Nicola Polloni | CV | potestas essendi

Contact information

My permanent address is: Dipartimento di Civiltà Antiche e Moderne, Università degli Studi di Messina, Viale Giovanni Palatucci 13, 98168 Messina, Italy. You can reach out to me using the following email address: nicola.polloni[at]unime.it.

Appointments

Since 2024, I have been an Associate Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Messina, Italy. Before this appointment, I worked across Europe as a researcher, primarily in Porto (Portugal), Leuven (Belgium), Berlin (Germany), and Durham (United Kingdom). My most recent visiting appointments include Peking University (2025), KU Leuven (2023–present), the University of Science and Technology Beijing (2023), and UC Louvain (2023).

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Academic Appointments

Associate Professor, Medieval Philosophy | 2024-present

Università di Messina (IT), Dipartimento di Civiltà Antiche e Moderne, since 8 Jan 2024.

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow | 2023-2024

Universidade do Porto (PT), FLUP, 1 Oct 2023 to 7 Jan 2024.

Academic Instructor | 2021-2023

Universidad de Córdoba (ES), Master in “Religious Pluralism: Jews, Greeks, and Arabs from the Post-Classical Era to the Early Modern Period”, Nov 2021 to Sept 2023.

FWO Senior Postdoctoral Fellow | 2020-2023

KU Leuven (BE), Institute of Philosophy, 1 Oct 2020 to 30 Sept 2023.

AvH Postdoctoral Fellow | 2018-2020

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), Institut für Philosophie, 1 Sept 2018 to 31 Aug 2020.

Academic Instructor | 2018-2020

Technologische Universität Berlin, Institute for Philosophy, History of Literature, Science and Technology, academic years 2018–2019 and 2019–2020.

Junior Research Fellow | 2016-2018

Department of History and Institute of Advanced Studies, Durham University (UK), 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2018.

Postdoctoral Researcher | 2016

Università di Pavia (IT), Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, 1 Jan to 30 June 2016.

SIEPM Research Fellow | 2015

University of Notre Dame (USA), Medieval Institute, 1 Feb to 31 May 2015

Visiting Appointments

Peking University, 北京大学 | 2025

Visiting Professor, Beijing (CN), September to October 2025.

KU Leuven, Institute of Philosophy | 2023-2026

Free Research Collaborator, Leuven (BE), October 2023 to September 2026.

University of Science and Technology Beijing, 北京科技大学 | 2023

Visiting professor, Institute for Cultural Heritage and the History of Science, Beijing (CN), November to December 2023.

UC Louvain, Institut supérieur de philosophie | 2023

Visiting researcher, Louvain-la-Neuve (BE), October 2023 to January 2024.

University of Oxford, Faculty of Philosophy | 2020

Visiting researcher, Oxford (UK), January to April 2020.

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science | 2019

Visiting researcher, Berlin (DE), October to December 2019.

University of London, The Warburg Institute | 2013/2014

Visiting pre-doctoral researcher, London (UK), July to August 2013 and July to September 2014.

Education

My academic journey has been shaped by the study of philosophy. I graduated from the University of Siena, Italy, and earned my doctoral degree from the University of Pavia, Italy, through an international co-tutelle with the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.

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Academic Education

PhD in Philosophy | 2015

Università di Pavia (IT), international cotutelle with UAB. Defence: 9 November 2015.

PhD in Cultures in Contact in the Mediterranean Sea | 2015

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES), international cotutelle with Pavia. Defence: 9 November 2015.

MA in Philosophy | 2012

Università di Siena (IT).

BA in Philosophy | 2008

Università di Siena (IT).

Professional Development

Communicating for Impact and Influence

University of Cambridge, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, July to September 2020.

Higher Education Teaching Course

Harvard University, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, May to July 2020.

Publications

My publications reflect my research interests. I have written extensively on the history of hylomorphism, particularly on historical conceptions of matter and prime matter in the scholastic tradition and beyond. Other works focus on the scholastic engagement with Islamic and Jewish philosophy, the history of science, and medieval translations.

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Monographs

The Twelfth-Century Renewal of Latin Metaphysics: Gundissalinus’s Ontology of Matter and Form

Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2020. xiii + 318pp. ISBN: 9780888448651

Domingo Gundisalvo: Una introducción

Madrid: Editorial Sindéresis, 2017. 165pp. ISBN: 9788416262342

Journal articles

*Roger Bacon’s Arguments from the Infinity of Matter: A Case of Mathematical Epistemology

With Yael Kedar. Perspectives on Science, accepted

Untangling Robert Grosseteste’s Hylomorphism: Matter, Form, and Bodiness

British Journal for the History of Philosophy 33/2 (2025): 244-263.

Late Scholastic Arguments for the Existence of Prime Matter

Ancient Philosophy Today: Dialogoi 6/1 (2024): 38–64.

罗吉尔·培根自然哲学中的质料多元论 [= Material Pluralism in Roger Bacon’s Natural Philosophy]

自然辩证法通讯 [= Journal of Dialectics of Nature] 46/3 (2024): 80–89.

Conceiving Prime Matter in the Middle Ages: Perception, Abstraction, and Analogy

Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 105/3 (2023): 414–443.

Sombras de Gundisalvo en la Summa Halensis

Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 40/1 (2023): 15–24.

Hugh of St Victor, Dominicus Gundissalinus and the Place of the Mechanical Arts in Medieval Architectures of Knowledge

With Alexander Fidora. Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie 153/3 (2021): 291–318.

Robert Grosseteste on Motion, Bodies, and Light

British Journal for the History of Philosophy 29/6 (2021): 1034–1053.

Early Robert Grosseteste on Matter

Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science 75/3 (2021): 397–414.

A Matter of Philosophers and Spheres: Medieval Glosses on Artephius’s Key of Wisdom

Ambix 67/2 (2020): 135–152.

Gundissalinus on the Angelic Creation of the Human Soul: A Peculiar Example of Philosophical Appropriation

Oriens 47/3-4 (2019): 313–347.

Gundissalinus and Avicenna: Some Remarks on an Intricate Philosophical Connection

Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 28 (2017): 515–552.

Gundissalinus on Necessary Being: Textual and Doctrinal Alterations in the Exposition of Avicenna’s Metaphysics

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 26/1 (2016): 129–160. Bosnian translation: “Gundisalin o Nužnom Biću: Tekstualne i doktrinarne izmjene u izlaganju Avicenine Metaphysica”, Logos – Časopis za filozofiju i religiju 7/1-2 (2018): 71–101.

Gundissalinus’s Application of al-Fārābī’s Metaphysical Programme. A Case of Epistemological Transfer

Mediterranea: International Journal on the Transfer of Knowledge 1 (2016): 69–106

Thierry of Chartres and Gundissalinus on Spiritual Substances: The Problem of Hylomorphic Composition

Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale 57 (2015): 35–57

Elementi per una biografia di Dominicus Gundisalvi

Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Littèraire du Moyen Âge 82 (2015): 7–22.

