Events / Weekly Cultural Programme

Every Wednesday at 18.00 from September to June there is a lecture, concert or other event in the Sala Ferragamo in the Harold Acton Library followed by an informal drinks reception. 

Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 18.00

Lecture: Edward Chaney

This lecture examines the fascinating background to the attempts of the great collector Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel (1585-1646), to export from Italy to England the Roman obelisk commissioned by the Emperor Domitian for the temple of Serapis, and how these attempts were frustrated by Pope Urban VIII Barberini, whose successor Innocent X Pamphili had the obelisk erected in Piazza Navona. Professor Edward Chaney of Southampton Solent University is a leading expert on the activities of English collectors in Italy. Among his publications is the major study The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance, Frank Cass, 1998 (second edition 2000).