The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies VILLA I TAT TI Via di Vincigliata 26, 50135 Florence, Italy Volume 28 E-mail: [email protected] / Web: http://www.itatti.it D D D Tel: +39 055 603 251 / Fax: +39 055 603 383 Autumn 2008 an Giovanni, with its bells and fi re- Letter from Florence in May, when he introduced his talk in Sworks, fi nds me on the Berenson Hungarian, made headlines there. With bench in the garden, thinking over an- Robert Gaston he has helped to shape other rich year at I Tatti. Six mother a long-term research project on the ba- tongues were represented in the com- silica of San Lorenzo, involving contri- munity in addition to three dialects of butions from over thirty authors, which English. The topics Fellows and Visiting will bear fruit in a symposium next Professors worked on were as varied spring and a monograph in the typically as ever: on music in everyday life and interdisciplinary style of I Tatti in 2011. music in the princely chapel, on sketch- The Fellows’ trips in fall and spring books and on refl ections, on convents have by now become a pleasant tradi- and on queens, on Machiavelli, Valla, and tion, helping create community. Thanks Bembo. They explored the fi ner side of to the hospitality of Maureen and James Renaissance life, represented by the re- Joseph & Françoise Connors. Banker (VIT’93) we enjoyed the morn- vival of antiquity and the humanist villa, the Sephardic diaspora by Patrizia Bovi ing mists of an Indian summer in Borgo and the harder realities of the age, such as and Begona Olavide in the Big Library, San Sepolcro, birthplace of Piero della heresy, rage, magnate strife, and warfare. a moving tribute to Stefano Corsi by the Francesca. The mayor and civic mu- Visiting Professors included Sean Duo Moreno-Capelli, and two concerts seum rolled out the red carpet while Gallagher from Harvard, who off ered in the series Early Music at I Tatti. The members of the Sassetta project orga- us a magical moment in front of some English group I Fagiolini sang spirited nized by Machtelt Israëls (VIT’05) ex- of the most valuable chansonniers of Monteverdi madrigals and Accordone plained the genesis of the great Sassetta the Quattrocento in the Biblioteca brought to life the tarantella from altarpiece that left Borgo San Sepolcro Nazionale. Peter Howard from Monash southern Italy. The Florentine public in the mid-nineteenth century, with University and Robert Gaston from fi lled the Myron and Sheila Gilmore three panels winding up at I Tatti. Louis La Trobe reminded us that Australian Limonaia to overfl owing for these dar- Waldman and Eve Borsook (VIT’82- Renaissance scholarship, like Australian ing and innovative programs, organized ’08) accompanied the Fellows after- wine, is now a prized vintage. Peter with such fi nesse by musicologist turned ward to Piero’s fresco cycle in Arezzo, refl ected on sermons and on the stu- impresario Kathryn Bosi. while I speeded to Rome to attend the dia of Quattrocento Florence, Robert In September Louis Waldman centenary of Laurance Roberts, direc- on Ligorio and his vast manuscript (VIT’06) took up the new position of tor of the American Academy in Rome output, especially the writings on wa- Assistant Director for Programs with from 1946 to 1960. Laurance and ter. Paul Barolsky of Virginia helped élan. On leave from the University of Isabel Roberts had been great friends of us think through the infl uence of Ovid Texas at Austin, Lou organized a year- Berenson, and now, thanks to the gen- on Renaissance and Baroque art, while long program of shop talks for Fellows erosity of Nat Roberts and Laura Zung, Edward English and Carol Lansing of and Visiting Professors. In many infor- I Tatti has become the repository of Santa Barbara studied the magnates mal conversations and organized site their papers, an archive of incalculable of Florence, Siena and Lazio, making visits over the year he shared his for- value for the American cultural pres- us like them less but fear them more. midable knowledge of the archives and ence in postwar Italy. Lodi Nauta of Groningen refl ected on art of Renaissance Florence. He also In the spring we accompanied the Lorenzo Valla and his critique of scho- delivered papers at two of our symposia Fellows to Parma to strain our necks lasticism, while in lighter moments, like and threw himself into the publication looking at the cupolas of Correggio. Adam in Paradise, he named the many of their acts. His plenary lecture at the Louis Waldman, working with two species of birds that sing in our Arcadia. grand week-long symposium on the age Correggio experts among the Fellows, It was an intensely musical year, of Matthias Corvinus held in Budapest Giancarla Periti and Maddalena Spagnolo, with an opening concert of songs from Continued on back page. 