Allison holds a Ph.D. in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College. Her specialty is Florentine visual culture and, within that broad theme, portraiture and representations of the body. She is the editor of Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe (2003), winner of the Society of Early Modern Women Book Award; and author of Re-membering Masculinity in Early Modern Florence: Widowed Bodies, Mourning and Portraiture (2006). Her third book is a collection of essays on sex and sexuality in Renaissance Italy, published in Italian as Sesso nel Rinascimento (2009) and in English as Sex Acts (2010). She is currently studying the art of misbehavior. Professor Levy has taught at Bryn Mawr, Tulane University, Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and University College London. She worked for Context in Florence for several years before moving to New York.

Danielle Oteri is an expert on Roman, medieval and Renaissance art. She was a Lecturer at the Met Cloisters for fifteen years and has been Program Director of the International Center of Medieval Art since 2008. Danielle has written about art, history, food and travel for Conde Nast Traveler, Gothamist, NPR and Roads & Kingdoms. She is the founder of Feast on History and Arthur Avenue Food Tours.

After receiving his bachelor of arts degree in Classics from Harvard University and a master’s degree in Ancient Greek literature from Cambridge University, Zachary Taylor focused on late-antique novels, which remained very popular throughout the Byzantine period. His studies in classical and Byzantine history, literature and society with a particular interest in ancient science and magic raised the idea of writing a historical novel from the perspective of a minor government official of the Byzantine Empire just prior to the First Crusade. Zachary, a native of New York City, lives in Istanbul as he looks into the depths of the Byzantine history and takes advantage of the city as a perfect setting while he is writing his book. He loves using the stories and physical remains of the city’s Byzantine past to bring to life the culture of the remarkable and under appreciated empire that was the bridge between Antiquity and the Middle Ages.