Valeria Finucci
Professor Emerita of Romance Studies
Renaissance theater, epic, romance, and treatise; women writers, medical and literary understandings of the body, Venetian culture, Renaissance fashion, medicine in early modern Italy, New World's pharmacy, and psychoanalysis.
Current Research Interests
I am currently working on medical history topics and just co-edited a book with M. Ciavolella and R. Canalis entitled Rethinking Medical Humanities: Perspectives from the Arts and the Social Sciences
(DeGruyter, 2022).
Also co-organizing a symposium on physiognomy from the medical, cultural, philosophical, artistic and literary perspective at UCLA in January 2023 and writing on plant medicines from Egypt examined in Prospero Alpini's De Medicina Aegyptiorum (1591).
Also co-organizing a symposium on physiognomy from the medical, cultural, philosophical, artistic and literary perspective at UCLA in January 2023 and writing on plant medicines from Egypt examined in Prospero Alpini's De Medicina Aegyptiorum (1591).
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor Emerita of Romance Studies, Romance Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2019
Contact Information
- 219E Language Center, Durham, NC 27708
- Box 90257, Durham, NC 27708-0257
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vfinucci@duke.edu
(919) 660-3119
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 1983
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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
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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
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Awards & Honors
- Expertise
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Global Scholarship
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Expertise
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- Research
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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
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Selected Publications
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Books
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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
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Andreini, Isabella. Mirtilla, A Pastoral. A Bilingual Edition. Edited by V. Finucci. Translated by Julia Kisacky. Vol. 62, 2018.
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Finucci, V. The Prince’s Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance Medicine. Harvard University Press, ca. 300pp., 2012.
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Negri, Valeria Miani. Celinda A Tragedy. Acmrs Publications, 2010.
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Finucci, V. The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance. Duke University Press: 321pp, 2003.
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Finucci, V. The Lady Vanishes: Subjectivity and Representation in Castiglione and Ariosto. Stanford University Press: 329pp, 1992.
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Academic Articles
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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
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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
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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
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Finucci, V. “When the mirror lies: Sisterhood reconsidered in Moderata Fonte's thirteen Cantos of Floridoro,” May 15, 2017, 116–28.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Nissen, Christopher. “Kissing the Wild Woman.” Early Modern Women Journal, 2013.
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Simons, Patricia. “The Sex of Men in Premodern Europe.” Journal of Social History, 2012.
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Finucci, Valeria. “Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy.” American Historical Review 116, no. 3 (June 2011): 890–91.Link to Item
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Finucci, V. “The Virgins Body and Early Modern Surgeons,” 2011, 195–221.
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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.
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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.
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Grendler, Paul. “The University of Mantua: The Gonzaga & the Jesuits, 1584-1630.” Annali D’Italianistica 28 (2010): 472–74.
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Jaffe, Irma, and Gernando Colombardo. “Zelotti’s Epic Frescoes at Cataio: the Obizzi Saga.” Annali D’Italianistica 27 (2009): 457–59.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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Valeria Finucci, Valeria. “Devianza sessuale e imperativi genealogici: Il caso di Margherita Gonzaga.” Acta Istriae 15, no. 2 (2007): 385–98.
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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
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Finucci, V. “’Remember Me!’ Petrarca.” Edited by V. Finucci, 2005.
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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
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Finucci, V. “Isabella Canali Andreini.” Edited by G. Marrone, 2004.
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Finucci, V. “Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo).” Edited by G. Marrone, 2004.
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Finucci, V. “Galileo, la polizia del costume e i piaceri del ritorno alla natura.” Edited by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, 2004.
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Finucci, V. “La verginita’ contestata: Fabrici d’Acquapendente e il Gran Turco.” Edited by Maurizio Rippa Bonati and Pepe Pardo, 2004, 170–91.
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Henke, Robert. “Performance and Literature in the Commedia dell’Arte.” Shakespeare Quarterly 32 (2004): 382–86.
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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
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Ferguson, Ronnie. “The Theatre of Angelo Beolco (Ruzante).” Rivista Di Studi Italiani 20 (2002): 517–19.
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Bolzoni, Lina. “La stanza della memoria. Modelli letterari e iconografici nell’et della stampa.” Mln 112 (2001): 117–19.
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Finucci, V. “Maternal Imagination and the Monstrous Child in Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata.” Edited by V. Finucci and K. Brownlee, 2001, 41–77.
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Finucci, V. “Genealogical Pleasures, Genealogical Disruptions.” Edited by V. Finucci and K. Brownlee, 2001, 1–14.
