Silvia DI VINCENZO

Silvia Di Vincenzo earned a double PhD in 2018 in philosophy at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and in Islamic Studies (Études arabes et civilisation du monde musulman) at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. She has been visiting research fellow in Paris (École Normale Supérieure), Cambridge, UK (Trinity College), and Aix-en-Provence (CNRS, Centre Paul-Albert Février, laboratoire "Textes et documents de la Méditerranée antique et médiévale").

Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at Aix-Marseille Université e al CNRS (Centre Paul-Albert Février, TDMAM) and an adjunct professor for the academic year 2023/2024 at Ca' Foscari.

From July 2019 to June 2024, she was a fixed-term researcher (RTD-A) in History of Medieval Philosophy at the IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca. Before joining IMT, she was Research Assistant in the ERC project «PhiBor: Philosophy on the Border of Civilizations», and collaborated in the ERC Project: «PhiC-PhASIF – Philosophy in Context: Arabic and Syriac manuscripts in the Mediterranean». Her research interests mainly revolve around exploring how ideas were transmitted during the Latin and Arabic Middle Ages, especially in connection with their Ancient and Late Ancient Greek sources. Currently, her research is focused on understanding the Arabic and Latin treatment of areas of Aristotelian logic that are adjacent to metaphysics, like the theory of universals. Her research methodology is two-pronged, combining the conceptual analysis of texts with the study of their material transmission through Ancient and Medieval manuscripts. This video realized within the framework of the IMT digital initiative "La Biblioteca dei Ricercatori" offers a short introduction (in Italian) to her research in the history of Medieval Arabic philosophy.

She is currently a member of the Société Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences et de la Philosophie Arabes et Islamiques (SIHSPAI), the International Albertus Magnus Society, the Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale (SIEPM), and the Gesellschaft für Philosophie des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (GPMR).

Qualifications

Italian National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) to the functions of Associate Professor in the History of Philosophy, SC 11/C5 (valid through 12/12/2034).

Fellowships

• 18/3/2023–31/3/2023 Visiting Fellowship from the University of Cambridge, Clare Hall College – Cambridge, UK.
• 22/1/2023–3/2/2023 Invited visiting researcher at the CNRS, UMR7297 TDMAM « Textes et Documents de la Méditerranée Antique et Médiévale » (Centre Paul-Albert Février) – Aix-en-Provence, France.
• 1/11/2019–30/11/2019 Visiting Fellowship from the University of Cambridge, Trinity College – Cambridge, UK.
• 1/9/2016–1/7/2017 Research Fellowship at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) – Paris, France.
• 1/9/2015–1/7/2016 Research Fellowship at the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) – Paris, France.
• 1/10/2013–30/9/2016 Three-year Doctoral Scholarship at the Scuola Normale Superiore – Pisa, Italy.
• 1/10/2008–30/9/2013 Five-year full Scholarship at the Scuola Normale Superiore – Pisa, Italy.

Awards and distinctions

• 2023 30th World Award for Book of the Year in Iran for the monograph Avicenna, ›The Healing, Logic: Isagoge‹ – A New Edition, English Translation and Commentary of the Kitāb al-Madḫal of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021).
• 2023 ‘Seal of Excellence’ issued by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions call HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01-01 — MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022.
• 2022 Special Mention at the “Marco Arosio Award” awarded by the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum (2021, 11th edition) for the paper «Avicenna’s legacy to the thirteenth-century Latin reception of Porphyry: The case of Albert the Great’s Super Porphyrium de V Universalibus» (Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 30, 2019).

Research fundings

• 2024 ERC Starting Grant 2024 “The Uncharted Margins of Philosophy: An AI-Enhanced Material History of Arabic Logic Across Time (12th-19th c.) and Frontiers (from Spain to India)" (UnMaP).
• 2023 PRIN (Research Projects of National Interest, funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research) PNRR 2022 (P2022BMJ5A) “Social, Political, and Religious Prognostication and its Roots: Philosophical Strategies for Coping with Uncertainties and Planning the Future” (PI: Alessandro Palazzo, University of Trento; coordinators of local units: Alessandra Beccarisi, University of Foggia; Anna Rodolfi, University of Florence; Stefano Perfetti, University of Pisa; Silvia Di Vincenzo, IMT Lucca). Total funding: 230,436 euros; 20,347 euros for IMT Lucca.
• 2023 (funding declined) Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions call HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01-01 — MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022.
• 2015 Research Grant for Doctoral Research from Università Italo-Francese/Université Italo-Française, “Bando Vinci” 2015 (chapter 2), Grant Agreement: C2-54.

