Prof Filippo de Vivo

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Overview
Overview
Office hours
Tuesday and Thursday 4.30-5.30pm
Qualifications
- DEA (MPhil), EHESS, Paris, 1998
- PhD, Cambridge, 2003
- BA (Hons) History, Cambridge, 1997
Professional memberships
FRHistS
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Research
Research
Research overview
My research focuses on early modern Italy and the Republic of Venice to explore the connections between communication and politics widely conceived – so widely, indeed, that it seeks to rethink the very concept of who acted politically, how and why. So for example I have worked on the uses of rhetoric and the circulation of manuscripts, on news-leaking, book-printing and record-making, on the physical spaces for the exchange of ideas and information (like early modern pharmacies), the international circulation of ideas (as with a 17th-c. correspondence between Venice and England), and on the construction of late-medieval and early modern archives and other repositories of information. I have a strong interest for questions of historiography and methodology, and particularly for the uses of microhistory and for the connections between political, social and cultural history.
Communication, information, and politics
Today we take it for granted that power and the media influence each other. But what was the use of communication in an age when rulers recognized no political role for their subjects? And what access to political information did those excluded from government have? In answering these questions, I studied the interactions of different forms of communication – oral, manuscript, and printed – in early modern Venice: from pamphlets to graffiti and rumours (captured, as far as possible, from spies' reports: a fascinating source). In the process, I have been trying to challenge the traditional boundaries of political history, to demonstrate that, in the early modern city, politics extended beyond the patrician elite to involve the entire population, from humble clerks and foreign spies, to notaries, artisans, barbers, and prostitutes. This brought to my first book, Information and Communication in Venice: Rethinking Early Modern Politics (2007). More recently, I have been working on the interaction between long-distance information and local agency, see my article here.
History and archives
In 2012-16 I conducted a large-scale collaborative investigation on the comparative history of archives in late medieval and early modern Italy (for more, see http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/archives). We studied the establishment, management and use of archives from the 13th century – when those chancery offices first began preserving records systematically – to the end of the 18th – when Italy’s old states were toppled by wars and revolutions at the end of the ancien régime. The project compared chanceries and secretariats in seven case studies (Milan, Venice, Modena, Florence, Rome, Naples and Palermo) with other Italian and non-Italian cases. A variety of aspects were studied around six themes: 1) Politics; 2) Organisation; 3) Material culture; 4) Social history; 5) Uses of archives; 6) Archives and historians. We organised a succession of nine international workshops and conferences. Collectively we published a book, a further collection of sources, and 2 special issues of peer-reviewed journals. Team members published a total of 23 book chapters or articles - and are still publishing more!
Venice and England
I am currently working on reason of state, religion and information at a European level while preparing a critical edition of Thomas Hobbes’ translation of the letters by Fulgenzio Micanzio (1570-1654), Venetian friar and government advisor to the Venetian Republic, to Hobbes’ patron William Cavendish, second Earl of Devonshire. This - much delayed! - project will appear in a volume, co-edited with Noel Malcolm (Oxford), of the Clarendon edition of the works of Hobbes.
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I welcome research proposals concerning the social, political and cultural history of early modern Italy and of the territories of the Republic of Venice; the history of the book, print, manuscript and oral culture, mainly of Italy but also of France and the Iberian peninsula; the history of late-medieval and early modern archives and chanceries or secretary offices.
I have supervised and co-supervised PhD students working on the inquisition in medieval Italy, medicine and botany in sixteenth-century Florence, archival practices and historiography in early modern Venice, the chancery culture of sixteenth-century Milan, archival practices in the medieval Middle East, the history of the book as a material object, travel in 16-17th century Europe, antiquarianism, art and patrician identity in Renaissance Venice.
Current doctoral researchers
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ALICE CORREIA MORTON
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CHRISTOPHER HIGGINS
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JACK WATKINS
Teaching
As well as participating in large survey modules on the Early Modern and Modern Worlds, I teach undergraduate modules on the Renaissance in Italy and Europe, the age of Reformations, Travellers and Maps in the Premodern World, and Witchcraft.
I teach MA options Power and Communication in Early Modern Europe, Venice and Istanbul 1453-1797, Popular Politics in Early Modern Italy, The Comparative History of Cities, Microhistory.
