Ross Balzaretti

Contact

• work
• Ross.Balzaretti@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

I retired (early) from the History department in August 2024, having joined in August 1990. I am still research active. I am currently on the AHRC Peer Review College. I am a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Historical Society. Some of my publications can be discovered at Academia.edu where there is a complete publications' list.

Expertise Summary

I have supervised 18 doctoral students to completion and am currently co-supervising 2 more in diverse aspects of History (see below).

Research Summary

Doctoral researchers

I am currently so-supervising two doctoral researchers, Elena Manservisi and Cheryl-Anne Afonso. I will not be taking on any new PhD projects.

Completed PhDs

Dr Faye Taylor. Miracula, saints' cults and socio-political landscapes: Bobbio, Conques and post-Carolingian society (2012)

Dr Theresa Tyers. The rebirth of fertility: the Trotula and her travelling companions c. 1200-1450 (2012)

Dr Robert Hearn. Grey wolves and wild boar: a comparative species history in Liguria 1500 to 2012 (2013). Assistant Professor, School of Geography, University of Nottingham.

Dr Rachel Middlemass. Bodies of men : manhood and masculinity in England and northern France, c.1100-c.1250 (2013)

Dr Teresa Phipps. Urban women and local justice: gender, society and litigation in fourteenth-century England (2015)

Dr Pietro Piana. Topographical art and landscape history in central-eastern Liguria (c. 1770-1840) (2015). Postdoctoral researcher at University of Genoa.

Dr Lucila Mallart. Josep Puig i Cadafalch and the construction of a Catalan national imagination (1880-1950) (2016). Postdoctoral researcher at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.

Dr Rebecca Maryan. Humoral theory circulating in religious literature in England, c.1300-1500 (2016)

Dr Laura Grazia di Stefano. The business of pilgrimage in the fifteenth-century Venice (2019)

Dr Chiara Ravera. In nomine dominae: notarial documents and women's lives in Genoese Chios (1348-1522) (2019)

Dr Michele Baitieri. Politics and documentary culture: the bishops of North-Western Italy during the post-Carolingian period (c. 888-962) (2020). Research fellow at University of Oslo.

Dr Timothy McManus. The construction of individual criminal culpability 1199-1245: heresy, inquisitio and Inquisition (2020)

Dr Marco Panato. Environment, society and economy of an early medieval river. The late-Lombard and Carolingian Po valley (northern Italy), 715-924 AD. From 2024 Leverhulme ECF, Nottingham.

Dr David Robinson. Orientalism or Meridionism? British identity formation through travel writing on India and Italy, 1760-1850 (2020)

Dr Alessandro Carabia. Space, population and economy in a frontier region: Liguria in the context of the Western Byzantine provinces AD 500-700 (2022)

Dr Robert Frost. Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797 - 1879): Lost Worlds of Antiquarianism in Egypt and the Balkans (2022). Now Leverhulme ECF at University of Leicester.

Dr Matthew Carter. Beasts of place and time: animals and Britishness in popular natural history, c.1760-1860 (2023)

Dr Leonardo Porcelloni. A Cultural Geography of Via Francigena: Historical and Modern Mobilities along a European Cultural Route (2023). Research fellow at University of Verona.

Selected Publications

• BALZARETTI, R., 2016. Hugh of Arles (c. 885-948) and his family: narratives of failure in the regnum Italiae Early Medieval Europe. 24(2), 185-208
• BALZARETTI, R., PIANA, P. and WATKINS, C., 2015. Travelling in Italy during Turner's Lifetime Available at: <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/ross-balzaretti-pietro-piana-and-charles-watkins-travelling-in-italy-during-turners-r1176438>
• BALZARETTI, R., 2013. Dark Age Liguria: regional identity and local power, c. 400-1020 Bloomsbury Academic.
• BALZARETTI, R., 2019. The Lands of Saint Ambrose: Monks and Society in Early Medieval Milan Brepols.

• View all publications

Studi di storia medioevale e diplomatica since 2020, current.

Previous

Gender & History, since 1993; Editor 2004-2010; resigned 2024.

Nottingham Medieval Studies since 1993; resigned 2024.

