Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (28)

Afterword (2021)
Book Chapter
Balzaretti, R. (2021). Afterword. In C. Heath, & R. Houghton (Eds.), Conflict and Violence in Medieval Italy 568-1154 (325-336). Amsterdam University Press

Frederic Lees in Varese Ligure, 1911 (2021)
Book Chapter
Balzaretti, R. (2021). Frederic Lees in Varese Ligure, 1911. In G. Fisher, & D. Robinson (Eds.), Travel Writing in an Age of Global Quarantine. London: Anthem Press

Rediscovering Lost Landscapes: Topographical Art in north-west Italy, 1800-1920 (2021)
Book
Piana, P., Watkins, C., & Balzaretti, R. (2021). Rediscovering Lost Landscapes: Topographical Art in north-west Italy, 1800-1920. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer

After the Napoleonic wars many wealthy British women and men settled along the coast in Liguria and travelled in Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta in search of warmth and health. They established English-speaking colonies of retired clerics, colonial offici... Read More about Rediscovering Lost Landscapes: Topographical Art in north-west Italy, 1800-1920.

Urban Life in Lombard Italy: Genoa and Milan Compared (2021)
Book Chapter
Balzaretti, R. (2021). Urban Life in Lombard Italy: Genoa and Milan Compared. In T. J. MacMaster, & N. S. Matheou (Eds.), Italy and the East Roman World in the Medieval Mediterranean: Empire, Cities and Elites, 476-1204 (304-323). London and New York: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)

Milan, Genoa and the Alps: early medieval exchanges across a region (2021)
Journal Article
Balzaretti, R. (2021). Milan, Genoa and the Alps: early medieval exchanges across a region. Studi di storia medioevale e di diplomatica - Nuova Serie, 4, 201-230. https://doi.org/10.54103/2611-318x/15766

In this contribution I consider how Milan and its inhabitants were connected both north and south in the early medieval period. I focus on exchanges understood as giving and receiving, buying and selling, leasing and renting, but also encompassing th... Read More about Milan, Genoa and the Alps: early medieval exchanges across a region.

Re-reading The Lands of Saint Ambrose (2021)
Journal Article
Balzaretti, R. (2021). Re-reading The Lands of Saint Ambrose. Reti Medievali - Rivista, 22(1), 41-49. https://doi.org/10.6092/1593-2214/8041

This paper reflects on the observations made by Giuseppe Albertoni, Gianmarco De Angelis, Anna Rapetti and Igor Santos Salazar in their discussion of the book The Lands of Saint Ambrose. Monks and Society in Early Medieval Milan (2019).

The Lands of Saint Ambrose: Monks and Society in Early Medieval Milan (2019)
Book
Balzaretti, R. (2019). The Lands of Saint Ambrose: Monks and Society in Early Medieval Milan. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.5.106307

This book is a history of Milan in the early medieval period. It investigates the political, social, and economic aspects of the transformation of the Roman world in one of its major centres. Its main theme is the role of monastic communities in this... Read More about The Lands of Saint Ambrose: Monks and Society in Early Medieval Milan.

The palm landscapes of the Italian Riviera (2019)
Journal Article
Piana, P., Watkins, C., & Balzaretti, R. (2019). The palm landscapes of the Italian Riviera. Landscapes, 19(1), 43-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662035.2019.1575112

Palm trees are today a characteristic feature of tropical tourist landscapes around the world, from the Caribbean to the Maldives. They are also a distinctive element of Mediterranean landscapes. On the Italian Riviera they are frequently found in th... Read More about The palm landscapes of the Italian Riviera.

Crossing the River Magra in the “land of broken bridges”: risk in early nineteenth-century travel narratives (2019)
Journal Article
Balzaretti, R. (2019). Crossing the River Magra in the “land of broken bridges”: risk in early nineteenth-century travel narratives. Journal of Risk Research, 22(9), 1101-1115. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1569101

On the 25 October 2011 the River Magra in the far east of the Italian region of Liguria flooded with catastrophic effects, killing thirteen people and causing millions of euros in damage. Managing such an extreme episode is very hard, as local policy... Read More about Crossing the River Magra in the “land of broken bridges”: risk in early nineteenth-century travel narratives.

