果冻传媒

I am a based in the Institute of Advanced Studies and the Center for the 果冻传媒 of Renaissance (History Department). My project 鈥極LEUM鈥�, Olive Cultivation and Environment in Tuscany in the Early Modern Period proposes a multifaceted investigation into the environmental, artistic, and intellectual history of the olive in the Medici Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1569鈥�1737). The study, provides a historical perspective able to raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding the olive鈥檚 heritage and presence in the Mediterranean in the wake of current global climatic, ecological, and economic challenges. I will bring novel insights into a plant intrinsically connected to the construction of the 鈥楾uscan鈥� identity, while highlighting its sensitivity to the climatic fluctuations that already affected this territory during the Early Modern period. In doing so, my work showcases the need for traditionally distinct fields of enquiry such as intellectual, environmental, and art history, to discourse. As part of this fellowship, I will undertake periods of research at the in Florence and (co-host).My work on the cultural and visual history of olive tree and oil in sixteenth-century Tuscany was awarded an The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence (Jul. 2023-Jun. 2024); a

at the Warburg Institute, London (Oct. 2022-Jun. 2023); and a Post-Graduate Fellowship at the (15 Aug.鈭�30 Sep. 2022).

I am completing a monograph, entitled Illustrating the Year: The Iconography of the Calendar and its Cultural Impact in Early Modern Northern Italy, which builds upon my doctoral research at 果冻传媒. Combining historical and art-historical approaches, my work investigates the imagery of late fifteenth- and sixteenth-century calendars created in Northern Italy, demonstrating the enduring centrality of this theme within the late Renaissance visual culture and society. This research has been supported by a between Sep. 2021 and May 2022, with the addition of a month at the (Jun.鈭扟ul. 2022). I was awarded a for the forthcoming publication.

In 2019-2020 I was awarded an Early Career Fellowship by the 果冻传媒 Institute of Advanced Studies to examine the illustrations of early-printed farming literature and to recreate a Renaissance vegetable garden for educational purposes on campus. This project expanded my research on Renaissance agricultural literature in the collection of the Newberry Library, for which I received a Charles Montgomery Gray Short-Term Fellowship in the autumn of 2019.

'Athene had seen what the land required.It needed the sound of the wind rustling slender green-silver leaves. It needed an elegant pale trunk, and it needed bright green fruit. In short, it needed us.' Natalie Haynes, 'Stone Blind'.

Email: Anca-Delia.Moldovan@warwick.ac.uk

PhD in History of Art - 果冻传媒 (UK)

MA in History of Art - University of Florence (IT)

BA in History - University of Bucharest (RO)

Teaching Experience

I am the convenor of the undergraduate CSR module Renaissance Europe II: 'Renaissance Ecologies' (RS201and RS301). The course introduces students to the complex ways in which Renaissance Europeans understood and interacted with the physical world around them. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of textual, visual, and archival sources, spanning broad geographical contexts (Spain, France, Italy, England, Germany, and the Americas), and disciplinary approaches (History, History of Art, Intellectual History, History of Science, Medicine, Ecohistory and environmental studies, literature, and religion). The topics addressed include: religious views of nature; medicine and alchemy; exploitation of natural resources for food (hunting, fishing, and farming), luxury goods (glass and gemstones), and entertainment; related effects of colonialism and environmental destruction; the relationship between art and nature; built environments as social microcosms. By looking at the interconnection of Renaissance culture with its diverse ecologies, this course hopes to ultimately inform new ways of thinking about our present relationship with the natural world.

I have delivered a 2nd-year module on Italian Renaissance Sculpture (HA2C7) in the Department of History of Art (果冻传媒), during the Spring Term 2019/20. My teaching approach is interdisciplinary and aims at contextualising the artworks within the political, social, cultural, and technological development of Renaissance Florence. The seminar also sought to emphasise the physical qualities of sculpture and to directly engage students with artworks during a field trip to the V&A. I conducted highly dynamic classes, in which I encouraged student participation, by creating both group and individual exercises designed to develop essential analytical, critical and presentational skills.

Research Interests

My research explores the calendrical and agricultural representations during the fifteenth and sixteenth century, principally in Italy, but also in relation to other spaces. The central aspects of my work concern timekeeping, Renaissance agriculture and astrology, seasonal, rural, urban, and religious representation, food production and consumption. I am interested in the intersection of artistic representation, science and material culture, the relationship between agriculture and the myth of power, as well as the intertwining between classical knowledge, popular tradition, and Renaissance farming innovation. More broadly, I am fascinated by the transmutation of motifs across time and borders, as well as across different media, including manuscripts and printed materials, paintings, frescoes, tapestries, and decorative arts. My research integrates a systematic, comparative, and interpretative approach to visual sources, to observe how shifts in iconography reflect broader cultural, religious, economic, and political changes.

