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.
Eligibility Criteria
Please note that all applicants must be members of The Renaissance Society of America for the required number of years (see below for the minimum requirement in each category). RSA grants and Residential Grants are not intended to cover costs associated with the publication of books or articles; only the Kress Grants may be used for that purpose. Grants will be awarded in three categories according to the career stage and employment circumstances of applicants:
Non-doctoral:These awards will support doctoral candidates, pre-university teachers, and other applicants lacking doctorates.Younger Scholar:These awards will support assistant professors; associate professors in the first two years of appointment at that rank; temporary, adjunct, and/or part-time professors; and younger independent scholars holding the PhD.Senior Scholar:These awards will support associate professors with more than two years at that rank, full professors, retired professors, and senior independent scholars.
Research projects in all subjects and language areas within Renaissance studies are eligible for support.
Submitters at the non-doctoral rank must be members of RSA for at least one year at the time of application plus renew membership for the grant year. All other applicants must be members of RSA for at least three years at the time of application plus renew membership for the grant year. Please note that applications that do not meet these eligibility requirements will not be considered by the jury.
The Executive Board will appoint a jury drawn from different disciplines within Renaissance studies. Applications will be evaluated using the following criteria:
1. The scholarly quality of the proposal (scope, theoretical framework, and grounding in the relevant scholarly literature) and the project's potential to make a significant and original contribution to knowledge about the Renaissance.
2. The scholarly record and achievements of the applicant.
3. The demonstrated need for access to research materials and the feasibility of accomplishing this research in the given time frame; or the worthiness of the project for publication support, in the case of Kress grants only.
The jury reserves the right to award fewer or more grants in one category, but only if there are insufficient applications of merit in a category.
Offered Benefits
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.
