Dr Federica Gigante
My research examines the transmission of knowledge and the movement of things, people, and ideas between the Islamic world and Europe in the Early Modern period. I am particularly interested in how artefacts, manuscripts, scientific instruments, and natural specimens travelled from the Islamic world to Europe to enter collections as well as scientific laboratories and in how knowledge and information on such items was gathered and travelled across the Mediterranean. My interests also encompass the ways in which artistic techniques and materials travelled across Asia to Europe and how these informed local artistic production, as well as the afterlife of objects moved from their land of origin to a different geographical and cultural context.
My monograph (in preparation) concentrates on the collecting of Islamica and procurement networks of the Medici protégé and agent Ferdinando Cospi in Early Modern Italy. My current research focuses on England’s Anglican chaplaincies in Ottoman territory and their relationship with the local communities in terms of procurement of collectables and specimens to send back to England, and to Oxford in particular.
