ReceptioGate 2026

ReceptioGate is the name given to a documented online defamation campaign that began in late 2022 against the RECEPTIO research centre and its founder, Professor Carla Rossi.

The campaign originated from false allegations of plagiarism concerning the volume The Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy, a scholarly study dedicated to the documentation and digital reconstruction of a dismembered medieval manuscript. These allegations were initially disseminated through blogs and social media, most notably by Peter Kidd, without peer review, without access to original research files, and without any independent or judicial verification.

Despite the absence of scholarly or forensic validation, the accusations were relayed and amplified online

and were subsequently taken up by institutional actors without adequate fact-checking, contributing to severe reputational harm.

On 7 January 2026, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court definitively closed the proceedings relating to The Book of Hours of Louis de Roucy. The Court annulled the Swiss National Science Foundation’s decision to revoke the research grant and explicitly established that there were no grounds to qualify the work as plagiarised and no legal basis for imposing sanctions. The ruling clarified that the materials circulating online in support of the allegations did not meet the required legal and evidentiary standards.

As a consequence, the central accusation that triggered the ReceptioGate campaign was formally dismissed by a court of law. The judgment confirmed the scholarly legitimacy of the volume and demonstrated that the narrative constructed online did not withstand judicial scrutiny.

At the same time, Professor Rossi continued her research activity at an international level. In 2025, she published the peer-reviewed article “Biblioclasm for Profit: The Legal Implications of Dismembering Western Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts” in the Harvard Art Law Review, contributing to the legal and ethical debate on the protection of manuscript heritage.

On 19 December 2025, the Scriptorium Foroiuliense officially presented to the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, a facsimile edition of Manuscript MS 198 of the Biblioteca Guarneriana, accompanied by a scholarly study authored by Carla Rossi. This institutional presentation constitutes a public and documented recognition of her work in the field of codicology and manuscript studies.

As of 2026, RECEPTIO remains active in research on medieval manuscripts, with a focus on the documentation, digital reconstruction, and protection of dismembered codices.On the basis of judicial findings and verifiable documentation, ReceptioGate is now understood as a case of reputational warfare whose founding allegation did not survive legal examination.