THE third annual Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury symposium has taken place followed by a concert in the Rausing building.

Quentin Skinner, the first speaker, is the leading world specialist on Thomas Hobbes and Machiavelli was until moving to the University of London the Regius Professor of History at the University of Cambridge.

His brilliant talk on (‘Old Nick’) Machiavelli and Hobbes was followed by presentations by two other leading academic Hobbesian scholars, Dr Raffaella Santi from the Italian city of Urbino and Dr. Luc Foisneau who is research director of the prestigious French institution, the CNRS.

Each presentation was followed by a Q&A where the speakers were subjected to some sharp, perceptive questioning and observations from the audience.

A trio from the ensemble Music for Awhile – Tabea Debus, Olwen Foulkes and Benedict Williams performed.

Since this year’s theme was Hobbes and Italy, the mayor of a small town in northern Italy, Andrea De Ranieri, and a doctoral student from Rome, Luca Tenneriello, came from Italy to participate in the day’s events.