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Ruggero Sciuto

Postdoctoral Scholar - Teaching Fellow
Ruggero Sciuto
Email sciuto@usc.edu Office THH 155E

Biography

Ruggero Sciuto is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of French and Italian. His research focuses on eighteenth-century French literature and culture, particularly the works of Denis Diderot, Paul Thiry d’Holbach, and Voltaire. He is the author of a monograph on the theory of determinism jointly advanced by Diderot and d’Holbach (Determinism and Enlightenment: The Collaboration of Diderot and d’Holbach) and is currently working on a second book to understand how d’Holbach’s authorial strategies affected the reception of his (political) ideas. He is a collaborator on both the Oxford edition of the Complete Works of Voltaire and the Edizione Nazionale del Carteggio di Lodovico Antonio Muratori, and the director of the critical edition of d’Holbach’s complete works (Digital d’Holbach). As part of Digital d’Holbach, he is currently working on editions of two key Enlightenment texts: the Lettres à Eugénie and Le Bon Sens.

Ruggero has a strong secondary interest in diplomatic history. His work on Franco-Italian diplomatic relations has appeared in premier journals, including the Revue d’Histoire Littéraire de la France and Archivio Storico Italiano, and his edition of the Représentation aux Etats de l’Empire, an unknown diplomatic manuscript by Voltaire, was published in 2020 in the Œuvres complètes de Voltaire. He has also edited with Dr Florian Kühnel a special issue of the International History Review on ‘Gender and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Period’.

Education

  • Ph.D. Medieval and Modern Languages (French), University of Oxford, 2018
  • M.Phil. European Enlightenment, University of Oxford, 2014
  • B.A. Modern Languages (French and Italian), Università degli Studi di Pisa, 2012
    • Leverhulme Early Career Researcher, University of Oxford, St Edmund Hall, 10/2020 – 08/2023
    • Junior Research Fellow in French and Digital Editing, University of Oxford, Wolfson College, 10/2019 – 09/2020
    • Post-Doctoral Researcher in Eighteenth-Century French and Digital Humanities, University of Oxford, Hertford College, 10/2018 – 09/2019

  • Research Keywords

    Eighteenth-Century French Culture; Early Modern Period; Early Modern French and Italian Literature; Enlightenment Philosophy; Denis Diderot; Paul-Thiry d’Holbach; Voltaire; Determinism; Causation; Gender Studies; Early Modern Diplomacy

    • (fall 2023) GESM 120 35367. What Makes a Good Plot? French Classical Theatre in conversation with Opera and Modern Film
    • (spring 2024) ITAL 382g. Dante’s Divina Commedia
    • (spring 2024) FREN 370gm. Equality and Difference Around the Enlightenment
    • (fall 2024) ITAL 401. Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso
    • (fall 2024) ITAL 382g. Dante’s Divina Commedia

  • Book

    • Sciuto, R. (2023). Determinism and Enlightenment: The Collaboration of Diderot and d’Holbach. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

    Book Chapters

    • Sciuto, R. (2024). Cui prodest? Acteurs et bénéficiaires de la diplomatie culturelle au miroir de la correspondance du résident de France à Florence, Luigi Lorenzi. Une diplomatie des mobilités. Négocier « l’étranger » dans l’Europe moderne (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle)pp. 197-216.Rome: Ecole Française de Rome. ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2023). Ideas in Action: Franco Venturi’s Settecento. Inventions of Enlightenment since 1800pp. 241-256.Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
    • Sciuto, R. (2022). The Absent Guest: D’Holbach’s Strategic Use of Voltaire’s Texts. The Great Protector of Wits. Baron d’Holbach…pp. 116-134.Leiden: Brill.
    • Sciuto, R. (2020). A ‘Reversible Figure Annotation System’ for the Born-Digital Critical Edition of d’Holbach’s Complete Works. Annotation in Scholarly Editions and Research…,pp. 373-389.Berlin: De Gruyter.
    • Sciuto, R. (2020). critical edition of Voltaire’s Voltaire, Représentation aux Etats de l’Empire. in Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, vol.29B,pp. 427-278.Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. preview on ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2020). critical edition of Voltaire’s Histoire de l’infini. in Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, vol. 6B,pp. 459-475.Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. preview on ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2020). critical edition of Voltaire’s Continuation du même sujet; Que les philosophes ne peuvent jamais nuir. in Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, vol. 6B,pp. 391-421.Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. preview on ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2020). critical edition of Voltaire’s De Newton. in Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, vol. 6B,pp. 443-457.Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. preview on ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2014). L’imbarazzo del Naturalista e del Metafisico: Voltaire e le implicazioni filosofiche di un esperimento condotto da Lazzaro Spallanzani sulla rigenerazione della testa delle lumache terrestri. Nel nome di Lazzaro. Saggi di storia della…,pp. 245-258.Bologna: Pendragon. preview on ResearchGate