Topographical art and historical geography: amateur English representations of Ligurian landscape in the early nineteenth century (2018)
Journal Article
Piana, P., Watkins, C., & Balzaretti, R. (2019). Topographical art and historical geography: amateur English representations of Ligurian landscape in the early nineteenth century. Geostoria. Bollettino e Notiziario del Centro Italiano per gli Studi Storico-Geografici, 26(3), 195-221

Since the 1970s scholars have studied representational landscape art to examine changing social conditions, the relationship between landscape and power, and as a source for interpreting past landscapes. Landscape and topographical art if carefully p... Read More about Topographical art and historical geography: amateur English representations of Ligurian landscape in the early nineteenth century.

Art and landscape history: British artists in nineteenth-century Val d’Aosta (NW Italy) (2018)
Journal Article
Piana, P., Watkins, C., & Balzaretti, R. (2018). Art and landscape history: British artists in nineteenth-century Val d’Aosta (NW Italy). Landscape History, 39(2), 91-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2018.1534460

This paper explores the value of landscape and topographical art for understanding contemporary landscapes of the Val d’Aosta, NW Italy. The region became very popular with British tourists in the early nineteenth-century and several amateur and prof... Read More about Art and landscape history: British artists in nineteenth-century Val d’Aosta (NW Italy).

Travel, modernity and rural landscapes in nineteenth-century Liguria (2018)
Journal Article
Piana, P., Watkins, C., & Balzaretti, R. (2018). Travel, modernity and rural landscapes in nineteenth-century Liguria. Rural History, 29(2), 167-193. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956793318000079

New roads and later railways were essential for the modernisation and rapid economic development of North-western Italy in the early nineteenth century. The new routes also encouraged an increasing number of foreign travellers to visit the region. Th... Read More about Travel, modernity and rural landscapes in nineteenth-century Liguria.

Italy and early medieval Europe: papers for Chris Wickham (2018)
Book
R. Balzaretti, J. Barrow, & P. Skinner (Eds.), (2018). Italy and early medieval Europe: papers for Chris Wickham

This volume represents a comprehensive survey of recent work in medieval Italian history and archaeology by an international cast of contributors, arranged within a broader context of studies of other regions and major historical transitions in Europ... Read More about Italy and early medieval Europe: papers for Chris Wickham.

Portofino Landscape (2018)
Exhibition / Performance
WATKINS, C., Piana, P., Balzaretti, R., Girani, A., & Faccini, F. Portofino Landscape. 30 June 2018 - 14 December 2018. (Unpublished)

Early Medieval Genoa (2018)
Book Chapter
Balzaretti, R. (in press). Early Medieval Genoa. In C. Beneš (Ed.), A companion to Medieval Genoa. Brill

The earliest coherent written documentation for Genoa in the early medieval period is from the latter part of the tenth century. Charters documenting the property transactions of several local churches (notably San Siro and Santo Stefano) reveal that... Read More about Early Medieval Genoa.

Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising ‘upon the Cliffs about the Pharos’ in Genoa, March 1664 (2017)
Journal Article
Bruzzone, R., Watkins, C., Balzaretti, R., & Montanari, C. (2018). Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising ‘upon the Cliffs about the Pharos’ in Genoa, March 1664. Landscape Research, 43(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2016.1274966

This paper uses approaches derived from historical ecology to show how knowledge can be gained about the historical and cultural value of neglected urban landscapes. We study the area around Genoa’s lighthouse and consider the long-term survival of i... Read More about Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising ‘upon the Cliffs about the Pharos’ in Genoa, March 1664.

‘Saved from the sordid axe’: representation and understanding of pine trees by English visitors to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century (2016)
Journal Article
Piana, P., Watkins, C., & Balzaretti, R. (in press). ‘Saved from the sordid axe’: representation and understanding of pine trees by English visitors to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Landscape History, 37(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/01433768.2016.1249723

Pine trees were frequently depicted and celebrated by nineteenth century English artists and travellers in Italy. The amateur artist and connoisseur Sir George Beaumont was horrified to discover in 1821 that many Roman stone pines were being felled a... Read More about ‘Saved from the sordid axe’: representation and understanding of pine trees by English visitors to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.