CINI FOUNDATION: The Fondazione Giorgio Cini announces a new initiative: the Vittore Branca International Center for the Study of Italian Culture, which aims to create an international academic community and to provide a place of study and meeting for young researchers and expert scholars interested in furthering their knowledge in a field of Italian culture (especially the culture of the Veneto) – the visual arts, history, literature, music, drama – from an interdisciplinary point of view.

The residential facilities on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore 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.

Moreover, for the period from June 2010 to May 2011, the Vittore Branca International Center for the Study of Italian Culture offers twelve scholarships to young students wishing to work for six months on research projects directly or indirectly concerning the historical, artistic and documentary heritage of the Giorgio Cini Foundation. Each scholarship amounts to 12,500 euros. Scholarships are aimed at postgraduate students – studying for a master’s degree, doctorate or specialization – and Ph.D. graduates. Each application for admission will be individually examined by a Panel appointed by the Foundation. Scholarship holders are expected to stay in the Vittore Branca Center residence for six months and they have the opportunity to take part in the cultural activities organised by the Foundation.

DENNIS ROMANO: The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University is pleased to announce the appointment of Dennis Romano as Walter G. Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History.

ENGLISH WRITERS IN ITALY: English Writers in Italy is an informal association of English and American writers based in various regions of Italy. Our website is www.englishwritersinitaly.com. Our membership includes novelists, poets, journalists, translators and academics. We meet two or three times a year. The next meeting is in Umbria in May. We are currently putting together a proposal for an anthology provisionally entitled Exiles in Paradiso, about living, working and studying in Italy.

If you would like to join the association, or you have a piece (300-2,500 words) you'd like to put forward for inclusion in the anthology, please contact Gay Marks g.marks@alice.it

GRANTS FOR INDEPENDENT RESEARCH ON VENETIAN CULTURE AND HISTORY: The Trustees of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation announce its annual call for applications for predoctoral and postdoctoral grants for historical research on Venice and the former Venetian empire and for the study of contemporary Venetian society and culture. Disciplines of the humanities and the social sciences are eligibile areas of study, including (but not limited to) archaeology, architecture, art, bibliography, economics, history, history of science, law, literature, music, political science, religion, and theater. The deadline for applications is December 15. Guidelines and application forms are available from the Foundation's website: www.delmas.org.

GRANTS FOR VENETIAN RESEARCH: The Trustees of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation of New York announce that up to £20,000 will be made available to scholars from Great Britain and the Commonwealth for Research in Venice. The principal areas of research envisaged concern both the past (art, architecture, history, law, language, literature, music) and the present (conservation, culture, environment, politics) of Venice and the territories formerly subject to it. Further particulars may be obtained from the Secretary to the Delmas Foundation’s Advisory Committee, Professor Julian Gardner, 44, Foundry House, Eagle Works, Walton Well Road, Oxford OX2 6AQ (telephone 01865 511 499) e-mail julian.gardner@warwick.ac.uk). Applications should reach Professor Gardner by May 15.

CESARE BARBIERI GRANT: The Cesare Barbieri Endowment for Italian Culture (Trinity College, Connecticut) will award a research grant in modern Italian history. The amount of the grant has been increased to $7,500 and the application procedure is streamlined. You will find all information at the the link below: http://www.cbendowment.org/grant

ARCHIVIO DI STATO ONLINE: L'Archivio di stato di Venezia annuncia che sono on line sia il Sistema informativo dell'archivio, che descrive tutti i fondi archivistici e gli strumenti di corredo (finding aids) collegati, nonché, per circa la metà di essi, la rispettiva articolazione in serie, sottoserie e - da poco iniziata, e per ora circoscritta a pochi fondi - anche le unità. I soggetti produttori (le istituzioni o le persone o famiglie che hanno prodotto gli archivi) sono presenti, ma ancora in corso di approfondimento.