Il De processione mundi di Gundissalinus: prospettive per un’analisi genetico-dottrinale

Annali di Studi Umanistici 1 (2013): 25–38.

Edited volumes

*A Philosophical History of Prime Matter. Vol. 1: Ancient and Pre-Scholastic Conceptions

Edited by Nicola Polloni. Contract with Cambridge University Press. Expected publication: Fall 2025.

*A Philosophical History of Prime Matter. Vol. 2: Scholastic and Early Modern Conceptions

Edited by Nicola Polloni. Contract with Cambridge University Press. Expected publication: Fall 2025.

Colonial Scholasticism: Interpreting Nature, Philosophy, and Society in Spanish America

Edited by Abel Aravena Zamora and Nicola Polloni. London: Routledge, 2025. 234 pp. ISBN: 9781032596747.

Hylomorphism into Pieces: Elements, Atoms and Corpuscles in Philosophy, Science, and Medicine (1400–1600)

Edited by Nicola Polloni and Sylvain Roudaut. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan: 2024. 368 pp. ISBN: 9783031609268.

Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron): Latin and Hebrew Philosophical Traditions

Edited by Nicola Polloni, Marienza Benedetto, and Federico Dal Bo. Turnhout: Brepols. 2023. 412 pp. ISBN: 9782503605524.

Fragmented Nature: Medieval Latinate Reasoning on the Natural World and Its Order

Edited by Mattia Cipriani and Nicola Polloni. London: Routledge, 2022. 272 pp. ISBN: 9781003094791.

The Philosophy and Science of Roger Bacon. Studies in Honour of Jeremiah Hackett

Edited by Nicola Polloni and Yael Kedar. London: Routledge, 2021. 270 pp. ISBN: 9780367471743.

Vedere nell’ombra: Studi su natura, spiritualità e scienze operative offerti a Michela Pereira

Edited by Cecilia Panti and Nicola Polloni. Firenze: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2018. 430 pp. ISBN 9788884508133.

Appropriation, Interpretation and Criticism: Philosophical and Theological Exchanges Between the Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Intellectual Traditions

Edited by Alexander Fidora and Nicola Polloni. Barcelona: FIDEM, 2017. 336 pp. ISBN: 9782503577449.

Book chapters

*Grasping Prime Matter in the Sixteenth Century: Toledo, Fonseca, and Suárez

In A Philosophical History of Prime Matter. Vol. 2: Scholastic and Early Modern Conceptions, ed. by N. Polloni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

*Dominicus Gundissalinus on Prime Matter

In A Philosophical History of Prime Matter. Vol. 1: Ancient and Pre-Scholastic Conceptions, ed. by N. Polloni. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

*Equivocal Matter: Exploring the Plural Meanings of Matter in Scholastic Hylomorphism

In Palgrave Handbook to Medieval Literature and Science, ed. by C. Saunders and M. Huxtable. Cham: Palgrave McMillan, forthcoming.

Alonso de la Vera Cruz’s Take on the Conceivability of Prime Matter

In Colonial Scholasticism: Interpreting Nature, Philosophy, and Society in Spanish America, ed. by A. Aravena Zamora and N. Polloni. London: Routledge, 2025, pp. 27-44.

Hylomorphism into Pieces? Introductory Remarks

With Sylvain Roudaut. In Hylomorphism into Pieces: Elements, Atoms and Corpuscles in Philosophy, Science, and Medicine (1400–1600), ed. by N. Polloni and S. Roudaut. Cham: Palgrave McMillan, 2024, pp. 1–25.

Francisco de Toledo on Elemental Mixtures

In Hylomorphism into Pieces: Elements, Atoms and Corpuscles in Philosophy, Science, and Medicine (1400–1600), ed. by N. Polloni and S. Roudaut. Cham: Palgrave McMillan, 2024, pp. 247–276.

Misinterpreting Ibn Gabirol? Questions, Doubts, and Remarks on a Problematic Latin Translation

In Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron): Latin and Hebrew Philosophical Traditions, ed. by N. Polloni, M. Benedetto, and F. Dal Bo. Turnout: Brepols, 2023, pp. 49–68.

Dominicus Gundissalinus’s On Unity and the One

In Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy: Explorations of the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin Traditions, ed. by K. Krause, L.X. López Farjeat, and N. Oschman. London: Routledge, 2023, pp. 293–308.

Toledan Translators, Roger Bacon, and the Dynamic Shades of Experience

In Premodern Experience of the Natural World in Translation, ed. by K. Krause, M. Auxent, and D. Weil. London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 325–340.

Caos a Toledo: Domenico Gundisalvi, Daniele di Morley e la corporeità della materia prima

In Verba et mores: Studi per Carla Casagrande, ed. by C. Crisciani and G. Zuccolin. Rome: Aracne, 2022, pp. 301–319,

Medieval Universes in Disorder: Primeval Chaos and Its Authoritative Coordinates

In Fragmented Nature: Medieval Latinate Reasoning on the Natural World and Its Order, ed. by M. Cipriani and N. Polloni. London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 49–75.

Ordering the Sciences: al-Fārābī and the Latinate Tradition

With Alexander Fidora. In Ишрак: ежегодник исламской философии [= Ishraq: Islamic Philosophy Yearbook], vol. 10, ed. by J. Eshots. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 2022, pp. 110–130.

The Peregrinations of the Soul in the Afterlife: A Work from Late 12th-Century Iberia. Introduction, Edition, and Translation

With Charles Burnett. In Mark of Toledo: Intellectual Context and Debates between Christians and Muslims in Early Thirteenth Century Iberia, ed. by C. Burnett and P. Mantas-España. London: The Warburg Institute; Cordoba: UcoPress, 2022, pp. 155–195.

Disentangling Roger Bacon’s Criticism of Medieval Translations

In Early Thirteenth-Century English Franciscan Thought, ed. by L. Schumacher. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021, pp. 261–282

Roger Bacon on the Conceivability Matter

In Roger Bacon and Medieval Science and Philosophy. Studies in Honour of Jeremiah Hackett, ed. by N. Polloni and Y. Kedar. London: Routledge, 2021, pp. 76–97

The Liberal Arts: Inheritances and Conceptual Frameworks

With Giles Gasper, Sigbjørn Sønnesyn, Neil Lewis, and Jack Cunningham. In Knowing and Speaking: Robert Grosseteste’s De artibus liberalibus ‘On the Liberal Arts’ and De generatione sonorum ‘On the Generation of Sounds’, ed. byG.E.M. Gasper, C. Panti, T.C.B. McLeish, H. Smithson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 36–50.

