I am currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Valencia, where I lead the Horizon Europe project ReLMI — "Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make Do or Do Without": Reuse, Repair and Recycle in Late Medieval Italy (13th—15th Centuries). Through this project, I investigate how medieval societies managed resources, regulated markets, and created systems that prolonged the life of goods long before sustainability became a modern concern. My work places medieval Italy, and Tuscany in particular, at the centre of contemporary debates on economic resilience, consumption, and circular economy.
Educated in Italy and the United Kingdom, I hold a BA from La Sapienza University of Rome, an MA in Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds, and a PhD in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. My academic career has included appointments and fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research (London), the University of Cambridge (Uk), the University of Bergamo, the University of Siena, and Villa I Tatti — The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
My first monograph, The Social Fabric of Fifteenth-Century Florence (Routledge, 2020), offered the first comprehensive study of Florence's second-hand dealers and demonstrated their central role in shaping labour markets, consumption patterns, and social mobility. It has become a key reference for scholars interested in economic and social history, urban life, and the circulation of second-hand goods in Renaissance Florence.
My current book project, Making Things Last: Reuse, Repair, and Recycling in Late Medieval Tuscany (forthcoming with Manchester University Press), builds on this work to provide the first systematic account of reuse and recycling practices in late medieval Tuscany. Alongside numerous articles and edited collections, it reflects my broader commitment to uncovering how past societies created value, managed scarcity, and organised economic life.
By combining rigorous archival research with wider questions about sustainability, regulation, and resource optimization, my work seeks to reshape our understanding of medieval economies and to demonstrate the continuing relevance of historical perspectives to some of the most pressing challenges of the present.