Dr. Serena Biondo joined HMML as Site Director in Florence in 2022. A native of Italy, she earned her BA in Foreign Languages and Cultures from the University of Florence and MA and PhD in Religious Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Prior to joining HMML, Serena held research positions at the British Museum and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. She mainly worked with manuscripts from southern and eastern Asia trying to identify their history and the people connected with their production. Serena oversees local digitalization in the State Archives of Florence.

What she enjoys most about her work: “Every manuscript is a unique object, a window to a collective past and personal history that shaped our societies and cultures. The thing I enjoy the most is to open a new volume and discover what there is inside, thinking that I can help in preserving it and making it accessible to people around the world.”