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Volume 34 E-Mail: [email protected]    Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 Autumn 2014

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Volume 34 E-Mail: Info@Itatti.Harvard.Edu    Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 Autumn 2014 The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies VILLA I Tatti Via di Vincigliata 26, 50135 Florence, Italy Volume 34 E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 Autumn 2014 A day in the Life of I Tatti Letter from Florence haven’t a Giorgione to show him; still, he seems very pleased indeed with our We treat them all with equanimity, Domenico Veneziano, and everything showing them the glorious gardens, the else he sees: the quiet freshness of the It has been another wonderful year at dreamlike library, the art collection, the Studiolo Berenson, the striking draperies Villa I Tatti, with an exceptional group fabulous Deborah Loeb Brice Loggiato, on the walls, the golden glints from the of Fellows and Visiting Professors from and of course the chapel, where Mr. and fondi oro, the rich summer bouquet all corners of the world: Spain and on the coffee table. His daughter is Catalonia, England and Scotland, equally nice, and interested in the Italy and Israel, the Netherlands and two small Giottos that are hanging the US, not to mention Australia, here. She comes with two little girls Hungary, Iceland and Japan. Topics in tow – her daughters, blond and ranged from Renaissance music in softly spoken, like two angels just out Scandinavia to a possible portrait of of the Neroccio di Bartolomeo on Lucrezia Borgia in Melbourne, from the other wall of the studiolo. I take cannibals and vegetarians in the East them to the balcony and show them and West to directions of writing the church and tower of San Martino in different languages, from Jews on the other side of our little valley in Renaissance Ferrara to Jesuits in as the bells ring 11 am. Grandmother Japan… We had inspiring lectures, is standing behind them, looking intense conferences, elegant concerts lovely and very distinguished. She is of villanelle and divine music, and obviously pleased to be here today, a convivial and fascinating trip to and her smiling eyes speak of her Vicenza and the Palladian villas joy and warmth. The visit of these nearby. We held many events in perfect strangers is beginning to feel collaboration with Harvard and more like the reunion of old friends. other Western institutions; we co- The studiolo is full of the waves of sponsored several courses of lectures our mutual simpatia, of the pleasure in China and Latin America and of being here and together on a day conferences in Germany and Canada; like today. This is not unusual when finally, we published over twenty special visitors come, but today there new volumes in our book series, is something else in the air, which is and inaugurated with a resounding soon revealed: it’s grandma’s eightieth success the new series of our journal birthday. My goodness – it’s hugs and “I Tatti Studies.” It definitely was a wishes all around! By the time they busy but rewarding year for everyone at Mrs. Berenson rest in peace. leave – they have an appointment in I Tatti. Today was the turn of an eminent town – they wish they could stay longer, Now we have reached that time family from Belgium, whom we know and so do we. of the year when nearly all of the are great friends to Mother Harvard. As I get back to my office the telephone previous Fellows have left and few of They turn out to be utterly charming, rings, my next appointment is waiting the new ones have arrived. It’s a short as is often the case with seekers of I Tatti. for me in the reception. It’s a colleague interregnum at I Tatti, when the Villa The patriarch, wearing immaculate from Yale, a brilliant lecturer and scholar goes quiet in the soft penumbra of full summery beige, has a frail body but who hasn’t been to I Tatti for twenty- summer, and lunch is an intimate affair inspires deference and warmth. He five years. We walk down through the in the French library. Visitors, however, speaks English, and then suddenly to Wilson & Thompson Room of the always abound, from those who know me in Italian with a Venetian accent, library and to the Hanging Garden. everything about Bernard and Mary which he says he picked up in Padua in The wisteria on the wall is flowering Berenson, their family, friends and his youth… Oh Paduan, io son de la tua again, though this time more modestly affairs, to the blessed innocent who, on terra… He and I don’t embrace as Virgil than in the spring when she is totally seeing Anna, whisper to one another: and Sordello did, but almost – after all uncontrollable. We walk down the stairs “Look, there goes Mr. Berenson’s wife!” this is hardly Purgatory. I’m so sorry I and on to the Azalea Terrace. The sun Continued on