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Open research questions in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

183 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,428 Renaissance and Early Modern Studies papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The rationalist-compatibilist intuition on freedom does not account for choosing between equally good options. Contemporary compatibilist interpretations of a two-way power do not provide a satisfactory account of freedom. There is a need for an alternative conception of freedom that can account for choosing between equally good options.

    Accommodating the Whims of the Will?: Crusius’s Conception of Will as a Rational Two-Way Power · 2025 · DOI

  • Train- ing that treats Dante’s Divine Comedy as a Map of the Afterlife as a settled body of findings misrepresents its condition; training that treats it as all open questions fails to convey what has been secured.

    Nine Circles, One Poem: A Historical Development Review of Dante's Divine Comedy as a Map of the Afterlife · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper is limited to a descriptive analysis of the artworks. The discussion is focused on the artistic techniques employed, without providing a deeper analysis of the artworks' meaning or context.

    1815: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Christ on the Mount of Olives (c. 1603) · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could provide a deeper analysis of the artworks' meaning and context. The discussion of the artworks could be expanded to include a broader range of artistic movements and styles.

    1815: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Christ on the Mount of Olives (c. 1603) · 2026 · DOI

  • The complexity of the narrative of the Pazzi Conspiracy. The ambiguity of Machiavelli's use of Poliziano's Commentarium. The need to identify a deeper layer of reference in the narrative.

    La congiura dei Pazzi · 2026 · DOI

  • Further studies can examine the theme of conspiracies in other literary works. The analysis can be applied to other historical events. The study's methods can be used to examine other authors' use of sources.

    La congiura dei Pazzi · 2026 · DOI

  • Further study is needed to explore the implications of the 'Archival Body' concept for contemporary textual scholarship. Research could investigate the ways in which the 'Archival Body' concept can inform our understanding of the role of humanist philologists in shaping the intellectual landscape of the Renaissance.

    The Archival Body: Humanist Philology and the Textual Reconstitution of Antiquity, 1350–1580 · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in understanding the role of emotions in the exercise and legitimation of power. The paper explores the concept of emotional regimes or affective order.

    Retorica afectivă şi arhetipurile puterii în Moldova şi Tara Românească (secolele al XV-lea - al XVII-lea) · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can further explore the concept of 'Chamisso-Literatur' - Future research can examine the impact of the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis on the literary world

    Occhini, Beatrice (2025) · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in understanding the Adelbert-von-Chamisso-Preis and its significance - The paper highlights the need to explore the concept of 'Chamisso-Literatur'

    Occhini, Beatrice (2025) · 2026 · DOI

  • The existing concepts and narratives surrounding Brancusi's life and art are outdated and inaccurate. There is a need for a more nuanced and historically accurate account of Brancusi's early life. The notion of Brancusi's national identity and class status as definitive of his aesthetic is a gap in our understanding of his art.

    Against Biographical Essentialism: Re–evaluating Class and National Identity in the Early Reception of Brancusi · 2026 · DOI

  • The use of graffiti as a historical source is a novel approach. The book contributes to the field of historical research by exploring new methods and perspectives.

    Review of: Tracciare il passato. I graffiti come fonte per la storia medievale e moderna, ed. by G. Mrozek Eliszezynski (Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2025) · 2026 · DOI

  • The medieval period remains underexplored in the history of symbolic capital. There is a lack of research on the formation of merchant identity and reputational signaling in pre-industrial contexts.

    Crafting prestige through merchant marks, or how to create a company image in the Late Middle Ages ? · 2026 · DOI

  • the alterations made to the church's structure over the centuries have remained in the shadows - the restoration carried out by Egisto Bellini lacks detailed analysis

    Egisto Bellini e il ripristino ‘in stile’ della Collegiata di San Quirico d’Orcia | Egisto Bellini and the ‘Stylistic’ Restoration of the Collegiate Church of San Quirico d’Orcia · 2026 · DOI

  • The play's unfinished and fragmented state. The lack of prior studies on the play. The need for a multidisciplinary approach to study and edit the play.

