Scholars@Duke

• Background
• 

  Education, Training, & Certifications

  • Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 1983
• 

  Previous Appointments & Affiliations

  • Professor of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2003 - 2019
  • Professor of Theater Studies, Theater Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2015 - 2018
  • Chair of the Arts & Sciences Council Committee on Faculty Research, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2012 - 2015
  • Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Duke University 2010 - 2013
  • Professor of Theater Studies, Theater Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2006 - 2011
  • Associate Professor with Tenure, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1993 - 2003
  • Assistant Professor, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1986 - 1993
• 

  Academic Positions Outside Duke

  • Visiting Professor, Italian Studies, Speroni Chair, UCLA. 2017
  • Visiting Associate Professor, Italian Studies, Johns Hopkins University. 1994
  • Visiting Professor, Italian Studies, Di Vito Chair, University of Pennsylvania. 1993
• Recognition
• 

  Awards & Honors

  • National Humanities Center Fellowship. National Humanities Center. November 2013
  • Fellow. National Humanities Center. 2009
  • Fellowships for University Teachers. National Endowment for the Humanities. 1999
  • RSA Research Grant. Renaissance Society of America. 1998
• Expertise
• 

  Global Scholarship

  • Expertise

    • Italy (Country) 
• Research
• 

  Selected Grants

  • The Nose Job: Plastic Surgery and Bioethics in the Renaissance awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2008 - 2009
  • Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga's Dilemma, researching female physiology and reproduction in the early modern period awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2002 - 2003
  • The Equivocal Body: The Castrato in Early Modern Discourses in Italy awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2000 - 2001
  • Body/Matter/Spirit awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 1997 - 1998
  • Italian Women Writers and the Epic Tradition awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 1992
• Publications & Artistic Works
• 

  Selected Publications

  • Books

    • Canalis, R. F., M. Ciavolella, and V. Finucci. Rethinking Medical Humanities: Perspectives from the Arts and the Social Sciences, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110788501.
       Full Text
    • Andreini, Isabella. Mirtilla, A Pastoral. A Bilingual Edition. Edited by V. Finucci. Translated by Julia Kisacky. Vol. 62, 2018.
    • Finucci, V. The Prince’s Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance Medicine. Harvard University Press, ca. 300pp., 2012.
    • Negri, Valeria Miani. Celinda A Tragedy. Acmrs Publications, 2010.
    • Finucci, V. The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance. Duke University Press: 321pp, 2003.
    • Finucci, V. The Lady Vanishes: Subjectivity and Representation in Castiglione and Ariosto. Stanford University Press: 329pp, 1992.