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Publications
Publications
Article
- De Vivo, Filippo (2019) Microhistories of long-distance information: space, movement and agency in the early modern news. Past & Present 242 (S14), pp. 179-214. ISSN 0031-2746.
- De Vivo, Filippo and Visceglia, M.A. (2018) Guerra dei Trent'anni e informazione. Introduzione. Rivista storica italiana 130 (3), pp. 828-859. ISSN 357073.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2016) Archives of speech: recording diplomatic negotiation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy. European History Quarterly 46 (3), pp. 519-544. ISSN 0265-6914.
- De Vivo, Filippo and Guidi, Andrea and Silvestri, Alessandro (2016) Archival transformations in Early Modern European history. European History Quarterly 46 (3), pp. 421-434. ISSN 0265-6914.
- Cossar, R. and De Vivo, Filippo and Neilson, C. (2016) Shared spaces and knowledge transactions in the Italian Renaissance city. I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 19 (1), pp. 5-22. ISSN 0393-5949.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2016) Walking in Sixteenth-Century Venice: mobilizing the early modern city. I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 19 (1), pp. 115-141. ISSN 0393-5949.
- De Vivo, Filippo and Donato, M.P. (2015) Scholarly practices in the archives, 1500-1800. Introduction. Storia Della Storiografia 68 (2), pp. 15-20. ISSN 0392-8926.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2011) How to read Venetian Relazioni. Renaissance and Reformation 34 (1-2), pp. 25-59. ISSN 0034-429X.
- De Vivo, Filippo and Richardson, B. (2011) Scribal culture in Italy. Italian Studies 66, ISSN 0075-1634.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2010) Prospect or refuge? microhistory, history on the large scale. Cultural and Social History 7 (3), pp. 387-397. ISSN 1478-0038.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2010) Ordering the archive in early modern Venice (1400-1650). Archival Science ISSN 1389-0166.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2007) Pharmacies as centres of communication in early modern Venice. Renaissance Studies 21 (4), pp. 505-521. ISSN 0269-1213.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2005) Paolo Sarpi and the uses of information in seventeenth-century Venice. Media History 11 (1&2), pp. 37-51. ISSN 1368-8804.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2004) The diversity of Venice and her myths Venice reconsidered: the history and civilization of an Italian city-state, 1297–1797. The Historical Journal 47 (1), pp. 169-177. ISSN 0018-246X.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2003) Historical justifications of Venetian power in the Adriatic. Journal of the History of Ideas 64 (2), pp. 159-176. ISSN 0022-5037.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2002) Quand le passé résiste à ses historiographies : Venise et le XVIIe siècle. Cahiers du Centre de Recherches Historiques 28-29 (April), pp. 223-234. ISSN 0990-9141.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2002) Quand le passé résiste à ses historiographies: Venise et le XVIIe siècle’. Cahiers du Centre de Recherches Historiques 28-29, pp. 223-234. ISSN 0990-9141.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2001) Dall'imposizione del silenzio alla “guerra delle scritture”: le pubblicazioni ufficiali durante l'interdetto del 1606-1607. Studi veneziani 41, pp. 179-213.
Book
- De Vivo, Filippo and Guidi, Andrea and Silvestri, Alessandro and Antonini, Fabio and Giudici, Giacomo De Vivo, Filippo and Guidi, Andrea and Silvestri, Alessandro and Antonini, Fabio, eds. (2016) Fonti per la storia degli archivi degli antichi Stati italiani (Rome: Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, 2016), vol. 49 of the ‘Fonti’ (Sources) series of the Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato, edited with Andrea Guidi and Alessandro Silvestri. Fonti - Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato. 49, Rome, Italy: Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Direzione generale Archivi. ISBN 9788871253473.
- De Vivo, Filippo and Guidi, A. and Silvestri, A., eds. (2015) Archivi e archivisti in Italia tra medioevo ed età moderna. Rome, Italy: Viella. ISBN 9788867284573.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2012) Patrizi, informatori, barbieri: politica e comunicazione a Venezia. Campi del sapere. Milan, Italy: Feltrinelli. ISBN 9788807104794.
- Calaresu, M. and De Vivo, Filippo and Rubiés, J.P. (2010) Exploring cultural history: essays in honour of Peter Burke. Farnham, UK: Ashgate. ISBN 9780754667506.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2007) Information and communication in Venice: rethinking early modern politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199227068.
