Jane Stevenson

Researcher and writer Jane Stevenson celebrates one of Italy’s most-visited cities Siena and explains how it rose and fell and then enjoyed a prosperous afterlife as a uniquely well-preserved medieval city.

Stevenson explains how republican Siena struggled for dominance with its Medici rival Florence. It profited from its place on the pilgrim route and was an important commercial, financial and artistic centre for four centuries. Stevenson shows how it suffered a catastrophic decline after the Black Death but transcended its loss of power to rise again and enjoy its position as a well-preserved medieval city full of world-class art and architecture.

Stevenson is a senior research fellow at Campion Hall, Oxford, and author of Baroque Between the Wars, Edward Burra: Twentieth Century Eye, and The Light of Italy: The Life and Times of Federico da Montefeltro.

This event is part of Italian day at the festival.