Italy

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: your guide to the poet’s life, work and love

Da Vinci's sketch 'The Vitruvian Man'. Da Vinci's talents ranged from anatomy to military engineering, and many of his innovations were not explored further for several centuries. (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

Your guide to Leonardo da Vinci: his life, inventions and milestones in his career

Michelangelo was a Renaissance sculptor, painter and visionary. This 17th-centruy portrait was completely shortly after his death

Your guide to Renaissance sculptor and painter Michelangelo

Jerry Brotton describes the astonishing life and career of the Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini – a story of murder, plague, imprisonment and even necromancy. (Image by Getty Images)

Cellini: the “supreme scoundrel of the Renaissance”

Second century relief portraying a Roman ophthalmologist examining a patient. (Photo By DEA / A. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)

Roman medicine: 6 ways people stayed healthy in ancient Rome

Mary Hollingsworth discusses her new book, Princes of the Renaissance, which charts the wars and alliances between the powerful Italian families of the 15th and 16th centuries. (Image by Getty Images)

Formidable dynasties of the Italian Renaissance

Shushma Malik discusses some of the most admired and reviled Roman emperors, and considers whether the legends surrounding them stand up to scrutiny. (Image by Getty Images)

The Roman emperors: everything you wanted to know

The assassination of Julius Caesar

What if… Julius Caesar had not been assassinated?

Peter Stothard reveals how Julius Caesar’s assassination triggered a brutal power struggle, one that would transform ancient Rome. (Image by Getty Images)

The hunt for Caesar’s killers

Henry IV of Germany asking for the forgiveness of Pope Gregory VII in Canossa in 1077. (Photo by De Agostini/Getty Images)

Canossa: a medieval clash between church and state

James Holland tells the story of the dramatic Allied assault on the island of Sicily in the Second World War. (Image by Getty Images)

Second World War

The battle for Sicily, 1943

Illustration showing Roman Saturnalia banquet. (Photo by Alamy)

Saturnalia: the origins of the debauched Roman ‘Christmas’

Marble bust of Caligula

Caligula: murderous and depraved, or a victim of history?

Painting of Pope Callixtus II, the first Borgia pope, though it would be his nephew Rodrigo (later Pope Alexander VI) who would earn great infamy

Your guide to... the Borgias

Vivid experiences: a self-portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque artist whose brilliant renderings of biblical and classical scenes earned her commissions from some of the most powerful figures in 17th century Europe. (Photo by Araldo de Luca/Corbis via Getty Images)

Artemisia Gentileschi: how pain powered the great 17th-century artist