Dr. Alba Fedeli

10/2026–present
Research Associate at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (2026-2029), Germany

co-PI of the DFG project BiSaME, From the Particular View to the Overall Picture. Using Computer Vision, AI, Palaeography, and Philology to Reconstruct the Biography of the Great Mosque of Sanaa Manuscript Collection as an ensemble (2026-2038)

05–06/2026
Research Fellow, Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt, Germany

09/2023–12/2025
Research Associate at the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts, University of Hamburg, Germany

PI of the project What is in a Scribe’s Mind and Inkwell. Archaeology of the Gotha Collection of Early Qur’anic Manuscripts as a Case Study at the Intersection of Philology and Natural Sciences (2023-2025)

10/2018–08/2023
Research Associate at Asien-Afrika-Institut, University of Hamburg, Germany

co-PI of the joint AHRC-DFG project InterSaME, The intertwined world of the oral and written transmission of sacred traditions in the Middle East (2020-2023)

10/2017–09/2018
Research Associate at the Foundation for Religious Studies (FSCIRE), Bologna, Italy

PI of the project Qur’anic Phylogenetics and Origins

09/2015–09/2017
Research Associate at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

PI of the project Early Qur’anic Manuscripts and their Relationship as Studied Through Phylogenetic Software

06/2015–08/2015
Visiting Fellow, A reading of the Qur’anic Manuscripts at the John Rylands University Library, The John Rylands Research Institute, Manchester, UK

09/2012–08/2014
PhD Scholarship, funded by AHRC and University of Birmingham, UK

Phd in Theology and Religion, dissertation: Early Qur'ānic manuscripts, their text, and the Alphonse Mingana papers held in the Department of Special Collections of the University of Birmingham, University of Birmingham, UK (2011-2015)

01–02/2010
Visiting Fellow, Research Group on Ancient Arabia (from the 1st Millennium BCE to the Emergence of Islam) and its Relations with the Surrounding Cultures, organised by Joseph Patrich and Michael Lecker, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Jerusalem, Israel

10/2004–08/2012
Professore a contratto for Arabic Studies, MediazioneLinguistica e Culturale, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy

01/2011–10/2015
PI of the Project The Enhancement of the Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest (Cambridge University Library Or. 1287): Reading Between the Lines of Its Post-Processed Images, funded by The Islamic Manuscript Association, Cambridge, UK

09–12/2010
PI of the Project Digitisation of the Mingana-Lewis Palimpsest, Cambridge University Library Or. 1287, funded by The Islamic Manuscript Association, Cambridge, UK

04/2003–01/2008
Director, Ferni Noja Noseda Foundation for Arabo-Islamic Studies, Lesa, Italy

09/2000–03/2003
Librarian, Ferni Noja Noseda Foundation for Arabo-Islamic Studies, Lesa, Italy

09/2001–07/2002
Teacher of Arabic Language, Pascal High School, Romentino, Italy

12/2000
M.A in Classics and Arabic Studies, Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy

Qur’anic Manuscript Studies (Provenance, Palaeography and Codicology, Membra Disiecta, Philology, Archaeometrical Philology, Archaeology, Reception History)

Early Islam

Qur’anic Studies

History of Qur’anic Studies in Europe from Renaissance to Present

From Manuscript Tradition to Printing Technology, Facsimiles

Digital Humanities

Writing Systems

Biography of the Gotha Early Qur’anic Manuscripts

The project continues research on the Gotha early Qur’anic manuscripts preserved at the Forshungsbibliothek Gotha. Building on earlier work carried out at the Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts (UWA) of the University of Hamburg between August 2023 and December 2025, it involves direct inspection and microscopic analysis of the manuscripts, as well as the preparation of a monograph on the Gotha early Qur’anic manuscripts. Part of this research was undertaken during a research fellowship at the Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt in May and June 2026.

