The First Christmas Celebration
On 25 December 336 Rome’s believers celebrated Christmas Day – the earliest recorded use of that date as it spread across Christendom.
Italy
Oswald of Northumbria: An English Saint in the Alps
The English saint Oswald of Northumbria proved incredibly popular in the medieval German-speaking world. How did he get there?
The Excommunication of Henry VIII
Henry VIII’s break with Rome was a watershed moment for England and for Christendom. Did the papacy have itself to blame?
Pilgrims and Poverty in Renaissance Rome
Rome welcomed and tended to the vast numbers of pilgrims who arrived in the 16th century, but its attitude to its own poor could be very different.
The Race to Write a History of Naples
The lifelong rivalry of two early modern Neapolitan printers was a battle of books, power, and, ultimately, fire.
‘The Graces’ by Breeze Barrington review
The Graces: The Extraordinary Untold Lives of Women at the Restoration Court by Breeze Barrington looks beyond the warming pan to the real Mary of Modena.
Italian Emigrant Soldiers in the First World War
Italy’s entry into the Great War in 1915 prompted 300,000 men to return to their homeland to join the fight. Were they Italian enough for Italy?
Renaissance Florence’s Missing Bronzes
The controversial outcome of a sculpture competition between Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti changed the urban fabric of Renaissance Florence – or so the story goes.
Sex Workers and Salvation in the Renaissance
Renaissance Florence had a problem: it wanted female sex workers, but it also needed to offer them a way out. The solution was a new brothel district – and a nunnery for former prostitutes
Pompey’s Greatest Show on Earth
Rome’s first theatre was an enormous spectacle intended to glorify Pompey’s successes. Was it all bread and circuses?