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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.

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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.

We are living in a golden age for astronomy, with cutting edge new telescopes that are enabling new, fantastic discoveries. However, we should never forget that we could achieve our knowledge of the Universe by standing on the shoulder of giants, such as Galileo Galilei, who defined the scientific method and set the pillars on which astronomy and astrophysics are founded. I will provide a quick overview of our progress in understanding the Universe from the fathers of astronomy to modern observatories, including the major contribution from Italian scientists. I will illustrate how this progress has culminated in some major findings that have been achieved thanks to the latest generation telescopes, which are providing unprecedented information on the most distant galaxies, in the infant Universe, and by exploring the atmospheres of planets in other solar systems, aimed at finding signatures of life. I will conclude with the challenges that we are facing and the ambitious goals ahead of us.

Roberto Maiolino is Professor of Experimental Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Professor at University College London. He graduated at the University of Florence, on secondment at the University of Arizona. Before taking his chair at Cambridge he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Florence, and at the Astronomical Observatory of Rome. From 2016 to 2021 he was Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge. In 2019 he was knighted in the Order of the Star of Italy. In 2022 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. By using some of the largest telescopes, Roberto Maiolino explores the early formation of galaxies and black holes and their evolution across the cosmic epochs. He has a leading role in various major projects, such as the Extremely Large Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, for which he received the NASA Group Achievement Award. Roberto Maiolino is also a novelist who has published a thriller, ’Stars and Waves’, in the world of astronomy.

A drinks reception will follow the talk

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Please note, we do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.

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.

Please note, we do not issue physical tickets. Your name will be added to our Event Guest List.

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.

Robertaebasta was established in Milan in 1967 by Roberta Tagliavini, a creative and talented woman with an endless love for objets d’art and timeless design pieces. Her passion and eclectic taste are what defines Robertaebasta’s reputation as a point of reference for the Decorative Arts and Design of the 20th Century.

Located in a beautiful Georgian building on Pimlico Road, London’s Design mecca, Robertaebasta London was established in September 2017. The gallery sits in a unique context, where design and antiques blend in together. Nicknamed by Sotheby’s “the new kids on the block”, the gallery’s ethos perfectly embraces the cosmopolitan nature of the city.

The view includes a talk by the General Manager Mattia Martinelli followed by a drinks reception

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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.

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