What Is ReceptioGate? 2025 A Chronicle of Attacks and Academic Continuity

Between 2022 and 2024, an unusual phenomenon unfolded within the academic and cultural heritage communities. A coordinated campaign, called ReceptioGate, of disinformation and reputational attacks targeted Prof. Carla Rossi, a philologist and art historian internationally recognised for her work on manuscript dismemberment and provenance studies.

Rather than responding through the press or social media, Prof. Rossi chose to pursue institutional, legal, and scholarly routes. A full documentation of the defamatory campaign, its timeline, and its orchestrators has been made available through verified public sources:

🔗 Documented Timeline of the Defamation Campaignhttps://www.receptiogate.info/timeline

🔗Role of Peter Kidd in the Campaign and the Manuscript Tradehttps://www.receptiogate.info/actors-behind-the-defamation/peter-kidd-medieval-manuscripts-provenance

🔗Legal and academic documentation of the defamation campaign https://medium.com/@fondazione.receptio/what-is-receptiogate-really-a-centres-mission-a-smear-campaign-and-the-academic-response-42f7b83de683

These materials offer a clear and verifiable chronology. They demonstrate how reputational violence can intersect with commercial interest and online misinformation, particularly in the antiquarian book market.

At the same time, Prof. Rossi has continued her academic work uninterrupted. Between 2023 and 2025, she authored and contributed to several peer-reviewed publications that address, directly or indirectly, the issues raised in the public attacks. These include reconstructions of dismembered manuscripts, critical editions, and methodological contributions to the ethics of manuscript studies.

📚 Isabelle Boursier’s Book of Hours. A Dismembered Manuscript from Mary Benson’s Collection, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024https://books.google.ch/books/about/Isabelle_Boursier_s_Book_of_Hours.html?id=oxDgEAAAQBAJ

📚 The Madruzzo Book of Hours. A Dismembered Manuscript Illuminated by Marie Vrelant, edited by Jordi Puig, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025 (Introduction by Carla Rossi)https://books.google.ch/books/about/The_Madruzzo_Book_of_Hours.html?id=B4HpEAAAQBAJ

📚 The 1879 Theft. The Royal Manuscript Stolen from the British Museum, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2025https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/9781527597144

📚 Beyond the Margins: Female Illuminators in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Ethics International Press, 2025https://books.google.ch/books/about/Beyond_the_Margins.html?id=pM3OEAAAQBAJ

📚 Il Bronzino poeta. Edizione critica, commentata e illustrata delle Rime, Società Editrice Fiorentina, 2024https://books.google.ch/books/about/Il_Bronzino_poeta.html?id=C4TpEAAAQBAJ

📚 Sul confine italo-svizzero 1943–1945. Documenti sulla protezione degli ebrei in fuga dal regime fascista, RECEPTIO Academic Press, 2024https://books.google.ch/books/about/Sul_confine_italo_svizzero_1943_1945.html?id=go3OEAAAQBAJ

📚 Digital Reconstruction of a Dismembered Book of Hours Illuminated by Robert Boyvin, RECEPTIO Academic Press, 2023https://www.receptioacademic.press/product-page/digital-reconstruction-boyvin

📚 Biblioclasm, Market, and Ethics: Stop Calling Them Fragments, ISFiDA / RECEPTIO, 2025https://www.isfida.eu/post/biblioclasm-market-and-ethics-stop-calling-them-fragments

In addition, her legal and academic position has been further consolidated by recent publications and expert evaluations.

📄 Biblioclasm for Profit and the Legal Grey Zone of Cultural DisinformationPublished in Harvard Art Law Journal, 2025 (forthcoming)

📄 What is #ReceptioGate, really? A Centre’s Mission, a Smear Campaign, and the Academic Responsehttps://medium.com/@fondazione.receptio/what-is-receptiogate-really-a-centres-mission-a-smear-campaign-and-the-academic-response-42f7b83de683DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15301976

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This post is part of an ongoing effort to protect academic freedom, expose mechanisms of online defamation, and affirm the value of rigorous and transparent scholarship.

#ReceptioGate