Mapping Paradise

Alessandro Scafi is the author of Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth (London: British Library; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), the first book to show how the Western belief in an earthly paradise has been expressed in cartographical form from the beginning of Christianity to the present day. He graduated from the University of Rome La Sapienza with a thesis on the Renaissance ideal city and Filarete’s Trattato di Architettura (1464). His doctorate, at the Warburg Institute, London, examines the notion of the earthly paradise in the Christian Middle Ages. Throughout his career, Dr Scafi has been interested in the correlation between art and literature and has published several articles touching on the relationship between the Italian and Hungarian Renaissances and on Italian art. He prepared an Italian translation, with a rich commentary and introduction, of a little known text by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), the Dialogus de somnio quodam (Dialogue about a Dream, c.1453), a dreamed journey into the otherworld (Turin: Nino Aragno, 2004); and a book on music and iconography in the thought of Aby Warburg, L’enigma di un musico: Aby Warburg e l’iconografia musicale (Turin: Nino Aragno, forthcoming). He has written a number of radio broadcasts on the history of art for Vatican Radio and RAI. He currently lectures on the History of Art at the University of Bologna, Facoltà di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali (Ravenna Campus); on Italian art, language and literature at the Warburg Institute, London; and offers a course on Renaissance Italian on the V&A/ RCA History of Design course.