The Use of the Stars: Alchemy, Plants, and Medicine

With Giles Gasper, Sigbjørn Sønnesyn, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, and Nader El-Bizri. In Knowing and Speaking: Robert Grosseteste’s De artibus liberalibus ‘On the Liberal Arts’ and De generatione sonorum ‘On the Generation of Sounds’, ed. byG.E.M. Gasper, C. Panti, T.C.B. McLeish, H. Smithson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 166–195.

Nature, Souls, and Numbers: Remarks on a Medieval Gloss on Gundissalinus’s De processione mundi

In Causality and Resemblance. Medieval Approaches to the Explanation of Nature, ed. by M.J. Soto-Bruna. Hildesheim: OLMS, 2018, pp. 75–87.

The Toledan Translation Movement and Dominicus Gundissalinus: Some Remarks on His Activity and Presence in Castile

In A Companion to Medieval Toledo. Reconsidering the Canons, ed. by Y. Beale-Rivaya and J. Busic. Leiden: Brill, 2018, pp. 263–280.

L’acqua che si trasforma in pietra. Gundissalinus e Avicenna sulla generazione dei metalli

In Vedere nell’ombra: Studi su natura, spiritualità e scienze operative offerti a Michela Pereira, ed. byC. Panti and N. Polloni. Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2018, pp. 103–119.

Toledan Ontologies: Gundissalinus, Ibn Daud, and the Problem of Gabirolian Hylomorphism

In Appropriation, Interpretation and Criticism: Philosophical and Theological Exchanges Between the Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Intellectual Tradition, ed. byA. Fidora and N. Polloni. Barcelona: FIDEM, 2017, pp. 19–49.

Aristotle in Toledo: Gundissalinus, the Arabs, and Gerard of Cremona’s Translations

In ‘Ex Oriente Lux’: Translating Words, Scripts and Styles in the Medieval Mediterranean Society, ed. by C. Burnett and P. Mantas. Cordoba: UCOPress; London: The Warburg Institute, 2016, pp. 147–185.

Natura vero assimilatur quaternario: numerologia e neoplatonismo nel De processione mundi di Dominicus Gundissalinus

In De Natura. La naturaleza en la Edad Media, ed. by J.L. Fuertes Herreros and Á. Poncela González. Ribeirão: Húmus, 2015, pp. 679–688.

Encyclopaedia entries

Robert Grosseteste

With Neil Lewis. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2024 Edition), ed. by Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman. 2024.
URL = <plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2024/entries/grosseteste/>.

Book Reviews

Charles 2023. The History of Hylomorphism: From Aristotle to Descartes. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2023. ISBN: 9780192897664

Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie (2025): AOP.

Ducos and Lucken 2018. Richard de Fournival et les sciences au XIIIe siècle. Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo. ISBN: 978-8884508430

Aestimatio NS 2/1 (2021): 238-244.

Hasse and Bertolacci 2018. The Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Reception of Avicenna’s Physics and Cosmology. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 9781614517740

Isis 112/3 (2021): 598-599.

Suarez-Nani and Paravicini Bagliani 2017. Materia. Nouvelles perspectives de recherche dans la pensée et la culture médiévales (XIIe-XVIe siècles). Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo. ISBN: 9788884508072

Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval 27/1 (2020): 199-210.

Lammer 2018. The Elements of Avicenna’s Physics: Greek Sources and Arabic Innovations. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110543582

Isis 110/3 (2019): 586-587.

Martínez Gázquez 2016. The Attitude of Medieval Latin Translators towards the Arabic Sciences. Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo. ISBN: 9788884506948

Aestimatio 13 (2018): 141-144.

Soto Bruna and Alonso del Real 2015. De unitate et uno de Dominicus Gundissalinus. Pamplona: EUNSA. ISBN: 9788431329426

Anuario filosófico 49/2 (2016): 484-486.

Pessin 2013. Ibn Gabirol’s Theology of Desire. Matter and Method in Jewish Medieval Neoplatonism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107032217

Theology and Sexuality 21/2 (2015): 163-165.

Grants, Fellowships, and Funding

I have carried out my research through several prestigious international grants and fellowships, most recently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Fellowship for the project HYLOGLOB, implemented at the University of Porto.

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Postdoctoral Research

Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Fellowship | 2023-2024

Research project 101108936: Hylomorphism in a Globalizing World: Scholastic Debates on the Ontology of Nature Across Europe, China, and New Spain (HYLOGLOB). Implementation: Universidade do Porto (PT), 1 Oct 2023 to 7 Jan 2024.

FWO Senior Research Fellowship | 2020-2023

Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO), Research project 12ZT221N: The Shadow Within Nature: Epistemology and Ontology of Matter in the Late Middle Ages. Implementation: KU Leuven (BE), Institute of Philosophy, 1 Oct 2020 to 30 Sept 2023.

Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship | 2018-2020

Research project: Knowing the Shadow: Ontology and Epistemology of Matter in the 13th Century. Implementation: Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), Institut für Philosophie, 1 Sept 2018 to 30 Sept 2020.

IAS Junior Research Fellowship | 2016-2018

DIFeREns2 and EU’s 7^th Framework Programme (grant agreement no. 609412). Research project: The Metaphysics of Grosseteste and Bacon: Between Philosophy and Science. Implementation: Durham University (UK), Institute of Advanced Studies and Department of History, 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2018.

Awards and Honours

Awardee, Rita Levi Montalcini Tenure-Track Scheme | 2024

Italian Ministry of Education. Position declined due to my professorship in Messina.

Awardee, European Commission Blue Book Traineeship Programme | 2023

European Commission. Position declined due to my MSCA fellowship.

Awardee, FCT Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme | 2020

Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Position declined due to my FWO Fellowship.

Honorary Fellow, Universidad de Córdoba | 2019-2023

Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Cordoba (ES).

Awardee, Seal of Excellence of the European Commission | 2018

Awarded for the research project “Knowing the Shadow: Knowledge and Experience of Matter in the Middle Ages” (MSCA-GF, n. 793587).

Honorary Fellow, Università di Pavia | 2013-2019

Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Pavia (IT).

Teaching

As an educator, my primary goal is to equip students with the skills and expertise essential for their philosophical training. Achieving this goal requires a careful balance between the teaching and learning process and the dual nature of philosophy as both an argumentative practice and a historical discipline.

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Invited professorships

Scholastic Hylomorphism: Principles, Theories, and Problems

BA course (45 hours). Peking University, Beijing (CN). First semester 2025-2026.

Courses

Just War: Thomas Aquinas and the Contemporary Debate

MA course in Medieval Philosophy, 6 ECTS. Università di Messina (IT), Master’s degree in Contemporary Philosophy. Second semester 2025-2026.

Philosophy and Nature in the Middle Ages

BA course in Medieval Philosophy, 6 ECTS. Università di Messina (IT), Master’s degree in Literary Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Italy. First semester 2025-2026

Philosophy of Light in Grosseteste and Eckhart

BA course in Medieval Philosophy, 6 ECTS. Università di Messina (IT), Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. First semester 2025-2026.

