Dr. Alessandro Giudice
Research Associate
Cluster of Excellence Cross-Cultural Philology
Research and Teaching Interests
- Textual criticism of Sanskrit technical literature, with a focus on legal texts (Dharmaśāstra) and grammatical texts (Vyākaraṇa).
- History, law, and society in pre-modern India.
- Textual criticism of Classical Newar literature, particularly legal texts translated from Sanskrit and their adaptation within pre-modern Nepalese legal culture.
- Linguistics of Classical Newar, with a special interest in its earliest phase (“Old Newar”).
- Gandhāra studies and the linguistics of Gāndhārī.
- Interrelations among Greek, Roman, and Indian civilisations in antiquity.
Curriculum
I received my BA in Classics with Sanskrit (2018-2020, completed one year ahead of schedule) and my MA in Classical Philology and Ancient History with Sanskrit (2020-2022) from the University of Pisa. From 2022 to 2026, I pursued a PhD (with a full doctoral scholarship) in Philological and Literary, Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Cagliari. My PhD thesis is entitled “The Smṛti of Pitāmaha in Medieval Indian Jurisprudence: A Critical Reconstruction of the Pitāmahasmṛti and a Critical Edition of the Divyaśuddhi, with a Historical-Religious Study of Indian Ordeals”. Since 2026, I have been a postdoctoral researcher at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where I am part of the Cluster of Excellence “Cross-Cultural Philology” (3061). My postdoctoral project focuses on the critical edition of the Nyāyavikāsinī, an Old Newar translation of the Sanskrit Nāradasmṛti, composed by Maṇika in NS 500 (1380 CE).
Publications
Giudice, Alessandro, and Tiziana Pontillo. 2025. Medhātithi’s Grammatical Notes on the Mānavadharmaśāstra: How Technicalities Can Shed Light on Ancient Indian Law. Corpus Iuris Sanscriticum et Fontes Iuris Asiae Meridianae et Centralis, 11. Torino: Edizioni AIT – Edizioni ETS. 410 pp. Available online via Open Access at http://www.asiainstitutetorino.it/cis/CIS_11.pdf.
Aresu, Mauro, Giudice, Alessandro, and Rita Porqueddu (eds.). 2025. Special issue “Dall’Anomia alla Norma: Strategie di codifica dall’antichità ai giorni odierni”. Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology, and Literature. 436 pp.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2026. “‘Gift’ in Gāndhārī epigraphical sources. A comparative analysis of G. dana-, danamuha-, and deyadhaṃma-.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Published online, FirstView article: 1-26.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2025. “Marriage as a Means of Political Alliance. A New Reading of Arjuna’s Marriages as Recounted in the Ādiparvan of the Mahābhārata based on Artha- and Dharmaśāstra.” In Stasik, Danuta, and Anna Trynkowska (eds.). Striving for Harmony in Indian Culture and Society. Warsaw: Dom Wydawniczy Elipsa, 90-111.
Candotti, Maria Piera, Giudice, Alessandro, and Tiziana Pontillo. 2025. “Who is the foreigner? Delimiting boundaries before and after the encounter with the Greeks.” In Achilli, Alessandro, et al. (eds.). Asia in the Mirror. Self-Representations, Self-Narratives, and Perception of the Other. From Antiquity to Modernity. Studies on Middle Eastern and Asian Societies, 3. New York-Berlin: Peter Lang, 125-151.
Aresu, Mauro, Giudice, Alessandro, and Rita Porqueddu. 2025. “L’arte del decidere: la codifica di norme in diritto, linguistica e letteratura.” In Aresu, Mauro, Giudice, Alessandro, and Rita Porqueddu (eds.). Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology, and Literature. Special issue “Dall’Anomia alla Norma: Strategie di codifica dall’antichità ai giorni odierni”: 7-12.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2025. “Divergent Interpretations in the Dharmaśāstra: The Case of Gautamadharmasūtra13.12-13.” In Aresu, Mauro, Giudice, Alessandro, and Rita Porqueddu (eds.). Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology, and Literature. Special issue “Dall’Anomia alla Norma: Strategie di codifica dall’antichità ai giorni odierni”: 231-245.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2024. “The ‘Orthodoxisation’ of the Ancient Indian Marriage by Bride Price (śulka). Insights into the Ārṣa and Āsura Forms of Marriage in and out of the Dharmaśāstric Tradition.” Asiatische Studien – Études Asiatiques 78 (4): 719-759.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2024. “Future as Past in Central Asian Gāndhārī. A Note on the Relationship between Aṣṭādhyāyī 3.2.112–114 and the Usage of the Future Tense to Denote Past Actions in Niya Prakrit.” Indo-Iranian Journal 67 (3): 205-228.
Candotti, Maria Piera, and Alessandro Giudice. 2024. “The Seleucid Influence on the Gandhāran Administrative System. A Study on the Greek-Derived Political Offices with Special Reference to the Indo-Scythian Kingdom of Apraca.” In Piccioni, Francesca, Poddighe, Elisabetta, and Tiziana Pontillo (eds.). La ricezione dell’ultimo Alessandro: Mirabilia e violenza al di qua e al di là dell’Indo. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 417. Berlin – Boston: De Gruyter, 233-272.
Freni, Giulia, and Alessandro Giudice. 2024. “Indian flora as described by Cosmas Indicopleustes. A cross-analysis with Greek and Indian sources.” Aevum. Rassegna di Scienze storiche, linguistiche e filologiche 98 (1): 265-289.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2023. “A Greek wife for an Indian king. Indological notes on the «Treaty of the Indus» (305-303 BCE).” Aevum. Rassegna di Scienze storiche, linguistiche e filologiche 97 (1): 3-28.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2022. “The mysterious plowshare ordeal (phāladivya). A note on Yājñavalkya-smṛti II, 100.” Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology, and Literature 13 (1): 5-20.
Giudice, Alessandro, and Mattia Capponi. 2022. “Editti greci di Aśoka: una nuova ipotesi sulla redazione degli editti di Kandahār.” Ricerche ellenistiche 3: 75-108.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2022. “Le classificazioni matrimoniali nella letteratura indiana antica.” Studi Classici e Orientali 68: 43-90.
Farina, Andrea, and Alessandro Giudice. 2022. “Aśokan salavaḍhi. New insights on the meaning of sala”. Aevum. Rassegna di Scienze storiche, linguistiche e filologiche 96 (1): 65-81.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2025. “Indian Medicine.” In Leven, Karl-Heinz, and Nadine Metzger (eds.). Encyclopedia of Medicine in the Greco-Roman World Online. Leiden: BRILL. Available online at https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EMGO/SIM-027858.xml.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2024. “Law and Religion in Brahmanism: the Dharmaśāstra.” In Wolfe, Brendan N. et al. (ed.). St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Available online at https://www.saet.ac.uk/Hinduism/LawandReligioninBrahmanism.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2024. “Review of Les Lois de Manu. Le Manavadharmashastra. 2022. Introduction by Federico Squarcini, Daniele Cuneo, and Patrick Olivelle. Translation by Georges Strehly (“Série indienne”). Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 432 pages.” Kervan. International Journal of African and Asiatic Studies 28 (2): 527-530.
Giudice, Alessandro. 2023. “Review of Olivelle, P. (2022). Vacanamālā. A Sub-Commentary on Viśvarūpa’s Commentary Bālakrīḍā on the Yājñavalkya Dharmaśāstra. Delhi: Motital Banarsidass, xxv + 303 pp.” Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale 59: 795-798.