The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution is hosting a year-long programme of talks and events that will explore the many joys, revelations, and broader cultural legacy of the Renaissance, a movement that is still making waves in the 21st century. Image: Vitruvian man on blue textured background by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Renaissance: Journeys of Discovery will explore how the Renaissance transformed the worlds of art, literature, technology, science, politics, philosophy, cartography, theatre, printing, fashion, and exploration. The Renaissance was a European cultural movement that marked the gradual transition from the Middle Ages to modernity, characterised by significant cultural, artistic, political, and economic changes.
This great “rebirth” saw advances in ideas from the classical world as a result of migration from the Ottoman-controlled East, and the Republic of Florence became the flourishing centre for the new movement. It was there that Giorgio Vasari, arguably the world’s first art critic and progenitor of its burgeoning art scene, in his Lives of the Artists coined the notion of ‘rinascita’, meaning rebirth.
BRLSI’s exciting new series covers the years 1350 to 1650, encompassing the period from the early Renaissance in Florence to the end of the religious wars in Europe, and places its focus on the notion of multiple ‘Renaissances’, exploring the broader global picture beyond Italy, while investigating how the Renaissance had its roots in the classical texts and ideas that came in as a result of migration.
“Renaissance: Journeys of Discovery not only considers the full geographical scope of the Renaissance, but explores too its wider political ramifications, particularly regarding the newfound expansionism that took hold in a bid to find new trade routes,” says Andreas Wasmuht, the convenor of the Renaissance Series.
“The series investigates the full extent of humanism at home and barbarism abroad while considering how the global manifestations of the Renaissance were intrinsically linked to the new age of scientific and technological advancement.”
Kicking off the series will be keynote speaker, Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones.
“Jonathan will provide a comprehensive overview of the Renaissance and an assessment of its importance in ‘Earthly Delights’, asking if the Renaissance really marks the seismic change in European thinking we think it does,” explains Andreas.
“He will then lead us on a magical mystery tour of Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries, introducing us along the way to the likes of Da Vinci, Bosch, Bruegel, Titian, Michelangelo, and Dürer.”
Later, in BRLSI’s year-long programme, The New Statesman’s John Gray will examine the philosophical impacts of the period, and more than 30 first-rate speakers will explore an epoch that led to a world of discovery people are still engaging with today.
The programme runs from September 2025 to June 2026 at BRLSI, 16 Queen Square. Talks can also be livestreamed. Tickets are £4 for BRLSI members and £8 for non-members. Visit brlsi.org/renaissance for more details.