These grants are only available to former Fellows, Visiting Professors and Visiting Scholars

of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.

Lila Acheson Wallace - Reader's Digest Special Grants

Application Deadline November 1

Former I Tatti Appointees are eligible to apply for two kinds of grants to promote their scholarship.

The Lila Wallace – Reader’s Digest Publications Grant provides subsidies for scholarly books on the Italian Renaissance. These can be a monograph by a single author or a pair of authors, or a collection of essays by autori vari. Books that grow directly out of research carried out at I Tatti are especially appropriate.

In addition, Special Project Grants are occasionally available to former Appointees who wish to initiate, promote, or engage in an interdisciplinary project in Italian Renaissance studies such as a conference or workshop.

Recipients are chosen by a committee of senior Renaissance Scholars, plus the Director acting as chairman. The applicant’s covering letter should include a brief project description, a budget, and a short list of publications since the I Tatti appointment to be sent to the Director, Villa I Tatti, via di Vincigliata 26, 50135 - Florence, Italy. The deadline for applications is 1st November each year.

For Publications Grants, the book must already be accepted by a publisher, who should write a letter describing the planned publication and giving precise figures for the print run and cost. The publisher’s letter is quite important; cursory letters only a few lines long that merely affirm acceptance of a manuscript will not be considered. If a former Appointee has finished a manuscript but the relationship with the publisher is still tentative, then he or she should wait until there is a firm contract before applying.

Grants can also be made for translating books, though since funds are limited direct publication subsidies will take priority.

Publications grants can assume two forms. They can be made directly to the publisher in order to ensure a higher quality of publication or a lower list price. The publisher should explain exactly how this would happen in the letter. Grants can also be made to an individual to reimburse expenses for photographs and reproduction rights. It is also possible to split a grant, earmarking some for the publisher and the rest for reimbursement of personal expenses.

Applications for the publication of first books or collected essays may find $4000 to $5000 a good target figure, but for major, expensive books that are the fruit of long years of research the subsidy can go as high as $8000. Since repeated grants will be very rare, Appointees should wait until they are publishing a substantial book to apply.