Byron 200: the bicentenary of Lord Byron’s death (1824-2024)

Byron 200: the bicentenary of Lord Byron’s death (1824-2024) 

at the Keats-Shelley House

The Keats-Shelley House will be celebrating the bicentenary of Lord Byron’s death with a year-long programme of talks, readings, and performances both in Italy and the UK. Highlights from the year will include a dedicated exhibition at the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, a digital online exhition ‘Pretensions to permanency’: Lord Byron’s portrait busts, and a Romantic concert performed by internationally celebrated musicians, Julius Drake and Ian Bostridge, at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome.

‘Byron’s Italy: An Anglo-Italian Romance’: An Exhibition at the Keats-Shelley House

19th April 2024 - 21st December 2024 

A bicentenary exhibition featuring two major new acquisitions dedicated to Bryon’s relationship to Italian culture, language and literature and his lasting legacy in Italy. The exhibition will also feature line drawings by architect Roberto Einaudi. 

See below for a full list of all the events in the 2024 programme.

21st March at 5 pm - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

Byron and Greece, a talk on Byron’s time in Greece by journalist and film critic Vincenzo Patanè, author of The Sour Fruit. Lord Byron, Love & Sex (2019), as well as other books on the poet.

9th - 10th April - 50 Albemarle Street, London

Lord Byron and John Murray: A Remarkable Friendship, a one-act Jeu-d’Esprit by Angus Graham-Campbell. Performed by Fred Fergus, Tom Palmer, and Polly Edsell. This event is invite-only.

13th April - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

A selection of poetry readings by the KSH Poet-in-Residence, Scarlett Sabet.

16th April - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

A selection of poetry readings by Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, including his own poetry and works by Byron.

26th April - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

‘frequent turn to linger as you go’: Byron plays Guide, a talk on the influence of Rome in Byron’s work by Dr Will Bowers, Senior Lecturer in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Thought at Queen Mary, University of London.

9th May - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

The re-presentation of Byron’s ancestral home: Newstead Abbey, a talk by Simon Brown, Curator at Newstead Abbey.

23rd May - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

Byron 200, a poetry reading by poet and screenwriter Jan Noble. ‘Byron 200’ is a mini, verse-drama, a work in three acts that describe three occasions in which Byron, a famed and fabled swimmer, took to the water.

13th June - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

Lord Byron and his portraits in Italy, a talk by Dr Christine Kenyon-Jones, Research Fellow in the Department of English at King's College London, and co-author of Dangerous to Show: Byron and His Portraits.

19th June - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

Presentation of a new biography of Byron, Byron: A Life in Ten Letters, by Prof. Andrew Stauffer, Chair of the Department of English at the University of Virginia and President of The Byron Society of America, in conversation with Prof. Greg Kucich (Notre Dame) and Prof. Jeffrey Cox (University of Colorado). 

20th - 22nd June - Rome

Sponsors of The Byron Society of America conference on the theme of Byron and the Mediterranean “Cult of the South”. This event is organised by the Byron Society of America, for more information please click here.

25th June  - Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome

Byron 200: A Romantic Concert. Internationally acclaimed pianist Julius Drake, Professor of Collaborative Piano at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and tenor Ian Bostridge, CBE, will perform a Byronic themed concert at the beautiful venue of Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome.

12th September - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

From Ravenna to Missolonghi: Shelley’s part in Byron’s last journey, a talk by Prof. Roderick Beaton, Emeritus Koraes Professor of Modern Greek & Byzantine History, Language & Literature at King’s College London and Chair of the Council of the British School at Athens. 

3rd October - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

Byron and his friendship with Richard Belgrave Hoppner, artist and consul in Venice (1814-25), a talk by John Wilson, director emeritus of the Timken Museum of Art, San Diego.

17th October - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

All at Sea: Byron as a nautically-minded landlubber, a talk by Miranda Seymour, literary critic and author of In Byron's Wake.

7th November - Keats-Shelley House, Rome (POSTPONED TO 2025)

Byron and homosexuality, a talk by Prof. Franco Buffoni, poet, translator and Professor of Literary Criticism at the University of Cassino. 

21st November 2024 - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

Byron, Italy and Ireland: ‘[Italy’s] clanking chain, and Erin's yet green wounds’, a talk on Byron and Irish-Italian Freedom by Elisa Cozzi, PhD student at the University of Oxford.

5th December at 5 pm - Keats-Shelley House, Rome

Byron and his protraits, a talk by journalist and film critic Vincenzo Patanè, author of The Sour Fruit. Lord Byron, Love & Sex (2019), as well as other books on the poet.

More events to be announced throughout the year.

To learn more about the programme or to make reservations please write to info@keats-shelley-house.org