchers in Jewish Studies. Methods and Disciplines between Germany and Israel, University of Potsdam (July 3, 2017)

• “Sara, Smeralda, Stella, Regina e le altre. Donne ebree a Civitanova Marche negli anni centrali del Cinquecento,” International Workshop Doter pour transmettre? Une histoire économique et sociale de la famille juive (XVe-XIXe s.), École française de Rome (December 11, 2015)

• “The Jews and Their Doubts. Anti-Jewish Polemics and Christian Apologetics in the Fascicolo delle vanità giudaiche (1583) by Antonino Stabili,” BAJS Annual Conference Atheism, Scepticism and Challenges to Monotheism, University of Manchester (July 7, 2015)

• “Living Under the Evil Pope’: Paul IV and the Jews according to the Jewish Chronicle by Benjamin Nehemiah ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche (16th century),” BAJS Annual Conference Jews and Political Discourse, Trinity College Dublin (July 14, 2014)