page 2 Cambridge Office: Villa I Tatti, Harvard University, 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-5762 Tel: +1 617 496 8724 or +1 617 495 8042 / Fax: +1 617 495 8041 / Web: http://www.itatti.harvard.edu VILLA I TATTI COMMUNITY 2013-2014 Full information on the scholars making up the 2013-2014 academic community can be found under COMMUNITY, FORMER APPOINTEES, 2013/2014 on our website at www.itatti.harvard.edu. Raul Gonzalez Arévalo, Rossend Arqués, Nicholas Baker, Davide Baldi, Karen-edis Barzman, Ingrid Baumgärtner, Katherine Bentz, Robert D. Black, Francesca Borgo, Eve Borsook, Elena Calvillo, Angela Matilde Capodivacca, Angelo Cattaneo, Roger Crum, Maria DePrano, Guy Geltner, Gerard González Germain, Allen James Grieco, Miguel Taín Guzmán, Margaret Haines, John S. Henderson, Tamar Herzig, Árni Ingólfsson, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Daniel Stein Kokin, Noriko Kotani, Elizabeth Lagresa, Marika Leino, Giordano Mastrocola, Vanessa de Cruz Medina, Emily Michelson, Cecilia Muratori, Morgan Ng, Stephen Orgel, Eugenio Refini, Michael J. Rocke, Neslihan Senocak, Miriam Szőcs, Koichi Toyama, Carl Villis, Gur Zak 2 c continued from page 1 is shining, it’s a perfect day. Looking over the hedge, I point out The sonnet sings the idyllic beauties of the very spot where to my friend our vineyard beyond the Mensola and the Podere, we stand. The original Italian is by Laura Battiferra, the 16th and further up the slope the paler green of our olive grove. We century poet who lived next door, in the Villa di Maiano, talk of the lovely story of the nymph Mensola and the shepherd with her husband Bartolomeo Ammannati, the architect Affrico which Giovanni Boccaccio immortalized in the Ninfale and sculptor from Settignano. But the person responsible for fiesolano, and for a moment we enjoy the rich literary echoes its graceful English forms is our friend, Fellow and Visiting that reverberate everywhere in this little valley. Professor, Victoria Kirkham (VIT ‘78, ‘89, ‘96, ‘13.) As we move through the South Terrace towards the Gilmore Among these open slopes and secluded Limonaia, I read aloud the inscription on the step: “Lila wilds, by a beautiful stream that murmurs as it Acheson Wallace Co-Founder of Reader’s Digest / Restored trickles, far from the mob in a solitary villa I and Maintains These Gardens 1985.” ‘Restored’ in 1985, apportion the time and my best days, of course, and still ‘maintains’ today. I always find this story and it delights me more, when Apollo very moving and I cannot resist sharing it with my visitor. sparkles far from us, to hear nymphs and shepherds, Lila Acheson Wallace (1889-1984) never saw these gardens, awakened by the sound of the loving bell peal, who but her extraordinary generosity, which found its way to I go declaring their goodly loves, Tatti through the inspired intervention of our friend Barney and to see Maiano, so many thick groves McHenry, has allowed them to be counted among the around it, tall mountains and green fields and most beautiful in Italy. Thanks to that generosity, and to the Mensola flowing as Arno’s peer, dedication of Margrit Freivogel and our gardeners, we are than all the melodies, palaces, and wide able to keep up our grounds in their truly splendid shape. And roofs that give Florence and the world their beauty, it’s not just the hedges, trees, and ever changing flower beds: for envy and evil destiny cannot take them from me. Mrs. Wallace takes care of all our stonework too. I showed my Villa I Tatti VILLA I TATTI COMMUNITY 2013-2014 continued from page 2 friend all the work that has been carried from its ashes. excellent English. They laugh and joke out lately under the watchful eye of A sad trip awaits us this afternoon. as we climb up the steep hill above Allen Grieco, our Lila Acheson Wallace Giorgio Piazzini passed away a few days Fiesole. Once arrived, we sit all together Senior Research Fellow in charge of ago, and the funeral is being held today on a terrace outside the restaurant gardens and grounds: the little pool at a church in Scandicci, just a few miles under a canopy. The evening is balmy, a below the Limonaia, now redecorated on the other side of the city. Giorgio gentle breeze comes up from the valley and in perfect repair, with the madonnina was I Tatti’s building contractor for below as the sun sets beyond the hills to cleaned up and restored to perfection; fifty years and he knew every building, the west of Florence. They are all very the niche at the very end of the central wall, brick and stone in the estate. He excited, of course. They have been here path with the circular stone bench, the also knew every person who worked for three weeks exploring Florence and statue and mosaic, literally crumbling and lived here; he was respected by at present but to be rebuilt piece by all and beloved by many.
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