I Tatti Fund Drive Begins

Although I Tatti has begun functioning as an Italian study center this year, its work has been limited by a fund drive which is reportedly "not doing well." Kenneth B. Murdock '16, Francis Lee Higgins professor of English Literature and director of the Italian Villa, has already returned to the United states Once, speaking Oct. 30 at a fund-raising dinner in New York.

The dinner marked the beginning of the official fund raising campaign, but an official drive directed at specific contributors has been in progress for a year and a half. Although exact figures were not available, officials of the project stated that the drive has not yet reached its $2 million goal. the immediate effect of insufficient funds is that only one of the six "I Tatti Fellows" currently working in Italy is being financed by Harvard University. The five others have received grants from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and other foundations.

If more money were available, more scholars might be able to study art independently at I Tatti, according to Sydney J. Freedberg, Chairmen of the Fine Arts Department. Myron P. Gilmore, professor of History and chairman of the advisory committee for I Tatti, said that since the official drive had just begun it would be difficult to appraise it. No indications were given of planned changes in the fund drive.

Professor Murdock arrived at the Italian villa Sept. 1, when the project first began. The summer home of the late Bernard Berenson, I Tatti had been bequeathed to the University as a center for independent study of Italian art.

Of the six Fellows now studying there, three are working in the field of history and economic history, and three in the history of art. Although they generally eat and study in the villa, they are in no way limited by it.