Studies in the Early Middle Ages, co-editor of book series published by Brepols (until 2014)

Medieval Church Studies (Brepols), co-editor of this books series now based at Nottingham, from 2014-2024.

Future Research

I am completing a fully annotated English translation of Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum and related texts for Manchester University Press. Current title is North Italian Histories, 600-900 AD. Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum and related texts.

• BALZARETTI, R., 2023. Ligurian peasant cooking in English travel books, c. 1840 to c. 1914. In: CEVASCO, R., HEARN, R. A. and PESCINI, V., eds., Situating foodways and foodscapes: Dalla tavola al terreno Genova University Press.
• BALZARETTI, R., PIANA, P. and WATKINS, C., 2023. Topographical art, travel accounts and the landscape history of viticulture in eighteenth and nineteenth century Italy. In: CEVASCO, R., HEARN, R. A. and PESCINI, V., eds., Situating foodways and foodscapes: Dalla tavola al terreno Genova University Press.
• ROSS BALZARETTI, CHARLES WATKINS and PIETRO PIANA, 2021. Rediscovering Lost Landscapes. Topographical Art in north-west Italy, 1800-1920 Boydell & Brewer.
• ROSS BALZARETTI, 2021. Frederic Lees in Varese Ligure, 1911. In: DAVID ROBINSON and GARY FISHER, eds., Travel Writing in an Age of Global Quarantine Anthem Press.
• ROSS BALZARETTI, 2021. Urban Life in Lombard Italy: Genoa and Milan Compared. In: NICHOLAS MATHEOU and TOM MACMASTER, eds., Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean. Empire, Cities and Elites, 476-1204 Routledge.
• BALZARETTI, R., 2021. Re-reading The Lands of Saint Ambrose Reti medievali. 22(1),
• ROSS BALZARETTI, 2021. Afterword. In: CHRISTOPHER HEATH and ROBERT HOUGHTON, eds., Conflict and Violence in Medieval Italy 568-1154 Amsterdam University Press. 376
• ROSS BALZARETTI, 2020. Milan, Genoa and the Alps: Early Medieval Exchanges across a Region. In: G. ALBINI and L. MECELLA, eds., Un ponte tra il Mediterraneo e il Nord-Europa. La Lombardia el primo millennio Pearson Italia. 201-230 (In Press.)
• BALZARETTI, R., 2019. The Lands of Saint Ambrose: Monks and Society in Early Medieval Milan Brepols.
• BALZARETTI, R., 2019. Crossing the River Magra in the 'land of broken bridges': risk in early nineteenth-century travel narratives Journal of Risk Research.
• P. PIANA, C. WATKINS and R. BALZARETTI, 2019. The Palm Landscapes of the Italian Riviera Landscapes.
• PIETRO PIANA, CHARLES WATKINS and ROSS BALZARETTI, 2019. Photography, topographical art and cartography: the productive landscape of the Italian Riviera Annali di Ricerche e Studi di Geografia. 74, 39-52
• BALZARETTI, R., 2018. Early Medieval Genoa. In: BENES, C., ed., Companion to Medieval Genoa Brill, Leiden.
• BALZARETTI, R., BARROW, J. and SKINNER, P., eds., 2018. Italy and Early Medieval Europe: Essays Presented to Chris Wickham Oxford University Press.
• BALZARETTI, R., 2018. Chestnuts in charters: evidence for specialised production in tenth-century Genoa and Milan. In: BALZARETTI, R., BARROW, J. and SKINNER, P., eds., Italy and Early Medieval Europe: Essays Presented to Chris Wickham Oxford University Press.
• BRUZZONE, R., WATKINS, C., BALZARETTI, R. and MONTANARI, C., 2018. Botanical Relics of a Lost Landscape: herborising 'upon the Cliffs about the Pharos' in Genoa, March 1664 Landscape Research. 43(1), 20-36
• PIANA, PIETRO, WATKINS, CHARLES and BALZARETTI, ROSS, 2018. Transport, modernity and rural landscapes in nineteenth century Liguria Rural History. 29(2), 167-93
• PIANA, PIETRO, WATKINS, CHARLES and BALZARETTI, ROSS, 2018. Art and landscape history: British artists in nineteenth-century Val d’Aosta (NW Italy) Landscape History. 39(2),
