A Talk by Andrea di Robilant (November 2013)

Italian author Andrea di Robilant is a journalist and writer who divides his time between Rome and Venice. Born and raised in Italy, he studied history and politics at Columbia University and spent many years in the United States as a corresponded for the Italian dailies La Repubblica and La Stampa.

He is the author of three books of non-fiction. A Venetian Affair, a New York Times "notable book of the year," is an account of a clandestine love story set in 18th century Venice. Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon is a widely praised biography of the author's ancestor, Lucia Mocenigo. His third book, Irresistible North, published in the UK as Venetian Navigators, tells the story of Nicolò and Antonio Zen, two Venetian brothers who sailed to the North Atlantic at the end of the 14th century. He is currently at work on a book about mapping the world in Renaissance Venice.