As the Byron and Risorgimento Museums prepare for a historic day on April 10 with the visit to Ravenna of two Heads of State, President Sergio Mattarella and King Charles III of England accompanied by Queen Camilla, the Italian Byron Society — based in Ravenna and operating from the same headquarters as the Museums — is buzzing with activity. From this base, the Society reaches out to scholars and enthusiasts all over the world. The Byron Society is expanding its activities, increasing the involvement of prestigious international figures, promoting worldwide knowledge of the great British poet, and enhancing the international appeal of the Museums inaugurated just four months ago.
The Board of Directors and the Assembly of the Italian Byron Society, chaired by Ernesto Giuseppe Alfieri and attended by the Honorary President and creator of the Byron and Risorgimento Museums Antonio Patuelli, have officially admitted a number of important international cultural personalities as new members: Kerry Olsen, cultural journalist for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Vogue; Geoffrey Bond, internationally known writer and Byron memorabilia collector, co-author of the book “Dangerous to Show: Lord Byron and His Portraits”; Franco Gabici, Vice President of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, which directly supports the Italian Byron Society; Riccardo Nencini, author and President of the Gabinetto scientifico-letterario Vieusseux of Florence; Professor Vincenzo Patanè, writer and Byron expert; Professor Gioia Angeletti from the University of Parma; Professor Valentina Varinelli and Professor Francesco Rognoni from the Catholic University (Brescia); Professor Carla Pomarè from the University of Eastern Piedmont; Professors Roberta Ferrari, Nicoletta Caputo, and Laura Giovanelli, and Paolo Bugliani from the University of Pisa.
Also particularly significant is the programme of activities the Italian Byron Society is going to promote in 2025, proposed by President Alfieri and Vice Presidents Diego Saglia and Gregory Dowling, professors at Parma and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice respectively. The programme opens on May 23 with a conference by Professor Andrew Stauffer (President of the American Byron Society and professor at the University of Virginia) and Professor Jonathan Sachs (Concordia University), co-organized with the Italo-British Cultural Association. Next autumn, the Byron Society will be organizing a major event to which Robin Byron, the closest descendant of Lord Byron, will be invited (Robin had previously contributed a particularly moving letter on the occasion of the inauguration of the Byron Museum). The current programme, still under development, also includes two other important appointments: a symposium with the Italian Oscar Wilde Society, possibly to be held in Ravenna or Bologna, and a joint initiative with the heads of the Keats Shelley House in Rome, Ella Kilgallon and Luca Caddia.
With these significant developments — both in terms of new prestigious members and the envisaged cultural programme— the Italian Byron Society strengthens its dynamic commitment to making Ravenna the world capital of Byron studies, a world that, in the first four months of activity of the Byron and Risorgimento Museums, has already focused global institutional, media, and tourist attention on Italy and the Romagna in particular.
Ravenna, March 25, 2025
