University of Padua, Italy.
Vittoria Feola is an Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Padova, Italy. She earned her PhD in History from Cambridge University (2005) and has held prestigious research fellowships, including the Wiener-Anspach and Francqui Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Lise Meitner Senior Postdoc at the Medical University of Vienna. She has been a Senior Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University and a Guest Professor in Rome, among other international appointments. Feola's research explores intelligence, martyrdom, and religious networks in early modern Europe, particularly in the context of Anglo-Spanish relations and Elizabethan England.
Profile
🎓 Education
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vittoria Feola holds a PhD in History from Cambridge University (2005) and has been recognized for her academic excellence through the Cambridge European Trust Award (2000-2003). Her research has been supported by prestigious institutions, including the British Federation of Women Graduates and the Cambridge European Trust, reflecting her significant contributions to historical scholarship.
🏛 Experience
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vittoria Feola is an Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Padova (2015–Present). She has also held prestigious academic positions, including Senior Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University (2014–2017) and Lektorin in Early Modern History of Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. Additionally, she has served as a Guest Professor at the Pontifical University St. Thomas in Rome and has been a Visiting Fellow at leading institutions such as Yale, Stanford, Toronto, and Cambridge, underscoring her extensive international research collaborations and expertise in early modern history.
🔬 Research Interests
Religious Intelligence and Martyrdom in Anglo-Spanish Relations (1550-1598)
Early Modern Universities and Scientific Networks
Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion in Early Modern England and Europe
Circulation of Knowledge and Printing Networks in the 16th-18th centuries
🏆 Awards & Honors
2023 Erasmus+ Grant, Teaching Stay at the University of Granada
2023 Book Publication Grant for Martyrdom, Intelligence, and National Identity in Anglo-Spanish Relations, 1550-1598
2022 MINI SID Seed Funding for “Spies or Heretics?” Project
2015 Gerda Henkel Co-Funding Grant for the Bartolomeo Gamba Project
2014 Vienna City Council Prize for organizing Scientiae Vienna 2014
2002 British Federation of Women Graduates Research Award
📚 Notable Publications
📄 Feola, V. (2025). The uses of martyrdom works in Philip II's Spain and among Elizabethan English Catholics. Religion and Politics (forthcoming).
📄 Feola, V. (2025). Jesuit intelligence about Elizabethan England. Society and Politics (forthcoming).
📄 Feola, V. (2024). Autobiografia, cattolicesimo e sovranità: il caso di Elias Ashmole (1617-1692). Civiltà e Religioni, 10, 73-101.
📄 Feola, V. (2021). Alchemy, medicine, and religion in Elias Ashmole’s Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. Civiltà e Religioni, VII, 87-122.
📄 Feola, V. (2019). Talismans as automata: Jacques Gaffarel’s Curiositez and the mechanisation of nature in 17th-century France. Society and Politics, 13(2), 61-86.
📄 Feola, V. (2019). Early Modern Violence and Religion. The Sixteenth Century Journal, 50.