'Antonio Feltrinelli Giovani' award to Federiciana Maria Chiara Scappaticcio

he Frederician Maria Chiara Scappaticcio has been awarded the prestigious 'Antonio Feltrinelli Giovani' prize. The Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei for Philology and Linguistics awarded her the prize for the year 2025, dedicated to Giovanni Polara . Scappaticcio, a full professor of Latin Languages and Literature in the Department of Humanities at the University of Naples Federico II, was a student of Polara.

The prize was awarded to her by virtue of the Federico II professor's scholarly background and for"her ability to analyze the social aspects of ancient literary works from various perspectives, sometimes unexplored, such as their circulation and the analysis of the cultural contexts that helped shape the texts themselves, obtaining remarkable original results."

The 'Antonio Feltrinelli' Prizes, considered Italy's highest scientific and cultural awards, are given annually to those who have made an "outstanding" contribution to the field of Physical Sciences or Humanities. The Prize was awarded during the ceremony to close the 2024-2025 academic year of the Accademia dei Lincei, which was held in the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. The awardees included Latinist Richard J. Tarrant (Harvard), film director Wim Wenders, oncologist Carlo C. Croce and Amnesty International. In addition to the Award, Professor Scappaticcio, the only one among the Federicians, joins the Young Lincean Interdisciplinary Center.

Maria Chiara Scappaticcio, from Campania, born in 1984, combines her commitment as a mother with academics. Over the years she has distinguished herself for her innovative and interdisciplinary approach applied to Latin research. Already Principal Investigator of a successful project funded by the European Research Council (StG-2014), she is national manager of a research project of national interest with the Normale of Pisa and the University of Catania. At the Federico II he coordinates the agreement with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, but also international agreements with the Sorbonne Université and the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (Munich), and is a member of the Doctoral College in 'Philology'. She is, in addition, a member of the Doctoral College 'Archaeology and Cultures of the Ancient World' at the Southern High School, where she has been teaching courses and lecturing since its inception. Before becoming a researcher and, later, an associate, she held numerous postdoctoral positions (e.g., at the Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes, IRHT), and was a visiting scholar at the Sorbonne, Columbia and New York University, among others.

A Latinist with pronounced philological and linguistic interests, her research focuses on Latin literary texts transmitted on papyrus, education and grammar in Rome, fragmentary Latin literature, acculturation and literary culture in Pompeii, and literary aspects of Roman-era electoral campaigns.

Among his monographs 'Artes grammaticae in fragments. Latin and bilingual grammatical texts on papyrus: annotated edition' (2015) and 'Fabellae: fragments of Latin and bilingual Greek-Latin fables of direct tradition (II-IV AD)' (2017), both with De Gruyter. He is Editor-in-Chief of the six-volume 'Corpus of Latin Texts on Papyrus' (Cambridge University Press, expected August 2025), and his monograph 'Latin Literature on Papyrus: A Companion to Texts from the Eastern Empire' has been proposed to CUP. He is currently working on a monograph on Latin literature in Pompeii (Voices. The Latin of Pompeii) and a new annotated edition of Commentariolum petitionis.