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Fonte, Moderata. “The Worth of Women ed. by Virginia Cox.” Annali D’Italianistica 18 (2001): 493–95.
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Maggi, Armando. “Identita’ e impresa rinascimentale.” Mln 116 (2001): 198–200.
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Finucci, V. “The Masquerade of Masculinity: Astolfo and Jocondo in Orlando Furioso, 28.” Edited by V. Finucci, 1999, 215–45.
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Finucci, V. “Ariosto, Tasso, and Storytelling.” Edited by V. Finucci, 1999, 1–13.
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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.
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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
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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.Full Text
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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.Full Text
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Valeria Finucci, V., and K. Brownlee. “Genealogy and Transgression.” Exemplaria 9, no. 1 (1997): 1–5.
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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.
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Finucci, V. “The Female Masquerade: Ariosto and the Game of Desire.” Edited by V. Finucci and R. Schwartz, 1995, 61–88.
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Finucci, V. “The Italian Memorialist: C. Faa’ Gonzaga.” Edited by K. Wilson, 1994, 121–28.
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Schwartz, G. “Worlds Within and Without.” Edited by V. Finucci and G. Schwartz, 1994, 3–15.
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Valeria Finucci, V. “La donna di corte: discorso istituzionale e realta' ne Il libro del cortegiano.” Annali D’Italianistica 7 (1994): 88–103.
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Valeria Finucci, V. “Dislocation and Dehumanization in a War Novel": Moravia's La Ciociara.” Canadian Journal of Italian Studies 10 (1994): 43–58.
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Valeria Finucci, V. “Alienazione individuale e linguaggio ambientale in Neera.” Misure Critiche 55–57 (1994): 65–79.
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Valeria Finucci, Valeria Miani. “La scrittura epico-cavalleresca al femminile: Moderata Fonte e Tredici canti del Floridoro.” Annali D’Italianistica 12 (1994): 203–31.
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Valeria Finucci, Valeria Miani. “Jokes on Women: Triangular Pleasures in Castiglione and Freud.” Exemplaria 4, no. 1 (1994): 51–77.
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Valeria Finucci, Valeria. “La scrittura femminile. Considerazioni in margine alla lettura di Le stanze ritrovate.” Annali D’Italianistica 9 (1994): 322–29.
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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
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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
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FINUCCI, V. “RE-MEMBERING THE I, FAAGONZAGA 'STORIA' (1622).” Italian Quarterly 28, no. 107 (1987): 21–32.Link to Item
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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
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FINUCCI, V. “BETWEEN ACQUIESCENCE AND MADNESS, NEERA 'TERESA'.” Stanford Italian Review 7, no. 1–2 (1987): 217–39.Link to Item
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Book Sections
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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
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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
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Finucci, V. “The Story of Donna Camilla Faa’ of Bruno Gonzaga.” edited by K. Wilson. University of Georgia Press, 2007.
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Other Articles
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Finucci, V., and David Aers. “Open Topic.” Edited by Valeria Finucci. In Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2012.
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Finucci, V. “Celinda, A Tragedy by Valeria Miani.” Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2010.
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Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
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Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
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Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
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Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2009.
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Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2008.
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Finucci, V., and D. Aers. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2007.
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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.
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Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Mapping the Mediterranean.” A Special Issue of the Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2007.
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Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Floridoro, a Chivalric Romance by Moderata Fonte.” University of Chicago Press: 493pp, 2006.
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Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Petrarca, canoni, esemplarit.” Rome: Bulzoni Editore: 361pp, 2006.
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Finucci, V., V. ed, and V. trans. “Urania by Giulia Bigolina.” University of Chicago Press: 192pp, 2005.
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Finucci, V., and A. Wharton. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2005.
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Finucci, V., and A. Wharton. “Open Topic.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2005.
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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.
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Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Urania di Giulia Bigolina (ca. 1554).” Rome: Bulzoni Editore: 198pp, 2002.
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Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso.” Duke University Press: 328pp, 1999.
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Finucci, V., K. Brownlee, and K. ed. “Transgressive Genealogies.” A Special Cluster of Exemplaria, 1997.
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Finucci, V., and V. ed. “Tredici canti del Floridoro di Moderata Fonte (1581).” Modena: Mucchi: 232pp, 1995.
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Finucci, V., and R. Schwartz. “Desire in the Renaissance: Psychoanalysis and Literature.” Princeton University Press: 277pp, 1994.
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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.
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- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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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
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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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