The monograph focuses on the biography of each manuscript, as well as that of the collection as a whole, from production to afterlife, with particular attention to their physical stratigraphy, that is, the successive layers of additions accumulated over time. This aspect of the manuscripts was investigated in collaboration with the Laboratory of the Cluster of Excellence UWA in Hamburg. During a field trip in February 2025, and in cooperation with the Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, the Laboratory analysed the areas of interest identified in my previous research. By the time of my fellowship at the FZG in June 2026, the post-processed data from the measurements taken in February 2025 had been made available to me, allowing me to verify several open questions through direct inspection of the manuscripts.

The methodology placed traditional philological and palaeographical analysis at its centre, supported by material analysis, and extends the concept of a manuscript’s biography to include research on provenance and reception history, applied to the collection as a whole.

In light of the recent DFG long-term project BiSaME, From the Particular View to the Overall Picture. Using Computer Vision, AI, Palaeography, and Philology to Reconstruct the Biography of the Great Mosque of Sanaa Manuscript Collection as an ensemble (2026-2038), which I am co-leading at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin with Thomas Eich from the University of Hamburg, an exciting future line of research will be a comparative approach to the artefacts from the two distinct collections formerly stored in Egypt (Fustat, the ancient Cairo) and Yemen (Sanaa).

• (2026) ‘Towards a calibrated quantitative approach for calcium determination in historical parchment using mobile XRF scanning spectrometers’, co-authored with G. Marotta, G. Nehring, S. Bosch, C. Colini, Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, 107645 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sab.2026.107645 
• (2025) ‘Patterns of Selective Vowel-dotting in Early Qurʾānic Manuscripts’ in A. Fedeli, G. Khan and J. Lundberg (eds.), The Intertwined World of the Oral and Written Transmission of Sacred Traditions in the Middle East. Cambridge: OpenBook Publishers, pp. 307-386. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0498.08
• (2025) ‘Introduction’ co-authored with Geoffrey Khan, & Johan Lundberg in A. Fedeli, G. Khan and J. Lundberg (eds.), The Intertwined World of the Oral and Written Transmission of Sacred Traditions in the Middle East. Cambridge: OpenBook Publishers, pp. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0498.00
• (2025) ‘New Approaches to Analysing the Vocalisation of Early Qurʾānic Manuscripts’ co-authored with Carolin Kinne-Wall, & Hythem Sidky in A. Fedeli, G. Khan and J. Lundberg (eds.), The Intertwined World of the Oral and Written Transmission of Sacred Traditions in the Middle East. Cambridge: OpenBook Publishers, pp. 387-436. https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0498.09
• (2025) ‘Towards the Investigation of Material Choices in Written Artefacts: Methodological Reflections’, co-authored with C. Colini et al., Occasional Paper 10 (CSMC). http://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.17050 
• (2025). ‘From Fragments to Text and Ink: A Scientific and Historical Study of an Umayyad Qurʾān’, co-authored with Sathiyamani, S., Marotta, G., Colini, C. npj Heritage Science 13, 478 https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-025-02028-8
• (2025) ‘Archaeometric philology for the study of deteriorated and overlapping layers of ink: the colour code of an early Qur’anic fragment’. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 140, 446 (2025). Co-authored with Marotta, G., Sathiyamani, S., Colini, C. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06343-8
• (2025) ‘Personal Qur’ans in Early Islam: A Case of Palimpsesting and Training’. In: J. Gippert, J. Maksimczuk and H. Sargsyan (eds.), Palimpsests and Related Phenomena across Languages and Cultures. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 433-474. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111552170-016
• (2024) ‘Early Qurʾānic Manuscripts: Re-mediating their Manuscript Page in the Most Recent Digital Form as part of the InterSaME Project’ in F.Déroche (ed.), The Qurʾan and Its Handwritten Transmission. Leiden, pp. 53-104. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004706934_004 
• (2024) ‘The Qurʾan in Manuscript, Print, and Digital Form’, in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press, 2014—. Article published December 11, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.938
