British Institute of Florence
The British Institute of Florence is a cultural institute founded in 1917 in Florence, Italy, with the aim of promoting Anglo-Italian cultural relations, teaching English and Italian languages, and running a library of English books to illustrate British and Italian literature, art, history and music.
The institute was set up in late 1917, towards the end of the First World War, by a group of Anglo-Italian scholars, intellectuals and public figures who were keen to counter anti-British propaganda.
According to the Charter, the aims of the institute included “the promotion of the study in Italy of English language, literature, art, history, philosophy and institutions”; “the formation and maintenance in Florence of a General Library of books illustrating English and Italian culture”; and “the promotion of a good understanding between Italians and English-speaking people by providing opportunities for intellectual and social intercourse; and, as ancillary thereto, the provision of opportunities for English-speaking Students to study Italian language, literature, art, history, philosophy and institutions".
[3] The institute occupied various premises (including the beautiful Loggia Ruccellai, where the sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent was married in 1460) before settling into the Palazzo Antinori in 1923.
Harold Goad’s predilection for Benito Mussolini’s New Italy damaged the institute's reputation in the 1930s (he wrote a number of apologies for Fascism and the Corporate State[4]).
Its reputation was restored under the musicologist Francis Toye, who was fortunate on his return after the war to find that the library had been preserved intact: this was partly due to the dedication of the librarian Giulietta Fermi and to the protection of the Swiss Consulate.
Toye was replaced in 1958 by Ian Greenlees, who had worked for the British Council of Rome and had many contacts among the Italian Left dating from his wartime experience at Radio Bari, which he founded in order to broadcast Allied propaganda.
Among those who in the past have lectured or given readings at the institute are Harold Acton, Piero Bigongiari, Quentin Bell, Elizabeth Bowen, Cecil Day-Lewis, Edward Chaney, Edith Evans, Joan Haslip, Francis King, Fosco Maraini, Edwin Muir, Frank Muir, Iris Murdoch, Tim Parks, John Pope-Hennessy, Mario Praz, Lorna Sage, Edith Sitwell, Muriel Spark, Robert Speaight, William Trevor, Gore Vidal, Marina Warner, Angus Wilson; more recent speakers have included Robin Butler, Geoffrey Hill, Anthony Kenny and Alexander McCall Smith.
Over the years, it has received donations of books from many individuals, including Harold Acton, Bernard Berenson, John Buchan, Irene Cooper Willis (the Vernon Lee collection), Henry Furst, Victor Gollancz, Dorothy Nevile Lees (the Edward Gordon Craig collection), Henry Newbolt, Osbert Sitwell, R.S.
