USC.edu

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...

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

    Early Modern Period; Early Modern French and Italian Literature; Enlightenment Philosophy; Denis Diderot; Paul Thiry d’Holbach; Voltaire; Ludovico Ariosto; Determinism; Causation; Gender Studies; Early Modern Diplomacy; Grand Duchy of Tuscany

    • (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
    • (spring 2025) GESM 120 35366. What Makes a Good Plot? French Classical Theatre in conversation with Opera and Modern Film

  • Book

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

    Book Chapters

    • Sciuto, R. (2024). From Active Matter and Movement to ‘Sensibilité’ and Social Harmony: d’Holbach’s Enchanted Materialism. The History and Philosophy of MaterialismLondon and New York: Routledge.
    • 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. (2024). Voltaire philosophe : un architecte de la pensée. Revue Voltaire. Vol. 23 (23), pp. 159-172.
    • Sciuto, R. (2024). More of the Same: D’Holbach and the Temptation of Self-Quotation. Modern Languages Open. (2024:1), pp. 1-8. ResearchGate
    • Sciuto, R. (2024). Picturing Women Atheists in Eighteenth-Century Paris: d’Holbach’s Lettres à Eugénie and Diderot’s Entretien d’un philosophe avec la maréchale de ***. French Studies.
    • 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. (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

  • Office Hours

      Mon/Wed : 12:30 – 13:45

  • 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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