Matter

BA course in Medieval Philosophy, 6 ECTS. Università di Messina (IT), Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. First semester 2024-2025.

Common Seminar: Research as a Career

Co-lecturer, MA and PhD course (B-KUL-W0R00A-23-24), 4 ECTS. KU Leuven (BE), Institute of Philosophy. First semester 2023-2024. Course convenors: Russell Friedman and Nicola Polloni.

Matter, Elements, and Mixtures: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Lecturer, MA course (631006), 4 + 4 ECTS, “The Universality of Scientific Knowledge: Islamicate Philosophy and Science in the Latin Middle Ages”. Universidad de Córdoba (ES), Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, Master in Religious Pluralism. First semester 2022-2023.

Common Seminar: Research as a Career

Co-lecturer, MA and PhD course (B-KUL-W0R00A-22-23), 4 ECTS. KU Leuven (BE), Institute of Philosophy. First semester 2022-2023. Course convenors: Russell Friedman and Nicola Polloni.

Hylomorphic Crossroads: Islamicate and Latinate Perspectives on Matter and Form

Common Seminar: Research as a Career

Co-lecturer, MA and PhD course (B-KUL-W0R00A-2122), 4 ECTS. KU Leuven (BE), Institute of Philosophy. First semester 2021-2022. Course convenors: Russell Friedman and Nicola Polloni.

Ancient and Medieval Visions of Light and Colour

Co-lecturer, MA course (3131-L-136). Technologische Universität Berlin (DE), Institute of the History of Science. Winter semester 2019. Course lecturers: Katja Krause and Nicola Polloni.

Mobilising Knowledge in Translation

Co-lecturer,MA course. Technologische Universität Berlin (DE), Institute of the History of Science. Summer semester 2019. Course lectured by Maria Avxentevskaya, Robert Middeke-Conlin, Nicola Polloni, Shixiang Jin.

Reading groups

Scattered Matter: Atoms and Reality According to Nicholas of Autrecourt

Reader, reading group (level: MA and PhD). Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (BE), Institute of Philosophy. Winter semester 2019.

Structures of Materiality: Roger Bacon and the Conundrum of Prime Matter

Reader, reading group (level: MA and PhD). Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE), Institute of Philosophy. Summer semester 2019.

Reshaping the Tradition: Narratives of Matter in Calcidius and Ibn Gabirol

Reader, reading group (level: MA and PhD). Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), Institute of Philosophy. Winter Semester 2018.

Invited teaching seminars

Structuring Bodies: Matter, Form, and Elements in the Middle Ages

Guest lecturer, BA seminar. Tel Hai College (IL), 19 April 2023.

Untangling Medieval Natural Philosophy: An Excursion Into Matters, Forms, and Other Peculiar Entities

Guest lecturer, MA seminar. UC Louvain (BE), 9 May 2022.

Service

Currently, I serve as co-editor of two book series: Global Perspectives on the History of Natural Philosophy (published by Routledge) and Piccola Biblioteca di Filosofia Naturale (published by Il Melangolo). Additionally, I have acted as a referee for various national and international funding bodies, publishers, and academic journals.

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Doctoral Schools

Member of the Faculty Board | 2025-present

Doctoral School in the Humanities (Scuola di Dottorato in Scienze Umanistiche), University of Messina, Department of Ancient and Modern Civilisations (DiCAM).

Editorial boards

Co-Editor, Piccola Biblioteca di Filosofia Naturale | 2024-present

Book series, Il Melangolo. Editors: Vincenzo Carlotta, Cecilia Panti, and Nicola Polloni.

Co-Editor, Global Perspectives on the History of Natural Philosophy | 2022-present

Book series, Routledge. Editors: Yael Kedar, Cecilia Panti, and Nicola Polloni.

Co-Editor, Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval | 2018-2024

Scientific Journal. Editors: Alexander Fidora and Nicola Polloni. ISSN: 2530-7878.

Corresponding Editor, Lexicon Philosophicum | 2024-present

Scientific Journal. CNR: Istituto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee. ISSN: 2283-7833.

Executive Editor, Revista Española de Filosofía Medieval | 2016-2017

Scientific Journal. Editors: Alexander Fidora and Pedro Mantas España.

Peer Reviewing for Journals and Agencies

Grant Reviewer and Rapporteur for Funding Agencies | 2021-present

Swiss National Science Foundation (2025), Polish National Science Centre (2023), Romanian Science Council (2024), European Research Council (2021), Latvian Council of Science (2021).

Peer Reviewer for Academic Journals | 2017-present

Reviewed for Micrologus, Vivarium, Teorie vědy, Science in Context, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis, Ancient Philosophy Today: Dialogoi, Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía, Mediterranea, Anuario Filosofico, al-Qantara, among others.

Learned Societies

Vice President | 2021-2025

Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval (SOFIME)

Secretary | 2020-2023

Roger Bacon Research Society (RBRS)

Membership of Executive Committees

Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval (2025-2029), Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group (2020-present).

Simple Membership

Member of the following learned societies: Roger Bacon Research Society (since 2020), History of Science Society (since 2017), Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale (since 2013), Società Italiana per lo Studio del Pensiero Medievale (since 2012), Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval (since 2012).

Scientific committees

Scientific Committees of Conferences and Events

Member of the committee of the following events: KU Leuven Colloquia in Medieval Philosophy (Leuven, 2021-2024), 2024 Colloquium of SOFIME: The Actuality of Medieval Philosophy (Salamanca, 2024), 2023 Colloquium of SOFIME: De imagine (Covilhã, 2023), 8th Congress of SOFIME: De cognitione (Porto, 2021), The Multi-Ethnic Borderlands of Medieval Toledo: New Directions (Toledo, 2019), Science, Imagination and Wonder – Robert Grosseteste and His Legacy (Oxford, 2018).

Scientific Committees of Journals and Research Units

Member of the committee of Revista Ciencias y Artes (since 2023), Cordoba Near Eastern Research Unit (2018-2023).

Collaborations

Recepción y evolución del concepto de anima mundi en el siglo XII | 2023-2025

Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas (grant no. PICT-2021-GRF-TII-00018), Universidad de Buenos Aires (AR), PI: Cecilia Rusconi.

“Certainty without doubt and truth without error”: The Mathematical Epistemology of Roger Bacon | 2021-2024

Tel Hai College (IL), Israel Science Foundation project (grant no. 2773/21), PI: Giora Hon and Yael Kedar.

Teoría finalistas en la Edad Media | 2021-2024

Universidad Católica de Argentina (AR), PI: Laura Corso Estrada.

Ex umbra in solem: Historia de la documentación de la enseñanza de la filosofía natural (Física) a partir de los manuscritos del Colegio Máximo San Miguel y del Convictorio Carolino, Chile (1698–1798) | 2020-2023

Universidad de Playa Ancha (CL), Proyecto Fondecyt Iniciación 11200279 (ANID-Chile), PI: Abel Aravena Zamora.

