Staff profile

I am Assistant Professor in Italian Studies at Durham University. My research explores how medieval Italian writers transformed knowledge circulating through lectures, disputations, sermons and books into literary invention. Bringing together literary interpretation, intellectual history and manuscript scholarship, I study how ideas moved between Latin and the vernacular, between religious institutions and lay audiences, and between spoken and written forms.

Dante’s intellectual formation: recovering the intellectual world behind the poetry

My work centres on Dante’s intellectual formation and the relationship between poetry, philosophy and theology. I investigate how reconstructing the teaching and debates of medieval Florence can change our interpretation of his writing. My monograph, Il poeta alle «scuole delli religiosi». Dante, Pietro delle Travi e il convento di Santa Croce (1294–1296) (Rome: Carocci, 2026), draws on largely unexplored manuscripts to reconstruct Peter of Trabibus’s teaching at Santa Croce. It offers a new account of the theological foundations of the Vita nova and the Comedy, showing how Dante transformed the philosphical and theological orally transmitted in Florence's mendicant schools into an original poetic vision. The book received three awards: the inaugural Kleinhenz Prize for Publication from the Dante Society of America, the Pontremoli-Pier delle Vigne Prize for Medieval Studies, Early-Career Researcher Award, and the “Leva la testa e fa che t’assicuri” Prize for Italian Philology. It has attracted cirtical attention from leading Italian media and cultural institututions, including Corriere della Sera, Avvenire and Treccani. An English translation is in preparation for Brepols’s Disputatio series. My research was also recognised through Durham’s 2026 Rewarding Excellence Scheme.

Current projects and collaborations

I lead the project Dante Among Theologians: Mapping the Scholastic Soundscape of the Italian Middle Ages and the Formatio of the Commedia (c. 1304-1321) as Principal Investigator, with Theodore J. Cachey Jr. (University of Notre Dame) as Co-Principal Investigator. Funded by the Notre Dame-Durham Seed Grant programme, the project brings scholars together through workshops at both universities to investigate the relationship between medieval theological debate and literary creation. I am also developing ORAL-IT: Reading, Hearing and the Making of Italian Literature: Florence, 1260-1320. The project examines how lay writers encountered and reworked knowledge transmitted through teaching, preaching, disputation, devotional practices and books. Its development is supported by Durham’s IMEMS Research Pipeline and Faculty Research Fund. I am lead editor of Quodlibetal Culture in Dante’s Time, with Paola Nasti and William Duba (University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming 2027). With Franziska Meier, I co-edited the Humanities special issue on Dante’s Paradiso and the medieval academic world (2024). I am also co-editing Boccaccio volgarizzatore with Igor Candido and Berenice Daniele for the International Boccaccio Edition.

Artificial intelligence and textual scholarship

A further strand of my research investigates AI’s implications for reading, authorship and scholarly editing. My Paragraph essay, “Who Reads, Who Writes, Who Edits?” (2026), explores these questions through literary criticism and an experiment in manuscript transcription. I am interested in how computational tools can assist scholarship while keeping uncertainty visible and philological judgement central. With Ana Ilievska, I am co-editing From Manuscript to Machine: Italian Literature in the Age of AI, a special issue of Italian Studies in development for 2027.

Background and academic service

I studied at the University of Pavia and IUSS, as an alumnus of Collegio Ghislieri, before completing my MA and PhD in Italian Studies (Minor: Medieval Studies) at the University of Notre Dame in 2020. Before joining Durham in 2023, I held research and teaching positions at Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin and the University of Göttingen. My fellowships include awards from the Irish Research Council and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. At Durham, I serve as Research Fora Coordinator, MLAC Dissertation Coordinator and the School’s representative in IMEMS. I am Membership Secretary of the Society for Italian Studies and its liaison to the Dante Society of America.

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome enquiries about research on Dante and Boccaccio; medieval Italian literary and intellectual culture; oral and written transmission of knowledge; Latin and vernacular traditions; manuscript studies; and AI in textual scholarship.

For accessible introductions to my work, see my Notre Dame interview and Durham Meet the Staff video. You can watch some of my talks on Dante on YouTube here: 1, 2, 3, 4. 

