BELLINO Francesca

Francesca Bellino has been Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature since 2017. She taught at the University of Turin from 2007 to 2016.
She graduated from the University of Turin (2001, Semitic Philology) with a thesis on an Islamic manuscript tradition concerning Moses. Her doctoral research (2005, University of Florence) focused on one of the most important manuscript traditions of legendary maghāzī literature (Arabic epic), the Ghazwat Raʾs al-Ghūl, attributed to Abū al-Ḥasan al-Bakrī (13th century). Over the years, her research has explored several genres of popular Arabic literature.
She has worked on Islamic cosmography, translating The Wonders of Creation by al-Qazwini (d. 1283) (Mondadori, 2008). Building on this work, she developed an interest in encyclopaedism and has published articles on encyclopaedic texts, focusing on naturalistic aspects and on the transmission of knowledge in premodern Islamic textual culture. She edited the special issue of Quaderni di Studi Arabi (2023), Natural World in Arabic Textual Culture (7th–15th Centuries).
As part of her research on adab, she participated in the project coordinated by C. Mayeur-Jaouen, co-editing L’adab, toujours recommencé. Origins, Transmissions, Metamorphoses of Adab Literature (Brill, 2023).
She studied in Cádiz (Erasmus, 1997–1998), Damascus (1998–1999; 2001–2002) and Cairo, and conducted research in several countries of the Arab and Islamic world. She has been visiting researcher at Princeton University (2016–2017), the University of Tokyo (2018), the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2019), and Harvard University (2024).
From 2009 to 2012 she worked on the KADMOS project and from 2015 to 2016 she served as scientific director of the Paul E. Kahle Archive (University of Turin). She recently edited the catalogue The Collection of the Islamic Manuscripts on Medicine and Magic at L’Orientale (2025).