The Extensions Project | 2019-present

Interdisciplinary outreach project founded with Rosie Reed Gold (artist, London), Tom Lancaster (physicist, Durham), and Joshua Harvey (psychologist, Oxford). Website: extensionsofreality.com/

Greek-Arabic and Latin Biblical and Patristic Manuscripts | 2019-2021

Universidad de Córdoba (ES). Funding Entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, ref. IPGC2018-096807-B-I00, PI: Juan Pedro Montferrer-Sala.

Aristotelica Portugalensia: The Reception of Aristotle in Portugal until the 18th Century | 2018-present

Instituto de Filosofia, Universidade do Porto (PT). PI: Paula Oliveira e Silva.

Reason, Politics and Society in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy | 2019-present

Instituto de Filosofia, Universidade do Porto (PT). PI: José Meirinhos.

The Ordered Universe | 2016-2020

Durham University and University of Oxford (UK). Funding Entity: Arts and Humanities Research Council, PI: Giles Gasper.

Unity and Plurality of the Logos in the World | 2016-2018

Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona (ES). Funding Entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, ref. FFI2015-63947-P, PI: María Jesús Soto-Bruna.

Public Engagement

I have devoted significant effort to the academic and public dissemination of my research through various initiatives. I serve as the chief editor of IPM Monthly, an online magazine dedicated to medieval philosophy, and co-founded the Extensions Project, a collaborative framework uniting philosophers, artists, and scientists.

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Academic outreach

Scienza e filosofia nel medioevo: un’epoca oscura? | 2025

Seminar, Laboratorio ConsapevolMente. University of Messina (IT), 21 February 2025.

What did medieval philosophy do for us? Cross-disciplinary entanglements | 2023

Round-table participant, 2023 International Medieval Congress Leeds, University of Leeds (UK), 4 July 2023.

Ancient and Medieval Ontology | 2020

With Jenny Pelletier and Nicolas Zaks. Workshop: Question Lab. KU Leuven (BE), 27 November 2020.

Richard Rufus on Matter

Round-table with Rega Wood and Neil Lewis. Conference: Virtual Colloquium. Paris Institute of Advanced Studies, 25 June 2020.

Structuring Nature: An Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Summer School | 2019

Co-Organiser, Summer School, 15 July to 3 August 2019. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and MPIWG Berlin. Organisers: Nicholas Aubin, Vincenzo Carlotta, Mattia Cipriani, Katja Krause, and Nicola Polloni.

Premodern Natural Philosophy | 2019

Seminar, OxNet Initiative Course “The World Machine”. University of Sunderland. Schools Outreach and Access Programme for the OxNet Initiative, Durham University, University of Oxford, University of Sunderland

Philosophy and Translations in the Middle Ages | 2018

Seminar, OxNet Initiative Course “The Ordered Universe”. University of Sunderland. Schools Outreach and Access Programme for the OxNet Initiative, Durham University, University of Oxford, University of Sunderland.

Public outreach and media

Interviewee, Chinese Social Sciences Today | 2026

Article: “让学术评价回归以人为本” [Let Academic Evaluation Return to a People-Centered Approach]. Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), 7 January 2026. CN: 11‑0274.

Interviewee, Chinese Social Sciences Today | 2025

Article: “拿什么来激励科研人才?” [What Motivates Research Talent?]. Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), 13 October 2025. CN: 11‑0274.

Interviewee, Chinese Social Sciences Today | 2025

Article: “古典文明研究在创新中走向未来” [Classical Civilisation Studies and Innovation]. Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), 2 July 2025. CN: 11‑0274.

Interviewee, Chinese Social Sciences Today | 2025

Article: “点燃古典学研究的璀璨思想火花” [Igniting Thought in Classical Studies]. Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), 5 February 2025. CN: 11‑0274.

Interviewee, Chinese Social Sciences Today | 2024

Article: “文明交流互鉴的新平台” [A New Platform for Civilisational Dialogue]. Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), 29 November 2024. CN: 11‑0274.

Interviewee, Chinese Social Sciences Today | 2024

Article: “传承与时代并进古典与现代共生” [Tradition and Modernity in Dialogue]. Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), 7 November 2024. CN: 11‑0274.

IPM Monthly: Medieval Philosophy Today | 2022-present

Chief editor and founder of the digital periodical IPM Monthly (ISSN: 3051-6242) dedicated to the dissemination of content and the fostering of academic dialogue in medieval philosophy, broadly conceived and with a global perspective. Website: ipmtoday.com

Presence in Absentia | 2019

Outreach event realised by Rosie Reed Gold, Joshua Harvey, and Nicola Polloni. Berlin, 2 August 2019. Art performance by Rosie Reed Gold on the cognisability of what is present without being perceivable, following Calcidius’s texts on prime matter and the contemporary psychological discussion on perception.

Iberica Philosophica Mediaevalia | 2017-2022

Editor of the monthly newsletter of Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval aimed at fostering interdisciplinary sharing of news and information among different branches of medieval scholarship.

Potestas essendi Website and Channel | 2015-present

Owner and editor of the website, which includes videos, lectures, written and multimedia materials, and research popularisation. The website is linked to the YouTube Channel Medieval Philosophy Unleashed (since 2017), which offers a wide and varied selection of videos on medieval philosophy and science including lectures, conferences, popularising items, interviews.

Outreach publications

Layered Stories in Colours: The Artistic Vision of MarieArt

IPM Monthly 4/1 (January 2025).

A Cinematic Journey Through History and Duty: Hu Mei’s Confucius (2010)

IPM Monthly 3/1 (January 2024).

Philosophy and Snickerdoodles: An Interview with Richard Taylor on Festive Recipes and an Old Tradition

IPM Monthly 2/1 (January 2023).

Хранители – The Soviet Version of The Lord of the Rings You Need to Watch

IPM Monthly 1/7 (December 2022).

The Ros Beiaard of Dendermonde

IPM Monthly 1/2 (June 2022).

叙事的打破者 [= The Breaker of Narratives]

Critique of Andrea Fagioli’s sculptures for 苏州市雕塑协会, Jan 2022.

L’ombra di Brexit sull’accademia inglese

In circolo. Rivista di filosofia e culture 2 (2016).

Organised events

Over the years, I have organised numerous conferences, workshops, and seminars, which I value deeply as opportunities to broaden research perspectives and refine the methodologies used to reconstruct the history of philosophy, particularly in the context of the global history of philosophy.

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Conferences and workshops

Glimpses of the Invisible: Visualising the Principles of Nature before the Rise of Modernity

Org. with Serena Masolini. Universidad de Córdoba (ES) and Università di Messina (IT), 28–29 November 2024.

