Alexander Lee is a fellow in the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick. Educated at the universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh, he has previously held posts at the universities of Oxford, Bergamo, and Luxembourg, amongst others. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is the author of six acclaimed books, including most recently Machiavelli: His Life and Times (a Financial Times and New Statesman 'Book of the Year') and The First Ghetto: Venice and the Jews . Stephen Bowd is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Edinburgh and has published extensively on the history of Venice and on the Renaissance. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and is committed to widening access to historical studies. He has presented his work to a wide range of non-academic audiences by means of live talks, BBC radio appearances (including In Our Time ), newspaper interviews (e.g. Corriere della Sera ) and podcasts.