Matteo Soranzo

Academic Title: Associate Professor of Italian Studies
Office: 680 Sherbrooke St. West, Room 433
Email: matteo.soranzo [at] mcgill.ca
Education: Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison; Laurea in Lettere, Università degli Studi di Padova

Biography & Research Statement

I am an Associate Professor of Italian Studies with research interests at the intersection of medieval and early modern Italian literature, textual criticism, and the history of premodern science and esotericism (astrology, alchemy, and philosophy). My work explores how literary composition, poetic form, and manuscript circulation interact with intellectual and scientific traditions—from Dante and Petrarch to Quattrocento humanism and Neo-Latin poetry.

My first monograph, Poetry and Identity in Quattrocento Naples (Routledge, 2014), investigates the social trajectories and cultural capital of court poets in Renaissance Naples. My second book, Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1524) and Renaissance Alchemy (Brill, 2020), offers an in-depth study and textual analysis of a major Neo-Latin poem on the Philosophers' Stone, weaving together textual philology, mythology, and the history of early modern science.

At present, I am the Principal Investigator of a SSHRC-funded research project investigating the manuscript tradition and intellectual culture of the Renaissance alchemist Cristoforo da Parigi, combining manuscript stemmatics and digital collation tools to produce a critical edition of his alchemical writings. In parallel, my research on premodern astrology explores the presence of technical celestial doctrines, predictive frameworks, and astronomical timing across literary and visual media, including Dante Alighieri’s works (Vita Nuova and Rime petrose) and early Cinquecento Venetian artworks.

Research Interests

• Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature
• Textual Criticism, Philology & Manuscript Studies
• History of Astrology, Alchemy & Early Science
• Neo-Latin Literature & Quattrocento Humanism
• Narratology and Intermediality

Selected Publications

Books:

• Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1524) and Renaissance Alchemy: A Commentary on 'Chrysopoeia'. Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
• Poetry and Identity in Quattrocento Naples: Politics and Culture in the Fifteenth-Century Kingdom. London & New York: Routledge, 2014.

Selected Articles & Book Chapters:

• Soranzo, Matteo. "In the Shadow of the Eclipse (2 June 1509): Giulio Campagnola's The Astrologer, Venice, and the Science of Stars." Arts (2026).
• Soranzo, Matteo. "A Patron to Forget: Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1524) and Doge Agostino Barbarigo (1419–1501)." Quaderni d'Italianistica (2023).
• Soranzo, Matteo. "Beyond the Literary Sources of Augurello's Chrysopoeia." Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (2022).
• Henry, Chriscinda, and Matteo Soranzo. "Poetic matters: Giovanni Aurelio Augurello (1441–1524), materiality, and the visual arts." Word & Image (2022).

P.S. For more detailed updates on my research, please visit my profile on academia.edu.