• (2023) ‘Deposits of Texts and Cultures in Qurʾānic Palimpsests: A Few Remarks on Objects and Dynamics in Palimpsesting’, in C. Rapp, J. Grusková, G. Kessel and G. Rossetto (eds.), New Light on Old Manuscripts. The Sinai Palimpsests and Other Advances in Palimpsest Studies. Wien: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, pp. 255-282. https://doi.org/10.1553/978OEAW91575s255
• (2023) ‘Dating Early Qur’anic Manuscripts: Reading the Objects, Their Texts and the Results of Their Material Analysis’ in G. Dye (ed.), Early Islam. The Sectarian Milieu of Late Antiquity? Bruxelles: Èditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, pp. 113-129 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/88782
• (2023) Catalogue Entry on ‘Two Bifolios from Early Qur’an Manuscripts’, in J. Gonella (ed.), Museum of Islamic Art. The Collection. New York: Thames & Hudson with Qatar Museums, pp. 72-73
• (2020) ‘The Qurʾānic Text from Manuscript to Digital Form: Metalinguistic Markup of Scribes and Editors’, in Bradford A. Anderson (ed.), From Scrolls to Scrolling. Sacred Texts, Materiality, and Dynamic Media Cultures. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 213-245 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634440
• (2020) ‘Digital Humanities and Qur’ānic Manuscript Studies: New Perspectives and Challenges for Collaborative Spaces and Plural Views’, Journal of College of Sharia & Islamic Studies, 38, 1, pp. 147-158. https://doi.org/10.29117/jcsis.2020.0260 
• (2019) ‘Isolated Qurʾānic Fragments: The Case of the Three Papyri from the Mingana Collection’, in: A. Hilali and S. R. Burge (eds.), The Making of Religious Texts in Islam: The Fragment and the Whole. Berlin: Gerlach Press 2019, pp. 174-198
• (2019) ‘Manuscript Acquisitions and Their Later Movements. A Further Note about the Case of the Lewis Qur’ānic Manuscript’, in B. Liebrenz and Ch. Rauch (eds.), Manuscripts, Politics and Oriental Studies. Life and Collections of Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815-1905) in Context (Leiden: Brill 2019), pp. 228-247. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004393141_013  
• (2015) ‘Early Qur’ānic manuscripts, caption of MS John Rylands Arabic 11’, in J.R. Hodgson (ed.), Riches of the Rylands: The Special Collections of the University of Manchester Library (Manchester: Manchester University Press 2015), p. 171
• (2014) ‘The Kufic collection of the Prussian consul Wetzstein: The 1100 leaves of the Universitätsbibliothek in Tübingen and their importance for palaeography and Koranic criticism’, in R.M. Kerr and T. Milo (eds.), Writings and Writing. Investigations in Islamic Text and Script in honour of Januarius Justus Witkam. (Cambridge: Archetype 2014), pp. 117 – 142
• (2012) ‘Variants and substantiated qirā’āt: a few notes exploring their fluidity in the oldest Qur’ānic manuscripts’, in M. Groß and K.H. Ohlig (eds.), Die Entstehung einer Weltreligion II (Berlin: Schiler 2012), pp. 403–440
• (2011) ‘The provenance of the manuscript Mingana Islamic Arabic 1572: dispersed folios from a few Qur’ānic quires’, Manuscripta Orientalia, 17,1, pp. 45 - 56
• (2011) ‘The digitization project of the Qur’ānic palimpsest, MS Cambridge University Library Or. 1287, and the verification of the Mingana-Lewis edition: where is salām?’, Journal of Islamic Manuscripts, 2,1: 100-117. https://doi.org/10.1163/187846411X568768
• (2009) ‘Relevance of the oldest qur’ānic manuscripts for the readings mentioned by commentaries. A note on sura Ṭā-Hā’, Manuscripta Orientalia, 15,1, pp. 3-10
• (2008) ‘I manoscritti di Sanaa: fogli sparsi che diventano Corani’ [i.e. Sana’a manuscripts: scattered leaves that become Qur’āns], in F. Aspesi, V. Brugnatelli, A.L.  Callow and C. Rosenzweig (eds.), Il mio cuore è a Oriente. Studi di linguistica storica, filologica e cultura ebraica dedicati a Maria Luisa Mayer Modena. Milano: Cisalpino, Quaderni di Acme, 101, pp. 25-48
• (2007) ‘Lingua e scrittura del Corano: gli inizi’ [i.e. Language and script of the Qur’ān: the beginnings], J. Guardi (ed.), Vedi alla voce: lingua araba. Elementi di linguistica per lo studio e la conoscenza dell’arabo (Milano: A Oriente! 2007), pp. 17-53
• (2005) ‘Mingana and the manuscript of Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis, one century later’, Manuscripta Orientalia, 11,3, pp. 3 - 7
• (2005) ‘Early evidences of variant readings in Qur’ānic manuscripts’, in K.H. Ohlig and G.R. Puin (eds.), Die dunklen Anfänge. Neue Forschungen zur Entstehung und frühen Geschichte des Islam (Berlin: Schiler 2005), pp.293-316. Republished in K.H. Ohlig and G.R. Puin (eds.), The Hidden Origins of Islam. New Research into its early History (New York: Prometheus Books 2010), pp. 311-334
• (2005) ‘A.Perg.2: a non palimpsest and its corrections’, Manuscripta Orientalia, 11,1, pp. 20-27