Teaching activities

Courses

• 2023–2024 “Storia della logica e semantica medievali” (for MA students), 30 hrs – University Ca’ Foscari, Venice.
• 2023–2024 “Sources and Methods of the History of Philosophy” (for PhD students), 10 hrs – IMT, Lucca.
• 2022–2023 “Sources and Methods of the History of Philosophy” (for PhD students), 10 hrs – IMT, Lucca.
• 2021–2022 “Sources and Methods of the History of Philosophy” (for PhD students), 10 hrs – IMT, Lucca.
  “Directed Readings in Medieval Arabic Philosophy”, Topic: “Aristotle’s De Interpretatione in the Arabic Tradition” (for PhD students), 21 hrs – IMT, Lucca.
• 2020–2021 “Advanced Topics in Islamic Cultural Heritage: Introduction to the sources for the study of Arabic Medieval philosophy” (for PhD students), 10 hrs + 6 hrs student seminars – IMT, Lucca.
• 2019–2020 “The Manuscript as Cultural Item between East and West – The Arabic Codices of Philosophy as a Cultural Bridge from Andalusia to India” (for PhD students), 20 hrs + 4 hrs student seminars – IMT, Lucca.

Guest lectures

• 30/11/2023 “L’édition critique des textes : Comment et pourquoi ?” for the course HSMAU01 Paléographie arabe (held by Jawdath Jabbour), Master Langues et sociétés, Parcours : Mondes arabe, musulman et hamito-sémitique (MAMHS), 2 hrs – Aix-Marseille Université, France.

Reviewing activities

Evaluation panels

• 2022 ERC Remote Referee (ERC-2022-ADG, Panel SH5).
• 2020–2024 Interviewer for Admissions to the PhD Programs in “Cognitive and Cultural Systems” – IMT Lucca.

Committees

• 15/12/2023 Member of the jury for the defence of Maryam Alsayyed’s PhD thesis: “L’éthique dans la rhétorique d’Averroès: Textes et Analyses” – EPHE, Paris.

Editorial boards

• 2023–today Editorial Board of the review Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (ISSN: 0957-4239)
• 2021–today Editorial Board of the review Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale (ISSN: 1122-5750)

Peer review

• 2019–today Referee for scientific journals: Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (ISSN: 0957-4239); Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale (ISSN: 1122-5750); Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph (ISSN: 0253-164X); Nazariyat: Journal for the History of Islamic Philosophy and Sciences (ISSN: 2528-8563); Studia graeco-arabica (ISSN: 2281-2687); Journal of Philosophical Logic (ISSN: 00223611, 15730433); Archivio di filosofia (ISSN: 0004-0088, 1970-0792); Journal of Islamic Manuscripts (ISSN: 1878-464x, 1878-4631).
• Referee for scientific volumes: The proceedings of the Pan-American Symposium on the History of Logic (“Validity Throughout History”, UCLA 2019).

