On the evening of 3rd December, some of our elite historians gave superb short lectures to a crowd of about 150 fellow pupils.
The quality both of the research and of the delivery was excellent in all cases. Topics ranged from the collapse of the republican system in Ancient Rome to the fall of France in World War Two; from the rise of Gothic literature to the challenges for art posed by the Enlightenment.
There were notable contributions about Byzantium including a discussion of the impact of the 1204 sack of the city, as well as the broader context of its fall to the Ottomans in 1453 in the tradition of the wider story of the Roman Empire. We also heard about the peak of the witch trials in 1600, and the reasons for them.
This rich evening followed a very lively period for the Department: on Tuesday we had a busy discussion session with Ady Gashi, who talked of his experiences growing up in Kosovo in time of war; and recently a group of pupils explored the 18th century architecture of Bath, ending the evening at a concert of Schubert’s intense Winterreise.
Christopher Moule
Head of History and Academic Scholars