• PIANA, PIETRO, WATKINS, CHARLES and BALZARETTI, ROSS, 2018. Topographical art and historical geography: amateur English representations of Ligurian landscape in the early nineteenth century’ Geostorie: Bollettino e notizario. 26(3), 195-221
• ROSS BALZARETTI and CHARLES WATKINS, 2018. Experiences of historical ecology in Val di Vara. In: CARLO MONTANARI and MARIA ANGELA GUIDO, eds., Dal documento al terreno. Storia e archeologia dei sistemi agro-silvo-pastorali. Nuova edizione: Attualità di una proposta storica Genova University Press. 305-309
• BALZARETTI, R., 2016. Hugh of Arles (c. 885-948) and his family: narratives of failure in the regnum Italiae Early Medieval Europe. 24(2), 185-208
• PIANA, P., WATKINS, C. and BALZARETTI, R., 2016. ‘Saved from the sordid axe’: representation and understanding of pine trees by English visitors to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Landscape History. 37(2), 35-56
• BALZARETTI, R., 2015. British Women Travellers and Italian marriages, c. 1789-1844. In: BABINI, V., BECCALOSSI, C. and RIALL, L., eds., Italian Sexualities Uncovered: The Long Nineteenth Century (1879-1914) Palgrave. 251-71
• BALZARETTI, R., 2015. Women and Weapons in Early Medieval Europe. In: CHEMOTTI, S. and LA ROCCA, M. C., eds., Il genere nella ricerca storica: Atti del VI Congresso della Societa Italiana delle Storiche Il Poligrafo, Padova. 137-50
• HEARN, R., BALZARETTI, R. and WATKINS, C., 2015. The wolf in the landscape. Antonio Cesena and attitudes to wolves in sixteenth-century Liguria Rural History: Economy, Society, Culture. 26(1), 1-16
• BALZARETTI, R., CEVASCO, R., MORENO, D. and WATKINS, C., 2015. Historical Chestnut Cultures, Climate and Rural Landscapes in the Apennines. In: HARVEY, D. and PERRY, JIM, eds., The Future of Heritage as Climates Change. Loss, Adaptation, Creativity Routledge. 130-47
• BALZARETTI, R., PIANA, P. and WATKINS, C., 2015. Travelling in Italy during Turner's Lifetime Available at: <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/ross-balzaretti-pietro-piana-and-charles-watkins-travelling-in-italy-during-turners-r1176438>
• HEARN, R., WATKINS, C. and BALZARETTI, R, 2014. The cultural and land use implications of the reappearance of wild boar in North West Italy: a case study in the Val di Vara Journal of Rural Studies. 36, 52-63
• BALZARETTI, R and WATKINS, C., 2013. The Landscape History of Liguria Fieldcourses of the University of Nottingham. In: CEVASCO, R., ed., La natura della montagna. Scritti in ricordo di Giuseppina Poggi Oltre edizioni. 204-10
• BALZARETTI, R and WATKINS, C., 2013. Recent vegetation change at Palarino, Teviggio, Alta Val di Vara. In: CEVASCO, R., ed., La natura della montagna. Scritti in ricordo di Giuseppina Poggi Oltre edizioni. 522-28
• BALZARETTI, R., 2013. Dark Age Liguria: regional identity and local power, c. 400-1020 Bloomsbury Academic.
• BALZARETTI, R, LAGOMARSINI, S. and WATKINS, C., 2013. Remnant Vaccinium myrtillis on the lower slopes of Mt.. Zatta, Cassego and Scurtabò, Alta Val di Vara. In: CEVASCO, R., ed., La natura della montagna. Scritt in ricordo di Giuseppina Poggi Oltre edizioni. 507-13
• BALZARETTI, R and WATKINS, C., 2013. Recent vegetation change following abandonment at Canevadigiolo, Teviggio, Alta Val di Vara. In: CEVASCO, R., ed., La natura della montagna. Scritti in ricordo di Giuseppina Poggi Oltre edizioni. 515-21
• BALZARETTI, R., 2012. Fatherhood in Late Lombard Italy. In: NELSON, JANET L, REYNOLDS, SUSAN and JOHNS, SUSAN M., eds., Gender and historiography: Studies in the history of the earlier middle ages in honour of Pauline Stafford Institute of Historical Research London. 9-20
