Alessandra BUCOSSI

She graduated in Classics in 1999 (University of Genoa, summa cum laude, old system), with a thesis in Byzantine Philology (supervisor: Prof. Raffaella Lia Cresci). In 2001 she was awarded a Master of Arts (with distinction) in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from King’s College London (UK).

From 2001 to 2005 she pursued her doctoral studies (D.Phil.) at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Elizabeth Mary Jeffreys (Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature), supported by two doctoral scholarships, one from St John’s College (Oxford) and one from the Arts and Humanities Research Board (now Arts and Humanities Research Council), the UK’s national funding body for the humanities. In 2005 she defended her doctoral thesis, with Prof. Paul Magdalino (Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Byzantine History, University of St Andrews) as external examiner.

In 2006 she attended a Master’s programme funded by the European Social Fund (FSE), organized by Sviluppo Italia in collaboration with SDA Bocconi, in Local Development Management and Territorial Marketing. This led to two years of professional experience at a regional development agency, where she managed European projects aimed at the promotion of cultural heritage.

From 2007 to 2008 she was a Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks (Harvard University, Washington, D.C.). From 2008 to 2011 she was a Research Fellow at Stockholm University (Sweden), as a core member of the interdisciplinary project Ars edendi, funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. In 2009 she obtained the Diploma in Greek Palaeography from the Vatican School of Greek Palaeography.

From 2011 to 2014 she was Research and Teaching Fellow (RTDa) at King’s College London. From 2014 to 2019 she served as national scientific coordinator (Principal Investigator) of a high-level research programme (Futuro in Ricerca) at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where she held positions as fixed-term researcher (RTDa and RTDb) and research fellow. In 2019 she was awarded an internal university grant (SPIN funds) for the project RAP – Repertorium Auctorum Polemicorum.

On 1 September 2020 she was appointed Associate Professor of Byzantine Civilization at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. From 2022 to 2026 she is Principal Investigator of the PRIN PNRR 2022 project Panoplia Panopliarum – The Long Twelfth Century: The Byzantine Age of Anti-Heretical Compilations. In 2026 she is Sassoon Visiting Fellow at the Bodleian Library (4 May – 5 June).

ONLINE REPERTORY:

RAP-Repertorium Auctorum Polemicorum

RECENT BOOKS:

Alessandra Bucossi and Luigi D'Amelia, Nicetas Thessalonicensis, Dialogi sex de processione Spiritus Sancti (Leuven: Brepols, 2021)

Marco Fanelli, Ottavia Mazzon e Niccolò Zorzi (eds), Eresia e ortodossia a confronto: Manoscritti e testi da Bisanzio alla Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (Padova: PUP, 2025)

Research interests:

Byzantine textual criticism and Greek palaeography, with a special interest in theological literature (theological discussions, polemical writings, heresiological compilations and patristic anthologies). History of the Byzantine empire and of the Byzantine church, with a special interest in definition and development of religious identities in Byzantium (Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, etc.), relationship between imperial and religious powers, relationship between the Latin West and the Byzantine East (9th –15th century).