Diego Pirillo is a specialist in early modern Italy (1500-1800) and has a strong interest in Gramsci, Marxism, and historical method. He is the author of The Atlantic Republic of Letters: Knowledge and Colonialism in the Age of Franklin (Pennsylvania, 2026) and Renaissance Refugees: Negotiating Displacement in Early Modern Italy (Cambridge, 2026). He is currently at work on a new book project entitled "Marx’s Renaissance: Humanism, Capitalism, and Historical Method." Drawing on Antonio Gramsci and other Marxist scholars, the project argues that historical materialism revolutionized early modern studies, reconceptualizing the Renaissance as the "prehistory of capitalism."