curriculum vitae del prof. Pierroberto Scaramella

Scientific Profile As a student of Alberto Tenenti (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales of Paris) and Adriano Prosperi (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), I have been dealing with border questions (history of the Roman Inquisition, religious minorities, the sacraments – and particularly marriage) basing my research work on an interdisciplinary approach that is at the same time historical, anthropological and juridical. This has allowed me to develop interpretations of the present starting from long and very long temporal viewpoints. In my work I have chosen to use judicial sources (acta matrimonialia, civilia, criminalia) concerning, broadly speaking, so-called “crimes of faith”. In addition, an interdisciplinary approach has led me to devote some contributions to problems of iconography and the use, function and exploitation of religious images in the modern age. In this sense I was one of the first in Italy to combine historical sources with iconographic ones to produce important contributions to historical studies. Over the last twenty or so years, since writing my doctoral thesis, I have acquired experience enabling me to read, translate, transcribe and interpret archive documents from the Old Regime ( XV-XIXth centuries) in seven languages (Latin, Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Greek). My grounding in Latin and Italian palaeography is also very good. As director of the History and Geography Department in the University of Bari (2001-2006), I had the opportunity to demonstrate my abilities as an administrator in the management of resources and personnel, as well as a supervisor of young research workers. Since 1998, as a lecturer, and then from 2001 as a professor, I directed individual and group research that enabled the development on an international level of themes involving Old Regime secular and ecclesiastical justice and the related criminal, civil and, above all, matrimonial legal procedures. I supervised several doctoral theses, not only at my own University but also at others such as the University of Turin and Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. As departmental director, I believed it necessary to develop historical and geographical research of my group by establishing an overall research vision allowing the consistent growth of methodology and historical themes in a broad context that includes the other social sciences. The fact that my education was partly French and partly Italian has enabled me to direct the youngest members of the Department under my supervision towards group research concentrating on international themes and involving dialogue with other European centres of excellence. Out of this grew the research projects on the history of ecclesiastical justice, matrimonial forms in the Old Regime, Catholic missions in Europe and beyond (particularly the Jesuits) and ethnic and religious minorities in Europe. The work of these young researchers merges cultural history with that of institutions, society and the law to achieve results of the highest possible standard. Some of my students have been invited to give seminars at prestigious institutions such as the EHESS and have taken part in international conferences organised by universities outside Italy, the Renaissance Society of America and the Russian Academy of Sciences, and have had their work published in various languages. The historical methodology I have used and taught to young researchers has always been to compare social realities, even those that are culturally and geographically far apart. This has enabled me to reach some important research goals. Recognition for both my own research and my activity as director of the Department and research coordinator has come in the form of a 2-year state research grant (PRIN) from the Ministry for Universities and Scientific Research "because of the group’s excellence” in the period 2001-2 “Inquisizione, eresia e società in Italia nell'età della riforma e della Controriforma, 2002-2003 Inquisizione, eresia e società in Italia e in Spagna nell'età della riforma e della Controriforma , 2005-2006 Inquisizione, eresia e società in Italia nell'età della Riforma e della Controriforma”. Using this grant, I organised a series of research conferences of international importance and, in addition, had the opportunity to involve several young people by financing scholarships that allowed them to continue with their research. As the author of several original monographs and 150 essays, I have, since the late 1980s, been a point of reference for the research community for research on institutions and forms of religious life, ecclesiastical jurisdictional practice and the episcopal and inquisitorial powers. Over the years, prestigious international institutions (EHESS and FMSH in Paris, IHR in Geneva and Newberry Library in Chicago) have invited me to hold seminars and discuss my research with them. Interdisciplinary studies of European archival sources have led me to reformulate my view of the Old Regime judicial system by characterising the vital nexus in jurisprudential practice and in the evolving relationship between written legal provisions and their application to society. My deep knowledge of the ecclesiastical archives and the various types of source found in them has led to pioneering work on the correspondence between different tribunals of faith in Italy. My monograph entitled “Le lettere dell'Inquisizione Romana con i Tribunali del Sant'Ufficio di Napoli (1563-1625)” , opened a vein of research that is now producing further results, with the publication, now in progress, on the tribunals of Bologna and Genoa, both published by students of mine. My books on the administration of ethnic and religious minorities , the relationship between theological guilt, sin, and crime proper, have produced a new stimulus to the overall interpretation of Old Regime juridical pluralism. Work continues on the history of migration and ethnic and religious minorities in Europe in the modern and contemporary age (Waldensian-Provençal minority in Calabria, Jews, Marranos and Judaisers in Spain and its Italian dominions, Greek Orthodox and Greek Rite Catholics in southern Italy and the Balkans, Protestant enclaves in Catholic Europe and crypto-Catholics in England) have also allowed me to characterise and study in depth a research thread on religious tolerance and intolerance in the age of confessionalisation, developing it in a sense that is less tied to ideological assumptions but aimed more at the practical work of scrutinising archives and historical sources in general. The intersection of these various different research threads has, therefore, brought me to investigate the theme of mixed marriage as a fundamental crossroad in the evaluation of the development of the relationship between Church and State during the course of the modern age.