Archives par mot-clé : Italy

Portrait de chercheur à la Maison de l’épigraphie : Antonello Vilella

1) Bonjour Antonello, vous êtes à la Maison de l’épigraphie pour un mois, grâce au soutien de l’ERC GRAPH-EAST, pourriez-vous nous présenter votre parcours académique ?

I am a postclassical epigrapher, with a more pronounced interest in Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages. An important part of my work also concerns Digital Epigraphy, being involved as Editor for the Epigraphic Database Bari ––offering the editions and photos of inscriptions by Christians in Rome dating from the 3rd to the 8th centuries CE––and in the development of the online database of the ERC project Graff-IT, hosted at the University of Chieti-Pescara and devoted to the study of graffiti in Italy from the 7th to the 16th centuries CE. I currently serve as Postdoctoral Researcher for the latter project.

From 2017 I have been collaborating with the German Archaeological Institute in Rome (DAI-Rom) as epigraphic advisor for the project “Kollektive Bestattungen in Rom zwischen später Republik und Spätantike”. From 2018 I serve as Teaching Assistant for the course of “Christian and Medieval Epigraphy” at the University of Bari. In 2023, from May to November, I have been Postdoctoral Fellow at the DFG Center for Advanced Study “RomanIslam – Center for Comparative and Empire Transcultural Studies” at the University of Hamburg.

All my education has taken place at the University of Bari. Here I obtained my BA in Sciences of Cultural Heritage (2014) and MA in Archaeology (2016), graduated at the Specializing School in Archaeology (2019) and, in May 2023, defended my PhD dissertation in “Christian and Medieval Epigraphy” devoted to the study of Medieval inscriptions from the northern area of the present-day province of Bari.


2) Quel est votre projet de recherche actuellement ?

I am currently making research on several topics, spanning from late antique to Medieval epigraphy. I am conducting research and preparing articles on the epigraphic habit and landscape of Mauretania Caesariensis in the 5th and 6th centuries CE, stemming from my postdoctoral fellowship at the RomanIslam Center of the University of Hamburg. Alongside other colleagues I am preparing the first systematic edition of the Medieval inscriptions of Bari for the IMAI – Inscriptiones Medii Aevi Italiae (saec. VI-XII), an epigraphic corpus fostered by the Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo di Spoleto. Last but not least, I have recently submitted the manuscript of my first monograph, originating from my doctoral dissertation.


3) Comment en êtes-vous venu à l’épigraphie ?

My first contact with epigraphy happened while studying for my MA at the University of Bari, precisely when I attended a course on Latin inscriptions from the early Roman Empire. A few months later I started taking classes in “Christian and Medieval Epigraphy”––it took me only a couple of lessons to understand that this had to be the subject of my thesis and, hopefully, of my future academic career.


4) Qu’attendez-vous de votre séjour à Poitiers ?

Here at Poitiers, I aim to make progress in my research project on the presence and visibility of ruling classes––in a wider sense––in the epigraphic documentation of Medieval Bari, eventually seeing the light as a chapter for the earlier mentioned first systematic edition of the Medieval inscriptions of said city. I expect to work in a very stimulating environment, both under a scientific and personal perspective. I believe that any epigrapher who works on Medieval materials should spend at least one research stay at the Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médievale in her/his scientific life. It is not only about the richness of the near libraries, of the Pôle documentaire, of the Photothèque, and so on. But it is also, and probably foremost, about the place itself which I honestly feel as inspiring because of its scientific history and, of course, the constant exchange with colleagues at any grade, from whom one can learn and to whom one can also offer knowledge.


5) Quel message voudriez-vous faire passer aux jeunes chercheurs en épigraphie ?

Inscriptions from pretty much all ages of mankind are some of the most complex items to analyze. They have been employed in many different contexts and used a large variety of materials, letterings, texts and so on, demanding us to incorporate several other domains of knowledge into their study: archaeology, architecture, history, history of art, linguistics, paleography…––the list could go on for lines and lines. Can this be difficult and challenging? Absolutely. But it is also extremely intriguing to be able to investigate what use did the people like us from the past make of inscriptions and try to understand why in that exact way. This goes beyond pure academic research, and it is a true privilege as human beings.

Thank you, Antonello!