Roy Willis

 ”Glorious Florence:  City of the Arts & Artisans”

The ever popular Professor Roy Willis, Professor of History, Emeritus, University of California, Davis, returns once more to delight our members with an illuminating presentation on Florence, one of Italy’s loveliest jewels.  Professor Willis will discuss how - from Florence’s rise to prominence about AD 1000 - the social and economic structure of that city, in particular the presence of immensely rich families like the Bardi and Medici, led first to the creation of a brilliant Romanesque culture, then a High Gothic, and finally to its invention of the Italian Renaissance.

 Professor Willis took a B.A. in European History at Kings College, Cambridge in 1952. After emigrating to the United States, he took his Ph.D. at Stanford in 1959.  He taught at Stanford and the University of Washington before moving to the University of California, Davis, in 1964. 

 He has published several scholarly books on contemporary Western Europe.  He has also written a number of textbooks on ever wider fields of history.  His fourth, World Civilizations, explores the role of cities in the development of civilizations throughout the world. This will be an interesting and lively evening!