My research career has been fully international well before defending my PhD at the
University of Santiago de Compostela (2012), as attested by my formative stages in
London (2005 and 2008), Paris (2006), Amsterdam (2008-2009) and Helsinki (2010). This
geographical itinerary mirrors the meandering path of my intellectual curiosity, which
has led me from the realm of medieval art to that of critical theory, visual studies,
cultural history and comparative literature. In this regard, even if I consider myself
mostly as a manuscript scholar, I feel that my transdisciplinary methodology and vast
range of interests have earned me a singular and authoritative position at the juncture
of the medieval art historical and literary fields, beyond the realm of Hispanic studies.
Proof of that is my regular invitation to scientific events all over Europe and USA
(Courtauld Institute of Art, King’s College London, University of Oxford, University
of Birmingham, Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Deutsches Historisches Institut
– Paris, Columbia University, Universität Wien, Universidade de Lisboa – Classica,
Universidade do Porto, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Casa de Velázquez, CCSH-CSIC,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and Universitat Rovira i Virgili), my participation
in international research projects, as well as my variegated papers in 22 top academic
journals (Medieval Encounters, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Bulletin of Hispanic
Studies, Hispanic Research Journal) and edited volumes published by Brill, Taylor
& Francis, Wiley-Blackwell or Brepols. In addition to it, I have been awarded with
fellowships and grants by the Warburg Institute, St John’s College – Cambridge, Museo
del Prado, Fondazione Ezio Franceschini and the Accademia de Danimarca in Rome, which
have allowed me to delve into the analysis of the Trojan legend in the Middle Ages
and the medieval reception of Classical culture, the intricacies of Iberian kingship
and queenship, or the patronage of Castilian aristocrats in Humanist circles in Italy.
However, it is the bulk of research carried out for my dissertation—devoted to the
study of the books illuminated for the kings and queens of Castile after the death
of Alfonso X (1284-1369)—that may be regarded as the core of my production. Still
unpublished, it has acquired nonetheless a canonical status and has become the source
for three forthcoming monographs (Brill, UGR, La Ergástula) and issued articles that
offer groundbreaking approaches to the Alfonsine historiographical enterprise, to
the scrutiny of peculiar dynamics of book production and consumption in multi-confessional
Iberia and the hybridized courtly culture created across the Castilian-Grenadine frontier.
Before being awarded with a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship at the Universidade de Santiago
de Compostela, I was appointed Assistant Professor of the University of Southern Denmark
and the Danish Institute for Advanced Study (2017-2021), where I was able to undertake
a project that focused on the emergence and consolidation of the illustrated history
book after 1250 in Iberia and Italy. Instrumental in the creation of this more ambitious
geographical, chronological and conceptual framework has also been the sustained collaboration
with the ERC Advanced project ‘The Values of French’ (King’s College London) and,
above all, the dialogue with my colleagues at the Centre for Medieval Literature (since
2014), an institution to which I remain affiliated and where I have also been promoted
to Senior Researcher. All these initiatives, together with the creation of a long-term
partnership with the Davids Samling (Copenhagen) around the art and literature of
the Silk Roads, evince not only my individual leadership and the potential of my future
research, but also my remarkable capacity for teamwork and mentoring of young researchers.
In this regard, special mention deserves my participation as Leader of the USC team
in the Marie Slodowska Curie Action – Docto
