Benedetta Bessi is a Classical archaeologist interested in the cultural history of the ancient Mediterranean, history of archaeology and digital humanities.
She has conducted fieldwork and research in Italy, Greece, Syria and Libya and has travelled extensively to North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East acquiring first-hand familiarity with archaeological sites, museums and the cultural heritage of these areas.
She holds a B.A. in Classics from the University of Florence (with a one year at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich), a postgraduate specialization degree in Classical Archaeology from the Italian Archaeological School of Athens (SAIA), a PhD in Greek and Roman Archaeology and History of Art from the University of Messina and a three year diploma in Arabic language and Arabic culture from the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (ISIAO).
She was Mary Seeger O'Boyle Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton and Alexander Onassis research fellow at the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Athens.
She has been featured in documentaries and TV shows on History Channel, National Geographic and Netflix.
As the recipient of the European Community Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellowship, she is has been working on the project “Mapping the Aegean: Cristoforo Buondelmonti's Liber insularum (15th c.) and the Origins of Classical Archaeology” https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/894231 in collaboration with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Stanford University.
Since 2002, she has been teaching in Classics and Classical Archaeology at many American institutions in Rome and in 2010 she joined Temple Rome where she teaches classes on Race and Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean, Classical Mythology and Ancient Greek.
Courses Taught
GRC 0804: Race in the Ancient Mediterranean
GRC 0904:Honors Race in the Ancient Mediterranean
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum. A Digital Edition of the Gennadius Manuscript with Latin Transcription, English Translation and Digital Annotations of Text and Maps”, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari (forthcoming)
“The Harvest of Pain: Agricultural Iconography in a Funerary Context”, La Ricerca Folkorica (under review).
AAVV, “Human Expressive Movements: The Boundary between Health and Disease from a Contaminated Perspective” Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2024 Jun;161:105639. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105639.
“Modelling the Archipelago: Corfu as a Case Study for a Digital Edition of Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum” (Daniele Fusi, coauthor), Open Research Europe 2024, 4:11, 1-23.
“Homer in the Liber Insularum by Cristoforo Buondelmonti”, Studi sulla riscoperta umanistica di Omero, ed. by John Butcher, Paola Megna, Nigel Wilson, Città di Castello, 2023, pp. 59-78.
“Libya in the Newspapers and Periodicals: a Research Project”, the Proceedings of the “Red Castle and Museums of Tripolitania Workshop”, Zarzis, Tunisia, June 8-11, 2015, Quaderni di Archeologia della Libia, 21, n.s. 1, 2018, 70-77.
“The Ionian Islands in the Liber Insularum of Cristoforo Buondelmonti”, A. Hirst-P. Sammon (edd.), The History and Culture of the Ionian Islands, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2014, 225-261
“Cristoforo Buondelmonti: Greek Antiquities in Florentine Humanism”, The Historical Review/La Revue Historique 9 (2012), 63-76.
PAPERS AND INVITED LECTURES
“Digital Islands: Modeling the Isolaria (15th-17th c.) between Text and Image” paper presented at the Global Horizons for Digital and Public Humanities, "Cities and Water" International Research Institute organized jointly by the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities, (VeDPH), Department of Humanities, Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA), Stanford University, with the support of Stanford Humanities Center, April 22nd-26th, 2024
“Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum and the Rediscovery of Greece in Renaissance Humanism”, paper given at the International Conference “The Material Heritage of Ancient Greece in Early Modern Europe. New Approaches and Perspectives”, Norwegian Institute at Athens, February 1-2, 2024
“Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber insularum and the Origins of Classical Archaeology”, paper given at the International Conference “Paving the Way to the Rediscovery of Ancient Greece: Cristoforo Buondelmonti and Other Travellers (15th-19th century). New Approaches and Methods”, Ca’ Foscari University, October 12-13, 2023.
“Modelling the Archipelagos. The Digital Edition of Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum”, with Daniele Fusi, paper given at the International Conference “Paving the Way to the Rediscovery of Ancient Greece: Cristoforo Buondelmonti and Other Travellers (15th-19th century). New Approaches and Methods”, Ca’ Foscari University, October 12-13, 2023.