Invited talks and presentations

1. «Dal visibile all’invisibile: considerazioni sul ruolo del sillogismo fisiognomico nella logica di Avicenna» – Medieval Lectures on Prognostication, June 27, 2024 | University of Trento, Italy.
2. «Asserting the truth about empty terms in the Arabo-Islamic tradition (12th-15th c.)» – XXIV European Symposium of Medieval Logic and Semantics, 17-20 June 2024 | University of Parma, Italy.
3. «Gelenbevī on Universals» – “An 18th Century Ottoman Polymath: A Conference on the Life, Works, and Thought of al-Fāḑil Ismā‘īl Gelenbevī (d. 1791)”, November 17-18, 2023 | University of Cambridge, UK.
4. «Arabic Philosophy in the Margins: The Philosophical Marginalia to the Logic of Avicenna’s Book of Healing» – Dies quodlibetalis “Denken am Seitenrand”, September 29-30, 2023 | Universität Siegen, Germany.
5. «Texts, Paratexts, and Contexts in the Arabic Philosophical Tradition: The Philosophical Marginalia of the Logic of Avicenna’s Book of Healing» – International Workshop Medieval Manuscripts on Logic, May 3-4, 2023 | Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion, Universität Hamburg, Germany.
6. «Possibly never true: some aspects of post-Avicennian classifications of universals» – International colloquium Truth & time in the Middle Ages, March 28-30, 2023 | University of Cambridge, UK.
7. «La philosophie dans les marges : l’enseignement et l’apprentissage de la logique aristotélicienne dans les marginalia d’Avicenne» – Journée d’étude « Nouveautés sur les manuscrits philosophiques et scientifiques grecs et arabes », January 23, 2023 | CNRS (UMR7297 TDMAM: Textes et documents de la Méditerranée antique et médiévale, Centre Paul-Albert Février) and Université Aix-Marseille (Marseille/Aix-en-Provence), France.
8. «“Like another God, or like the Phoenix: The role of modalities in the classification of universals in late medieval post-Avicennian Arabic logic (13th-14th century CE)”» – International Conference Logic and Modalities in the Late Middle Ages, October 17-19, 2022 | Università di Parma, Italy.
9. «Discussing Porphyry’s Isagoge in Avicenna’s School–The Challenges of Editing the Kitāb al-Madḫal of Avicenna’s Šifāʾ» – Medieval Logic, Metaphysics, and Science: Texts and Problems, May 18, 2022 | MSU-Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
10. «Utrum theologia habeat modum argumentationis: Alberto Magno lettore di Avicenna in Summa Theologiae, tract. I, quaestio 5, capitolo 3» – Da Baghdad a Firenze: itinerari del sapere sulle orme di Alberto Magno. Seminario del gruppo PRIN in Storia della filosofia medievale, May 6-7, 2022 | IMT Lucca, Italy.
11. «Aristotelian Logic in a Nutshell: An overview of Avicenna’s Concise Treatise on the Principles of Logic (Risāla Mūǧaza fī Uṣūl al-Manṭiq)» – Monthly Webinar of the Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy, March 24, 2022 | American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon.
12. «Avicenna’s theory of universal predicables at the crossroads of logic and ontology» – KU Leuven Colloquia in Medieval Philosophy, February 11, 2022 | KU Leuven, Belgium.
13. «Du lafẓ au maʿnā : La logique avicennienne au carrefour de la psychologie et de la métaphysique» – Journée d’études « Le terme de maʿnā (intention) dans la tradition arabe – entre kalām, falsafa, et grammaire (II) », 9 Décembre 2021 | Université de Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.
14. «Logical and epistemological reflections in Arabic Philosophy» – International Conference: The Methods of Philosophy in its Different Disciplines A Comparative View on Syro-Arabic and Latin Philosophy (6.-13th cent.), 29 September-1 October 2021 | Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany.
15. «Bigger Books on Logic: A Comparative Analysis of Avicenna’s Šifāʾ, Naǧāt and Išārāt» – 3rd International Meeting of the Avicenna Study Group, June 1, 2021 | Universität Trier, Germany.
16. «Avicenna’s Logic between Psychology and Metaphysics» – Monthly Colloquium Logos+, May 10, 2021 | Universität Freiburg, Germany.
17. «Avicenna’s theory of universals between logic and ontology: Ancient sources and new solutions» – 10th International Colloquium of the Société Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences et de la Philosophie Arabes et Islamiques (S.I.H.S.P.A.I.) Science, philosophy and kalam in Islamic civilisation: the old and the new, September 9-11, 2019 | Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Italy.
18. «The Avicennian tradition in the making: A newly-reconstructed correspondence on the role of words and meanings in logic» - International Conference: “The Reception and Impact of Aristotelian Logic in Medieval Jewish Culture”, 2-4 June 2019 | Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS), Jerusalem, Israel.
19. «Avicenna’s Theory of Universals Between Logic and Ontology» – IV Edition of the Finnish Workshop in Mediaeval Philosophy, November 30, 2018 | University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
20. «PhiBor’s Ecdotic Technique» - International Conference: “Making the Impossible Possible – On the Methodology for Editing Medieval Works with Massive Manuscript Tradition”, June 27-29, 2018 | Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
21. «Avicenna’s Kitâb al-Shifâ’ in the Oriental Library (al-Maktaba al-Sharqiyya) of Beirut» – International workshop: “La réception de la philosophie arabe dans les provinces ottomanes du Proche-Orient”, February 7-8, 2017 | Université Saint-Esprit, Kaslik, Lebanon.
22. «Early Exegetical Practice on Avicenna’s Šifāʾ: some newly-discovered Marginalia to Logic» - Colloque international de doctorants en histoire de la philosophie arabe, October 7-8, 2016 | Université Paris-Sorbonne, Institut Universitaire de France, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Centre Léon Robin (UMR 8061) and Laboratoire SPHERE (UMR 7219), Paris, France.
23. «The “Razian branch” in the Transmission of Avicenna’s Kitâb al-Shifâ’ within the School of Esad Yanyawî» – Inaugural workshop of the International Associated Laboratory (LIA): “The Reception of the Arabic Philosophy in the Ottoman World” November 2-4, 2015 | Istanbul, Turkey.
24. «Avicenna against the Baghdad philosophers on the equivocity of individual» – Workshop européen de la philosophie arabe “Logos-Physis-Nomos”, September 21-22, 2015 | Universität Freiburg, Germany.
25. «Is there a Versio Vulgata of Avicenna’s K. al-Shifâ’?» International Conference: “A crossroad between East and West: The Latin Medieval translations of the Kitāb al-Šifā’ (Book of the Cure) of Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), July 1-3, 2015 | Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
26. «Avicenna on the necessary concomitant: against the Porphyrean definition of “essential” and “accidental” in Madkhal I, 6» Workshop européen sur la philosophie arabe (ENS de Pise, ENS de Lyon, ENS d'Ulm et Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), May 23-24, 2014 | École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Lyon, France.
27. «Avicenna’s Madkhal of the Shifāʾ and the Greek Commentaries on Porphyry's Isagoge: Traces of Reception of the Late Antique Tradition» Student Seminar “Filosofia Islamica alle Scuole Normali. Pisa, Parigi, Lione”, May 16-18, 2013 | Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy.
28. «Some Observations on the Latin Translation of Avicenna’s Isagoge» First Joined Student Seminar ENS-SNS, April 19-20, 2012 | École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris, France.

