Professor Maggi’s scholarship focuses on two major areas: early modern culture (epic poetry, Renaissance philosophy, magic and demonology, Neoplatonic love treatises, women writers, Renaissance emblems, baroque literature) and contemporary culture. His latest essays on early-modern literature are on Ariosto, Tasso, and Marino. His latest essays on modern culture is a reading of Matteo Garrone's film The Tale of Tales and an essay on the concept of realism in Pasolini and Bassani. Prof. Maggi is currently writing a book on reality and fairy tales in contemporary culture.
He is the author of many books. His latest work is the volume titled Preserving the Spell (2015, University of Chicago Press; Premio Flaiano Italianistica 2016) on the Western interpretation of folk and fairy tales from Giambattista Basile’s Lo cunto de li cunti to the French late seventeenth-century tradition, German Romanticism, and American post-modernism.
His most recent publications on early modern culture are:
- The first English edition of Giovambattista Della Porta's treatise on the art of memory L'arte del ricordare (1566).
- The first critical edition of Lucrezia Marinella’s hagiography on St Catherine of Siena titled De’ gesti heroici (Ravenna: Longo, 2012).
- The first critical edition of the love treatise L’innamorato by Brunoro Zampeschi (published in 1565), which is a contentious response to Castiglione’s Il Cortigiano (Ravenna: Longo, 2010).
- Petrarch: A Critical Guide to the Complete Works (University of Chicago Press, 2009), co-edited with Victoria Kirkham.
His most recent work in the area of contemporary culture is:
- The Resurrection of the Body: Pier Paolo Pasolini from Saint Paul to Sade (University of Chicago Press, 2009; Lambda Award Finalist).
His previous books are:
- In the Company of Demons. Unnatural Beings, Love, and Identity in the Italian Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 2006) on the concept of 'familiar spirits' and the love philosophy in Renaissance culture.
- Satan's Rhetoric, A Study of Renaissance Demonology (University of Chicago Press, 2001).
- A critical edition of Guido Casoni's love treatise (1591) Della magia d'amore (Palermo: Sellerio, 2003).
- Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi: Selected Revelations (Paulist Press, 2000).
He is also the author of Uttering the Word (Suny, 1998) on the mystic Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, and Identità e impresa rinascimentale (Longo, 1998) on the Renaissance emblematic tradition.
Professor Maggi also has a keen interest in Italian baroque prose and poetry. He has published an article on Emanuele Tesauro's panegyrics on the shroud of Turin (Journal of Religion, fall 2005) and on baroque poetry on Saint Francis of Assisi (Studi secenteschi, 2008). He is currently translating major texts by the philosopher Girolamo Cardano. Professor Maggi has published more than 70 essays.
Awards, Honors and Professional Experience
- Full-time positions at Purdue University (Visiting Assistant Professor, 1995-1996) and University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (Assistant Professor, 1996-1999).
Recent Courses in RLL
- ITAL 22210/32210 Italian Renaissance Epic (Spring 2017)
- ITAL 23900/33900 Marsilio Ficino's "On Love" (Winter 2018)
- ITAL 26200/36200 Renaissance and Baroque Fairytales and Their Modern Rewritings (Autumn 2016, Autumn 2018)
- ITAL 26401/36401 Torquato Tasso (Autumn 2017, Spring 2020)
- ITAL 26500 Renaissance Demonology (Winter 2019)
- ITAL 28400/38400 Pasolini (Winter 2019)
Publications
Preserving the Spell: Basile's "The Tale of Tales" and Its Afterlife in the Fairy-Tale Tradition
The Resurrection of the Body: Pier Paolo Pasolini from Saint Paul to Sade
In the Company of Demons: Unnatural Beings, Love, and Identity in the Italian Renaissance
