Dr. Lorenzo Livorsi

Fields of Interest

Late Latin Poetry
Late antique hagiography
Papal epistolography

Lorenzo studied Classical Philology and Ancient History at the University of Pisa and, jointly, at the Scuola Normale Superiore. He then followed his doctoral supervisor in a wandering PhD in the UK with a thesis on Venantius Fortunatus’s epic Life of St Martin. He focused on the portrayal Fortunatus’s portrayal of Martin as opposed to previous literature about Martin (Sulpicius Severus and Paulinus of Périgueux) and discussed the influence of earlier praise literature (such as poetry and prose panegyrics in honour of Roman emperors, high officials, and bishops) in the characterization of Martin as a powerful patron saint.

He has also held research fellowships in Vienna and in Hamburg, lastly in the context of the RomanIslam DFG Center for Advanced Study.

His research interests include, but are not limited to, late Latin poetry, reception of the Latin classics in Late Antiquity, panegyrical literature, papal epistolography. He is passionate about Latin paleography and manuscript tradition.

Employed since April 2022, he focuses on the philological, literary, linguistic, and stylistic aspects of the unabridged constitutions.

Education and Career

2010-2013: Università di Pisa, BA in Humanities / Classics
2013-2015: Università di Pisa, MA in Classical Philology and Ancient History
2010-2015: Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa), Specialized Diploma in Classical Philology and Ancient History
2016-2021: PhD in Classics and Ancient History, University of Kent / University of Reading / University of Bristol
2019-2020: Visiting research fellow, Institut für Griechische und Lateinische Philologie Universit?t Hamburg
2020-2021: Visiting research fellow, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Mittel- und Neulatein, Universit?t Wien
2021-2022: Postdoctoral fellow, RomanIslam Center for Advanced Study, Universit?t Hamburg

Scholarships and Awards

2010-2015: Full BA and MA scholarship, Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa)
2016: Graduate Teaching Assistantship, University of Kent
2016-2018: Graduate Teaching Assistantship, University of Reading
2018-2019: Graduate Teaching Assistantship, University of Bristol
2019-2020: DAAD One-Year Grant, Universit?t Hamburg
2020-2021: OeAD Ernst Mach Grant - worldwide, Universit?t Wien
2021-2022: Postdoctoral Fellowship, RomanIslam Center Universit?t Hamburg

2016: Prize MA Thesis in Latin Philology (“Premio di laurea Angelo Corsetti”), Università di Pisa
2019: Travel bursary IPIW - international promovieren in Wuppertal, Universit?t Wuppertal
2021: Bursary International Medieval Congress, Leeds

Publications

a) Monograph

Venantius Fortunatus’s Life of St Martin. Verse Hagiography between Epic and Panegyric (Bari. Edipuglia, 2023), 250 pp.

b) Editorship

Regesta Pontificum Romanorum: Iberia Pontificia, vol. VII: Hispania Romana et Visigothica. (G?ttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2022), 250 pp. (with S. Panzram, R. Selvaggi, K. Knie).

c) Journal articles

Pope Silverius’ Deposition and Apocryphal Revenge: the Damnatio Vigilii, Sacris Erudiri 64 (2025) (accepted for printing)
Nec vana fides. The Intertextual Background of a Law of Valentinian III and the Date of the ‘Versus ad Gratiam Domini’. Classical Quarterly 74.2 (FirstView)
From Latin to Greek and Back Again: Translations, Interpolations, and Abuses of a Law of Theodosius II (Cod. Theod. 16.5.66), Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 65.1 (2025), 48–79.
A new constitution of Gratian. Journal of Juristic Papyrology 54 (2024), 9-38.
A “Vicious” Interpolation in Horace’s First Epistle, Hermes 146 (2018), 122–129
Laudantes Elegi: Ovid’s Exile and the Metamorphoses of Praise, Friendship and Love in Late Latin Poetry, Interfaces: a Journal of Medieval European Literatures 2 (2016), 12–33.

d) Book chapters

The Manuscript Tradition of Pope Vigilius’ Letter to Profuturus of Braga (Directas ad nos), Pseudo-Isidore, and the Petrine Primacy, angenommen in: Still ‘Caput Mundi’? The Role of Rome between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in the Western Mediterranean, ed. R. Selvaggi, C. Noce (Leiden: Brill) (accepted for printing)
Poetic Paraphrase with an Audience: Venantius Fortunatus’ Life of St Martin and the Ladies of the Abbey Sainte-Croix in Poitiers, in: Poetic Rewritings in Late Latin Antiquity and Beyond, ed. S. Filosini (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024), 375–410.
Un ‘wandering poet’ cristiano? Venanzio Fortunato, in Ricerche a confronto: Dialoghi di Antichità Classiche e del Vicino Oriente, ed. F. Reali (Bologna: Edizioni Saecula, 2020), 201–232.
Πλατωνικ?? ?ρη?: Echi neoplatonici nell’Inno Omerico VIII, in: Comincio a cantare: contributo allo studio degli Inni Omerici, ed. R. Di Donato (Pisa: ETS, 2016), 49–64.

e) Translations

Gregor von Montesacro, Flores Psalmorum (Italian) in: U. Kindermann, Il poeta del monte sacro: introduzione all’opera dello scrittore latino medievale Gregorio di Montesacro con le prime edizioni commentate (Foggia: Fondazione Monti Uniti, 2025), 124-225 (in publication).
FNS 52, 53, 64–66, 68, 79 (English), in: Fontes Nicaenae Synodi. The Contemporary Sources for the Study of the Council of Nicaea (304– 337), ed. S. Fernández (Leiden: Brill Sch?ningh, 2024).
FNS 35, 36, 44, 45, 46, 47 (Italian), in Le fonti antiche sul concilio di Nicea, ed. S. Fernández, S. Contini (Rom: Città Nuova, 2025).

f) Reviews

A Commentary on Venantius Fortunatus’ Life of St Martin. The Classical Review 70 (2020), 406-408. [Review of: N. M. Kay (ed., trans.), Venantius Fortunatus: Vita Sancti Martini. Prologue and Books I-II (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries 59), Cambridge University Press, 2020].

g) Entries in Reference Works

10 entries in the Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity-database to Vita Sancti Martini of Venantius Fortunatus (Main entry: http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08349).

h) Digital Humanities

Cursor. Software for the analysis of prose rhythm in texts composed in cursus mixtus (with Peter Riedlberger and Daniele Fusi): http://www.riedlberger.de/cursor.
Transkribus ground truth transcriptions of 15th-century Latin manuscripts (?NB Cod. 4680 and 4135) from the 2024/2025 HTR Winter School Austrian Academy of Sciences (10.5281/zenodo.10589561).