Hannah Marcus is Professor of the History of Science and Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the scientific culture of early modern Europe between 1400 and 1700. She is especially fascinated by Italian archives and the many stories and voices that emerge from them.

Marcus is the author of “Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy” (University of Chicago Press, 2020) and the translator of the sixteenth-century apothecary Camilla Erculiani’s “Letters on Natural Philosophy: The Scientific Correspondence of a Sixteenth-Century Pharmacist, with Related Texts” (New York: Iter Press, 2020).

She wrote extensively about plague during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and maintains an interest in religious history in the wake of the Reformation. Forthcoming projects include a book on the history of old age in early modern Italy titled “Methuselah’s Children: The Renaissance Discovery of Old Age” and an edited volume with Paula Findlen (Stanford) titled “Galileo’s Letters: Experiments in Friendship.”

Marcus is passionate about museums and libraries and the many opportunities that they provide for engaging both students and broad publics beyond the academy. She is a self-proclaimed Super User of her campus libraries, an enthusiast of museums of all shapes and sizes, and is committed to innovation in collections use and access.