I Tatti
SIR,—There has only now been brought to my atten- tion the review by Mrs. Sylvia Sprigge of the selected letters of Bernard Berenson edited by A. K. McComb in your issue of June 11, 1965. In this review Mrs. Sprigge says, The saddest letters here concern his legacy of his house to Harvard, and with reason. Harvard were reluctant, fearing the ex- pense, and no community of students yet lives at I Tatti: Harvard University opened at Villa I Tatti in September 1961 the Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies. Six Fellows were appointed in that year and this number has now grown to eleven. The Fellows are selected by a committee from a list of candidates which is inter- national. This year there are four Italians, an Austrian and six Americans. About half are in the
field of art history and the others in the history of literature, religion, philosophy or politics in the period of the Renaissance. Each Fellow is furnished with a private study in the villa and takes lunch and tea when he wishes to do so.
In addition to the director there is also resident every year at I Tatti a visiting art historian and numerous senior scholars in the various fields of Renaissance studies are invited to stay in the house as guests for periods as long as a month at a time.
I trust these facts will correct the impression left by Mrs. Sprigge's review that there is no community of scholars at I Tatti.
MYRON P. GILMORE
Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies, Via di Vinci&liata, Florence, Italy
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