The Renaissance Society of America and the Vittore Branca Center co-sponsor the Patricia H. Labalme Grant

Named after Vittore Branca, a world-renowned Italianist and historic Secretary General of Giorgio Cini Foundation, the Vittore Branca International Center for the Study of Italian Culture is a new international resource for humanities studies.

The Vittore Branca Center aims to provide a place of study and meeting for young researchers and expert scholars interested in furthering their knowledge in a field of Italian civilization (especially the culture of the Veneto) — visual arts, history, literature, music, drama — from an interdisciplinary point of view.

The residential facilities on the Island provide scholars and researchers with the opportunity to work and stay at length in Venice at economically reasonable conditions in a setting conducive to reflection and intellectual exchanges.

Researchers at the Vittore Branca Center also have privileged access to the Fondazione Giorgio Cini libraries and archives housed in the Foundation. The ideal piazza of the Vittore Branca Center is the Nuova Manica Lunga library, heart of the restyled user services in the Giorgio Cini Foundation library complex.

INFO: centrobranca@cini.it - +39 041 2710253 - www.cini.it/index.php/en/centrobranca

The Renaissance Society of America will award $3,000 to the selected scholar to spend one month in the Vittore Branca Center Residence to conduct research in Venice libraries and archives.

From that sum the selected scholar will pay for airfare, lodging, and per diem expenses.

The Giorgio Cini Foundation will directly contribute to lodging expenses for the selected scholar, by offering a special rate of €35 per night for one month (the full cost of a single room in the Vittore Branca Residence on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, amounts to €70 a day). Should the selected scholar choose to remain longer, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini would allow for an extension of the stay at this rate*.

At the Vittore Branca Center, the scholar will have internet access in the Manica Lunga Library and in the residence room; free use of common spaces including fitness room, music room, living room, terrace; orientation on the Giorgio Cini Foundation archives and information on Venetian libraries; free access to all cultural initiatives organized by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, including exhibitions, workshops, international conferences, seminars in the fields of arts, music, history, literature, theater.

Each room in the Residence, located in the heart of the park on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore, is equipped with private bathroom, Internet cable connection, a self-catering area featuring a refrigerator, a sink and a microwave/grill oven. Guests are also provided with information on supermarkets and other useful information about the city of Venice. Each room also has a telephone which can be used to receive calls and to make toll-free calls with international cards. Bed linens and towels are supplied, and they get changed once a week when rooms are cleaned. The Residence has a coin laundry with washing machines, dryer and iron.

The Renaissance Society of America agrees to post information about this grant on its website and publicize it as it does with other research grants. The application deadline will coincide with the other RSA research grants, and the RSA’s grants committee will select the candidate from among the applications during this annual grant submission and evaluation process. The RSA agrees to forward information on the selected candidate and research project so that the Fondazione Giorgio Cini may confirm this selection before the award is announced and granted. This grant shall only be awarded to scholars willing to live and work at the Vittore Branca Center, Venice.