• Dante Studies
• Medieval Italian Literature
• Early Modern Italian Literature
• Vernacular transmission of Aristotle
• Late-Medieval Aristotelianism
• Reception Studies
• Intellectual History
• Manuscript Studies
• Digital Humanities

• 2026: Durham 2026 Rewarding Excellence Scheme:
• 2026: “Leva la testa e fa che t’assicuri” Prize for Italian Philology:
• 2026: Pontremoli-Pier delle Vigne Prize for Medieval Studies, Early-Career Researcher Award:
• 2025: Kleinhenz Prize for Publication, Dante Society of America:
• 2022 - 2023: Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship:
• 2022 - 2023: William M. Calder III Fellowship:
• 2021 - 2022: Government of Ireland Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship:
• 2015 - 2020: University Presidential Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences:

Authored book

• Il poeta alle "scuole delli religiosi": Dante, Pietro delle Travi e il convento di Santa Croce (1294-1296)
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2026). Il poeta alle "scuole delli religiosi": Dante, Pietro delle Travi e il convento di Santa Croce (1294-1296). Carocci Editore.

Chapter in book

• Dante “accademico” o “antiaccademico”? Una nota sul Convivio e l’ambiente universitario
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (in press). Dante “accademico” o “antiaccademico”? Una nota sul Convivio e l’ambiente universitario. Franco Cesati Editore.
• Vita nova XLI [30]
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2023). Vita nova XLI [30]. In Z. G. Baranski & H. Webb (Eds.), Dante’s ‘Vita nova’: A Collaborative Reading (pp. 366–371). University of Notre Dame Press.
• Dispute bolognesi al tempo di Dante: un Quodlibet medico di Giovanni da Parma (Vat. Lat. 4452, 144r-v)
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2022). Dispute bolognesi al tempo di Dante: un Quodlibet medico di Giovanni da Parma (Vat. Lat. 4452, 144r-v). In A. Antonelli & F. Meier (Eds.), Dante e Bologna. Istituzioni, convergenze e saperi (pp. 195-214). Giorgio Pozzi Editore.
• Lettori cinquecenteschi della Commedia. Postille e stampe dantesche nell’Università di Notre Dame
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2021). Lettori cinquecenteschi della Commedia. Postille e stampe dantesche nell’Università di Notre Dame. In A. Sorella (Ed.), Integrazioni all’esegesi dantesca nel cinquecentenario della morte di Bernardo Bembo (pp. 167–184). Franco Cesati Editori.
• Tra Bibbia e ‘letteratura di costumanza:’ un’ipotesi su ‘Ecce deus fortior me’ (Vita nova, II.4)
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2019). Tra Bibbia e ‘letteratura di costumanza:’ un’ipotesi su ‘Ecce deus fortior me’ (Vita nova, II.4). In Dante e la cultura fiorentina. Bono Giamboni, Brunetto Latini e la formazione intellettuale dei laici (pp. 221–240). Salerno Editrice.
• Dal Trattatello di Boccaccio alla formazione di Dante: alcune note di lavoro
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2017). Dal Trattatello di Boccaccio alla formazione di Dante: alcune note di lavoro. In Boccaccio e Dintorni. Atti del seminario internazionale di studi, Certaldo Alta, Casa del Boccaccio, 9 Settembre 2016, ed. Stefano Zamponi (pp. 1–12). Firenze University Press. https://doi.org/10.36253/978-88-6453-844-0
• “Knowing the Truth of Faith through the Science of Letters”: Peter of Trabibus’s Quodlibeta and the Making of Dante’s Formation in Florence
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (n.d.). “Knowing the Truth of Faith through the Science of Letters”: Peter of Trabibus’s Quodlibeta and the Making of Dante’s Formation in Florence. In Quodlibetal Culture in Dante’s Time.

Edited book

• ‘In terra per le vostre scole’ (Par. XXIX, 70): Dante’s Paradiso and the Medieval Academic World. Special Issue of Humanities
  
  Meier, F., & Dell’Oso, L. (Eds.). (2024). ‘In terra per le vostre scole’ (Par. XXIX, 70): Dante’s Paradiso and the Medieval Academic World. Special Issue of Humanities. MDPI.
• Aggiornamento bibliografico dell’Enciclopedia Dantesca (2006-2021)
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (Ed.). (2021). Aggiornamento bibliografico dell’Enciclopedia Dantesca (2006-2021). Treccani.