E' on line anche il Progetto Divenire, che mette a disposizione numerose serie riprodotte come immagine digitale (Registri del Maggior Consiglio Senato e Consiglio di Dieci (fino all'anno 1500), nonché numerosi disegni, mappe e pergamene con regesti.

MEDITERRANEAN HISTORICAL REVIEW – CALL FOR PAPERS: Mediterranean Historical Review is a bi-annual, refereed journal, published by Routledge. The journal is interested in receiving papers treating the history of the Mediterranean basin, emphasizing contacts, relations and influences within a Mediterranean context, as well as questions of a comparative and comparable nature. For information regarding the submission of manuscripts, please visit our website: http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/cmc/mhr/mhr.html. Or contact us at: mhrtau@post.tau.ac.il.

SENATO. DELIBERAZIONI MISTE: Series published under the patronage of the Senato della Repubblica Italiana and directed by: Maria Francesca Tiepolo, Dieter Girgensohn and Gherardo Ortalli.

The Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti is publishing the registers of the Venetian Senate for the period up to the war of Chioggia (1381), in a total of twenty volumes. This will make available documentary material of extraordinary importance for historic research. The Consiglio dei Rogati o dei Pregadi (Consilium Rogatorum), later the Senate, was possibly set up in 1229-1230 as an organ of support to the Great Council. Its function soon moved from that of preliminary inquiry and advice on matters of trade and navigation to decision-making, eventually in every aspect of economic financial and administrative matters and of internal and external policy. Over the years the Consiglio dei Rogati became the most important of the Venetian councils, at the heart of the institutional order. The deliberations (or parti), valid as law, were recorded from the end of the thirteenth century, and have been conserved from register XV onward.

More information: www.istitutoveneto.it/senato/ or amministrazione@istitutoveneto.it

AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE MARCIANA: As no one knows better than the readers of News on the Rialto, the Marciana Library is one of the world’s great cultural resources, which has been granting public access to its unparalleled collections for half a millennium. For the past nine years grants to the Marciana from The American Friends have been contributing to new projects at the library, and if you have worked there during that time you have been a beneficiary of those grants. For the past few years all the funds from The American Friends have been dedicated to entering the Marciana’s sometimes indecipherable hand-written catalogues of printed books into the on-line data base. These grants made it possible to continue the Golem project, the results of which have been integrated into OPAC (On line Public Access Catalogue), which you can now access from your office. As recent visitors to the Marciana can testify, once they have negotiated their way through the construction dust, they have found vastly improved access to the library’s collections.

The Marciana has now become the leader among the Italian state libraries in providing on-line services for its patrons. That leadership role is manifest in the Marciana’s sponsorship of a conference at the Palazzo Ducale on “L'evoluzione dell'accessibilità informatica.” The Marciana is setting the example.

As one of his final acts as the Marciana’s Director before retiring, Marino Zorzi began a campaign to digitize the catalogue of manuscripts, a project that would parallel what Golem has achieved for printed materials. This is an exciting prospect for researchers in the Marciana, and The American Friends have undertaken the responsibility for helping to finance the costs of the campaign.

The American Friends consist of people like you, scholars who work in Venice. Many are not even Americans, but all love the Marciana and have been willing to contribute. We would like to invite all the patrons of the Marciana, but especially the forestieri who have benefited from this magnificent Italian state institution, to join the Friends.

Of course, your gifts are tax-deducible. Please send your contribution to

The American Friends of the Marciana Library, Inc.
25 East End Avenue, Suite 15G
New York, New York 10028-7052

Many thanks,
Edward Muir
President

VENICE LAGOON FOUNDATION: The Forum for the Lagoon, of Venice, and the University of Minnesota have together set up the Venice Lagoon Foundation, a charitable organization intended to promote studies on the condition and preservation of the Venetian Lagoon's ecosystem. Its first projects will deal with the reclamation of the island of S. Giorgio in Alga, the Forum's future home, and the opening of an "eco-museum" within the Arsenal of Venice.
Website: http://www1.umn.edu/vlf/home.htm