Peter Kidd's Manuscripts Provenance blog. A Vile Persecutory Campaign against Prof. Carla Rossi
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Aggiornamento: 30 mag
2025 – Documented Timeline of the Defamation Campaign Against Carla Rossi
Foreword
Between 2022 and 2024, the name of Prof. Carla Rossi — a renowned art historian, Romance philologist, and director of academic institutions — became the target of a violent digital smear campaign that resulted in death threats, persecution, and unfounded accusations, jeopardising both her physical and professional integrity.
The Organisation pour la Protection des manuscrits Médiévaux (OProM) has issued this public reflection to analyse the dynamics behind this distortion, which stemmed from a lack of official communication, superficial interpretations of facts, and unmet social expectations.
1. Silence as Interpretive Vacuum
In today's media environment, dominated by Twitter/X, opinion blogs, and viral communication, the decision not to respond publicly is often misread — incorrectly — as reticence or an admission of some "guilt".
Prof. Rossi’s position, however, remained consistent with a principle of academic rigour: to rely solely on official documentation, legal instruments, and verifiable records. She was defamed on social media with biased accusations but responded through legal means, filing formal complaints with the appropriate authorities — not on social platforms. However, in the void of social networks, absence is often filled with subjective projections. False accounts were even created in her name in an attempt to replace this absence with fictional narratives.
2. Professional Continuity as a Paradox for “Social Media”
During the peak of media pressure, Carla Rossi’s career did not stall: she received new appointments (including a year-long teaching position in manuscript studies at the University of Salento), published books and essays (The 1879 Theft of Royal MS 16 E VIII, 2024), and maintained an active role in publishing and academia. For some, this very continuity appeared suspicious. This reaction is a textbook example of cognitive dissonance: when reality contradicts the expectation of a “collapse”, alternative — and often unfounded — explanations are sought.
3. The Dominance of Viral Narratives. Mssprovenance and the Vile Persecutory Campaign
Many of the accusations against Carla Rossi were spread without reading or verifying the official documents that disprove them.
A few examples:
The natural expiration of her contract with the University of Zurich was framed as a “dismissal” (the contract had expired in October; the smear campaign began in December; the professor’s name was still on the University website and was removed only upon Rossi’s explicit request).
Public and registered affiliations were labelled as “false”.
Archival images used on the institute’s website during the pandemic, due to limited digital resources, were depicted as “systematic deception”.
All these elements were extracted from context and virally amplified. Rossi’s refusal to engage performatively on social media contributed to the dominance of a one-sided narrative, even though real documentation was — and remains — publicly accessible (e.g., RECEPTIO Foundation registration in Switzerland or her affiliation with Franklin University).
4. Academic Context and Systemic Bias
In an environment marked by high competition and patronage networks, independence often breeds hostility. This is even more true when coupled with a report — as Rossi submitted to the Italian Carabinieri TPC — that names several renowned scholars holding both public academic and private antiquarian consultancy roles.
In Rossi’s case, her refusal to compromise and her autonomous academic leadership triggered mechanisms of exclusion and delegitimisation. Being a woman, a director, a public and critical voice only amplified these dynamics. The defamation was disguised as “ethical vigilance” but in truth became a mechanism of attempted erasure.
OProM aims to restore the facts on a documented basis. The so-called “ReceptioGate” — a defamatory term coined in hostile circles — never involved a real scandal. It is the product of distortion fuelled by non-academic actors, rivalry strategies, and disinformation.
Carla Rossi’s Work Over Three Decades
Prof. Rossi has been engaged for over thirty years in the study, preservation, and exposure of the illicit trade of dismembered illuminated manuscripts. Her work has always been grounded in philological rigour, material evidence, and scientific transparency.
1. Origins of Her Research
1996: Rossi began independently studying the dispersion and dismemberment of illuminated manuscripts.
From 2006 onwards: Her research took shape as an autonomous scholarly project, without institutional funding, aimed at documenting the circulation of excised leaves from dismantled codices and promoting their reconstruction.
2. Report to the Italian TPC and the Peer-Reviewed Article on AboutArt
August 2022: Formal complaint to the Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection Unit (TPC) concerning Italian manuscripts.
October 2022: Supplemental report concerning French manuscripts dismembered in Germany and sold as single leaves in the UK and elsewhere.
20 December 2022: Publication of Rossi’s article on AboutArt:“Manoscritti medievali europei a prezzi stracciati sul web” (https://www.aboutartonline.com/manoscritti-medievali-europei-a-prezzi-stracciati-sul-web-un-appello-per-la-tutela-di-beni-culturali-tra-i-piu-preziosi/)
3. Reaction from Those Reported and the Birth of the Distortion
22 December 2022: The Società di Storia della Miniatura (Naples) began circulating Rossi’s article (including her TPC report) via a public mailing list to its members.
23 December 2022: Peter Kidd, collaborator with manuscript dealers and author of the blog Medieval Manuscripts Provenance (not affiliated with any academic body or peer-reviewed outlet), published the first of several posts containing false claims and insinuations.
Kidd, acting as a freelancer, uses his blog to promote excised leaves from dismembered manuscripts for profit. The term “ReceptioGate” was coined in this context and then circulated online.
4. Articles Published Before the Smear Campaign, Denouncing the Biblioclastic Network
Un rarissimo incunabolo della Commedia fatto a pezzi e rivenduto su eBay
Il libro d’ore Madruzzo smembrato e messo in vendita
Il libro d’ore della famiglia Guyot
Le Ore Whitney
5. Academic Activity and Professional Continuity (2023–2025)
Publications include:
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, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024
Beyond the Margins, Ethics International Press, 2024
Desiderio e Interdizione, Alta Formazione Editrice, 2025
Medusa–Donna Petra–Francesca, 2025
Il laccio d’amore H&M, Imago Srl, 2025
Miniatrici Fiamminghe, Imago Srl, 2025
Desiderio e Interdizione, 2nd ed., 2025
Conferences and seminars:
Il Dante di Jorge Luis Borges, SISD, 2023
L’anglo-normand comme vecteur de résistance chez les dames de l’entourage de Thomas Becket, Fontevraud, Oct. 2024
Androginia nella Commedia, Lugano, 2024
La Donna / Le Donne in Dante, University of Barcelona, Oct. 2024
Biblioclasm for Profit, 2025
Presentation on Ms. 198 of the Guarneriana, June 2025
Academic Positions:
2023–2024: University of Salento, History of Manuscript Illumination
From 2023: Director of SISD (International Seminar of Dante Studies)
From 2024: Director of ISFiDa
From 2023: Co-director, Biblioclasm and Digital Reconstructions series, CSP
Support Received:
Letters and endorsements: https://www.oprom.eu/fns
Final Note
OProM has reiterated its full support for Prof. Carla Rossi, whose defence of medieval manuscripts represents an independent, authoritative voice based on verifiable evidence. The attempt to turn such integrity into suspicion is a dangerous distortion that must be dismantled through philological rigour and transparent documentation.
Updated links to documented sources:
Receptiogate.info:https://www.receptiogate.info/https://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamationhttps://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation/peter-kidd-medieval-manuscripts-provenancehttps://www.receptiogate.info/press-statementshttps://www.receptiogate.info/timelinehttps://www.receptiogate.info/faq
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