Jacopo studied Classics, Celtic linguistics and Indo-European linguistics at the University of Pisa, Italy, where he graduated in 2004. He was awarded a PhD in NUI, Galway in 2008 for a thesis entitled Amrae Coluimb Chille: a Critical Edition, a revised and expanded version of which was published in 2019 by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. He have taught widely in early Irish, Latin language, and historical linguistics, and his research area ranges from Celtic philology to the study of Early Medieval Irish literature (both Latin and vernacular), especially in regard to its manuscript transmission. More specific research interests include the question of Latin/Old Irish bilingualism in Early Medieval Ireland, the Medieval Irish re-elaboration of the Classical tradition, the terminology of music and musical instruments in Old and Middle Irish sources, and the transmission of computistical and exegetical texts between Ireland, Brittany and Francia in the Carolingian age. The last topic is indeed the focus of the research project that hecurrently directs, entitled ‘Ireland and Carolingian Brittany: Texts and Transmission’ (IrCaBriTT) and funded by the Laureate Scheme of the Irish Research Council.

In his spare time, he plays medieval bagpipe and flutes and studies the earliest manuscripts of instrumental music.