Nicola Esposito

Teaching Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow, Italian

Education

Ph.D., University of Notre Dame 
M.A. (summa cum laude), Ca' Foscari University, Venice (Italy) 
B.A., University of Bergamo (Italy)

Research and Teaching Interests

Boccaccio, Dante, Petrarch, Medieval Italian Literature, Transnational and Mediterranean Studies, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, History of the Italian Late Middle Ages, Philology/Textual Critique.

Biography

Nicola earned his Ph.D. in Italian from the University of Notre Dame on August 3rd, 2023, supervised by the guidance of Prof. Laura Banella. He attained his undergraduate degree in Medieval Italian Literature from the Università degli Studi di Bergamo (Italy) in 2012, working under the mentorship of Prof. Claudia Villa. In 2017, he graduated with highest honors, summa cum laude, from the Università Ca’ Foscari of Venezia (Italy), specializing in Medieval Italian Philology and benefiting from the scholarly mentorship of Prof. Serena Fornasiero.

Nicola’s scholarly pursuits revolve around a diverse array of authors hailing from the Italian Late Middle Ages, including Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, ser Giovanni, Franco Sacchetti, and Giovanni Sercambi. Central to his academic endeavors is an unwavering focus on the writers of short stories from the Tuscan 14th-Century, as well as the intricate historical, literary, and cultural contexts that nurtured their creativity.

Nicola’s interests extend beyond his primary pursuits and encompass gender studies as well as historical inquiries into the literary and societal landscape of 13th and 14th-century Tuscany. Currently, he is deeply engaged in an investigation concerning the appropriation of select segments from 14th-century Italian literature, characterized by their pronounced anti-Jewish themes, by intellectuals of the fascist regime, revealing their manipulative deployment with anti-Semitic undertones. Furthermore, Nicola’s research encompasses the intricate dynamics of cultural and literary exchange within the Mediterranean region during the late 14th century.

Representative Publications

Articles

Saladin the Courteous: Legends and Lore in Late Medieval Tuscan Short Stories, «Mediaevalia», 46, 2025 (accepted for publication).

Guarire d’amore, morire di soddisfazione. Una lettura di Pecorone XXV 2, «AR.NO.VIT: Archivio Novellistico Italiano», 9, 2024 (forthcoming).

La tradizione manoscritta del Pecorone di ser Giovanni, «Italia Medioevale e Umanistica», 64, LXIV, 2023 (forthcoming).

Sullo statuto delle ballate del Decameron: tra cultura cortese e fascinazioni cavalleresche, «L’Ellisse. Studi - storici di letteratura italiana», XVIII/I, 2023, pp. 7-20.

Conference Proceedings

Tra ideologia e Realpolitik. I: Vittore Branca e la costruzione dell’ideale cortese di Giovanni Boccaccio, in Intorno a Boccaccio/Boccaccio e dintorni 2023, Atti del Seminario internazionale di studi (Certaldo Alta, Casa di Giovanni Boccaccio, 12-13 settembre 2023), a cura di Carla Maria Monti, Pisa, Pacini Editore, 2024 (forthcoming).

Elementi d’amor cortese nella storia portante e nelle ballate del Pecorone, in La tradizione prosimetrica daDante a Bembo, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Venezia, Università Ca’ Foscari, 26-27 giugno 2023 (forthcoming).

Elementi stilistici decameroniani nel Pecorone di Ser Giovanni, in Intorno a Boccaccio/Boccaccio e dintorni 2021, Atti del Seminario internazionale di studi (Certaldo Alta, Casa di Giovanni Boccaccio, 9- 10 settembre 2021), a cura di Giovanna Frosini, Firenze, Firenze University Press, 2022, pp. 121-136.

Raccolte di novelle, ovvero manuali per una borghesia di governo. Il caso del Pecorone, in Letteratura e Potere/Poteri, Atti del XXIV Congresso dell’ADI (Associazione degli Italianisti), Catania, 23-25 settembre 2021, a cura di Andrea Manganaro, Giuseppe Traina, Carmelo Tramontana, Roma, Adi editore, 2023, pp. 2-10.

Book Reviews

Olivia Holmes. Boccaccio and Exemplary Literature. Ethics and Mischief in the ‘Decameron’. Cambridge
Studies in Medieval Literature 131. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. Pp. IX +
271. In «Annali di Italianistica», 42, 2024, (forthcoming).

Andrea Celli. Dante and the Mediterranean Comedy. From Muslim Spain to Post-Colonial Italy. The New Middle Ages. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Pp. XII + 278. In «Annali di Italianistica», 42, 2024, (forthcoming).

Gur Zak, Boccaccio and the Consolation of Literature, Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Studies and Texts 229, September 2022. Pp. X + 216, in «Modern Language Review», 119.2 (2024), (forthcoming).

Daniela D’Eugenio. Paroimia: Brusantino, Florio, Sarnelli, and Italian Proverbs from the Sixteenth and Seventeen Centuries. Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures 83. West Lafayette (IN): Purdue UP,2021. Pp. XXIII + 545. In «Annali di Italianistica», 41, 2023 (forthcoming).

Susanna Barsella, and Simone Marchesi, eds. The Decameron Ninth Day in Perspective. Volume Nine of the Lectura Boccaccii. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022. Pp. XVIII + 287. In«Annali di Italianistica», 41, 2023 (forthcoming).

Matteo Bosisio. Mercanti e civiltà mercantile nel Decameron. Le ricerche di “Critica letteraria”, nuova serie 32. Napoli: Paolo Loffredo Editore, 2020. Pp. 211. In «Annali di Italianistica», 39, 2021, pp. 480-83.

Michael Sherberg, ed. The Decameron Fourth Day in Perspective. Volume Four of the Lectura Boccaccii. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020. Pp. IX + 222. In «Annali di Italianistica», 39, 2021, pp. 525-26.

William Robins, ed. The Decameron Eighth Day in Perspective. Volume Eight of the Lectura Boccaccii. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020. Pp. VII + 284. In «Annali di Italianistica», 39, 2021, pp. 519-21.