Menu
Menu
Chaucer’s life was eventful – not only historically (after all, he was born into the aftermath of the Hundred Years’ War and lived through the Black Death) but also geographically. This giant of English writing enjoyed many international sojourns, and one part of Europe influenced his work like no other: Italy. Tracing Chaucer’s journeys and his links to destinations such as Florence, Certaldo, Arqua, Pavia, and Milan, Richard Owen introduces us to the princes, knights, and authors in whose circles Chaucer mixed, and he pinpoints how Chaucer’s Italian influences became manifest in his Canterbury Tales. Owen’s illuminating new account leaves no doubt that, without the influence of Italian luminaries such as Francesco Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio, the English canon ‘fathered’ by Chaucer would never have existed as we know it.
Richard Owen observed the international scene for thirty years as a foreign correspondent in Moscow, Brussels, Jerusalem and Rome for The Times of London. His publications include Crisis in the Kremlin, Soviet Succession and the Rise of Gorbachov; Letters from Moscow; The Times Guide to the Single European Market; The Times Guide to World Organisations; and three volumes in the Armchair Traveller series, Lady Chatterley’s Villa (issued in paperback in 2020 as DH Lawrence in Italy), Hemingway in Italy (published in Italian in 2017 as Hemingway e l’Italia), and Chaucer’s Italy, issued in 2022. He joined the BBC in 1973, working in the Overseas Service and subsequently in BBC Television current affairs before joining The Times in 1980 as an editorial leader writer.
A DRINKS RECEPTION WILL FOLLOW THE TALK
PLEASE NOTE: bookings close the day before the event but you can still contact us. If space is still available wew will be happy to accomondate you.
Richard Owen
DISCLAIMER:
By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise photo and/or recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the images, recordings in the public domain. The recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. The recording as well as images 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 or photo shooting, please do not join the live event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
Giulio Boccaletti will present his latest work, a revelatory history of how humanity’s relationship to moving water has shaped civilization, transformed political institutions, and defined people’s lives and still shapes today’s politics and economics.
Giulio Boccaletti is a globally recognized expert on natural resource security and environmental sustainability. He is an honorary research associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford. Trained as a physicist and climate scientist, he holds a doctorate from Princeton University, where he was a NASA Earth Systems Science Fellow. He has been a research scientist at MIT and was a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he was one of the leaders of its Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice, and the chief strategy officer and global ambassador for water at The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s largest environmental organizations. Boccaletti frequently writes on environmental issues for the news media, including Project Syndicate and The Guardian, and is an expert contributor to the World Economic Forum.
****
THE TALK WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A DRINKS RECEPTION
Photo credit: Andrea Mattiello
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.
ZOOM WEBINAR | Ticket price £8
Leonardo da Vinci loved wine and wine making. He left lots of notes and drawings on these subjects – as always he was very much ahead of his time in his ideas and visions. Not many know that he owned a vineyard in Milan. Annalisa Conway will explore the story of how Leonardo came to own the vineyard which was at the back of Casa Atellani and the story of the beautiful Casa Atellani itself.
Annalisa Conway, blogger and author, grew up in the Veneto region in Italy and studied at the University of Padua, graduating with a degree in Modern Languages and Literatures. After a career in the Human Resources department of an Italian bank in London she later trained as a legal interpreter to eventually turning her career to work as an Italian and Spanish Teacher. Since retiring she spends her time travelling in the “bella Italia” and writing a blog about Italian lesser known places of interest, art, history and, most importantly food and wine.
Visit www.LittleItaliansuitcase.com
BOOKING INFO: By clicking the Book Now button you will be redirected to the Zoom registration page. After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information to join the webinar. Please, be sure not to miss or loose this email or you may not be able to access the webinar. This email also contains links to add a reminder to Calendar, Google calendar and Yahoo calendar. If you use one of these applications, I suggest you adding the reminder to not miss the link to the event.
DISCLAIMER: By participating in a BIS webinar or live event you automatically agree to authorise photo and/or recording of audio and visual content during the event and consent to subsequent use of the images, recordings in the public domain. The recording may include questions, comments and poll responses provided by you during the event in addition to your name, voice, image or likeness. The recording as well as images 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 or photo shooting, please do not join the live event or contact us to discuss your concerns.
Photo credit: Angilolli – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10675865
Members only
It is not possible to book this event online. Bookings are by inviation only. Thank you.
SOLD OUT!
Join Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, as he discusses the NPG’s major transformation project, Inspiring People, and the Gallery’s links to Italy. Based primarily on Michelozzo’s Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence and with a nod to the Oratorio dello Santo Spirito in Bologna, Nicholas will talk about the redevelopment of the historical building, the redisplay of the collection and the future of the NPG.
Nicholas Cullinan took up his position as the Director of the National Portrait Gallery in spring 2015 following his role as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Prior to this, from 2007 to 2013, Nicholas was Curator of International Modern Art at Tate Modern where he co-curated an exhibition of Henri Matisse’s cut-outs with Sir Nicholas Serota in 2014. Nicholas received his BA, MA and PhD in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and in 2006–7 he held the Hilla Rebay International Fellowship at the Guggenheim museums in Bilbao, New York and Venice.
A DRINKS RECEPTION AND CANAPES WILL FOLLOW THE TALK
Please note: we are not making a formal charge for participation in this event. Traditionally we offer attendance at the Leconfield Lecture free of charge to those members who have paid their subscription for the current year. We strongly encourage all others attending to make a donation of a minimum £15 per person. If any members would also like to make a donation to help offset our costs, that would be much appreciated.
To register for this event, please either fill in the donation form or click on the “book now” button if you do not wish to donate.
Photo credit: National Portrait Galler. Gertrude Elizabeth (née Blood), Lady Colin Campbell. by Giovanni Boldini, oil on canvas, circa 1897.
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.
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
86-90 Paul Street
London EC2A 4NE