  • Academic Articles

    • Finucci, V. “A royal accident: Medical authority and political dynamics in 1559.” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 24, no. 1 (March 1, 2021): 41–65. https://doi.org/10.1086/713500.
       Full Text  Open Access Copy
    • Finucci, Valeria. “Pious Postmortems: Anatomy, Sanctity and the Catholic Church in Early Modern Europe. By Bradford A. Bouley. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. 214 pp. $55.00 hardcover.” Church History 87, no. 2 (June 2018): 567–69. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0009640718001191.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, V. “Vesalius and the languages of anatomy.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 48, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-4280828.
       Full Text  Open Access Copy
    • Finucci, V. “When the mirror lies: Sisterhood reconsidered in Moderata Fonte's thirteen Cantos of Floridoro,” May 15, 2017, 116–28.
    • Finucci, V. “Thinking through death: The politics of the corpse.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 45, no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-2829992.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, Valeria. “Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy.” Renaissance and Reformation 38, no. 4 (2015): 221–24.
       Link to Item
    • Finucci, V. “The Sex of Men in Premodern Europe: A Cultural History. By Patricia Simons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. xv plus 327 pp. $99.00).” Journal of Social History 48, no. 1 (September 1, 2014): 201–3. https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shu033.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, Valeria. “The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini by Rebecca Messbarger.” Mln 129, no. 1 (2014): 194–96. https://doi.org/10.1353/mln.2014.0001.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, Valeria. “Kissing the Wild Woman: Concepts of Art, Beauty, and the Italian Prose Romance in Giulia Bigolina's Urania.” Early Modern Women an Interdisciplinary Journal 9, no. 1 (2014): 197–200.
       Link to Item
    • Nissen, Christopher. “Kissing the Wild Woman.” Early Modern Women Journal, 2013.
    • Simons, Patricia. “The Sex of Men in Premodern Europe.” Journal of Social History, 2012.
    • Finucci, Valeria. “Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy.” American Historical Review 116, no. 3 (June 2011): 890–91.
       Link to Item
    • Finucci, V. “The Virgins Body and Early Modern Surgeons,” 2011, 195–221.
    • Finucci, V. “La Italia de los ltimos aos del siglo XVI en el lbum ilustrado de estudiantes extranjero.” Cuaderno Internacional De Estudios Human�Sticos Y Literatura / International Journal of Humanistic Studies and Literature Fall (2010): 11–18.
    • Finucci, V. ““La Italia de los últimos años del siglo XVI en el álbum ilustrado de estudiantes extranjero”.” Cuaderno Internacional De Estudios Humanísticos Y Literatura / International Journal of Humanistic Studies and Literature Fall (2010): 11–18.
    • Grendler, Paul. “The University of Mantua: The Gonzaga & the Jesuits, 1584-1630.” Annali D’Italianistica 28 (2010): 472–74.
    • Jaffe, Irma, and Gernando Colombardo. “Zelotti’s Epic Frescoes at Cataio: the Obizzi Saga.” Annali D’Italianistica 27 (2009): 457–59.
    • Finucci, V. “"There's the rub": Searching for sexual remedies in the New World.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 38, no. 3 (December 1, 2008): 523–57. https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-2008-006.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, Valeria. “Marion Wells. The Secret Wound: Love/Melancholy and Early Modern Romance. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006. xii + 368. index. bibl. $60. ISBN: 978-0-8047-5046-2.” Renaissance Quarterly 61, no. 2 (2008): 618–20. https://doi.org/10.1353/ren.0.0077.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, V. “Intellectual Tourism in Late Sixteenth-Century Italy: Costume and Manners in Venice and Padua // Turismo intellettuale nel tardo Cinquecento in Italia: Costumi e vita a Venezia e Padova.” Edited by M Rippa Bonati and V. Finucci, 2007, 36–77.
    • Pugliese, Olga. “Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier (Il libro del cortegiano): A Classic in the Making.” Rivista Di Studi Italiani 25 (2007): 299–302.
    • Valeria Finucci, Valeria. “Devianza sessuale e imperativi genealogici: Il caso di Margherita Gonzaga.” Acta Istriae 15, no. 2 (2007): 385–98.
    • Finucci, Valeria. “:Cultural Non-Conformity in Early Modern Florence.” Renaissance Quarterly 58, no. 1 (March 2005): 192–93. https://doi.org/10.1353/ren.2008.0606.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, V. “’Remember Me!’ Petrarca.” Edited by V. Finucci, 2005.
    • Finucci, V. “In the footsteps of Petrarch.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 35, no. 3 (January 1, 2005): 457–66. https://doi.org/10.1215/10829636-35-3-457.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, V. “Isabella Canali Andreini.” Edited by G. Marrone, 2004.
