Maria Dell’Isola studied Classics at the University of Bologna. In 2016, she earned her PhD in Cultural Sciences from the Scuola di Alti Studi of the Fondazione San Carlo in Modena and the Max Weber Kolleg. Between 2013 and 2014, she spent six months as a doctoral student at Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2019, she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship at the University of Southern Denmark/Centre for Medieval Literature, with a research project on gendered temporality and female holiness between early Christianity and Byzantium. After working as a postdoctoral researcher between 2021 and 2022 on the sub-project A01 Divine Property: Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, within the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre TRR 294 Structural Change of Property, she served as Assistant Professor of History of Early Christianity at the University of Milan from 2022 to 2025. Her research interests lie in religion in Late Antiquity, the history of Christianity, and hagiography.
Forschungsprojekt
Within the framework of the subproject A01 Divine Property. Solutions from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, my research project attempts to investigate the notion of divine property in late antiquity. By looking at property as a key factor in shaping human and divine agency in Christian hagiographical texts and doctrinal treatises, I aim to identify a set of key features that may define the relationship between human and divine property against the wider background of ancient sacral, social, and economic practices. The research will focus on a detailed analysis of terms referring to the semantic field of property/exchange/donation/theft, in order to outline a broader framework of the complex spectrum of forms and practices describing the dynamics of mutual transfer of property in a sacred context.
Aktivitäten
Veröffentlichungen (Auswahl)
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Dell'Isola, Maria (2026): Gli esercizi delle madri del deserto. Utilità della tristezza per la perfezione, Pisa: ETS.
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Dell'Isola, Maria (2025): "Monastic Spaces as “Sacred” Spaces in Late Ancient Christianity. Some Insights from Palladius’ Lausiac History", in: S. Bianchi Mancini/M. Dell’Isola (eds.): Boundary violation between property and freedom: case studies from antiquity to the Middle Ages, monographic section in Civilità e Religioni XI, 37-54.
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Dell'Isola, Maria (2025): "“The Nun Who Feigned Madness”: Time, Space, and Holiness in Palladius", Lausiac History34, in : A. Cacciari/E. Fiori/D. Tripaldi/A. Villani (eds.): From Alexandria to Jerusalem (and Beyond). Essays in Honor of Lorenzo Perrone, Berlin/Bruxelles/Chennai/Lausanne/New York/Oxford: Peter Lang, 827-837.
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Dell'Isola, Maria (2025): "Women Facing Martyrdom: The Interplay Between Temporality and Social and Gender Roles in Early Christianity", in: M. Dell’Isola (ed.): Female Authority and Holiness in Early and Medieval Christianity, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 43-58.
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Dell'Isola, Maria (2024): "The Heresiological Construction of Montanist Martyrdom: Between Religious Practice and Textual Representation", in: P. Lampe/H.E. Mader (eds.): “Montanism” in the Roman World. The New Prophecy Movement from Historical, Sociological, and Ecclesiological Perspectives. Festschrift for William Tabbernee on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 209-220.
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Dell'Isola, Maria (2024): "God, Ownership, and Economic Language in the Second Century CE: Irenaeus of Lyon’s Against Heresies as a Case Study", in: S. Bianchi Mancini/H.A. Gibson/D. Schuck/M. Vinzent: Relating to Landed Property, Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 87-106.
