Documented Timeline of the Defamation Campaign against Prof. Carla Rossi
Introduction
Between 2022 and 2024, the name of Prof. Carla Rossi — art historian, Romance philologist, and director of academic institutions — was involved in a digital defamation campaign, culminating in unfounded accusations questioning her professional integrity.
The Organisation pour la Protection des manuscrits Médiévaux (OProM) presents here a structured reflection on the dynamics behind this distortion, fuelled by a lack of communication, superficial readings of facts, and unmet social expectations.
1. Silence as Interpretative Void
#Receptiogate
In today’s landscape — dominated by Twitter/X, opinion blogs, and viral content — the choice not to respond publicly is often (wrongly) interpreted as concealment or admission.
In truth, Prof. Rossi has maintained a rigorous stance: relying solely on official documentation, legal instruments, and verifiable acts.
However, in the informational vacuum of social media, silence is often filled with subjective projections. False profiles in her name were even created to fill this gap with fictitious narratives.
2. Professional Continuity as a Paradox
During the peak of public pressure, Carla Rossi’s academic career did not stop. She received new appointments (including teaching History of Illumination at the University of Salento), published books and articles (e.g., The 1879 Theft of Royal MS 16 E VIII, 2024), and remained active in editorial and academic roles.
For some, this continuity appeared suspicious: if she continued, she must be “protected.”
This is a logical paradox known as cognitive dissonance: when reality contradicts the expectation of a “collapse,” alternative — often unfounded — explanations are sought.
3. The Power of Viral Narratives
Many of the accusations spread without any reading or verification of official documents.
Examples include:
• The natural expiration of her contract with the University of Zurich was framed as a “dismissal”
• Public and registered affiliations were branded “false”
• The use of stock images during the pandemic, when resources were reallocated to platforms such as Zoom, was portrayed as “systematic deception”
All these points were taken out of context and amplified virally.
Rossi’s decision not to performatively respond on social media solidified a one-sided narrative, despite the real documentation being — and remaining — publicly accessible (e.g. Receptio Foundation’s Swiss registry, or her affiliation with Franklin University).
4. Academic Context and Systemic Biases
In an academic environment marked by competition and patronage, independence can provoke hostility.
In this case, Rossi’s refusal to compromise and her autonomous direction of academic projects triggered mechanisms of exclusion and delegitimisation.
Being a woman, a director, a public and critical voice further amplified these dynamics: defamation disguised itself as “ethical vigilance,” but operated instead as an erasure mechanism.
OProM affirms the importance of restoring the facts based on documentation.
The so-called “ReceptioGate” — a defamatory term coined in hostile environments — has never concerned any scandal. It is the result of distortion, rivalry, and disinformation, fuelled by non-academic actors.
Prof. Carla Rossi has spent over thirty years studying, safeguarding, and denouncing the dismemberment of illuminated manuscripts. Her work is grounded in philological rigour, material evidence, and scientific transparency.
1. Research Origins
• 1996: Carla Rossi begins to study the dispersion and dismemberment of illuminated manuscripts independently.
• Since 2006: her work takes the form of an independent research project — self-funded — aimed at documenting the circulation of dismembered leaves and promoting their reconstruction.
2. Report to the TPC and the Publication on AboutArt
• August 2022: first formal complaint to the Carabinieri Command for Cultural Heritage Protection (TPC)
• October 2022: supplementary memorandum submitted to the TPC
• 20 December 2022: publication of Rossi’s article on AboutArt:
→ “Manoscritti medievali europei a prezzi stracciati sul web”
3. Reaction and Narrative Distortion
• 22 December 2022: the Società di Storia della Miniatura (Naples) begins circulating Rossi’s article, which includes references to the complaint, via its public mailing list.
• 23 December 2022: Peter Kidd, a manuscript dealer and author of the blog Medieval Manuscripts Provenance (with no academic affiliation), publishes the first post with false claims and insinuations.
Operating as a freelancer, Kidd uses his blog to present excised folios for commercial purposes. The term “ReceptioGate” is born in this environment and soon spreads online.
4. Further Investigations Published by prof. Rossi and her team on AboutArt
• A rare incunable of the Commedia dismembered and sold on eBay
• The Madruzzo Book of Hours dismembered and sold
• The Book of Hours of the Guyot family
• The Whitney Hours
5. Academic Activity and Continuity (2023–2025)
Publications
Isabelle Boursier's Book of Hours, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024
La filologia al servizio della storia del manoscritto W425 di Baltimora, Theory and Criticism of Literature & Arts, 8/2, 2024
Digital Reconstruction of a Dismembered Book of Hours Illuminated by Robert Boyvin, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024
The 1879 Theft of Royal Ms 16 E VIII from the British Museum, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024
Beyond the Margins: Female Illuminators in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Ethics International Press, 2024
Desiderio e Interdizione: L'amore nella lirica europea da Guglielmo IX a Shakespeare, Alta Formazione Editrice, 2025
Medusa-Donna Petra-Francesca, in Theory and Criticism of Literature and Arts, 2025
Il laccio d’amore H&M, Imago Srl, 2025
Miniatrici Fiamminghe, Commentario al ms. W.173, Imago Srl, 2025
Desiderio e Interdizione (seconda edizione ampliata), 2025
Conferences and Seminars
Il Dante di Jorge Luis Borges, SISD Lugano, 2023
L’anglo-normand comme vecteur de résistance chez les dames de l’entourage de Thomas Becket, Fontevraud, October 2024
San Giovanni androgino, Lugano, 18 May 2024
La Donna / Le Donne in Dante, Università di Barcellona, october 2024
Biblioclastia a scopo di lucro, seminario, 2025
Presentazione del volume sul Ms. 198 della Guarneriana, June 2025
Academic Appointments
• 2023–2024: University of Salento – Chair in History of Illumination
• Since 2023: Director of SISD (International Dante Studies Seminar)
• Since 2024: Director of ISFiDa (Institut d’Estudis Filològics i Dantescos)
• Since 2023: Co-director of Biblioclasm and Digital Reconstructions series, Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Support Statements
→ Letters and testimonies: www.oprom.eu/fns
OProM reaffirms its support for Prof. Carla Rossi, whose work in defence of manuscript heritage represents an authoritative, independent, and evidence-based voice. The attempt to turn this integrity into suspicion is a dangerous distortion — one that must be countered through philological rigour and open documentation.
For additional independent documentation, visit Receptiogate WordPress and Receptiogate Blogspot and https://books.google.ch/books?id=ek5ZEQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=it#v=onepage&q&f=false