From Toledo to Gotha: New Perspectives on the Impact of Avicenna Upon Sciences and Philosophy in Europe

Org. with Cécile Bonmariage, Sébastien Moureau, and Andrea Aldo Robiglio. KU Leuven and UC Louvain (BE), 15–16 October 2022.

Late Medieval Hylomorphism: Matter and Form, 1300–1600

Org. with Russel Friedman and Zita Toth. KU Leuven (BE), 9–11 June 2022.

Divergent Scholasticism: Philosophical Thought and Scholastic Tradition Between Europe and the Americas, 1500–1700

Org. with Abel Aravena Zamora and Christophe Geudens. KU Leuven (BE) and Universidad de Playa Ancha (CL), March to October 2022.

Hylomorphism Into Pieces: Elements, Atoms and Corpuscles in the Late Middle Ages (1400–1600)

Org. with Sylvain Roudaut. Stockholms Universitet (SE) and KU Leuven (BE), 7–8 April 2022.

Materia, 气/Qì, and Their Epistemes

Org. with Shixiang Jin. KU Leuven (BE) and USTB Beijing (CN), 10–11 December 2021.

The Elusive Substrate: Prime Matter and Hylomorphism from Ancient Rome to Early Qing China

KU Leuven (BE), 14 May 2021 – 18 March 2022.

Prime Matter: The Ontological Stakes of Physical Endurance

Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), 28 February 2020.

De intellectu: Greek, Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew Texts and Their Influence on Medieval Philosophy

Org. with José Higuera, Celia López, Pedro Mantas, and José Meirinhos. Universidade do Porto (PT), 6–7 February 2020.

Matters Entagled: An Early-Career Symposium on History and Philosophy

Org. with Elena Băltuță. Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), 12 July 2019.

Translating Experience: Medieval Encounters with Nature, Self, and God

Org. with Katja Krause. Durham University (UK), 4–6 June 2017.

Da Stagira a Parigi: prospettive aristoteliche tra Antichità e Medioevo

Org. with Chiara Blengini, Silvia Gastaldi, and Cesare Zizza. Università di Pavia (IT), 30–31 May 2016.

Idee, testi e autori arabi ed ebraici e la loro ricezione latina

Università di Pavia (IT), 3–4 December 2014.

Pensare a Weimar: Figure del pensiero tedesco nella Germania della crisi

Org. with Luca De Giovanni. Università di Pavia (IT), 10–12 December 2013.

Seminars and research meetings

Riflessione filosofica e pratica scientifica nel Medioevo

Research seminar, Università di Messina (IT), February to May 2025.

Medieval Logic and Ontology (MeLO) Seminar

Org. with Christophe Geudens. Research colloquium, KU Leuven (BE), January to September 2021.

Nature and Emergence: A Research Reading Group on Samuel Alexander

Org. with Alexander Blum, Dominic Dold, and Núria Muñoz-Garganté. Research reading group, KU Leuven, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin (DE) and Leuven (BE). March 2020 to April 2021.

Medieval Philosophical Gatherings II

Weekly research colloquium, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), October to December 2019.

Medieval Philosophical Gatherings I

Weekly research colloquium, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), April to July 2019.

Panels

Natural Entanglements: Confused Perceptions in the Middle Ages

2023 International Medieval Congress. Leeds (UK), 3–6 July 2023.

Hylomorphism in the Later Middle Ages: Contrasting Perspectives

2022 SIEPM Congress. Paris (FR), 22–26 August 2022.

Cross-Pollinations and Creative Interpretations: The Place of Toledo in the History of European Philosophy

Conference: The Multi-Ethnic Borderlands of Medieval Toledo: New Directions. Toledo (ES), 5–7 June 2019.

Pre-Modern Experiences and the Limits of Science

2017 Meeting of the History of Science Society. Toronto, (CA), 9–12 November 2017.

Skills development workshops

Crafting Doctoral Projects in Philosophy

KU Leuven (BE), 6 February 2025.

Envisioning and Designing New Research in Philosophy

KU Leuven (BE), 9 February 2024.

Project Design for Philosophical Research

KU Leuven (BE), 4 February 2023.

Lectures and Papers

Throughout my career, I have been invited to deliver lectures at universities across Europe, Asia, and America. I have also given numerous talks at conferences and congresses worldwide. These presentations align with my research interests, and a comprehensive list is available below.

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Series of lectures

Nature, Matter, and Change: An Exploration of the Scholastic Ontology of Physical Substances

Guest lecturer (four lectures). University of Science and Technology Beijing | 北京科技大学, Beijing (CN), November to December 2023.

The Penetration of Arabic Philosophy into the Latin Philosophical Tradition

Guest lecturer (five lectures). AAIWG, Marquette University, Milwaukee (USA), January to April 2017.

Invited lectures

Revisiting Thomas Aquinas’s Take on Prime Matter

Keio University | 慶應義塾大学, Tokyo (JP), 6 October 2025.

Hylomorphic Conundrums: Roger Bacon on Mixtures

Keio University | 慶應義塾大学, Tokyo (JP), 3 October 2025.

Revisiting Material Causality in Later Scholasticism

Universidade do Porto (PT), 25-28 June 2025.

Oggetti fisici e strutture metafisiche: tre modelli

Università del Salento, Lecce (IT), 20 May 2025.

Aristotele in fiamme: Ruggero Bacone e la critica delle traduzioni latine medievali

Università di Napoli “Federico II”, Naples (IT), 8 May 2025.

Completing Matter: Roger Bacon’s Revision of the (Standard) Hylomorphic Model

Université libre de Bruxelles (BE), 4 February 2025.

Globalising Hylomorphism: Matter and Materiality Between Europe and China in the 16th Century

UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (BE), 20 December 2023.

Manuel de Góis, Pedro da Fonseca, and the Problem of Prime Matter’s Potency

Sun Yat-sen University | 中山大学, Guangzhou (CN), 5 December 2023

Theories of Matter in Later Scholasticism

Tsinghua University | 清华大学, Beijing (CN), 28 November 2023.

The Inevitable Substrate: Late Scholastic Arguments for the Existence of Prime Matter

Peking University | 北京大学, Beijing (CN), 25 November 2023.

Zabarella on Conceiving Matter by Analogy

Universitatea Babeș-Bolyai, Cluj (RO), 2 May 2023.

Puzzling Entities: Francisco de Toledo on the Constitution of Hylomorphic Substances

University of Helsinki (FI), 17 February 2023.

Francisco de Toledo on Matter

Tel Hai College, Tel Hai (IL), 17 January 2023.

Francisco Suárez and Manuel Góis on Prime Matter and Its Conceivability

University of Haifa (IL), 17 January 2023.

Translations and Accommodations: Three Stories of Cross-Cultural Exchange

Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv (IL), 16 January 2023.