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.it VVL15942L15942 NNewsletter.inddewsletter.indd 1 99/26/08/26/08 110:24:330:24:33 AAMM VILLA I TATTI COMMUNITY 2007-2008 Fellows Art History. “Art and Ornamented Annalisa Andreoni, Francesco De Spaces in Italian Renaissance Convents.” Dombrowski Fellow, Università IULM, Dainora PociŪtĖ (2nd sem), Andrew Milano, Literature. “Benedetto Varchi W. Mellon Research Fellow, Vilnius lettore di Dante e Petrarca all’Accademia University, History. “Bernardino Fiorentina.” Ochino from Siena and the Early Jérémie Barthas, Florence J. Gould Protestantism in East Europe.” Fellow, Columbia University, History. Maddalena Spagnolo, Hanna Kiel Fel- “Machiavelli, Public Debt and National low, Università di Siena – Italian Acad- Susan Bates & Liliana Ciullini. Armies; History and Fortune.” emy (NY), Art History. “Irony and Wit Guido Beltramini (2nd sem), Craig in Art Criticism 16th to 17th Century.” University, Musicology. “Musical Poet- Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow, Centro Peter Stacey, Deborah Loeb Brice Fel- ics in the Fifteenth Century.” Internazionale di Studi di Architettura low, University of California, Los An- Robert W. Gaston (1st sem), Lila 2 Andrea Palladio, Art History. “Palladio.” geles, History. “Renaissance Rage: The Wallace - Reader’s Digest Visiting ~~ Diane Bodart, Ahmanson Fellow, Uni- Place of Seneca’s De ira in Renaissance Professor, La Trobe University, Art His- versité de Poitiers, Art History. “Refl ec- Thought.” tory. “Pirro Ligorio’s Encyclopaedic tions in Italian Renaissance Painting, as Martin Stefanik (1st sem), Andrew W. Antiquarianism.” Emblem of Pictorial Conception.” Mellon Research Fellow, Institute of Peter Francis Howard (1st sem), Lila Vincenzo Borghetti, Lila Wallace - History of the Slovak Academy of Sci- Wallace - Reader’s Digest Visiting Pro- Reader’s Digest Fellow, University of ences, History. “Precious Metals from fessor, Monash University, History. “The Verona, Musicology. “Music for the Slovakia in the Context of the Rela- Studia of Fifteenth-Century Florence as Prince: Chapels in Italian Renaissance tions between the Republic of Florence Communities of Learning.” Courts.” and Kingdom of Hungary in the XIV- Carol Lansing (2nd sem), Robert Valeria Cafà, Hanna Kiel Fellow, The XV Centuries.” Lehman Visiting Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara, History. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art His- Christina Strunck, Rush H. Kress th tory. “Il valore della copia nel Rinasci- Fellow, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome, “Noble Romans: Elite Culture in 13 - mento: il cosiddetto taccuino senese di Art History. “Christine of Lorraine as a Century Lazio.” Baldassarre Peruzzi.” Mediator between France and Tuscany.” Lodi Nauta (2nd sem), Lila Wallace Flora Dennis, Deborah Loeb Brice Dominique Thiebaut (1st sem), Craig - Reader’s Digest Visiting Professor, Fellow, University of Sussex, Musicolo- Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow, Musée University of Groningen, History. gy. “Music, Sound and Domestic Space du Louvre, Art History. “Préparation “Lorenzo Valla and the Humanist in Italy, 1450-1620.” du catalogue de l’exposition Mantegna Critique of Scholasticism.” Holly Hurlburt, Committee to Res- (Louvre, automne 2008).” Research Associate cue Italian Art Fellow, Southern Illinois Stephan Wolohojian, Craig Hugh Ingrid Baumgärtner, Universität Kas- University, Carbondale, History. “Ca- Smyth Visiting Fellow, Harvard Univer- sel, History. “Cartography and Travel terina Corner: Women and Gender in sity, Art History. “The Making and Fac- Reports in the Late Middle Ages.” the Venetian Empire, 1300-1600.” ture of Italian Renaissance Plaquettes.” Mark Jurdjevic, Melville J. Kahn Fel- Director’s Research Fellow low, University of Ottawa, History. Readers in Renaissance Studies Ippolita Di Majo, Università di Napoli “Machiavelli’s Political Thought.” Marisa Bass (2nd sem), Harvard Uni- “Suor Orsola Benincasa,” Art History. Cynthia Klestinec, Andrew W. Mellon versity, Art History. Fellow, Miami University, Ohio, His- Leslie Ann Geddes (1st sem), Princeton Senior Research Associates tory. “Renaissance Surgery, Medical University, Art History. Eve Borsook, Villa I Tatti, Art History. Humanism, and Pain.” Edward H. Wouk (1st sem), Harvard “History of Glass with Respect to Mo- Jozef Matula (2nd sem), Andrew W. University, Art History. saic Making” and “An Exhibition of Mellon Research Fellow, Palacky Uni- Convent Art in Paper and Stucco.” versity, History. “Averroes’ Importance Visiting Professors Allen J. Grieco, Villa I Tatti, History. for the Soul-Body Problem in Late Paul Barolsky (2nd sem), Lila