Dissemination

Target: General public

• 29/11/2022 Participation in the RAI programme “Newton” (Italian national TV), episode: “Leggere e scrivere” (“Reading and writing”).
• 6/6/2021 Suggested readings in the field of Medieval Arabic philosophy for the general public – “Il Podio”, La Lettura (Corriere della Sera, Italian national newspaper).
• 27-28/11/2020 BRIGHT Night – Notte europea dei ricercatori e delle ricercatrici, IMT Lucca. “Lost in translation – Sulle tracce dei manoscritti del filosofo Avicenna”, short presentation of the field of research.
• 27/7/2020 “Un libro per…”: Digital initiative at IMT to present the researchers’ fields of investigation.

Target: High-school students

• 26/5/2021 “Lezioni Disegnate”, IMT Lucca – Short lesson for the general public: “Come si muovono le idee? Il sapere in viaggio dall’antichità al medioevo”.

Target: Children

• 27/9/2023 BRIGHT Night – Notte europea dei ricercatori e delle ricercatrici, IMT Lucca. “Il medioevo in gioco” (with the collaboration of Arturo M. Iannace).

Publications

Books

1. M. Aouad, with the collaboration of S. Di Vincenzo and H. Fadlallah, Averroes’ Middle Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics: Critical edition of the Arabic version, French translation and English Introduction, Leiden-Boston: Brill, Series: Islamicate Intellectual History 11, 2023 (ISBN: 978-90-04-51575-8)
2. S. Di Vincenzo, Avicenna, ›The Healing, Logic: Isagoge‹ – A New Edition, English Translation and Commentary of the Kitāb al-Madḫal of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ, Berlin: De Gruyter, Series: Scientia Graeco-Arabica 31, 2021 (ISBN: 978-3-11-072668-8) [30th World Award of Book of the Year of Iran]

