Nigel has been in Rome to deliver a lecture at the historic La Sapienza University.

The lecture, on Building Conservation in England, was delivered to students on the international Masters course on Theory and Practice of Conservation, which and came at the invitation of Professor Calogero Bellanca.

The lecture was in three sections:

1️⃣ the conservation landscape in the UK from William Morris’s 1877 SPAB manifesto to the present;

2️⃣ the role of Historic England and their overarching policy of ‘Constructive Conservation’, beneath which now sits their guiding Conservation Principles; and

3️⃣ the operation of the Ecclesiastical Exemption.

Professor Bellanca is one of Italy’s leading conservation academics with over 15 books and 200 academic articles to his name.

Like Nigel he is also on the Board of TheoPhilos, the ICOIMOS International Scientific Committee on the Theory and Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration.

TheoPhilos has its next conference on Thursday 28th November in the ancient city of Thessaloniki.