Francesca Leoni

Research interests:

Islamic arts of the book; Islamic metalwork; cross-cultural exchanges between the Islamic world, Europe and Asia; history and circulation of technologies, occulistism and divination.

Forthcoming Publications:

“Sufi Talismans,” in Handbook of Sufi Studies, eds. Alexandre Papas and Thierry Zarcone (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). 

Books and Catalogues

Aegean Treasures: Greek Island Embroideries from the Ashmolean Museum, with contributions by Susan Stanton (London: Hali Publishing, 2021). 

Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice, co-edited with Liana Saif, Matthew Melvin-Koushki and Farouk Yayha (Leiden: Brill, 2021).

Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural, exhibition catalogue, main author and editor, with essays by Christiane Gruber and Pierre Lory and contributions by Venetia Porter and Farouk Yahya (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2016).

Qur’ans: Books of Divine Encounter, by Keith Small with Francesca Leoni (Oxford: Bodleian Publishing, 2015).

Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art, co-edited with Mika Natif (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013).

Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam, exhibition catalogue, with Ladan Akbarnia (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, distributed by Yale University Press, 2010).

Articles, Book Chapters and Entries

“Introduction,” with Liana Saif, in Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice, eds. Liana Saif, Francesca Leoni, Matthew Melvin-Koushki and Farouk Yayha (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 1–39. 

“A Stamped Talisman,” in Islamicate Occult Sciences in Theory and Practice, eds. Liana Saif, Francesca Leoni, Matthew Melvin-Koushki and Farouk Yayha (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 526–70. 

“‘The Illusion of an Authentic Experience’: A Lustre Bowl in the Ashmolean Museum,” co-authored with Dana Norris, Kelly Domoney, Moujan Matin, and Andrew Shortland Muqarnas 36 (2019).

“Islamic Art and Italian Legacies,” Hali 196 (autumn 2018): 65–9.

“Islamic Occultism and the Museum,” Installing Islamic Art: Interior Space and Temporal Imagination, special issue of International Journal of Islamic Architecture 7.2 (2018): 327–51.

“Taille de guepe et barbe fleurant l’ambroise: Le portraits de Fath ‘Ali Shah,” in L’Empire des roeses: Chefs-d’oeuvre de l’art person du XIXe siècle, ed. Gwenäelle Fellinger (Paris: Musée du Louvre Lens; Editions Snoeck, 2018), 114–17.

"Introduction: Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art: Old Issues, New Perspectives," co-authored with Mika Natif, in Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art, eds. Francesca Leoni and Mika Natif (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), 1-18.

"A Lasting Legacy: Christopher Gandy's Bequest," The Ashmolean 66 (Autumn 2013): 26-27.

"A Sitarah for the Tomb of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina," The Ashmolean 64 (Autumn 2012): 23-24.

"Picturing Evil: Images of Divs and the Reception of the Shahnama," in Shahnama Studies II, eds. Charles Melville and Christine Van den Berg (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 101-118.

"Al-Qur'an al-Karim: Sacred Verses, Beautiful Pages," The Ashmolean 63 (Spring 2012): 9-10.

"On the Monstrous in the Islamic Visual Tradition," in The Ashgate Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, eds. Asa Mittman with Peter Dendle (Surrey: Ashgate, 2012), 151-72.

"Staged Truths: The Photo-collages of Soody Sharifi," in Soody Sharifi: Of Miniature Serenades and Maxiature Moments, exhibition catalogue. February 4-22, 2011, Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery, New York.

Catalogue entries in: Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, eds. Maryam Ekhtiar et al. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 29 (cat. no. 5), 31 (cat. no. 7), 95-98 (cat. nos. 56-58), 127-134 (cat. nos. 83-88), 142-145 (cat. nos. 91-92), 176-177 (cat. no. 118), 194-195 (cat. no. 132).

"Diplomacy and Gift-Giving at the Court of Fath 'Ali Shah," in Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts, ed. Linda Komaroff (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 345-47.

"A Folio from a Timurid Historical Manuscript in the Princeton Art Museum," Record of the Princeton Art Museum 66 (2010): 60-67.

"The Human in the Monster: Changes in Demonic Imagery in 14th-16th Century Persian Painting," in The Monstrous Identity of Humanity. Monsters and the Monstrous, Proceedings of the Fifth Global Conference, ed. Marlin Bates, IV (Inter-Disciplinary Press, Oxford, 2008, e-book), 289-97.http://www.interdisciplinary.net/publishing/idp/eBooks/mioh%20v1.3d.pdf

Catalogue entries in Stefano Carboni (ed.), Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 326-327 (cat. nos. 89-91, 93); 330 (cat. no. 114); 345 (cat. no. 175); 346 (cat. nos. 179-180).

"Kirman", in Enciclopedia Archeologica Treccani. Volume IV: Asia. (Roma: Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, 2005).

"Samarra", in Enciclopedia Archeologica Treccani. Volume IV: Asia. (Roma: Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, 2005).

"Shiraz," in Enciclopedia Archeologica Treccani. Volume IV: Asia. (Roma: Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani, 2005).