John Mulhall is the Liberal Arts Dean's Assistant Professor of History in the History Department at Purdue University. His research focuses on the intellectual history of the medieval Mediterranean and, above all, the history of science and the exchange of knowledge among the Islamicate, Byzantine, and Latin Christian worlds. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 2023 after having completed a master's degree in ancient history at Oxford, funded by the Lionel Pearson Fellowship, and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Ancient Greek. John has been a Tyler Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, the Andrew W. Mellon Junior Faculty Fellow at Notre Dame's Medieval Institute, and is currently the Paul Mellon Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.
His interests in the history of science have also led him to the subject of the history of disease and medicine in late antiquity and the Middle Ages, and he has a particular interest in uniting his textual research with new advances in microbiology, genetics, and archaeoscience. His most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Late Antiquity, the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, and The Washington Post. He is currently writing the first Mediterranean-wide history of the phenomenon of mass translation from Greek and Arabic into Latin in the twelfth century, and he has begun a new project that offers a reinterpretation of the study of Arabic science at Toledo and the so-called "School of Toledo."
How has your time in Rome shaped or shifted the direction of your project so far?
When I came to Rome, my project was already in an advanced state. Nevertheless, surrounded by the community of scholars and artists at the American Academy and, given the extraordinary gift of time, I began to approach my project from new angles. The opportunity to learn from Italian scholars, to visit libraries and museums in Rome and beyond, and to talk through my project in the laboratories of ideas that are the Academy lunches and dinners not only helped me think through my current project but also opened new possibilities for how my project can grow and even evolve into future projects. To give just one example, the opportunity to investigate a number of medieval astrolabes up close and in situ this year has opened my eyes to new ways of expanding my current research to include new observations drawn from the material culture of medieval science.
What part of your daily routine or environment at the Academy has most influenced you and your work?
Spending the past year in Rome has opened a number of new horizons for me as a scholar. Wandering into twelfth-century churches here in the city, visiting Norman mosaics in cities only a train ride away from the Academy, and being able to join conferences and discussions with a Europe-wide community of medievalists have all shaped the way I think about the Middle Ages. Perhaps the most important elements that have affected my project have been the time that has allowed me to think through problems at a length that the usual pace of academic life renders impossible, and the scholarly community that has allowed me to approach my work with a new depth and with the guidance of new perspectives.
What are you hoping to explore or deepen in the remaining months of your residency?
While time is flying all too swiftly during these final days of the fellowship, my aim is to continue to maximize my time in caput mundi. I am hoping to be able to see the frescoes in Anagni Cathedral firsthand (including the amazing scene of Hippocrates and Galen), to take a tour of the archaeological site of Falerii Novi, and to continue to examine manuscripts at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.