The 'Montalcini' programme: Caterina Tarlazzi chooses Ca' Foscari

Once again, Ca’ Foscari has proved to be the first choice for scholars who, after a period of time abroad, decide to further their academic career in Italy. One of the many opportunities that are currently available for those who are interested in becoming Ca’ Foscari researchers comes from the “Rita Levi Montalcini” programme, sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, an initiative that allows young scholars to work for prestigious Italian universities.
(The new call will remain open until July 18, 2019 - more information on the dedicated webpage)

Among the many success stories, we bring you that of Caterina Tarlazzi, Ca’ Foscari’s latest recruit, who will start her research activity in Venice in early 2020. After getting her education from the Universities of Padua, Cambridge and Paris, she became an established Medieval Philosophy historian, focusing on the latin area from the 8th to the 12th century.
She has chosen Ca’ Foscari to develop her own “Rita Levi Montalcini” project, “Logic at the time of Pietro Abelardo: the unpublished manuscripts preserved in the Italian peninsula and the intellectual ties between Italy and France in the first half of the 12th century”.

“I’m going to analyze the position of Pietro Abelardo’s rivals on the issue of the universals, through the study of manuscript sources, which were almost completely unsurveyed up until this moment and are currently preserved in various libraries in Italy and the Vatican - explains Caterina Tarlazzi - I will also shed some light on the existing ties between magistri and intellectuals who operated in Northern France and Italy in the early decades of the 12th century. Furthermore, I will examine some important relations between Italy and the Schools in Northern France in the first half of the 12th century, not only through the study of numerous manuscripts, but also by uncovering historical ties between scholars, their opinions and the translations that were performed during this time” 

This projects allows for a completely new approach to a pivotal debate in medieval philosophy. The innovative component consists in the examination of overlooked manuscript sources and the critical review of the distinction between realism and antirealism.

The project is also strongly interdisciplinary “My approach brings together the study of logic and metaphysics to that of textual criticism and manuscript analysis”

Tarlazzi can count on an exceptional curriculum that makes her stand out amongst medieval philosophy scholars all over the world. She has published critical editions of philosophical works, theory analysis and logical arguments.
After 3 years as a postdoc in Cambridge and 4 in Geneva, she went on to win prizes like the Foundation for Polish Science LKHF award and the “Italy MadeMe” award, bestowed by the Italian ambassador in London.
She has also been the recipient of a Marie Curie Global Fellowship at Ca’ Foscari.
To find out more about career opportunities at Ca’ Foscari, read about our Brain Gain initiative on the dedicated page.