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Renaissance Dissident

Renaissance Dissident

By: Chris Dobson
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About this listen

My name is Chris Dobson. I am an English historian living and working in Italy. I have written and lectured a great deal on the art and history of Medieval and Renaissance Florence, but I also champion the largely-unknown but beautiful art of Piedmont. Over the years I have been a regular lecturer at Study Days at the Wallace Collection, London, and I have organised and lectured at two international conferences. My consultancy work has included complete museum gallery design. I have now worked for, in and around museums and art galleries for four decades. Subscribe to stay up to date on my latest podcasts!

Chris Dobson 2026
Episodes
  • The Ponte Vecchio Part 1: The Mists of Time

    The Ponte Vecchio Part 1: The Mists of Time
    Feb 5 2026

    Part 1: The Mists of Time. From Prehistory to the Romans.

    This series of podcasts is taken from my book ‘The Ponte Vecchio. The Old Bridge of Florence’. It’s about a Medieval stone bridge that spans the river Arno, linking the ancient heart of the city of Florence on the north bank of the river, with the district of Oltrarno on the south bank, and it is a bridge with a remarkable history.

    The name Ponte Vecchio means ‘Old Bridge’ in Italian, and this world-famous Florentine landmark is certainly old, but it is by no means the first bridge to stand on this site, nor even the first regular means of crossing the river Arno here.

    The story of a river crossing on this site stretches all the way back into prehistory, so whilst the title of of this series might suggest it is about just one bridge, it is actually about a whole series of bridges that were built on, or close to, the site occupied by the Ponte Vecchio today, in the heart of the beautiful city of Florence. These were bridges sometimes destroyed by the hand of man, and sometimes by apocalyptic natural forces. This is the story of those bridges, and the colourful daily life of the city, as lived around, and even on them - an ‘everyday’ story of murder, flood and war.
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    29 mins
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