    • Finucci, V. “Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo).” Edited by G. Marrone, 2004.
    • Finucci, V. “Galileo, la polizia del costume e i piaceri del ritorno alla natura.” Edited by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, 2004.
    • Finucci, V. “La verginita’ contestata: Fabrici d’Acquapendente e il Gran Turco.” Edited by Maurizio Rippa Bonati and Pepe Pardo, 2004, 170–91.
    • Henke, Robert. “Performance and Literature in the Commedia dell’Arte.” Shakespeare Quarterly 32 (2004): 382–86.
    • Finucci, V. “The romance epics of Boiardo, Ariosto and Tasso: From public duty to private place.” Renaissance and Reformation 27, no. 4 (2003): 116–18.
       Link to Item
    • Ferguson, Ronnie. “The Theatre of Angelo Beolco (Ruzante).” Rivista Di Studi Italiani 20 (2002): 517–19.
    • Bolzoni, Lina. “La stanza della memoria. Modelli letterari e iconografici nell’et della stampa.” Mln 112 (2001): 117–19.
    • Finucci, V. “Maternal Imagination and the Monstrous Child in Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata.” Edited by V. Finucci and K. Brownlee, 2001, 41–77.
    • Finucci, V. “Genealogical Pleasures, Genealogical Disruptions.” Edited by V. Finucci and K. Brownlee, 2001, 1–14.
    • Fonte, Moderata. “The Worth of Women ed. by Virginia Cox.” Annali D’Italianistica 18 (2001): 493–95.
    • Maggi, Armando. “Identita’ e impresa rinascimentale.” Mln 116 (2001): 198–200.
    • Finucci, V. “The Masquerade of Masculinity: Astolfo and Jocondo in Orlando Furioso, 28.” Edited by V. Finucci, 1999, 215–45.
    • Finucci, V. “Ariosto, Tasso, and Storytelling.” Edited by V. Finucci, 1999, 1–13.
    • Finucci, V. “L’educazione dei fratelli: legge del padre e sua riscrittura nel Libro del cortegiano.” Edited by G. Patrizi and A. Quondam, 1998, 367–91.
    • Finucci, Valeria. “Book Review: Gendered Contexts: New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies.” Mln 113, no. 1 (January 1998): 250–52. https://doi.org/10.1353/mln.1998.0002.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, V. “In the name of the brother: Male rivalry and social order in baldassarre castiglione's il libro del cortegiano.” International Journal of Phytoremediation 21, no. 1 (January 1, 1997): 91–116. https://doi.org/10.1179/exm.1997.9.1.91.
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    • Finucci, V., and K. Brownlee. “Genealogy and transgression: An introduction.” International Journal of Phytoremediation 21, no. 1 (January 1, 1997): 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1179/exm.1997.9.1.1.
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    • Valeria Finucci, V., and K. Brownlee. “Genealogy and Transgression.” Exemplaria 9, no. 1 (1997): 1–5.
    • Valeria Finucci, Valeria Miani. “In the Name of the Brother: Male Rivalry and Social Order in B. Castiglione's Il libro del cortegiano.” Exemplaria 9, no. 1 (1997): 91–116.
    • Finucci, V. “The Female Masquerade: Ariosto and the Game of Desire.” Edited by V. Finucci and R. Schwartz, 1995, 61–88.
    • Finucci, V. “The Italian Memorialist: C. Faa’ Gonzaga.” Edited by K. Wilson, 1994, 121–28.
    • Schwartz, G. “Worlds Within and Without.” Edited by V. Finucci and G. Schwartz, 1994, 3–15.
    • Valeria Finucci, V. “La donna di corte: discorso istituzionale e realta' ne Il libro del cortegiano.” Annali D’Italianistica 7 (1994): 88–103.
    • Valeria Finucci, V. “Dislocation and Dehumanization in a War Novel": Moravia's La Ciociara.” Canadian Journal of Italian Studies 10 (1994): 43–58.
    • Valeria Finucci, V. “Alienazione individuale e linguaggio ambientale in Neera.” Misure Critiche 55–57 (1994): 65–79.
    • Valeria Finucci, Valeria Miani. “La scrittura epico-cavalleresca al femminile: Moderata Fonte e Tredici canti del Floridoro.” Annali D’Italianistica 12 (1994): 203–31.
    • Valeria Finucci, Valeria Miani. “Jokes on Women: Triangular Pleasures in Castiglione and Freud.” Exemplaria 4, no. 1 (1994): 51–77.
    • Valeria Finucci, Valeria. “La scrittura femminile. Considerazioni in margine alla lettura di Le stanze ritrovate.” Annali D’Italianistica 9 (1994): 322–29.
    • Finucci, Valeria, and Daniel Javitch. “Proclaiming a Classic. The Canonization of the "Orlando Furioso".” Italica 69, no. 2 (1992): 249–249. https://doi.org/10.2307/479542.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, Valeria. “The Textualization of a Female 'I': Elsa Morante's Menzogna e Sortilegio.” Italica 65, no. 4 (1988): 308–308. https://doi.org/10.2307/479009.
       Full Text
    • FINUCCI, V. “RE-MEMBERING THE I, FAAGONZAGA 'STORIA' (1622).” Italian Quarterly 28, no. 107 (1987): 21–32.
       Link to Item
    • FINUCCI, V. “A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A FEMALE PAINTER, THE KUNSTLERROMAN TRADITION IN BANTI,A. 'ARTEMISIA'.” Quaderni D Italianistica 8, no. 2 (1987): 167–93.
       Link to Item
    • FINUCCI, V. “BETWEEN ACQUIESCENCE AND MADNESS, NEERA 'TERESA'.” Stanford Italian Review 7, no. 1–2 (1987): 217–39.
       Link to Item

