Matthew Coneys

Research

Dr Matthew Coneys is Lecturer in Languages and Palaeography. His research focuses on Renaissance Italy, with a particular emphasis on the history of the book between manuscript and print, cultural and religious exchange, geographical knowledge, and the textual traditions associated with travel. Matthew’s doctoral thesis explored the Italian reception of the Book of John Mandeville, a popular fourteenth-century account of the Jerusalem pilgrimage and the marvels of the exotic East. He has published on various aspects of late medieval and early modern travel writing and was co-editor (with Dr Emily Michelson) of A Companion to Religious Minorities in Early Modern Rome (Brill, 2020). He is also an active translator of Italian-language scholarship on medieval and Renaissance art, literature and culture, as well as primary texts from this period. 

Before joining the Warburg in 2020, Matthew held postdoctoral research positions at the University of St Andrews, Newcastle University, and the Institute of Modern Languages Research. He was Stipendiary Lecturer in Italian at Balliol College and taught in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford. 

Ph.D Italian Studies, University of Warwick

MA Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University College London

BA Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge

Teaching

In the autumn and spring terms, Matthew teaches core modules in Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Italian and English and Italian Palaeography. In the spring term he also co-convenes (with Professor Bill Sherman and Dr Giles Mandelbrote) the option module ‘The World of the Book in the Renaissance’.

In the summer term, Matthew supervises MA dissertations appropriate to his research interests and expertise.

In addition to his role at the Warburg, Matthew offers academic writing support to SAS students through the Doctoral Centre. 

PhD supervision

Matthew welcomes inquiries from prospective doctoral students working in his research areas. 

Publications

Books and edited volumes

The Book of John Mandeville in Renaissance Italy (forthcoming)

A Companion to Religious Minorities in Early Modern Rome, edited with Emily Michelson (Leiden: Brill, 2021)

Articles and essays

‘Non-Catholic Pilgrims and the Hospice of Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, 1575-1650’, in A Companion to Religious Minorities in Early Modern Rome (Leiden: Brill, 2021)

‘Pilgrimage, Print and Performance: Giuliano Dati’s Roman Cantari’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 51.1 (2021), 79-104

‘Hands-On Reading’, Digital Humanities Quarterly (2021), with Kate Court, James Cummings, Fiona Galston, Aditi Nafde and Thiago Sousa Garcia

‘Real and Virtual Pilgrims and the Book of John Mandeville in Fifteenth-Century Italy’, Viator 49.1 (2018), 241-56

‘Travel Writing, Reading and Reception Theory: Reconsidering the Late Medieval Canon’, Studies in Travel Writing 22.4 (2018), 357-70

Select translations 

Francesco Patrizi da Cherso, The Kiss: A Dialogue on Love and its Psychosomatic Effects, edited by Tommaso Ghezzani (London: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming)

Fabio Scaletti, Caravaggio: A Catalogue Raisonée (London: Paul Holberton, forthcoming)

Mirko Tavoni, Essays on Renaissance Linguistics (Oxford: Legenda, forthcoming)

Various authors, Luigi Pericle: A Rediscovery (London: Paul Holberton, 2022) [several essays] 

Filippo Camerota ed., From Hell to the Empyrean: Dante’s World between Science and Poetry (Florence: Sillabe, 2021) [several essays] 

Sandra Hindman and Federica Toniolo eds., The Burke Collection of Italian Miniatures (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020) [ten entries]