Main Focus
- Arts of the medieval Mediterranean
- Relations between the Italian maritime cities and the Dār al-Islām
- Medieval sacred spaces and their furnishings
- Materials and techniques
- Reuse and recycling
Research Project
Curriculum Vitae
Francesco De Naro
Papa is a PhD candidate in Art History at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität
Heidelberg with a co-tutorship at the Università degli Studi di Roma “La
Sapienza”. He previously studied Art History, Classical and
Byzantine Archaeology in Berlin, Vienna, and Heidelberg. He completed his M.A.
in Heidelberg in 2025 with a thesis on the reuse of Ayyubid ceramics in
liturgical furnishings in 13th-century Campania. Over the course of
his studies, he has gained practical experience as an intern at the Museo
Civico di Palazzo Madama (Turin), the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), and
the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Rome) as well as teaching experience as academic
tutor at Heidelberg University. He is a scientific collaborator on the project
'Mapping Sacred Spaces in Medieval Southern Italy: Forms, Functions and
Aesthetics' (Bibliotheca Hertziana/Sapienza University of Rome).
As a fellow of the
Ursula-Nilgen-Foundation at the Bibliotheca Hertziana, he is currently carrying
out research related to his PhD project, which is dedicated to the import, use,
and reuse of ceramic artifacts in Italian maritime cities between the eleventh
and thirteenth centuries.