  • Book Sections

    • Canalis, R. F., M. Ciavolella, and V. Finucci. “Rethinking medical humanities.” In Rethinking Medical Humanities: Perspectives from the Arts and the Social Sciences, 3–14, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110788501-001.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, V. “The bio-turn in history writing: Death, last wishes, and lasting wishes.” In Rethinking Medical Humanities: Perspectives from the Arts and the Social Sciences, 213–26, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110788501-011.
       Full Text
    • Finucci, V. “The Story of Donna Camilla Faa’ of Bruno Gonzaga.” edited by K. Wilson. University of Georgia Press, 2007.

  • Other Articles

    • Finucci, V., and David Aers. “Open Topic.” Edited by Valeria Finucci. In Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2012.
    • Finucci, V. “Celinda, A Tragedy by Valeria Miani.” Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2010.
    • Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
    • Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
    • Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
    • Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
    • Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2008.
    • Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2007.
    • Finucci, V., and M Rippa Bonati. “Mores Italiae: Costume and Life in the Renaissance // Costumi e scene di vita del Rinascimento (Yale University, Beinecke Library, MS 457).” Bilingual Edition (English/Italian). Padua: Biblos: 232pp, 2007.
    • Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Mapping the Mediterranean.” A Special Issue of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2007.
    • Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Floridoro, a Chivalric Romance by Moderata Fonte.” University of Chicago Press: 493pp, 2006.
    • Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Petrarca, canoni, esemplarit.” Rome: Bulzoni Editore: 361pp, 2006.
    • Finucci, V., V. ed, and V. trans. “Urania by Giulia Bigolina.” University of Chicago Press: 192pp, 2005.
    • Finucci, V., and A. Wharton. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2005.
    • Finucci, V., and A. Wharton. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2005.
    • Finucci, V., and V. ed. “In the Footsteps of Petrarch: Literature, Art, Music, Culture.” A Special Issue of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2005.
    • Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Urania di Giulia Bigolina (ca. 1554).” Rome: Bulzoni Editore: 198pp, 2002.
    • Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso.” Duke University Press: 328pp, 1999.
    • Finucci, V., K. Brownlee, and K. ed. “Transgressive Genealogies.” A Special Cluster of Exemplaria, 1997.
    • Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Tredici canti del Floridoro di Moderata Fonte (1581).” Modena: Mucchi: 232pp, 1995.
    • Finucci, V., and R. Schwartz. “Desire in the Renaissance: Psychoanalysis and Literature.” Princeton University Press: 277pp, 1994.
    • Finucci, V., and K. Brownlee. “Generation and Degeneration: Tropes of Reproduction in Literature and History from Antiquity to Early Modern Europe.” Duke University Press: 327pp, n.d.
• Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
• 

  Presentations & Appearances

  • Healing the Rich: Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga's Medical 'Indispositions'". November 27, 2013  2013
  • Looking for Bugs in the New World: The Aphrodisiacal Worm. November 27, 2013  2013
  • Medical Investigation in the Archive: The Health Issues of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga (1562-1612)". November 27, 2013  2013
  • Skin Disease and Plastic Surgery in the Renaissance. November 20, 2012  2012
  • The Aesthetic Cure: Skin Disease, Noses, and the Invention of Plastic Surgery. November 20, 2012  2012
  • “Fashion, Cosmopolitan Polish, and Display: Early Modern Italy through the Illustrated Albums of Foreign Students. November 20, 2012  2012
  • “L’anatomista: Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente,” Symposium on “Anatome: Sezione, Scomposizione, Raffigurazione del corpo fra Medioevo e età moderna”. November 20, 2012  2012
  • 1. “Clothes, Cosmopolitan Polish, and Excess: Italy through the Illustrated Albums of Foreign Students". December 1, 2010  2010
  • La cultura delle apparenze: Mores Italiae, 1575. May 1, 2008  2008
  • Illustrated Books of the Renaissance: Costume and Custom in Venice, ca. 1575. April 1, 2008  2008
  • Waiting to be Counted: Reconstructing the Italian Renaissance Canon, Genre by Genre. April 1, 2008  2008
  • 'There's the Rub': Searching for Sexual Remedies in the New World. February 1, 2008  2008
  • In Search of a Sexual Fix: The Peruvian Elixir. February 1, 2008  2008
• 

  Service to the Profession

  • Symposium on "Thinking Through Death: Corpses and Mortality Strategies in Medieval and Early Modern Europe". September 11, 2012  2012
  • Symposium on "Holy Relics and Cursed Bodies: The Politics of the Corpse". August 7, 2012  2012
  • Organizer of Series "Crossings: Navigating Cultures in the Medieval and Early Modern Period". January 17, 2011  2011
  • Symposium on "Animated Anatomies: The Human Body from the 16th through the 21st Centuries," Duke University. September 23, 2010  2010
  • Co-Organizer : Symposium "L'occhio del viaggiatore: Costumi e scene di vita nell'Italia del Rinascimento". May 14, 2010  2010
  • Co-Organizer, Perkins Library and History of Medicine Library, Duke University : Exhibit, "Animated Anatomies". May 14, 2010  2010
  • Organizer of Symposium : Symposium "In the Footsteps of Petrarch: Poetry, Music, Art, Culture". May 1, 2008  2008

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