Book Section
- De Vivo, Filippo (2020) Discorsi, cerimoniali, Esposizioni: oralità e registrazione delle udienze diplomatiche in Italia tra Quattro e Seicento. In: Fournel, J.-L. and Residori, M. (eds.) Ambassades et ambassadeurs en Europe (XVe-XVIIe siècles). Cahiers d'humanisme et renaissance. Geneva, Switzerland: Droz. pp. 319-345. ISBN 9782600060400.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2019) Making sense of the news: Micanzio’s letters, Cavendish, Bacon, and the Thirty Years War. In: Findlen, P. and Sutherland, S. (eds.) The Renaissance of Letters: Knowledge and Community in Italy, 1300-1650. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 293-317. ISBN 9781138367494.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2018) Archival intelligence: diplomatic correspondence, information overload, and information management in Italy, 1450–1650. In: Peters, K. and Walsham, A. and Corens, L. (eds.) Archives and Information in the Early Modern World. Proceedings of the British Academy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp. 53-85. ISBN 9780197266250.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2015) Cuore dello stato e luogo di tensione. Archivi, società e politica a Venezia tra Quattro e Seicento. In: De Vivo, Filippo and Guidi, A. and Silvestri, A. (eds.) Archivi e archivisti in Italia tra medioevo ed età moderna. Rome, Italy: Viella. ISBN 9788867284573.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2013) Coeur de l'etat, lieu de tension. le tournant archivistique vu de Venise (XVe-XVIIe siècle). In: Humanism, Political Cultures in Italy (sixteenth to the nineteenth century) and Economic Theories and Social Sciences. Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales. Paris, France: Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. pp. 699-728. ISBN 9782713223716.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2013) La spezieria come luogo di cultura nell’Italia della prima età moderna. In: Carlino, A. and Clericuzio, A. and Conforti, M. (eds.) Interpretare e Curare: Medicina e salute nel Rinascimento. Rome, Italy: Carocci Editoire. ISBN 9788843069507.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2012) Public sphere or communication triangle? Information and politics in early modern Europe. In: Rospocher, M. (ed.) Beyond the Public Sphere: Opinions, Publics, Spaces in Early Modern Europe. Annali dell'Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento. Bologna, Italy: Le Edizioni del Mulino. pp. 115-136. ISBN 9788815240286.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2010) Francia e Inghilterra di fronte all'interdetto di Venezia. In: Sarpi, P. (ed.) Politique et religion en Europe. Paris: Editions Classiques Garnier. pp. 163-188. ISBN 9782812401244.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2010) I luoghi della cultura a Venezia nel primo Cinquecento. In: de Vincentiis, A. and Luzzatto, S. and Pedullà, G. (eds.) Atlante della Letteratura Italiana: Dalle origini al Rinascimento. Torino, Italy: Giulio Einaudi editore. pp. 708-718. ISBN 9788806185251.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2010) Libelles en guerre: pouvoirs et imprimé pendant l’interdit de Venise (1606-1607). In: Saez, R. (ed.) L'imprimé et ses pouvoirs dans les langues romanes. Rennes, France: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. pp. 149-172. ISBN 9782753509214.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2009) Preface. In: L'economia Morale. Milan, Italy: Et-al, Milan. ISBN 9788864630076.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2007) Rhetoric and government in sixteenth-century Venice: some paradoxes. In: Kraye, J. and Lepschy, L. (eds.) Caro Vitto: Essays in Memory of Vittore Branca. Maney Publishing. pp. 188-205. ISSN 0261-4340. ISBN 9780854811427.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2006) Il vero termine di reggere il suddito: Paolo Sarpi e la gestione dell'informazione. In: Pin, C. (ed.) Ripensando Paolo Sarpi. Ricerche storiche. Venice, UK: Ateneo Veneto. pp. 237-270. ISBN 9788889281024.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2002) La publication comme enjeu polémique: le cas de Venise au XVIIe siècle’. In: De la publication. Entre Renaissance et Lumières. Paris, France: Fayard. pp. 161-175. ISBN 9782213613390.
- De Vivo, Filippo (2001) Le armi dell'ambasciatore: voci e manoscritti a parigi durante l'Interdetto di Venezia. In: Strappini, L. and Ragone, G. (eds.) I luoghi della produzione della cultura e dell'immaginario barocco in Italia. Napoli, Italy: Liguori. pp. 187-200.