Datasets

• (2023) Dataset: InterSaME Project Materials (Version V1.0).Digital outputs of the AHRC-DFG project ‘The intertwined world of the oral and written transmission of sacred traditions in the Middle East’ http://doi.org/10.25592/uhhfdm.13718
• (2016) Digital Edition of the Qur’anic leaves from the palimpsest Manuscript of Cambridge University Library Or. 1287: in Cambridge Digital Library (Processed images showing hypothetical retracement of the scriptio inferior of the palimpsest and digital edition of its Qur’ānic text furnished of editorial notes: large leaves and small leaves in http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/minganalewis)
• (2015) Digital Edition of Qur’anic Manuscripts and Papyri from the Mingana Collection:  http://cal-itsee.bham.ac.uk/itseeweb/fedeli/start.xml

Scholarly Blog Posts and Online Articles

• (2025) ‘From Cairo to Gotha and the Vatican/Von Kairo nach Gotha und in den Vatikan’, Blog der Forschungsbibliothek Gotha, 9 December 2024. https://blog-fbg.uni-erfurt.de/2024/12/from-cairo-to-gotha-and-the-vatican/ and https://blog-fbg.uni-erfurt.de/2024/12/von-kairo-nach-gotha-und-in-den-vatikan/
• (2024) ‘How to prove my Written Artefact is not a forgery?’. In: Written Artefact Profiling Guide, eds. C.Colini et al. https://www.csmc.uni-hamburg.de/profiling-guide/research-questions/q07.html
• (2018) ‘Collective Enthusiasm and the Cautious Scholar: The Birmingham Qur’ān’, in Origin Stories: A Forum on the “Discovery” and Interpretation of First-Millennium Manuscripts, online forum in Marginalia. https://www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/collective-enthusiasm-and-the-cautious-scholar-the-birmingham-qur-%C4%81n
• (2016) ‘Interpreting the Qur’ānic leaves through their digital images: a hypothetical retracement’. In: Special Collections Blog Cambridge: https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=12005 (blog explaining methodology used for manual image enhancement of the Cambridge palimpsest)

Edited volumes

• (2025) (2025) The Intertwined World of the Oral and Written Transmission of Sacred Traditions in the Middle East, co-edited with Geoffrey Khan, & Johan Lundberg. Cambridge: OpenBook Publishers
• (2019) Gli studi di storiografia. Tradizione, memoria e modernità, co-edited with R.B. Finazzi, C. Milani, C. E. Morrison, P. Nicelli. Accademia Ambrosiana Classe di Studi sul Vicino Oriente, Orientalia Ambrosiana 6, Biblioteca Ambrosiana

Review articles

• (2025), The Book of the Cow. An Early Qurʾānic Codex on Papyrus (P. Hamb. Arab. 68), by M. Tillier and N. Vanthieghem (Leiden: Brill, 2024). Der Islam, 102 (2025): 570-577, https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2025-0030
• (2010) La transmission écrite du coran dans les débuts de l’islam. Le codex parisino-petropolitanus, by F. Déroche (Leiden: Brill, 2009). Bulletin d’études orientales, 59 (2010): 149-157. https://doi.org/10.4000/beo.209