Peer-reviewed articles

1. S. Di Vincenzo, «Tradurre il metodo tra metafisica e teologia. Alberto Magno lettore di Avicenna in Summa theologiae I, q. V, cap. 3» Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale 65 (2023): 219-245.
2. S. Di Vincenzo, «Theories of Reasoning from Late Antiquity to the Medieval Arabic Tradition: The Syllogistic Arts» The Reasoner 16.4 (2022): 30-31.
3. S. Di Vincenzo, «“A Discipline or Part of a Discipline”: Logic on the Border of Metaphysics and Psychology in Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ» British Journal for the History of Philosophy 32.4 (2024): 725-744.
4. S. Di Vincenzo, «The missing logic: Traces of a lost book on hypothetical syllogistic in Avicenna’s Risāla Mūjaza fī Uṣūl al-Manṭiq» Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 33.1 (2023): 55-81
5. S. Di Vincenzo, «The Avicennian tradition in the making: A correspondence on the role of expressions and meanings in logic in context» Studia graeco-arabica 11.2 (2021): 27-39
6. S. Di Vincenzo, «A new source for the study of Avicenna’s Safavid reception – MS Cambridge, University Library, Or. 658: A philosophical anthology from the School of Iṣfahān?» Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 12.2 (2021): 153-173
7. S. Di Vincenzo, «Avicenna’s legacy to the thirteenth-century Latin reception of Porphyry: The case of Albert the Great’s Super Porphyrium de V Universalibus» Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 30 (2019): 1-55 [Special mention of the “Marco Arosio Award” 2021, 11th edition]
8. S. Di Vincenzo, «Porphyry’s Isagoge between Baġdād and Hamaḏān: Yaḥyā Ibn ʿAdī and Avicenna on Individuality» Medioevo 43 (2018): 123-150
9. S. Di Vincenzo, «A hidden source? Considerations on Averroes’ recourse to Avicenna’s Madḫal of the Šifāʾ in the Middle Commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge - Review Essay of R. HISSETTE (ed.), Commentum medium super libro Porphyrii. Translatio Wilhelmo de Luna adscripta, Averrois Opera Series B, Averroes Latinus X, Leuven: Peeters, 2016, pages: VIII-137*-199 p. + 5 pl.» Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 29 (2018): 125-136
10. S. Di Vincenzo, «Traces of ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī’s Copy of Avicenna’s Šifāʾ in MS Beirut, Bibliothèque Orientale 377» Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 67 (2017-2018): 499-503
11. S. Di Vincenzo, «Reading Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ in the Ottoman world: the circulation of the work within the school of Asʿad al-Yanyawī» Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph 67 (2017-2018): 327-350
12. S. Di Vincenzo, «Early Exegetical Practice on Avicenna’s Šifāʾ: Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Marginalia to Logic» Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 28.1 (2018): 31-66
13. S. Di Vincenzo, «Is there a Versio Vulgata of Avicenna’s Kitāb al-Šifāʾ? On the Hypothesis of a Double Recension of Kitāb al-Madḫal» Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 28 (2017): 29-70
14. S. Di Vincenzo, «Avicenna’s reworking of Porphyry’s “common accident” in the light of Aristotle’s Categories» Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 27 (2016): 163-194
15. S. Di Vincenzo, «Avicenna against Porphyry’s definition of Differentia Specifica» Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale 26 (2015): 129-183
16. S. Di Vincenzo, «Avicenna’s Isagoge, Chap. I, 12, De Universalibus: Some Observations on the Latin Translation» Oriens 40. 2 (2012): 437-476

Chapters in volumes

1. S. Di Vincenzo, «Aristotle's Categories: The Arabic Reception» In R. Chiaradonna (ed.), Works of Philosophy and Their Reception, Berlin: De Gruyter
   [forthcoming]
2. S. Di Vincenzo, «Struggling with the Essentials: A Debate between Avicenna and His Contemporaries on Essentiality and Necessity in Demonstrations» [forthcoming]
3. S. Di Vincenzo, «The “Avicennian Pandemic” in Context. Insights into the Spread of Avicenna’s Logic across the Islamicate World» [forthcoming]
4. S. Di Vincenzo, «Part and Instrument, Science and Method: Avicenna’s View on the Status of Logic in Šifāʾ, Qiyās I.2 against the Background of the Graeco-Syriac and Arabic Tradition (6th-11th centuries)» In M. Perkhams (ed.), Methods of Arabic and Latin Philosophy, Berlin: De Gruyter [forthcoming]

Reviews

1. S. Di Vincenzo, «Review of: R. Strobino, Avicenna’s Theory of Science» The Heythrop Journal 63.6 (2022): 1200-1201