Inaugural Lecture: Davide Messina

Riveder le stelle: Changing Perspectives in Early Modern Visual Culture

by Davide Messina

The debate on the apparent movement of the stars was crucial to early-modern astronomy, and it marked a new sense of reality in motion. The cosmological and the cognitive side of the debate were entangled. What was its reflection in the visual arts of the period? By addressing this question, which has surprisingly eluded scholarly attention, this lecture aims to show how early-modern images started to move and became self-aware.

About the speaker

Professor Davide Messina obtained his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Bologna. He pursued his post-doctoral research in Italian Studies at Columbia University, New York, where he also became a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Comparative Literature and Society. He came to Edinburgh in 2007, as a Lecturer in Italian Studies. He was Director of the MSc in Comparative and General Literature from 2008 to 2011 and Head of Italian Studies from 2014 to 2020. He was appointed to the Chair of Italian and Comparative Studies in September 2019.

Professor Messina's research is strongly interdisciplinary. It spans a broad range of topics and authors from the early-modern period to contemporary studies, engaging literary history and theory with cultural studies and the arts.

Find out more about Professor Messina on his staff profile

How to join

This lecture is free and open to all. Please register on Eventbrite.

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About Inaugural Lectures

Inaugural Lectures are free public talks by recently-appointed Professors and Chairs at the University of Edinburgh where they share their work with a wide audience, inviting reflection and discussion on its broader implications.

Browse more Inaugural Lectures on the University of Edinburgh website