Topic description and stories

Dr Federica Gigante in front of the fresco

‘Altar tent’ discovery puts Islamic art at the heart of medieval Christianity

01 Feb 2025

A 13th-century fresco rediscovered in Ferrara provides unique evidence of medieval churches using Islamic tents to conceal their high altars. Dr...

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Dr Federica Gigante examining the Verona astrolabe

Astrolabe reveals Islamic–Jewish scientific exchange

04 Mar 2024

The identification of an eleventh-century Islamic astrolabe bearing both Arabic and Hebrew inscriptions makes it one of the oldest examples ever...

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Digital resurrection: bringing one of Italy's most important lost churches back to life

03 Aug 2020

Art historians have created a new app which allows users to roam around one of Florence’s oldest and most important churches, San Pier Maggiore, 240...

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This down-to-earth, glazed terracotta figurine of the Virgin could act as the focus of family prayers in a modest home

Animating objects: what material culture can tell us about domestic devotions

24 Oct 2017

Rustic figurines of a resigned-looking Virgin clutching her child may have no obvious literary or artistic merit to us today. But understanding what...

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Still from Fire at Sea, the Oscar-nominated documentary by Gianfranco Rosi

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker comes to Cambridge

09 May 2017

Hailed as “one of the most important artists in any medium”, the award-winning and Oscar-nominated Italian documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi is...

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Left: Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portrait of a Gentleman with His Helmet on a Column, ca. 1555-56. Middle: Giovanni Battista Moroni, The Gentlemen in Pink, 1560, Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo. Right: Moretto da Brescia, Portrait of a Man, 1526, Oil on canvas.

Arms and the man: how a culture of warfare shapes masculinity

31 Mar 2016

The trappings of violence were embedded into the culture of 16th century Europe. Victoria Bartels, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of History, has...

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Fancy pants: skirmishes with the fashion police in 16th-century Italy

16 Sep 2014

With the autumn 2014 fashion shows in full swing, all eyes are on the top designers. In 16th-century Italy, the latest looks didn't always go down...

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Oil painting of Varallo, Italy, by Samuel Butler, 1885

Bella Italia: an Englishman’s adventures abroad

11 Jan 2013

A Butler Day at St John’s College tomorrow (12 January) celebrates the many trips to Italy undertaken by the polymath Samuel Butler, author of...

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16th century votive offerings

Objects of devotion

02 Feb 2012

Why did Renaissance shoppers fill their baskets with rosaries, crucifixes, Christ-dolls and devotional paintings? A new study by historian Dr Mary...

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