Valentina Bottanelli
Affiliated Junior Researcher
bottanelli@fscire.itEducation, academic and professionali experience
Valentina Bottanelli is a research fellow at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia on the PRIN PNRR 2022 project "Images of China from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment" (SSD. L-OR/23, M-STO/07), and a member of the project Jesuits between Science and Technology: From Kircher to Boscovich.
In 2025, she was awarded a scholarship for the International Postdoctoral Workshop “Historical Legacies of Christianity in East Asia: Bridging a New Generation of Scholars and Scholarship” (Warsaw), promoted by the Ricci Institute for Chinese–Western Cultural History at Boston College.
In October 2024, she defended her thesis for scientific specialization at the Foundation for Religious Sciences, with a dissertation on Chinese liturgical texts of the Syrian-Orthodox Church during the Tang Dynasty (advisor Prof. Daniel Canaris, readers Prof. Chiara Tommasi, Prof. Lijuan Lin).
Since April 2022, she has been collaborating with the University of Sydney on the project Transforming the East: Jesuit Translations of the Confucian Classics, holding various positions as a Research Assistant.
Her current research focuses on intercultural encounters in religious and philosophical texts between China, East Asia, and Europe. Methodologically, her research is based on a direct, philologically-oriented approach to written sources and the study of their materiality.
She is currently a member of the editorial board of the series Testi, ricerche e fonti (Marietti 1820), on the editorial boards of Fscire Research and Papers (V&R) and Bologna Studies in Religious History (Brill), and is a member of the editorial team of the journal Cristianesimo nella Storia.
Features pubblications
Articles
V. Bottanelli, A catalogue of translations of Xi’An nestorian Stele, in Cristianesimo nella storia, 46 (2025), pp. 69-100.
F. Borghesi, V. Bottanelli. Sinica Europaea. Due progetti sulla diffusione dell’immagine della Cina in Europa, in Intorcettiana, VI/12, Luglio-Dicembre 2024, pag. 60-65.
Chapters in books
V. Bottanelli, Cristologia antiochena e teologia cinese: il simbolo nella dottrina Jingjia, in C. Bianchi, A. Melloni, M. Proietti (eds.), Il Concilio e il Credo (325-2025). Storia e trasmissione dei simboli di Nicea e di Costantinopoli, Bologna, EDB, 2025, pp. 641-650.
V. Bottanelli, Il Simbolo niceno nelle tradizioni siriache della tarda antichità, in C. Bianchi, A. Melloni, M. Proietti (eds.), Il Concilio e il Credo (325-2025). Storia e trasmissione dei simboli di Nicea e di Costantinopoli, Bologna, EDB, 2025, pp. 151-162.
V. Bottanelli, Misa Jingdian: il Simbolo Niceno-Costantinopolitano nella disputa sulla liturgia Cinese, in Berardi, C. (ed.), Il Simbolo nella Tradizione Antica e nella Ricezione Moderna, Milano, Nerbini, 2025, pp. 169-186.
U. Mazzone, D. Dainese, V. Bottanelli, Prospero Lambertini (Bologna, 31.3.1675-3.5.1758), in F. Citti, I. Graziani (eds.), Benedetto XIV e Bologna. Arti e scienze nell’età dei lumi, Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, Archivi e Strumenti, 2025, pp. 13-43.
V. Bottanelli, Astronomy in the Jesuit Mission to Ming China, in V. Zanini, A. Naddeo, F. Bonoli (eds.) Atti del XLI Convegno annuale-Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference, Pisa, Pisa University Press, 2022, pag. 31.
Reviews
S. N. C. Lieu, G. L. Thompson (eds.), The Church of East in central Asia and China, Turnhout, Brepols, 2020, in Cristianesimo nella Storia, pp. 880-882, 44/3, 2023.
Dictionary/encyclopedias/catalogs entries
V. Bottanelli, Cina, in Enciclopedia Francescana, Roma, Treccani, 2024.
Confereces, seminaries and workshops
October 28 – November 4, 2025, International Workshop "Historical Legacies of Christianity in East Asia: Bridging a New Generation of Scholars and Scholarship," Warsaw (PL).
September 15 – 16, 2025, paper: Una mimosa per l’imperatore. Jesuits, Quakers, and Chinese Herbaria between the Far East and the Far West, International Conference The Jesuits between Science and Technology: From Kircher to Boscovich, Reggio Emilia.
August 24 – 30, 2025, Translating Religious Concepts along the Silk Roads, Roundtable at the Association for the History of Religions World Congress, Kraków (PL).
July 8 – 12, 2025, Paper: Divine Sovereignty and Imperial Authority: Religious and Political Discourses in Early Sino-Russian Relations; Panel: Diplomatic and Religious Relations: Russian Orthodox Church and Northern China, VIII International Congress of the European Academy of Religion 2025, Vienna (AT).
June 19 – 20, 2025, Paper: Chinese and the Enlightenment’s Linguistic Studies, International Conference Enlightened by China. Representations and Myths in 18th-Century Europe, Turin.
June 16 – 17, 2025, Paper: New Perspectives for the ‘Transforming the East’ Database, Scientific Conference Classica Serica. Latin and the East Between the Medieval and Modern Ages: A Review Between History, Literature, and Digital Perspectives, Turin.
February 13 – 14, 2025, Organizer of the Digital Methodologies for Humanities seminar, Bologna.
October 21 – 23, 2024, Paper: The Analects in Batavia: A Forgotten Translation, Conference Traveling Books, Journeying Men: Cultural Dynamics along Trade Routes to and from the East, Pisa.
July 10 – 12, 2024, Paper: Across Empires of Faith: Chinese Creeds and Religious Exchange between China, Spanish Philippines, and Dutch Batavia, International Conference Mapping and Translating Spaces, Cultures, and Languages Experiences Connected to Empires and Missions (1500-1700), Rome.
July 2, 2024, Organizer of the seminar on the Volumes The General Councils of the Eastern Christian Churches, Bologna.
June 24 – 26, 2024, Paper: The Textus-Sinici Database, Organizing and Scientific Committee of the Missionaries, Languages, East Asia (XVI-XX Century) International Conference, Bologna.
May 14 – 16, 2024, Paper: Cross-Confession Contamination in Early Modern China and Dutch Batavia: Justus Heurnius’ Chinese-Latin Compendium Doctrinae Christianae (Bodleian Library, Marsh 456), Thirteenth Annual REFORC Conference on Early Modern Christianity, Palermo.
April 12, 2024, Misa Jingdian 彌撒經典: The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Liturgical Dispute in China, Presentation at the The Symbol in Ancient Tradition and Its Modern Receptionconference, University of Foggia, Foggia.
June 19 – 23, 2023, Panel: Religious Encounter in Medieval and Early Modern Travel Accounts, VI International Congress of the European Academy of Religion 2023, St. Andrews (UK).
June 20 – 23, 2022, Panel: Religious Diversity in Tang China, V International Congress of the European Academy of Religion 2022, Bologna.
September 6 – 9, 2021, Presentation of Master's Thesis, Special Mention of the SISFA 2021 Graduation Award, XLI SISFA National Congress, Arezzo.