Laura Banella

Laura Banella is an Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in medieval and Renaissance Italian literature with a focus on Dante and Boccaccio. Her work examines how manuscripts and early printed editions shaped poetic authority and literary canon formation from the 13th to 16th centuries.

Her research explores:

• Dante's lyric poetry and Vita nova
• Manuscript studies and book history
• Female auctor traditions
• Transnational Renaissance reception
• Editorial communities and canonization

She contributes to the international project Rethinking Lyric Communities and has published monographs including Rime e libri delle rime di Dante tra Medioevo e primo Rinascimento (2020) and La ‘Vita nuova’ del Boccaccio (2017). Recent work appears in Dante Studies and Italian Studies.

Scientific Affiliations:

• Research Fellow, University of Oxford

Education:

• PhD in Romance Studies, Duke University
• PhD in Italian Literature, University of Padua
• M.A. in Humanities, Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa
• M.A. in Italian Literature, University of Pisa
• B.A. in Humanities, University of Pisa