User:PODonnellBerensonLib/sandbox
| Berenson Library | |
|---|---|
| Biblioteca Berenson | |
 | |
| 43°47′11.72″N 11°18′34.80″E / 43.7865889°N 11.3096667°E | |
| Location | Via di Vincigliata 22, 50135 Firenze, Italy |
| Type | Academic research library |
| Collection | |
| Items collected | books, journals, archives, manuscripts, photographs, music scores and recordings, films, videos |
| Size | 200,000 printed volumes, 3,000 rare or early printed books, 250,000 photographs, 25 archival collections, 6,000 scores, 2,000 music CDs |
| Other information | |
| Website | http://itatti.harvard.edu/berenson-library |
The Berenson Library (or Biblioteca Berenson) is the research library of Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. It is located at Via di Vincigliata 22, Florence, Italy.
History[edit]
The Berenson Library originated with the personal collection of some 50,000 books and 100,000 photographs of art historian Bernard Berenson, which he bequeathed along with his villa and art collection to Harvard University at his death in 1959. The nucleus of the collections comprised materials related to Berenson’s professional activities as a connoisseur of Italian Renaissance drawing and painting. Overall, however, the collections were wide-ranging and eclectic, encompassing the classical Mediterranean and Near East, Orientalia, and modern European and American history, literature, and art. Ever since the Center for Italian Renaissance Studies opened in 1961, the library has been developed systematically and with a multi-disciplinary scope in correspondence with its institutional mission and identity, focusing on all aspects of late medieval and early modern Italy and closely related fields.
Collections[edit]
The Library’s primary mission is to provide scholarly resources and services for the multidisciplinary research needs of I Tatti appointees and other scholars of the Italian Renaissance. Its growing collections of books, periodicals, photographs, digital images, musical scores and recordings support advanced research in all aspects of late medieval and early modern Italy. They also cover publications in related fields such as classical and medieval studies, cultures around the Mediterranean, and Renaissance Europe. The library includes an important archive of photographs, mainly of Italian Renaissance artworks, and numerous personal and institutional archives, mostly modern. As one of the 73 libraries that make up Harvard Library, it also offers users access to an extensive range of online journals, databases and other resources.
Institutional links[edit]
The Berenson Library is a founding member of the IRIS Consortium of art historical and humanistic libraries in Florence, established in 1993. Affiliated from a distance with Harvard Library since the Center’s beginnings, the Berenson Library became fully integrated with the University library system in 2007. Its complete holdings are discoverable through Harvard Library online catalogs. The Berenson LIbrary participates in the WorldCat Art Discovery Group Catalogue and PHAROS, the International Consortium of Photo Archives.