Dr Emanuela Vai

I am Head of Research (Humanities) and Senior Research Fellow and Head of Collections at the Bate Collections of Musical Instruments and Archives, where I lead on all conservation, research and curatorial aspects (Worcester College / University of Oxford). I am the PI of a EU Commission grant focusing on the Hill Collection of Musical Instruments at the Ashmolean Museum. Previously, I have held positions at the University of Oxford as Scott Opler Fellow; at the University of Cambridge; at the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the University of York (CREMS); at the Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance de Tours (CESR); and at the Harvard Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti, where I was Hanna Kiel Fellow.

My work has received the support of fellowships and grants from the British Academy, the Society for Renaissance Studies, the Royal Historical Society, the Renaissance Society of America, the Kress Foundation, the École Pratique des Hautes Études, the Academia Belgica and the Newton Trust at the University of Cambridge, among others.

Research Interests

I am an historian of Renaissance and Early Modern Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean world, working at the intersection of music and material culture, art, architecture and built environment (with digital humanities). My research and publications focus on musical instruments, soundscapes, space and the senses in Renaissance social life. My work combines the analysis of historical materials with 3D virtual modelling, GIS platforms and acoustic analyses, to investigate the relationship between art, music, space and the senses in the Renaissance.

I am the founder and academic lead of the Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage Network: Space, Objects and the Senses at TORCH, an interdisciplinary team of scholars working on digital humanities, musical instruments, space and sound from a variety of perspectives and across disciplines; and exploring the benefits and limitations of digital humanities methods for approaching and understanding historical sources, material objects and cultural heritage. 

I am currently working on two main projects. The first explores the multiple sensory registers through which performative urban events and rituals were encountered and experienced in Early Modern Confraternities in the Venetian Terraferma. My second project, a monograph entitled Fantastic, Monstrous and Marvellous Musical Instruments of the Global Renaissance, explores the carvings of human and nonhuman figures, monsters and grotesque creatures on the scrolls and headstocks of stringed musical instruments. This work, based at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, has been funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust and the EU Commission, and constitutes the first comprehensive study of these decorative elements, exploring what they say about the visual, material and non-auditory dimensions of Renaissance music culture.

Recent Projects

I have led and collaborated on the following grant-funded projects:

- Co-I of 'Digital Bate' [funded by SIF, Humanities Division]

- PI of 'Fantastic, Monstrous and Marvellous Musical Instruments of the Global Renaissance' [funded by EU Commission]

- PI of 'Renaissance Musical Instruments (Digital Humanities and Heritage)' at the Ashmolean Museum [funded by the John Fell Fund, University of Oxford]

- Co-Lead of 'Hybrid Relics' [funded by UKRI EPSRC Horizon - Digital Innovation Research]

- PI of 'Monstruous and Marvellous Musical Instruments: Digital Humanities and Renaissance Music Heritage' [funded by H2020 EU MSCA]

- PI of 'Dis-playing Musical Instruments. Cultures of Collecting and Practices of Performing' [funded by The British Academy/Leverhulme Trust]

- Academic Lead of 'Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage: Space, Objects and the Senses' Network [funded by TORCH, Humanites Division, University of Oxford]

- Co-PI of 'ATRIUM- Transcription of all of Vitruvius's manuscripts' [funded by ERC-2022-ADG]

- 'Monstrous Materialities: Representations of the Grotesque on Scrolls and Headstocks of Italian Renaissance Stringed Instruments (14th-17th c.)' [funded by Hanna Kiel Trust, Harvard University]

- Academic Lead of  'Space and Sound: Architecture for Music', a regional strand of of 'Architectura e Identità Locali: Dalla Letteratura Architettonica agli Scritti Letterari, Dalla Costituzione di una Tradizione alla Conservazione' [funded by PRIN 2010-2012]

- PI of 'Digital Humanities and Music Heritage: Space, Musical Instruments and the Senses' [funded by the Newton Trust, University of Cambridge]

Academic Engagement

I champion the public engagement of academic research, working across a diversity of cultural heritage and digital humanities projects, serving as consultant and advisor for international institutions and associations, with the aim of building and improving partnerships between academia, policy and industry for the study and preservation of tangible and intangible culture. I have appeared on several radio shows on these topics.  

I also act as a mentor for early career researchers, and I serve as an advisory member for international cultural heritage projects in Europe and the US. At Oxford, I continue to serve as the Research Representative for the Humanities Division, and I sit on the Humanities Research Committee and Divisional Boards, as well as on Governing Body at Worcester College. 

I am the Director in Humanities at AISUK, with the aim of promoting scientific collaborations between Italian and British academic institutions and research centres in the public and private sector, through scientific events and other initiatives such as mentoring and support for graduate students and junior researchers.

Twitter: @DrEmanuelaVai