Carlo Scapecchi

Lecturer in Foundation Year (Arden University), versatile HE educator with a wide range of teaching experiences in Scotland and England. Teaching Qualification: PG Cert in Digital Education (2025).

PhD graduate in History of Art (The University of Edinburgh, 2018-2023) whose primary research interests include Material Culture, Visual Culture, Decorative arts, Charity Institutions, gendered labour, textile history and transnational trade of materials in Early Modern Italy and Europe.

The Pasold Research Fund (Edinburgh, 2020) funded the PhD research on tapestry-making in sixteenth-century Florence.

Experienced Academic Tutor and Course Organiser at the University of Edinburgh (2019-2023) and The University of Aberdeen, ISC (2022-2023) in Early Modern and Modern History and Medieval, Early Modern and Global History of Art.

Institute of Academic Development (IAD), The University of Edinburgh, Course for Training Tutors, 2019

Study Group, Aberdeen ISC, The University of Aberdeen, Development courses for tutors on cooperative learning and Kagan learning techniques, 2023

IHasco Training courses on fire awareness, safeguarding, GDPR policies and money laundering with certificates, 2023

Prevent Duty Training Course with Certificate, UK Government, 2023

Administrative duties and skills:

-marking the attendance of students (The University of Edinburgh and Aberdeen ISC)

-team work with colleagues and course organisers (The University of Edinburgh and Aberdeen ISC)

-work autonomously and decision-making in the course development (Aberdeen ISC)

-report writing on students' performance and  (Aberdeen ISC)

-Quality check; MAB (Moderation Assessment Board) for quality check on the course I was organising at Aberdeen ISC with external and internal examiner

-Communication and interpersonal skills

-Customer service skills (Ingenius Prep)

-Technology and software skills (Microsoft Office, Blackboard, Turnitin and management services of the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen)

Research Interests

 My primary research interests, stemming from my doctoral dissertation, publications and presentations, include material culture, tapestry-making, the textile industry, economic history, gender studies, history of labour, technological innovation, charity institutions and subaltern writing of Early Modern Europe, with a particular focus on sixteenth-century Florence in its civic and global dimensions. 

Ongoing research projects in sight of publications, based on unpublished archival documents: 1-the influx of American metals in goldbeating industry in sixteenth-century Florence, 2-Fiammetta Soderini, the wife of Bindo Altoviti, and female entrepreneurship in sixteenth-century Florence, 3-The imitation of Eastern Mediterrenean carpets in sixteenth-century, 4-the painting career of Ulivieri Ventura Vicenti in the Spedale degli Innocenti in Late sixteenth-century Florence, 5-recycling tecniques in wool industry

 Pasold Research Fund, Edinburgh, PhD Grant, Summer 2020 

Teaching Award Nomination, EUSA, 2021 and 2023

 List of Publications 

Articles: 

Carlo Scapecchi, “The Technical Contribution of Women to Weaving Goat Hair in the Spedale degli Innocenti”, Women's History Today, vol.3, Issue 2, Winter 2021, 40-50 

Carlo Scapecchi, “The Importations and Transmissions of Skills in Sixteenth-Century Florence”, Emergence, University of Southampton, vol.XII, 2022, 88-107 

Carlo Scapecchi, "A Netherlandish Method to Recycle Wool Shearings in Sixteenth-Century Florence", edited volume, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute, 2025

Book Reviews: Carlo Scapecchi, Review of Velvet on My Mind, Velvet on my Loom by Wendy Landry, Journal of Dress History, vol. 5, Issue 5, Late Autumn 2021, 143-146 

Research assistance:

Primary research on archival evidence for the book, Jill Burke. How to Be A Renaissance Woman, London, Profile Books, 2023

List of Presentations 

Annual Conference (University of Edinburgh), 15 May 2019, “Pierfrancesco Riccio and the Medici Patronage” 

Material Culture Seminar Series (University of Edinburgh), 18 November 2019, “Tapestries in Renaissance Florence (1450-1600): Function and Prestige.” 