    Book Review

    • Sciuto, R. (2024). Review of ‘Charles Devellennes, Positive Atheism: Bayle, Meslier, d’Holbach, Diderot, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021’. French Studies. Link:
    • Sciuto, R. (2022). Review of Gerhardt Stenger et al. (eds), Œuvres complètes d’Helvétius, t.III (Poésies, Recueil de notes, Correspondance), Paris: Champion, 2020. French Studies.pp. 118.
    • Sciuto, R. (2022). Review of Claude Buffier, Traité des premières vérités, ed. by Louis Rouquayrol, Paris: Vrin, 2020. French Studies.pp. 466-467.
    • Sciuto, R. (2021). Review of Charles T. Wolfe, Lire le matérialisme, Lyon: ENS éditions, 2020. French Studies.pp. 393-394.
    • Sciuto, R. (2019). Review of Antonio Gurrado, La religione dominante: Voltaire e le implicazioni politiche della teocrazia ebraica, Catanzaro: Rubbettino, 2018. Revue Voltaire.pp. 222-224. preview on ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2019). Review of Jeroom Vercruysse, Bibliographie descriptive des imprimés du baron d’Holbach, Paris: Garnier, 2017. French Studies.pp. 118-119.
    • Sciuto, R. (2016). Review of Fougeret de Monbron, Margot la ravaudeuse, edited and translated by E. Langille, Cambridge: The Modern Humanities Research Association, 2015. French Studies.pp. 599-600.

    Encyclopedia Article

    • Sciuto, R. (2021). Baron d’Holbach. Vol. 1.5.2.04 The Literary Encyclopedia.

    Journal Article

    • Sciuto, R. (2023). ‘« Un tout lié, dont les parties ont une correspondance nécessaire » : l’édition numérique de d’Holbach. Dix-Huitième Siècle. Vol. 55,pp. 503-511. link:
    • Sciuto, R., Kühnel, F. (2023). Introduction to Gender and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Period, special issue of the International History Review. International History Review. Vol. 44 (5), pp. 943-951.
    • Sciuto, R. (2023). The Correspondence(s) of Count and Countess Lorenzi: What was the Extent of an Early Modern Ambassadress’ Autonomy?. International History Review. Vol. 55 (5), pp. 1021-1034.
    • Sciuto, R. (2023). Voltaire, l’Arioste, et le genre littéraire de La Pucelle. Revue Voltaire. Vol. 21,pp. 147-162. link:
    • Sciuto, R. (2023). Voltaire philosophe : un architecte de la pensée. Revue Voltaire. Vol. 23,pp. 161-174.
    • Sciuto, R. (2022). Bringing together the Essay and the Second Treatise: d’Holbach Interpreter of Locke. Studi Lockiani. Ricerche sull’età moderna. Vol. 3,pp. 61-86.
    • Sciuto, R. (2020). Démarches secrètes de l’abbé Trublet pour devenir Immortel. La Lettre clandestine. Vol. 28,pp. 241-253.
    • Sciuto, R. (2019). Reti diplomatiche al servizio del progresso scientifico: Luigi Lorenzi e l’inoculazione antivaiolosa nella Toscana granducale. Chroniques italiennes. Vol. 37,pp. 283-301. preview on ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2018). Voltaire et Johann Baptist Anton von Pergen : cinq lettres inédites. Revue d’Histoire Littéraire de la France. Vol. 118 (1), pp. 165-176. available on JStor
    • Sciuto, R. (2017). The duc de Richelieu, Voltaire, and Mme du Barry: an Unpublished Letter from the Cabinet noir (D18516a). Revue Voltaire. Vol. 17,pp. 309-314. preview on ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2016). The Correspondence of André Morellet: Seven Unpublished Letters to Luigi Lorenzi (1758-1765). Archivio Storico Italiano. Vol. 174 (3), pp. 499-522. available on JStor
    • What Makes a Good Plot? French Classical Theatre in conversation with Opera and Modern Film, Department of French and Italian, Fall 2023

  • Conferences Organized

    • Organiser, New Approaches to d’Holbach’s Système de la nature, Maison Française d’Oxford, Oxford, 03/14/2022 – 03/15/2022
    • Co-Organiser, Errors in Early Modern Diplomacy, Oxford, 11/10/2021 – 11/11/2021
    • Organiser, Diplomacy and Gender in the Early Modern World (1400-1800), Radcliffe Humanities Building, Oxford, 06/11/2018 – 06/12/2018
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