Matter and Prime Matter in the Latin Middle Ages: Surveying an Elusive Substrate

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law | 中南財經政法大學, Wuhan (CN), 22 November 2022.

Francisco Suárez on the Epistemological Challenges of Prime Matter

Göteborgs Universitet, Gothenburg (SE), 25 November 2021

Fragmentaciones hilemórficas: Roger Bacon y el problema de la constitución ontológica del mundo natural

Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona (ES), 24 February 2021.

A Matter to Be Grasped: Epistemic Strategies and Ontological Problems About Prime Matter

Radboud University, Nijmegen (NL), 20 September 2019.

Looking into the Unknowable: Premodern Conundrums of Prime Matter

Durham University (UK), 5 March 2019.

La ciencia de ‘los otros’: peculiares asimilaciones de teorías árabes por la tradición filosófica latina

Universidad de Córdoba (ES), 26 January 2017.

Gundissalinus, Avicenna, and the Road to Paris

Marquette University, Milwaukee (USA), 2 November 2016.

Translation and Appropriation: Necromancy, Astrology, Alchemy

University of Notre Dame (USA), 31 October 2016.

Invited conference talks

Longobardo, Hylomorphism, and the Problematic Nature of Qi

Conference: The Dialogue Between Italian Missionaries and Chinese Civilization – Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of Prospero Intorcetta (1625–2025) | Università Kore di Enna (IT), 12 December 2025.

Reimagining European Medieval Philosophy in a Globalised Future

World Conference of Classics. Beijing (CN), 7-8 November 2024.

Hylomorphism in the Late 12th Century: A Neglected Revolution?

Conference: The Forgotten Giants: Overlooked Scientific Revolutions in Natural Philosophy. Uniwersytet Łódzki, Łódz (PL), 10–12 September 2024.

Epistemic Trust, Testimony, and Bogus Evidence: The Strange Case of Roger Bacon

Conference: Medieval and Renaissance Sciences in Context: Challenges to Aristotelian Methods. Université Paris Cité (FR), 13–14 June 2024.

Prime Matter’s ‘Peculiar’ Existence: Pedro da Fonseca against Scotus and Aquinas?

Conference: Matter through the Centuries, University of Notre Dame, Rome (IT), 7–8 May 2024.

Expanding Quantity: Robert Grosseteste on the Bodily Form

Workshop: Quantity, Extension, and Infinity in the 13th and 14th Centuries, Tel Hai College, Tel Hai (IL), 5–7 June 2023.

Idle Substrates in a World of Forms? Franciscus Toletus on Prime Matter, Accidents, and Elements

Conference: The Mechanization of the Natural World, 1300–1700, Stockholm University, Stockholm (SE), 25–28 May 2023.

Problematic Blends of Epistemic Procedures to Conceive Prime Matter

Workshop: The Logic of Matter. Helsingin Yliopisto, Helsinki (FI), 16 February 2023.

Roger Bacon’s “Mathematical Proofs” Against the Infinity of Matter

With Yael Kedar. Conference: Roger Bacon. St Bonaventure University (USA), 21 July 2022.

Bonaventure and the Epistemic Elusiveness of Prime Matter

Conference: Ut bon(aventurian)i fiamus: International Conference on the 800th Anniversary of Bonaventure’s Birth. Univerza v Ljubljani, Ljubljana (SLO), 1 October 2021.

Wisdom Is Out There! Roger Bacon and the Epistemic Reconstruction of Lost Books and Missed Knowledge

Conference: Exchange of Knowledge Between Literate Cultures. Københavns Universitet, Copenhagen (DK), 19–21 July 2021.

Hylomorphic Crossroads: Ibn Daud, Gundissalinus, and the Font of Life

Conference: Abraham ibn Daud: historia, filosofía y teología política en Sefarad. Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES), 9–10 March 2021.

Roger Bacon on the Conceivability of Matter

Conference: 13^th-Century English Franciscans. King’s College London (UK), 25 July 2020

Dominicus Gundissalinus and the Reception of Arabic Philosophy in the 13th Century

With Alexander Fidora. Conference: The Intercultural Roots Early Scholasticism: Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Latin. King’s College London (UK), 23–24 January 2020.

Shadows of Gundissalinus in the Summa Halensis

Conference: The Summa Halensis: Philosophy and Reception. University of Oxford (UK), 23–25 September 2019.

Experiencing Matter: Translations and Transitions in Grosseteste’s Early Works

Conference: Premodern Experience of the Natural World in Translation. Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (DE), 27–28 June 2019.

Movements, Clusters, and Teams: Modern Perspectives on Premodern Translations

Conference: The Multi-Cultural Borderlands of Medieval Toledo. Texas State University and Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Toledo (ES), 5–7 June 2019.

Marginal Epistemologies of Matter: Premodern Strategies for Knowing the Prime Substrate

Conference: Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions: Intellect, Experience and More. Università di Pisa (IT), 22–25 May 2019.

Le questioni sulla Fisica di Ruggero Bacone: il problema della materia

Conference: La Fisica di Aristotele nel Medioevo. Parigi e Oxford (1210–1270). Università di Roma “Tor Vergata” (IT), 3 April 2019

Premodern Translations into Latin: Rhetorical Strategies and Historical Reconstructions

Conference: Mapping the Rhetoric of Science Writing in Antiquity and Beyond. Ionian University, Corfu (GR), 28–29 March 2019.

Inside Marc of Toledo’s Approach to Ibn Tûmart and His Philosophical and Theological Doctrines

With Pedro Mantas España. Conference: Trespassing Walls. Jews, Christians and Muslims around Their Texts and Traditions. Universidad de Córdoba (ES), 29 January 2019.

Knowing the Shadow: Prime Matter and its Knowability in the 13th Century

Conference: Matter, Mind, and More. Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), 9 November 2018.

Sources of Light: Remarks on the Grosseteste/Avicebron Connection

Conference: Science Imagination and Wonder – Robert Grosseteste and His Legacy. University of Oxford (UK), 3–6 April 2018.

Nicholas of Cusa and Gundissalinus: A Prelude on Matter

Conference: East-Western Transmission of Knowledge. An International Colloquium on Methods of Research. Universidad de Córdoba (ES), 3 April 2018.

Arabic Philosophy in Latin Europe Before Michael Scot

Conference: Crossing Lands. Spreading Knowledge in the Near East and the Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to Middle Ages. Universidad de Córdoba (ES), 14 March 2018.

Chaos in Toledo: Gundissalinus, Daniel of Morley, and the Chartrean Tradition

Conference: Scire naturam: filosofia e ciências, da antiguidade ao início da modernidade. Universidade do Porto (PT), 26–28 February 2018.

Domingo Gundisalvo y Daniel de Morley acerca del establecimiento y conservación de la causalidad del universo

Conference: Explicatio y ratio naturae. Comprensiones medievales sobre el origen del universo. Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona (ES), 16 January 2018.