Northern Early Modern Annual Conference (University of Edinburgh), 27 November 2020, “Disegno and Tapestry-Making in Renaissance Florence.” 

Centuries of Dress Workshop (University of Cambridge/Economic History Society), 12 January 2021, “The Exorbitant Wages of Tapestry-Weavers in Renaissance Florence.” 

South Central Renaissance Conference (USA), 27 March 2021, “Tapestry-Making in Renaissance Florence” 

Association for Art History Annual Conference (University of Birmingham), 17 April 2021, “Jan Rost: a Weaver-Merchant in Renaissance Italy” 

Gradnet Conference (University of Southampton), 8 June 2021, “The Incomplete Project of Weaving Goat Hair Tapestries in Renaissance Florence” 

Materials of Early Modern Fashion (Sartorial Society and Pasold Research Fund, UK/Australia), 8 October 2021, “Nova invention di matter in opera il pelo di capra: Weaving Goat Hair in the Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence” 

Euroweb Cost Action Conference (University of Warsaw, Poland), 26 November 2021, “The Mode of Production of Tapestry-Weaving in Renaissance Florence” 

Edinburgh Early Modern Network Seminar Series (University of Edinburgh), 1 December 2021, “How to domesticate Tapestry-Weaving in Renaissance Italy” 

Northern Early Modern Annual Conference (University of Newcastle), 18 January 2022, “Domesticating textile techniques in Ducal Florence.” 

Visual and Material Culture Seminar Series (European Institute University, Florence), 12 April 2022, “Weaving Eastern Mediterranean Carpets in Late Sixteenth-Century Florence” 

Dress Historians Conference, (National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh), 28 May 2022, “Precious Glimpses: Goldbeating in Renaissance Florence and American connections.” 

Renaissance Society of America Conference, November 2022, “Linen in Renaissance Florence (1450-1600)” 

Bibliotheca Hertziana-Max Planck Institute (Rome),  Lise Meitner Research Group Decay, Loss, and Conservation in Art History, 15-17 March 2023, "A Netherlandish Method to Recycle Wool Shearings in Sixteenth-Century Florence"

Early Modern Sensory Encounters (Kellogg College, The University of Oxford, Oxford), 8-9 June 2023, " Re-creating Visual and Tactile Sensory Experiences: Weaving Eastern Mediterranean Carpets in Late Renaissance Florence (1581-1592)"

Society of Renaissance Studies, 10th Biennale Conference, Liverpool, 19-22 July 2023,  "The Bankruptcy of the Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence (1579):  The Difficult Perspective of Children"

Arden University, 1st Symposium, "First year university and Compassionate Pedagogy", 29th of August 2024

Arden University, Conference, "Visual Literacy in HE education", 28th of February 2025

Aberystwyth University, Communication and Exchange in Early Modern Period, 12-13 June 2025, "Global Glimpses: American metals and Goldbeating in Renaissance Florence"

Edinburgh Early Modern Network (The University of Edinburgh)

Committee member (September 2020-)

Euroweb COST Action on the History of Textiles

Member (September 2020-)

Dress Historians (January 2021-)

-Social Media Marketing Certificate, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, 2018-2019

-Marketing Analytics, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 2018

-Marketing Strategy, IE Business School, Madrid, Spain, 2018
-IELTS Certificate, overall band 7,5, British Council, 2018
-FCE Certificate, B, University of Cambridge, 2016
-PET Certificate, B, University of Cambridge, 2015

-Linguistic Study at Clare Language Centre, Ennis, County Clare, Republic of Ireland, 2015-2016 (two months)
-Languages: Italian (First language), English (C1), Spanish (B2), Portuguese (B1), French (A2), Czech (A2)
-Use of Microsoft Office, WordPress, Google Analytics and Google Ads
-Driving License B