Adalberto Magnavacca
Post-doctoral researcher
SHORT PROFILE
Adalberto Magnavacca studied Classics both at the Università di Pisa (BA completed in the academic year 2015–2016; MA completed in a.y. 2016-2017) and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Corso Ordinario 2013–2018), where he was awarded a full scholarship. He subsequently pursued a fully funded PhD in Classics at the Scuola Normale Superiore under the supervision of G. Rosati (2018–2022). His PhD thesis, successfully defended in July 2022, focused on the poetry of Augustus’ grand-nephew Germanicus, who wrote a Latin translation of Aratus’s Phaenomena. The thesis resulted in a new philological edition and extended commentary of the extant fragments of Germanicus.
In September 2022, he moved to Switzerland as boursier d’excellence de la Confédération at the Université de Genève (academic mentor: D.P. Nelis), where he worked on a project entitled “Mapping Flavian Sounds: Literary Soundscapes in Martial’s Epigrams and Statius’ Silvae”. In Switzerland he also benefited of the bourse de recherche de la Fondation Hardt (twice: May 2022 and January–February 2024).
In October 2023, he joined the Department of Classics and Philosophy as a research fellow in the project “Generic Interactions in Persius’s Satires” led by S. Tzounakas.
Throughout both his undergraduate and graduate studies, he developed a strong commitment to teaching. During his MA, he was responsible for creating and revising online tests designed to help prospective students prepare for the admissions to the Scuola Normale Superiore. During his PhD, he was appointed teaching assistant in Latin Literature at the Università di Pisa and in Roman History at the Università di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale. In the academic year 2021–2022, he also served as docente a contratto responsible for the non-curricular course “Beginners Latin” at the Università di Pisa.
PUBLICATIONS
He has published articles on a range of authors, mainly from the Republican and Imperial periods, in journals such as The Classical Quarterly, Materiali e Discussioni per l’Analisi dei Testi Classici, Maia, Mnemosyne, Philologus, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. In addition to his works on Germanicus, he has written papers on Cicero, Lucan, Statius, Martial, Pliny the Younger, Apuleius, and more recently on Roman Imperial Satire (Persius and Juvenal), aiming to combine philological analysis with intertextual approaches.
Since September 2022, he has served as coordinator of the editorial board of the journal Giornale Italiano di Filologia and, as of 2024, he is member of the editorial board of Ciceroniana On Line. He is also member of the research groups “La tradizione epica latina: forme e variazioni” (Scuola Normale Superiore) and “Aglaia: Ancient Geographical Literature And Its Afterlife” (Università di Pisa).
Books
Il cosmo infranto. I frammenti dei Phaenomena di Germanico: edizione, traduzione e commento, Pisa-Roma, Fabrizio Serra Editore [forthcoming].
Svetonio, Vite dei Cesari, Milano, Oscar Mondadori – I Classici [forthcoming].
Edited Volumes/Journal Issues
Cicerone e l’ambiente / Cicero and the Environment, Ciceroniana On Line 7.2, 2023: coedited with T. Ricchieri.
Articles in Journals
Arato e i Latini. Una nota sul signum dei buoi (Arat. 954–955), Maia 69.3, 2017: 470–485.
Cic. Arat. fr. 33, 12–13 S.: una possibile rivalutazione della tradizione indiretta, Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 79, 2017: 195–199.
The Phases of Venus in Germanicus: A Note on German. fr. 4.73–76, Philologus 162.1, 2018: 183–187.
Seafarers and Winds in Germ. fr. 5: Two Philological Notes, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 161.3/4, 2018: 438–440.
Res gestae optimi Traiani. Le imprese di Augusto rilette da Plinio il Giovane, in A. Feldherr, G. Rosati, A. Schiesaro (eds.), Il Panegirico a Traiano di Plinio. “Costrizione alla libertà” e retorica dell’encomio, Maia 71.2, 2019: 494–519.
Un luogo particolarmente scivoloso. Nota testuale a Germ. fr. 3, 16-17 Gain, Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici 82, 2019: 201–205.
What is the Weather like According to Germanicus? Two Emendations to Germ. fr. 4 Gain, Mnemosyne 72.4, 2019: 662–671.
Lectiones falsae et emendatae in Apuleius’ Florida? Old Evidence and a New Proposal on Apul. Flor. 14.4, Philologus 163.1, 2019: 171–176.
Martial’s ἐγκώμιον εἰς Δομετιανόν? A Note on Mart. 9.20, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 162.2, 2019: 199–205.
Arms and Armour: An Emendation to Stat. Silv. 4.4.66, The Classical Quarterly 69.2, 2019: 925–927.
