Associate ProfessorNick Eckstein

Before retiring in 2022, Nick Eckstein was the Cassamarca Associate Professor of Italian Renaissance History in the Department of History at the University of Sydney. A former Fellow and Visiting Professor at The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence, Nick’s research and publications emphasise the social and cultural history of renaissance and early-modern Italy. His articles and books include a major study reconstructing the changing social context and reception of Florentine art by lay audiences in the fifteenth century, entitled Painted Glories: The Brancacci Chapel in Renaissance Florence (Yale University Press, 2014). Among several thematically interrelated projects, Nick's most recent research has addressed the perception, utilisation and evolution of urban and rural space during periods of plague crisis in early-modern Florence and Bologna.
 
Nick conceived and wrote the first podcast series broadcast by the Department of History.  With colleagues, Sophie Loy-Wilson and Peter Adams, he produced a series of episodes on historical themes, entitled How Was it Really? Since he left Sydney as a full-time employee, he has, once again with Peter Adams, produced a second series of podcasts entitled Making Sense of History.