Washington and Lee University's Program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies will host a public lecture by John M. Najemy, professor of history at Cornell University, on "Machiavelli and History" on Tuesday, May 15, at 7 p.m. in Northen Auditorium of Leyburn Library.

Najemy also will meet with W&L students to discuss Machiavelli's Florentine Histories and with members of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program luncheon group to discuss recent trends in Florentine and Renaissance history.

Najemy, an internationally recognized expert on the political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli and on the history of Renaissance Florence and Italy, is the author and editor of numerous books, articles and essays, including Corporatism and Consensus in Florentine Electoral Politics, 1280-1400 (1982); Between Friends: Discourses of Power and Desire in the Machiavelli-Vettori Letters of 1513-1515 (1993); A History of Florence, 1200-1575 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006); and (edited) The Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli (2010).

Najemy has twice been awarded the Howard R. Marraro Prize in Italian History from the American Historical Association and the Society for Italian Historical Studies for his books on Corporatism and Consensus and Between Friends.

He has held a number of fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation. He has held visiting professorships at the Syracuse University Program in Florence and at the Harvard University Center for Renaissance Studies, also in Florence.

Najemy has served as disciplinary representative in political thought for the Renaissance Society of America and is a long-time member of the Academic Advisory Committee of Harvard University's Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence.

Najemy received his B.A. in history from Princeton in 1965 and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1972.


Source: Washington and Lee University