«Caesareae domus series». Cesare, Augusto e… Germanico nel Bellum ciuile di Lucano, in A. Schiesaro (ed.), Cesare nella tempesta. Gli eccessi del tiranno e i limiti dell’epos nel libro v di Lucano, Maia 72.2, 2020: 336–361.
A Storm Chasing Conjecture: An Afterthought on Germ. fr. 4.30 Gain, Mnemosyne 74.2, 2021: 338–339.
Hidden Gods, Hidden Texts: Aratean Echoes and Allegoresis in Cicero, De Divinatione 1.79, The Classical Quarterly 74.1, 2024: 336–340.
Correcting Maecenas the Old Way: a New Emendation to Elegiae in Maecenatem 1.19, Euphrosyne 52, 2024: 215–223.
The Maiden and Her Words: Cicero Carmina Fr. 10 Blänsdorf Reconsidered, forthcoming in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology.
Sors sua cuique loco est: Lot and Anagrams in Ovid’s Fasti 4.507–508, forthcoming in Museum Helveticum.
Rhodanes and Sinonis: A Mismatched Couple? A Possible Athetesis in Phot. Bibl. 94, forthcoming in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie.
Persius’ Faunal Poetics. Animals and Metapoetic Discourse in the Satires: forthcoming in Philologus.
Looking for Catullus’ Fortune under Domitian: An Emendation to Juvenal 4.116: forthcoming in Hermes.
Chapters in Edited Volumes
Opus arcanis Musis creditum: Approaching Astrology in Germanicus’ Fragments, in Hadravová, A.; Hadrava, P.; Lippincott, K. (eds.), The Stars in the Classical and Medieval Traditions, Prague, Scriptorium, 2019: 203–219.
Reviews
H. Čulík-Baird, Cicero and the Early Latin Poets, Cambridge-New York, Cambridge University Press, 2022, Ciceroniana On Line 7.1, 2023: 241–244.
B. Xinyue, Politics and divinization in Augustan poetry, Oxford-New York, Oxford University Press, 2022, pp. 256, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 26.09.2023.
Cicero, Opera omnia, ed. Andreas Cratander. Basel 1528. Reproduction of the copy of the University Library in Basel / Reproduktion des Exemplars der Basler Universitätsbibliothek, with an introductory essay by Cédric Scheidegger Lämmle and Gesine Manuwald / mit einer Einführung von Cédric Scheidegger Lämmle und Gesine Manuwald. Basel, Schwabe Verlag, 2022, pp. 1976, Bollettino di studi latini 53.2, 2023: 720–721.
M. Hanses, The Life of Comedy after the Death of Plautus and Terence, Ann Arbor, MI, Michigan University Press, 2020, pp. XIV, 412, Museum Helveticum 81.2, 2024: 343.
ERC PROJECT
Minds of War: Group Minds and Narrative in Caesar’s Commentarii
Adalberto’s project aims to apply the conceptual framework of group agency and group cognition to the war narratives in Caesar’s De Bello Gallico and De Bello Ciuili. Caesar’s Commentarii are rich in depictions of mental activities attributed not only to individuals (such as Caesar himself, single legati or Gallic and German chiefs), but also to organised groups (e.g., Roman legions and Gallic tribes). This distinctive narrative feature was already recognised in antiquity, as we can infer from the preface by one of Caesar’s admirers and continuators, Aulus Hirtius, who praised Caesar’s “extremely earnest way to represent his own plans” (Hirt. BG 8.pr. 7), thereby acknowledging an implicit tendency toward mindreading on the part of Caesar as narrator.
Building on this ancient testimony, Adalberto will explore both of Caesar’s works, pursuing to analyse how mental activities are attributed to groups. Particular attention will be paid to the ethnic composition of collectives (e.g., the contrast between Roman army and Gallic and German tribes, a prominent theme in the De Bello Gallico), to internal social distinctions within each group (e.g., those based on military hierarchy or the heterogeneous composition of factions involved in civil struggles described in the De Bello Ciuili), and to presumed motivations (religious, political) driving collective action within the narrative. This investigation will result in a substantial mapping of intermental activities across Caesar’s works and provide a deeper understanding of the narrative patterns by which they are distributed throughout many military campaigns. Ultimately, it will also yield new insights into Caesar’s representation of emotions in the Commentarii.
At the same time, the project aims to investigate how groups can function as an embedded “audience” within each work, remembering earlier events in the narrative and thereby mirroring the readers’ mental engagement as they move through the text. This approach – combining group minds theory with intertextual analysis – offers a fruitful framework for situating the Commentarii within the broader context of late Republican ideology and for examining the compositional strategies and mechanisms of the entire Caesarian corpus.
Last Updated on July 7, 2025