Plague in Florence
A lecture by John Henderson
This lecture focuses on the development of public health policies in seventeenth-century Tuscany by examining the impact of regulations at the level of the neighbourhood, street and family. Looking behind the optimistic gloss of official printed accounts, John Henderson will examine the often moving and tragic stories of the individuals who ran hospitals, the doctors who treated plague victims, and, above all, of the ordinary men and women left bereft and confused by the sickness and death of family members as they sought to adopt strategies to survive during quarantine and lockdown.
John Henderson is Emeritus Professor of Italian Renaissance History at Birkbeck, University of London, and Emeritus Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. He has published a wide range of books and articles on the social, religious and medical history of renaissance and early modern Tuscany. His latest book on the Great Pox in Renaissance Italy will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2024.
If you are in Florence and would like to attend the lecture in person at the British Institute Library, please register here or send an email to bif@britishinstitute.it
The registration fee is 12 Euro per person.
To join this lecture online, simply click on this link to register and receive the Zoom meeting invitation: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcOutqjojGtRwD3hVOj2s5AO4D8llmN6o. The virtual doors will open at 18:00 Italian time on Wednesday 15TH May.
A recording of the virtual lecture will be published on our YouTube channel. Clicking on the link above, you authorise the British Institute of Florence to use your image, name and comments.
There is no charge to attend the event on Zoom, but we ask you to consider making a donation to support the Institute and its beautiful library if you wish to attend an event.
This lecture is sponsored by Sylvia Cox