    Presentation of the Special Issue on Fernando Pessoa’sDuke of Parmaand Its Edition Project · 2025 · DOI

  • Further study of The Duke of Parma's manuscripts and plot. Analysis of the play's themes and characters in relation to Pessoa's other works. Exploration of the play's significance in the context of Pessoa's dramatic corpus.

    Presentation of the Special Issue on Fernando Pessoa’sDuke of Parmaand Its Edition Project · 2025 · DOI

  • There is a gap in the current understanding of Italian sources concerning the Ottoman-Safavid wars. The paper identifies a lack of research on Italian archival sources beyond the well-known Venetian and Roman context. The study aims to fill this gap by analyzing documents from the State Archives of Florence and Mantua.

    Safavid Wars and Italian Archives: Shedding Light on Italian Knowledge of Ottoman-Safavid Conflicts · 2025 · DOI

  • From the anxieties about mechanised men and women in Massimo Bontempelli's Minnie la candida (1927), to Primo Levi's probing of the golem myth in “Il servo,” twentieth-century Italian literature offers a Rich, if underexplored, array of cyborg characters which both echo those to be found in Anglophone texts and can be been seen to embody and exemplify concerns emanating from a specifically Italian cultural context.

    Creating the Ideal Posthuman Body? Cyborg Sex and Gender in the Work of Buzzati, Vacca, and Ammaniti · 2023 · DOI

  • In the study in 1979, no typological distinction was made among the portraits of Domitia Longina and Domitia Longina portraits were limited to the Flavian Dynasty.

    A NEW PERIOD PROPOSAL FOR PUBLISHED FEMALE PORTRAIT · 2021 · DOI

  • The patron has not been documented, but by 1603 the set was already included in an inventory of the collection of Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas, 5th marquis of Denia and 1st duke of Lerma (1553–1625), and his wife, Catalina de la Cerda, daughter of the 4th duke of Medinaceli.

    Collecting Sixteenth-Century Tapestries in Twentieth-Century America: The Blumenthals and Jacques Seligmann · 2015 · DOI

  • Disruption in today’s world seems to spring from several sources—economic and financial disruptions such as those that have spread across Europe; pitched battles between forces demanding change and those desperate to hold onto a status quo of repression and autocracy; and above all, fear that their nation or their community is insufficiently isolated from or inoculated against the forces of chaos and uncertainty.

    … for the Sake of Change · 2012 · DOI

  • This rewriting process has naturally attracted the attention of critics and scholars, but the value of much of their discussion has been limited by an inadequate view of the publication history of the novel, caused in part by the difficulty one inevitably experiences in obtaining copies of texts which were printed in short runs and in cheap editions, and were not collected by Italian libraries.

    IGNAZIO SILONE ANDIL RISVEGLIO: THE I945 VERSION OF SILONE'SFONTAMARA · 1996 · DOI

  • 108 are to be understood, and in particular no consensus on what is signified by the descriptive phrase referring to the river, ‘onde/ove 'l mar non ha vanto’.

    ‘SU LA FIUMANA ONDE 'L MAR NON HA VANTO’INFERNOII.108: A CONTINUING CRUX · 1994 · DOI

  • 73 [March-April 1988]: 318-320), I expressed the wish that in the future the Center of Asia Minor Studies might "offer us additional studies on Solomos from Octave Merlier's unpublished papers, prepared with the same exemplary care.

    Solomos et Origène suivi de deux autres essais (review) · 1992 · DOI

  • Further study of the Medici family and their role in the Florentine commercial-banking system is needed. Analysis of other economic systems in medieval Italy could provide additional insights.

    THE MEDICI BANK AND THE WORLD OF FLORENTINE CAPITALISM · 1987 · DOI

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183 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,428 Renaissance and Early Modern Studies papers in our 4.5M-paper local library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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