D’Ottone Rambach, Arianna

Expert on Arabic manuscripts, papyri and coins

Arianna D’Ottone Rambach (*1977, Rome) is an expert on Arabic manuscripts, papyri and coins and Junior Research fellow at the Sapienza School for Advanced Studies. She is also Corresponding member of the Académie Royal des Sciences d’Outre-Mer (Bruxelles) and member of the research team Islam medieval – UMR 8167 “Orient et Méditerranée” (CNRS-Paris). In 2018 she was awarded with the Samir Shamma Prize for Islamic Numismatics – Royal Numismatic Society (London) – for her volume of catalogue of the Arabic coins once belonging to Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.

Between 1996 and 2000, Arianna D’Ottone Rambach studied “Oriental Languages and Civilization” at Sapienza University. From 2001 to 2005 she earned her PhD at Sapienza University in the area of “Islamic Civilization: History and Philology”. Her dissertation focused on Arabic Yemenite manuscripts from the 12th to the 15th century. In 2006 she got the Diploma of Manuscript Keeper at the Scuola Speziale per Archivisti e Bibliotecari.

Her interest in Arabic coins started in 2003 when the Capitoline museums reopened. There, she catalogued Arabic coins from the Ludovico Stanzani collection from 2006 to 2008. She deepened her knowledge of Islamic numismatics in Tübingen with Lutz Ilisch at the Forschungsstelle für Islamische Numismatik Tübingen (FINT).

Since 2009 she has been working on the unpublished correspondence in Arabic of the Orientalist and numismatist Simone Assemani (1752–1821). One of her main research topics is the numismatic and economic history of Rasulid Yemen.

Interested both in coins and weights – it is worth recalling here her work on glass discs: Arabic Glasses (Coin weights, jetons and vessel stamps) from Umayyad Syria (2017) – as well as in the history of coin collections – she discovered the then unpublished numismatic notes of J.-F. Champollion (1790–1832) – and she inaugurated, together with B. Callegher, the project FINO: Fontes Inediti Numismaticae Orientalis.
She taught Arabic Numismatics in summer schools and in intensive introductory courses (e.g. Leiden, October 29–30, 2019).

Arianna D’Ottone Rambach is the author and the editor of several publications on manuscripts and coins such as La Storia di Bayad e Riyad (ms. Vat.ar. 368). Una nuova edizione e traduzione (Vatican 2013); Palaeography Between East & West (Pisa-Roma 2017); Celestino Schiaparelli (1841–1919): His Legacy & the Oriental School of Sapienza (forthcoming).

If you’d like to get in touch with Arianna D’Ottone Rambach, click here.

You can read some of her articles on academia.edu, where you can also find her extensive list of publications.

Find a fascinating look at the work of codicologists in regards to Arianna D’Ottone Rambach here.

You can also find Arianna D’Ottone Rambach at AIPD (Associazione Italiana dei Paleografi e Diplomatisti, in Italian).

Just as you can find out more about her at the Islamic Manuscript Association and at CNRS.

Follow this link to a freely accessible issue of Comparative Oriental Studies including an article by Arianna D’Ottone Rambach.

Find contributions by Arianna D’Ottone Rambach in the catalogue of the American Numismatic Society and the Regesti Imperii OPAC.

*as of October 2019