Maria Dell’Isola is Junior Assistant Professor (RTD-A) in History of Early Christianity at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Milan.
She studied Classics at the University of Bologna. In 2016 she earned her Ph.D. in Cultural Sciences from Scuola di Alti Studi della Fondazione San Carlo di Modena and Max-Weber-Kolleg. Between 2013 and 2014 she spent six months at the Humboldt University of Berlin as a doctoral student. After working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at “Associazione Amici della Peterson” (University of Turin), in 2019 she was awarded a Marie 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. Between 2021 and 2022 she was Postdoctoral researcher on the subproject 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. Her research interests lie within religion in antiquity, history of Christianity and hagiography.
Dr. Maria Dell'Isola
- Email: maria.dellisola@uni-erfurt.de
- Website: Personal website at University of Milan
Research Project
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.
Activities
Publications
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2024): “Martha and Mary. Gender, work and idleness in Early Christianity (Marta e Maria. Prospettive di genere su lavoro e ozio nella tradizione del primo cristianesimo)”, In: Idee di lavoro e di ozio per la nostra civiltà, a cura di G. Mari, F. Ammannati, S. Brogi, T. Faitini, A. Fermani, F. Seghezzi, A. Tonarelli, Firenze University Press, Firenze (forth.).
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2024): “Fasting, visions and prophecy in and outside the Bible: the figure of Daniel in Tertullian’s De ieiunio adversus psychicos”, In: D. Hamidovic – P. Therrien – E. Serra, Brepols (eds.), Biblical Figures outside the Bible, Thurnout, 171-186.
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2023): “How Temporality Shapes Social Structure in the Acts of Thomas”, In: Vigiliae Christianae 77, 155-175.
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2022a): “Il viaggio oltremondano negli Atti di Tommaso. Intrecci socio-temporali di una visione apocalittica”, In: Dignus es accipere librum. Miscellanea in onore di Edmondo Lupieri per il suo LXXII compleanno, a cura di L. Arcari e L. Carnevale, Edipuglia, Bari, 171-179.
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2022b): Tertulliano, Il digiuno, a cura di M. Dell’Isola, Paoline, Roma.
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2022c): “The ascetic body in The life and conduct of the blessed and holy Matrona”, In: Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 88/2, 461-472.
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2022d): “Violence against women in the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: some insights on the Acts of Thomas and the Acts of John”, In: Vetera Christianorum 59, 107-120.
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2022e): “Waiting for the End. Two Case Studies on the Relationship Between Time and Gender in Early Christianity”, In: Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum 26/3, 446-472.
- Dell'Isola, Maria (2020): L’ultima profezia. La crisi montanista nel cristianesimo antico, Il pozzo di Giacobbe, Trapani.