Publications

鈥楶iero Vettori and the Noble Art of Olive Growing: Botanical Knowledge as Environmental Strategy in Early Modern Tuscany鈥�, in Environment and Economy in the Global Renaissance, eds. Robert Fredona, Sophus Reinert, and Caroline Murphy, Delaware University Press, forthcoming.

Co-written with Samir Boumediene, 鈥楽imple Machines, Complex Organizations. Stradano鈥檚 Vision of Technology as Social Coordination鈥� in series NIKI Studies in Netherlandish-Italian Art History, ed. Gert Jan can der Sman, Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.

鈥樷�淥levum olivarum鈥�: Stradano鈥檚 Engraving and the New Art of Olive-Oil Making in Sixteenth-Century Tuscany鈥�, Renaissance Quarterly, 77.2 (2024), pp. 573 - 622,

鈥楩rom Carnival to Pious City: Scenes of Urban Life in the Bassano Series of the Months鈥�, Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Reforme, special issue: Experiencing the Environment in the Early Modern Period: Seasons, Senses, and Health, curated by Terpstra and Hewlett, 44.2 (2021), pp. 113-142.

鈥樷��, in Rivista di Storia della Miniatura, 22 (2018), pp. 136-148.

鈥楲鈥檌ncontro nel deserto tra Ges霉 e san Giovannino: fonti iconografiche鈥�, in Arte Cristiana, 103: 887 (2015), pp. 113-122.

Lectures/Seminars

, Invited lecture in occasion of the exhibition 鈥楢rcimboldo 鈥� Bassano 鈥� Bruegel Nature鈥檚 Time鈥�, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 5 June 2025.

, Italian Society for the History of Science, SISS meets early careers, 25 Mar. 2025.

,Warburg Institute, Work in Progress Seminar, London, 10 May 2023.

, Newberry Seminar in European Art series, Chicago, 12 November 2021.

Conference Papers

鈥楢rt and Nature in Stradano鈥檚 Oleum olivarum Print鈥�, Conference Immagini e Metamorfosi della Natura nel Rinascimento Europeo, 26 - 28 November 2024, Universit脿 Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Palazzo Arese Borromeo, Cesano Maderno.

鈥楲acking the Benefit of the Air鈥�: An Olive Tree-Focused Perspective on Climate in Sixteenth-Century Medici Tuscany', European Society for the History of Science, Barcelona, 4 鈥� 7 September 2024 - panel series: Ecology, Land Management and Horticulture in Early Modern Italy.

'A Cultural and Iconographic 果冻传媒 of the Olive Tree and Vine in Early Modern Emblems鈥�, Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, 21 March 2024 - panel series: New Work in Emblem Studies.

, Renaissance Society of America, Virtual conference, 13 鈥� 22 April 2021 - panel series: Magical Materials II: Secret Virtues in Crafted Objects.

'From Carnival to Pious City: Scenes of Urban Life in the Bassano Series of the Twelve Months', Renaissance Society Association 65th Conference, Toronto, 17 鈥� 19 March 2019 - panel series: Seasonal Rhythms and Rituals in the Cultural Life of Renaissance Cities.

鈥�The Calendar of a Printed Book of Hours and its Impact on Sixteenth-Century Manuscript Illumination鈥�, Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, The Newberry Library, Chicago, 25 鈥� 27 January 2018.

Conference Organisation

", 12 December 2024, Villa Bardini. Event opened to the public and organised in collaboration with the Societ脿 Toscana di Orticoltura.

We come together to celebrate the olive tree, a plant that is deeply woven into the culture, economy, environment, culinary traditions, and daily life of Tuscany. With the help of historians and olive cultivation experts, we will explore the challenges faced both in the past and present, and work on the best strategies to safeguard and enhance its immense ecological, cultural, and social value.

, Online Conference, Warburg Institute, London, 27鈥�28 June 2023. The conference showcases multifaceted and broadly geographical perspectives on ideas, uses, and representations of soils in the Early Modern period. It addresses the topic from a variety of methodologies and disciplines, including history of art and architecture, history of science and technology, indigenous history, ecohistory, cultural and intellectual history, politico-economic history, and literature

Aetas Argentea in Ovid, Metamorphoses 1. Crispijn van de Passe I, Cologne, 1602鈥�1607. Engraving. From The Warburg Institute鈥檚 Photographic Collection. [the original work is found in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. RP-P-OB-15.886]

Blog posts and public engagement activities

Public presentation on olive history within the (Local Organization for the Innovation of Olive Goves) festival on 1 Dec. 2024.

, post for the Warburg Institute, 16 August 2023.

'', post for the Newberry Library Blog, 18 May 2022.

I had a great day last Friday presenting the Renaissance vegetable garden project to the students of the . What an enthusiastic group! Thanks for your support! 馃尳馃尰馃崑馃崊馃ウ馃�旔煡曫煣�

鈥� Delia Moldovan (@MoldovanDelia)