Celebrating Renaissance London
Professor Tracey Hill
Mon 3 November, 2025 at 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm GMT
£4.00 – £8.00 Renaissance series
Ready to take your next journey of Discovery? The Renaissance: Journeys of Discovery at BRLSI is a yearlong programme of talks and events exploring the many joys, discoveries and something of the broader cultural legacy of a movement still making waves in the 21st century. Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Martin Luther, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Machiavelli, Hieronymus Bosch, if you love culture then you’ll love our new talks series!
But how did the Renaissance play out in England? Contrary to its reputation as a hotbed of dour anti-fun Puritans, the early modern City of London was a place of lively and extravagant performance traditions.
An upcoming talk explores a range of civic entertainments, including the lavish annual Lord Mayor’s Show, the coronation royal entry for King James I and VI in 1604, and lesser-known performances in livery company halls.
Renaissance London was full of colour, music, speeches, costumes, fireworks, sword-fighters and other entertainments on these occasions and this illustrated talk will draw on civic documents, early printed books and visual images of these spectacles.
Professor Tracey Hill, FRHistS, FSA, Bath Spa University (Emerita). Author of Anthony Munday and Civic Culture (Manchester University Press 2004) and Pageantry and Power: A Cultural History of the Early Modern Lord Mayor’s Show (Manchester University Press 2010) as well as a number of journal articles and book chapters. Editor in chief of the Records of Early English Drama collection Civic London 1558-1642. Freeman of the City of London and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Founders.
To learn more about the Renaissance and our exciting year long programme, don’t forget to follow our Renaissance: Journeys of Discovery webpage: https://www.brlsi.org/renaissance/
Tracey Hill answers five questions about Renaissance London:
