Kaufman Hall 210
Profile
Roberto Pesce received his Ph.D. in Italian from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Classical and Medieval Philology from Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy. Before joining the Modern Languages faculty in 2017, he taught Italian language, literature, and culture as a lecturer at Baylor University (2013-2017) and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Tulane University (2010-2013).
His research focuses on medieval literature in Latin, Italian vernacular, and Franco-Italian produced in Northern Italy, with a special emphasis on the autobiographical genre in the Middle Ages and the historiographical production of that period. Through a philological approach and textual criticism, Dr. Pesce works on manuscript traditions to establish critical editions and scholarly translations of unpublished texts from the 13th and 14th centuries. His current research projects include two critical editions: Paulinus of Venice’s Tractatus de Diis Gentium et Fabulis Poetarum (“Treatise on the Gods of the Gentiles and the Fables of Poets”), and an edition and translation of the Paulinus’s Liber de Regimine Rectoris (Book on the Government of the Ruler), in the Italian vernacular. The first book, written in Latin in the first quarter of the 14th century, allegorically describes classical mythology from a Christian perspective and has received provisional acceptance by the Medieval Academy of America; the second is one of the first literary documents in the Venetian vernacular and is part of a flourishing medieval genre, the specula principum, which aimed to instruct kings and rulers on leadership.
Dr. Pesce is the Italian Section Head and advisor. He teaches a wide array of upper-level Italian courses from introductory classes to Italian literature and culture, to more focused classes on the medieval Italian tradition, and the Italian Capstone. In addition to his regular courses taught in Italian, he also offers courses in English, including the popular “The World of Dante”, which attracts students from different departments and colleges who want to familiarize themselves with a milestone of Western civilization, the Divine Comedy.
Selected Publications
The Story of Attila in Prose. A Critical edition and Translation of the Estoire d’Atile en prose. A critical edition and facing-page English translation of a 13th-century prose text in Franco-Italian. Co-edited and co- translated with Logan Whalen. London and New York: Routledge Press, 2022. Pp. xii + 174.
Paolino da Venezia. Tractatus de ludo scachorum (Treatise on the Game of Chess). A critical edition and facing-page Italian translation of a 14th-century prose text in medieval Latin. Venice: Centro di studi medievali e rinascimentali E.A. Cicogna, 2018. Pp. 179.
Dialogo. Studi in onore di Angela Caracciolo Aricò (Dialogue: Studies in Honor of Angela Caracciolo Aricò). Eds. Elena Bocchia, Zuanne Fabris, Chiara Frison, and Roberto Pesce. Venice: Centro di studi medievali e rinascimentali E.A. Cicogna, 2017. Pp. 450.
“‘Figlio d’un cane!’ La figura di Attila nel folklore medievale tra tradizione epico-cavalleresca e zooerastia.” California Italian Studies 10.1 (2020): 1-18. (retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1sk130b0)
“Gli inizi della cartografia umanistica tra Petrarca e Paolino da Venezia: dalla pictura Italiae alla grata pictura della penisola italiana.” Italian Quarterly 219-222 (2019): 96-118.
Education
Ph.D. in Italian. Rutgers University. 2011
Ph.D. in Classical and Medieval Philology. Ca’ Foscari University - Venice (Italy). 2008
B.A., M.A. (Laurea) in Italian Literature. Ca’ Foscari University - Venice (Italy). 2002
Teaching Schedule for Spring 2023
MLLL 3303 The World of Dante