• BALZARETTI, R, PIANA, P, MORENO, D and WATKINS, C, 2012. Topographical art and landscape history: Elizabeth Fanshawe (1779-1856) in early nineteenth-century Liguria Landscape History. 33, 65-81
• BALZARETTI, R, 2012. Women, Property and Urban Space in Tenth-Century Milan. In: LIN FOXALL and GABRIELE NEHER, eds., Gender and the City before Modernity Wiley-Blackwell. 57-85
• BALZARETTI, R., 2011. Lombard fathers Archeologia Medievale: Cultura materiale Insediamenti Territorio. 38, 45-57
• BALZARETTI, R., 2011. Victorian travellers, Apennine landscapes and the development of cultural heritage in Eastern Liguria, c.1875-1914 History: Journal of the Historical Association. 96(324), 436-458
• BALZARETTI, R., 2011. Women, property and urban space in tenth-century Milan Gender and History. 23(3), 547-575
• BALZARETTI, R., 2010. Review of M. Richter, Bobbio in the Early Middle Ages (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2008) Catholic Historical Review. 98-100
• BALZARETTI, R., 2010. Elites and silver in Milan and its region in the ninth century. In: DEVROEY, J-P, FELLER, L and LE JAN, R., eds., Les élites et la richesse au haut Moyen Âge entre vie et xie siècles Brepols. 403-437
• BALZARETTI, R and WATKINS, C., 2009. Studying landscape history: fifteen years of undergraduate education and field work in the Alta Val di Vara In: Le Zone Umide archivi del paesaggio culturale tra ricerca e gestione, Proceedings of the International Workshop, Genoa 29-30 January 2009.
• BALZARETTI, R., 2009. Review of Roberta Cevasco, Memoria verde. Nuovi spazi per la geografia Environment and History. 15(2), 257-259
• BALZARETTI, R., 2008. Sexuality in Late Lombard Italy, c.700-800 AD. In: HARPER, A AND PROCTOR, C., ed., Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook London: Routledge. 7-31
• BALZARETTI, R., 2008. Review-Article. Liudprand of Cremona Nottingham Medieval Studies. 52, 246-256
• ADLER, K. H, BALZARETTI, R and MITCHELL, M., 2008. Practising Gender History Gender & History. 20(1), 1-7
• BALZARETTI, R., 2006. Spoken narratives in ninth-century Milanese court records. In: TYLER, E.M. and BALZARETTI, R., eds., Narrative and history in the early medieval West Turnhout: Brepols. 11-38
• BALZARETTI, R. and TYLER, E., eds., 2006. Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West Turnhout: Brepols.
• BALZARETTI, R., 2005. Masculine authority and state identity in Liutprandic Italy. In: POHL, W. and ERHART, P., eds., Die Langobarden: Herrschaft und Identität Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. 332-359
• BALZARETTI, R., 2005. Review article. Agnellus of Ravenna, The Book of Pontiffs of the Church of Ravenna, translated by D. M. Delyannis Nottingham Medieval Studies. 48, 233-237
• BALZARETTI, R., 2004. The history of the countryside in sixteenth-century Varese Ligure. In: BALZARETTI, R., PEARCE, M. and WATKINS, C., eds., Ligurian landscapes: studies in archaeology, geography & history London: Accordia Research Institute, University of London. 113-128
• BALZARETTI, R., PEARCE, M. and WATKINS, C., eds., 2004. Ligurian Landscapes: Studies in Archaeology, Geography and History London: University of London, Accordia Reseach Institute.
• BALZARETTI, R., PEARCE, M.J. and WATKINS, C., 2004. Ligurian landscapes: microhistory and environmental history. In: BALZARETTI, R., PEARCE, M.J. and WATKINS, C., eds., Ligurian landscapes: studies in archaeology, geography and history London: Accordia Research Institute. 1-6
• BALZARETTI, R., 2004. Peasants. In: KLEINHENZ, C., ed., Medieval Italy: an encyclopedia London: Routledge. 868-871
• BALZARETTI, R., 2004. Viticulture. In: KLEINHENZ, C., ed., Medieval Italy: an encyclopaedia London: Routledge. 1157-1158
