The Nicolai Rubinstein Lecture in the History of Political Thought and Intellectual History is an annual memorial lecture held in honour of the distinguished Renaissance scholar and former Queen Mary colleague, Nicolai Rubinstein. Having fled Nazi persecution in the 1930s, Rubinstein was appointed to a lectureship at Westfield College, University of London (later merged with Queen Mary) in 1945, and retired as Professor in 1978. He was the leading authority on the government of Florence under the Medici, and a renowned expert in the art, architecture and political thought of Renaissance Italy. This lecture series, inaugurated in 2007, celebrates his contribution to intellectual history.