“Mapping the Aegean: Cristoforo Buondelmonti's Liber Insularum from Manuscript to the Web”, Seminar of the Venice Center for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH) at Ca’ Foscari, September 20, 2023.
“Dall’Arno all’Egeo. Il Liber Insularum di Cristoforo Buondelmonti”, series of lectures presented to the class “Bizanzio: civiltà e influenza” taught by Antonio Rigo, Ca’ Foscari University, April 6-7 and 17, 2023
“Cristoforo Buondelmonti e la nascita dell’archeologia greca”, lecture presented to the postgraduate students of the specialization course at the Italian Archaeological School of Athens, March 20, 2023
“Toward a Digital Edition of the Liber Insularum by Cristoforo Buondelmonti” lecture at the Centre for Manuscript and Text Culture, Queen’s College, Oxford University, November 8, 2022
“Islands in the Sun. Insularity in Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum”, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in the Reception of the Ancient World, Yale University, November 5, 2022
“Mapping the Aegean: Cristoforo Buondelmonti's Liber insularum (15th Century) and the Origins of Classical Archaeology” joint paper presented with Daniele Fusi at “New Horizons in DH”, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford, 19-20 October 2022
“Cristoforo Buondelmonti e la nascita dell’archeologia classica”, lecture in the frame of the undergraduate courses in Classical Archaeology and History of Archaeology by Annalisa Lo Monaco, Roma La Sapienza, 5 Ottobre, 2022
“Mapping the Aegean: Cristoforo Buondelmonti's Liber Insularum & the Birth of Classical Archaeology”, paper presented at Friday Research Talk of the Classics Department of Stanford University, May 6, 2022.
“Greek Island Hopping: Cristoforo Buondelmonti Travels in the Aegean”, paper presented at the Stanford Berkeley workshop New Research on Ancient Mobility and Connectivity, Stanford Archaeology Center (SAC), April 30, 2022.
“Mapping the Aegean: The Liber Insularum by Cristoforo Buondelmonti”, presentation at the Bay Area Chapter of the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation (ISSNAF), Berkeley, March 24, 2022
“Greek Antiquities in Florentine Humanism. Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum. Modelling Memories”, paper presented jointly with Daniele Fusi at the 2nd International Conference of the European Association of Digital Humanities, University of Siberia, September 21-25, 2021
"Mapping the Aegean: The Liber Insularum by Cristoforo Buondelmonti. Challenges and Solutions for a Digital Edition", Text Technologies Workshop Series, Text Technologies, Centre for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Stanford University Apr 1, 2021.
“La messe del dolore: una rilettura archeologica di Ernesto de Martino”, Seminars for Psicomed - Scuola di Specializzazione per medici e psicologi in psicoterapia psiconalitica, directed by Diego Centonze, January 19, 2020
“The Rediscovery of Greece by the early Humanists” invited lecture to the graduate course “Words and Things in the History of Classical Scholarship” taught by Giovanna Ceserani at Stanford University, Oct 10, 2020
“Roman Horti”, invited paper presented at the “Culture under the Stars” conference held at the Garden Museum, London, February 4, 2019.
“Il rhyton di Agia Triada: una rilettura in chiave demartiniana”, lecture held within the course of Aegean Civilization by Prof. Giampaolo Graziadio at the University of Pisa, November 29, 2018.
“Libya in the Historical Periodicals and Newspapers: A Research Project” paper presented at “Red Castle and Museums of Tripolitania Workshop”, Zarzis, Tunisia, June 8-11, 2015.
“Mausoleum B of Sabratha and the Phoenician-Punic View of the Afterlife”, invited paper presented to the Conference on Comparative Views of the Afterlife held at the University of Sendai, Japan, March 19, 2015.
“Cristoforo Buondelmonti’s Liber Insularum: Greek Antiquities in Florentine Humanism” invited paper presented to the faculty and students of the Department of Art History of the University of Sendai, Japan, March 18, 2015.
“Studying Classical Mythology in the 21st century in Rome: Why It Still Matters” paper presented at the AACUPI conference "Addressing the Future of Study Abroad in Italy--How Do We Stay Relevant?" organized at Temple University on March 5, 2015.