• BALZARETTI, R., 2004. Agriculture. In: KLEINHENZ, C., ed., Medieval Italy: an encyclopaedia London: Routledge. 6-8
• BALZARETTI, R., 2004. Land Tenure and Inheritance. In: KLEINHENZ, C., ed., Medieval Italy: an encyclopaedia London: Routledge,. 599-601
• BALZARETTI, R., 2004. Fieschi. In: KLEINHENZ, C., ed., Medieval Italy: an encyclopaedia London: Routledge. 336-337
• BALZARETTI, R., 2002. Liutprand of Cremona's sense of humour. In: HALSALL, G., ed., Humour, history and politics in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 114-128
• BALZARETTI, R., 2001. Sexual cultures in the early medieval West. In: SAMSON, R., ed., Indecent Exposure. Sexuality, Society and the Archaeological Record Glasgow: Cruithne Press. 147-161
• BALZARETTI, R., 2000. Monasteries, Towns and the Countryside: Reciprocal Relationships in the Archdiocese of Milan, 614-814. In: Towns and their Territories between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Leiden: Brill. 235-257
• BALZARETTI, R., 1999. Theodelinda, 'most glorious queen': Gender and Power in Lombard Italy Medieval History Journal. 2(2), 183-207
• BALZARETTI, R., 1999. Men and Sex in Tenth-century Italy. In: Masculinity in Medieval Europe Harlow: Longman. 143-159
• BALZARETTI, R., 1999. The Politics of Property in ninth-century Milan. Familial Motives and Monastic Strategies in the Village of Inzago Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Moyen Âge. 111(2), 747-770
• BALZARETTI, R., 1999. Review article: San Vincenzo al Volturno. History rewritten? Early Medieval Europe. 8, 387-400
• BALZARETTI, R., 1998. "These are things that men do, not women": the social regulation of female violence in Langobard Italy. In: Violence and Society in the Early Medieval West Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer. 175-192
• BALZARETTI,R., 1997. Review of W Davies and P Fouracre (eds), Property and Power in Early Medieval Europe, Cambridge University Press, 1995 Economic History Review. 50(2), 393-394
• BALZARETTI, R., 1996. Cities, emporia and monasteries: local economies in the Po Valley 700-875. In: Towns in Transition. Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Aldershot: Scolar Press. 213-234
• BALZARETTI, R., 1996. Charlemagne in Italy History Today. 46(2), 28-34
• BALZARETTI, R. and ERICKSON, A., 1995. Gender & History, Special issue: Presentations of the Self in Early Modern England
• BALZARETTI, R., 1995. Cities and Markets in Early Medieval Europe. In: AUSENDA, G., ed., After Empire: Towards an Ethnology of Europe's Barbarians. Boydell Press, Woodbridge. 113-142
• BALZARETTI, R., 1994. The Curtis, the Archaeology of Sites of Power. In: La Storia dell'alto medioevo Italiano (vi-x secolo) alla luce dell'archeologia 99-108
• BALZARETTI, R., 1994. Michel Foucault, Homosexuality and the Middle Ages Renaissance and Modern Studies. 37, 1-18
• BALZARETTI, R., 1994. Update: Dark Age Italy The Historian. 41, 9-11
• BALZARETTI, R., 1994. The Monastery of Sant'Ambrogio and Dispute Settlement in Early Medieval Milan Early Medieval Europe. 3(1), 1-18
• BALZARETTI, R., 1992. Debate: Trade, Industry and the Wealth of King Alfred Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies. 135, 142-150
• BALZARETTI, R, 1992. Images of Dark Age Milan Medieval World. 4, 48-54
• BALZARETTI, R., 1992. The Creation of Europe History Workshop Journal. 33, 181-196
• BALZARETTI, R., 1991. History, archaeology and early medieval urbanism: the north Italian debate Accordia Research Papers. 2, 87-104
• BALZARETTI, R., 1991. Milano e i milanesi Nottingham Medieval Studies. 35, 155-160
• PORCELLONI, L., WATKINS, C. and BALZARETTI, R., Via Francigena: changing historical geographies and mobilities of a rediscovered historical route (1695-2020) Geotema. (In Press.)