Journal Article

• "Sì come il Maestro ne dimostra nel secondo delle Sentenzie”: the pedagogical theology in Boccaccio’s Esposizioni
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (in press). "Sì come il Maestro ne dimostra nel secondo delle Sentenzie”: the pedagogical theology in Boccaccio’s Esposizioni. Heliotropia.
• Reading and Listening to the "Liber de causis" in Florence. Dante and the Emationism of "Amor che movi"
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2026). Reading and Listening to the "Liber de causis" in Florence. Dante and the Emationism of "Amor che movi". Romanic Review, 117(2), 352-389. https://doi.org/10.1215/00358118-12657160
• L’Inferno a Firenze? Su alcuni elementi teologici dei primi canti della Commedia (Inf. I-IV)
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2024). L’Inferno a Firenze? Su alcuni elementi teologici dei primi canti della Commedia (Inf. I-IV). Italianistica: Rivista Di Letteratura Italiana, LIII(3).
• Dante, Peter of Trabibus, and the ‘Schools of the Religious Orders’ in Florence
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2022). Dante, Peter of Trabibus, and the ‘Schools of the Religious Orders’ in Florence. Italian Studies, 77(3), 211-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00751634.2022.2040866
• Astronomy, Philosophy, and Theology in Dante’s Florence: from Vita nova II.1-2 to Paradiso XXIX, 85-102
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2022). Astronomy, Philosophy, and Theology in Dante’s Florence: from Vita nova II.1-2 to Paradiso XXIX, 85-102. Dante Studies, 140, 22-44. https://doi.org/10.1353/das.2022.a903955
• Looking at Books, Instead of Reading Them: A Conversation with Randall McLeod
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2018). Looking at Books, Instead of Reading Them: A Conversation with Randall McLeod. Tipofilologia: Rivista Internazionale Di Studi Sui Testi a Stampa Della Letteratura Italiana Ed Europea, 11, 131-141. https://doi.org/10.19272/201810201003
• Su Dante e la dialettica: Convivio II. XIII.11-12 e la logica in Santa Croce
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2018). Su Dante e la dialettica: Convivio II. XIII.11-12 e la logica in Santa Croce. L’Alighieri, 52, 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1400/266842
• Dalla filologia alla tipografia: su due varianti sostanziali tra la Dipintura nella ‘Scienza Nuova’ del 1730 e del 1744
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2017). Dalla filologia alla tipografia: su due varianti sostanziali tra la Dipintura nella ‘Scienza Nuova’ del 1730 e del 1744. Historia Philosophica: An International Journal, 15, 43-62.
• Per la formazione intellettuale di Dante: i cataloghi librari, le tracce testuali, il ‘Trattatello’ di Boccaccio
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2017). Per la formazione intellettuale di Dante: i cataloghi librari, le tracce testuali, il ‘Trattatello’ di Boccaccio. Le Tre Corone, 4, 129-161. https://doi.org/10.19272/201712101007
• Un domenicano contro la stampa. Nuove acquisizioni al corpus di Filippo da Strada
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2014). Un domenicano contro la stampa. Nuove acquisizioni al corpus di Filippo da Strada. Tipofilologia: Rivista Internazionale Di Studi Sui Testi a Stampa Della Letteratura Italiana Ed Europea, 7, 69-102.
• Reopening a Question of Attribution: Programmatic Notes about Boccaccio and the Translation of Livy
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2013). Reopening a Question of Attribution: Programmatic Notes about Boccaccio and the Translation of Livy. Heliotropia, 10(1-2), 1-16.
• Versi volgari del tardo Quattrocento nel ms. Notre Dame Lat. d. 5
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2013). Versi volgari del tardo Quattrocento nel ms. Notre Dame Lat. d. 5. Studi Di Filologia Italiana, 71, 347–353.

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• ChatGPT e il futuro della medievistica: alcune proposte
  
  Dell’Oso, L. (2023, July 3). ChatGPT e il futuro della medievistica: alcune proposte. Le Parole E le Cose.