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At the end of the Middle Ages, Venice was one of the most populous cities in the Mediterranean, one of the most dynamic and one of the richest. The Rialto markets overflowed with food, the busy streets of the Mercerie were filled with precious goods, and the countless workshops scattered around the city produced day after day the objects and artefacts that fed the Venetian international trade networks. But what was the ecological cost of such wealth? How did the lagoon manage to absorb the waste produced by the tens of thousands of inhabitants who populated the city? What were the consequences in terms of pollution of the activity of the butchers and dyers, of the saturation of the canals by hundreds of boats and ships, of the constant construction and reconstruction of magnificent palaces and churches ? This lecture will explore the environmental history of the Venetian lagoon in the late Middle Ages, focusing on the history of pollution and analysing how, in the 14th and 15th centuries, the government of the Serenissima and the inhabitants took action to safeguard their environment, a history that is bound to raise questions about the issues the lagoon and the city of Venice still face today.
Claire Judde de Larivière is a professor of medieval history at the University of Toulouse. Her work focuses on the history of Venetian society at the end of the Middle Ages, in particular the common people, their political actions and forms of social organisation. Her publications include The Revolt of Snowballs: Murano confronts Venice, 1511 (2018), and she co-edited with Maartje van Gelder, Popular Politics in an Aristocratic Republic: Political Conflict and Social Contestation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Venice (2020). Her latest work L’ordinaire des savoirs: Une histoire pragmatique de la société vénitienne (XVe-XVIe siècle) was published in 2023. She is currently leading a research project on pollution and waste management in the Venetian lagoon and the Mediterranean at the end of the Middle Ages.
This event is jointly hosted with the Venice in Peril Fund
A glass of prosecco will follow the talk
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DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
The Charles de Chassiron Lecture 2024
Women in the Byzantine Empire are seldom addressed in relation to art, yet manuscripts, paintings, jewels, architecture and fashion are imbued with their agency. This lecture presents an art-historical survey reinstating women into the history of the long Middle Ages across the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean.
Dr Andrea Mattiello holds a PhD from the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies University of Birmingham, and another PhD from the School for Advanced Studies in Venice. He has published and lectured on Medieval, Modern and Contemporary Art and Architecture, queer art in Antiquity, female agency in Byzantium and Greek-Italian exchanges in fifteenth-century Humanism. He has held a number of prestigious research fellowships and has lectured at Università IUAV of Venice, the University of Birmingham, Università di Salerno, Christie’s Education London and University of Oxford. He co-edited the volume Late Byzantium Reconsidered and is currently working on a monograph on the queens at the late Palaiologan Byzantine court in Mystras. He is currently a research fellow at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in Milan.
A drinks reception will follow the talk
***
Please note:
– We do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.
– Online bookings close the day before the event. If you need to make a booking on the same day, please contact us to check availability.
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
A drinks reception will follow the talk
***
Please note, we do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns
Photo Credit: NASA
Founded in 734 BCE by the Corinthian Greeks, capital of the Byzantine Empire in 663CE, today a popular film location (the latest Indiana Jones), subject to the mass tourism of morde e fugge, I first discovered Syracuse through Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and a Rogers and Hart musical. 52 years on I know better. There will be tales of monuments, myths, and miracles but also of Plato, St Paul, Nelson and Churchill, the eccentricities of the old Bourbon aristocracy, a WWII secret, and stories of village life with its rivalries and passions: where a murder in Avola caused a change to Italian law. There is also modern Syracuse, a microcosm of Southern Italian life with all its challenges. Above all, this is la mia Siracusa and, in a way, the story of six “theatres”.
Susan Kikoler was born in London of Russian/Polish ancestry and fell in love with Italy visiting Florence as a teenager. After studying English Language and Literature at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, she taught English for five years in Syracuse, Sicily, before moving to Canada and finally the UK. Her portfolio career has been based on her interest in and knowledge of Italy whether as lecturer, (Canada, Brazil, Italy and the UK), writer, interpreter, or consultant. Since 2004 she has been the Honorary Director of the British-Italian Society and was awarded the title of Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella D’Italia in 2005 for promoting Italian culture. Her other great passion is theatre. She was a Drama Assessor for the London Arts Board and has served three times on the panel of the Laurence Olivier Theatre Awards.
Her latest lecture The History of the Jews of Lombardy: Mantua, Milan and Mantegna is available on YouTube.
A drinks reception will follow the talk
***
Please note, we do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the recording in the public domain. This recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. This recording will be made available after the conclusion of the live event as part of the BIS webinar archives, and will remain available indefinitely. If you do not wish to consent to the recording, please do not join the event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
MEMBERS ONLY. SOLD OUT.
On the occasion of Art in Mayfair, the Italian Ambassador in the UK, Inigo Lambertini, has the pleasure of inviting BIS members to a unique experience: visiting the Embassy’s premises and getting to know its art collection, in an exclusive tour lead by Dr Jennifer Sliwka, King’s College London.
Since it was founded in 1941, the British-Italian Society has worked to promote knowledge and understanding in the UK of Italian culture, including Italy’s history, institutions, way of life, language and wider contribution to civilisation.
The British-Italian Society
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London EC2A 4NE