Traducción y circulación del conocimiento árabe a finales del siglo XII: unas notas de introducción

Conference: Oriente próximo y la cuenca del Mediterráneo. Fe, creencia y transmisión textual entre lo canónico y lo apócrifo. Universidad de Córdoba (ES), 30 November 2017.

Matter of Change: Philosophical Claims and Religious Concerns on the Substrate

Conference: Pre-Modern Sciences and Religions. Harvard University (USA), 6 November 2017.

Effectus, affectus, and defectus: Causality and Causation of the Substrate

Conference: Aspectus and Affectus: Robert Grosseteste, Understanding and Feeling. Georgetown University, Washington, DC (USA), 30 March – 1 April 2017.

Contrasting Perspectives: The Latins, the Arabs, and the Rise of a New Approach to Philosophy

Conference: Filosofia Medieval: em curso e em toda a extensão. Universidade do Porto (PT), 12–13 January 2017.

Dominicus Gundissalinus and the Renovation of Medieval Philosophy

Conference: Translation and Philosophy: Gundissalinus and Ibn Daud in 12th Century Spain. University of South Carolina, Columbia (USA), 11 November 2016.

Congress talks

The Sound of Silence: Using Confused Perceptions to Conceive Metaphysical Principles

2023 International Medieval Congress Leeds, University of Leeds (UK), 3–6 July 2023

Systematising Matter in Coimbra: Manuel de Góis on the Epistemology of Prime Matter

15th International Congress of SIEPM: La pensée radicale au Moyen Âge. Université de Paris (FR), 21–26 August 2022.

Formlessness and Metaphors of an Elusive Substrate: Facing the Epistemic Obscurity of Prime Matter

57th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo (USA), 9–14 May 2022.

Cogniciones problemáticas: Suárez, los Conimbricenses y el reto epistemológico de la materia primera

VIII Congreso Internacional Iberoamericano de la Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval: De cognitione. Universidade do Porto (PT), 6–8 September 2021.

Matter as Epistemic Object: Intellection, Manipulation, and Particularisation in the 13th Century

2019 Congress of the History of Science Society. University of Utrecht (NL), 23–27 July 2019.

Robert Grosseteste: Patterns of Causality, Matter, Light, and the Divine

2019 International Medieval Congress. University of Leeds (UK), 1–4 July 2019.

From Matter to Materiality: Premodern Quests for Knowing the Principle of Corporeality

2018 Congress of the History of Science Society. Seattle (USA), 1–4 November 2018.

Expanding Matter: Cosmologies of Light in Artephius and Grosseteste

53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo (USA), 10–13 May 2018.

Accordance and Strife: Encounters with Modernity at the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century

2017 ACPA Conference: Philosophy, Faith and Modernity. Dallas (USA), 16–19 November 2017.

Sciences of Matter? Knowledge of the Material Substrate in the two Bacons

2017 Congress of the History of Science Society. Toronto (CA), 9–12 November 2017.

Gundisalvo, Guillermo de Auvernia y el problema de atribución del De immortalitate animae

VII Congreso Internacional Iberoamericano de la Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval: De relatione. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (ES), 14–16 November 2016.

Natura vero assimilatur quaternario: alcune osservazioni sulla numerologia del De processione mundi di Gundissalinus

VI Congreso Internacional Iberoamericano de la Sociedad de Filosofía Medieval: De natura. Universidad de Salamanca (ES), 3–5 December 2012.

Conference talks

Reassessing Gundissalinus on Prime Matter

Conference: Philosophy and Religion in the Abrahamic Traditions. Marmara University, Istanbul (TR), 29 May – 1 June 2023.

Roger Bacon on Matter, Elements, and Mixtures: Comparative Perspectives

Conference: Materia, 气/Qì, and Their Epistemes. KU Leuven (BE) and University of Science and Technology Beijing (CN), 10–11 December 2021.

Roger Bacon on Matter, Potencies, and Change

Conference: The Elusive Substrate: Prime Matter and Hylomorphism from Ancient Rome to Early Qing China. KU Leuven (BE), 5 November 2021.

Major Issues in Medieval Hylomorphic Theories

With Zita Toth. De Wulf Mansion Centre Research Day. KU Leuven (BE), 14 June 2021.

Medieval Universes in Disorder: Primeval Chaos, Ontological Roots, and Authoritative Coordinates

Workshop: MeLO Seminar. KU Leuven (BE), 12 March 2021.

Original, First, or Prime: 12th-Century Perspectives on Matter, with and without Aristotle

Conference: Prime Matter: The Ontological Stakes of Physical Endurance. Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (DE), 28 February 2020.

Matter, Apprehension, and Metaphysics: Prejudices in Favour of the Actual?

Conference: De intellectu. Greek, Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew Texts and Their Influence on Medieval Philosophy. A Tribute to Rafael Ramón Guerrero. Universidade do Porto (PT), 6–8 February 2020.

Avicennian Cosmologies? Remarks on Grosseteste and ‘the Arabs’

2018 Aquinas and the Arabs Annual Fall Workshop. Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City (MX), 23–25 September 2018.

“Indeed, the soul has not been made by the first Maker”: Creation, Imitation, and Matter

Conference: Creation and Artifice. The Warburg Institute, London (UK), 1–2 June 2017.

I numeri della natura: testimonianze numerologiche della completezza del creato in Gundisalvi e Grossatesta

Conference: Rappresentazioni della natura nel Medioevo. SISPM/CIRFIM, Università di Padova (IT), 24–27 May 2017.

Aristotele a Toledo

Conference: Da Stagira a Parigi: prospettive aristoteliche tra Antichità e Medioevo. Università di Pavia (IT), 30–31 May 2016.

Entre Toledo, Segovia y Chartres: convergencias doctrinales en la discusión metafísica de Gundisalvo

Conference: Espacios de la filosofía medieval: Córdoba, Toledo y Paris. Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES), 9 March 2016.

Possibilità materiali e necessità formali: letture gundissaliniane di Ibn Sina, Ibn Gabirol e Ibn Daud

Conference: Idee, testi e autori arabi ed ebraici e la loro ricezione latina. Università di Pavia (IT), 3–4 December 2014.

Les sources néoplatoniciennes arabes de la cosmologie de Gundissalinus

Conference: Métaphysique et cosmologie médiévales. Héritages philosophiques du Livres des causes. Dijon (FR), 16 September 2014.

Toledo, crocevia di culture: il caso del movimento di traduzione

Conference: Cantieri d’Autunno 2013. Università di Pavia (IT), 13–16 October 2013.

Gundissalinus and Avicenna: Some Remarks on the Textual Presence of Avicenna’s Metaphysics in De processione mundi

Conference: 12th- and 13th-Century Attempts to Translate Muslim and Jewish Texts into Latin. Ruhr-Universität Bochum (DE), 19 March 2013.