Kress Fellowships at the Medici Archive Project

The Medici Archive Project (MAP), based at the Archivio di Stato in
Florence, Italy, is delighted to announce an award from the Samuel H.
Kress Foundation to support four graduate students in the field of art
history over the next two years.

Since its foundation in 1993, the Medici Archive Project has grown from
a digital humanities foundation into a research institution, all the
while remaining a strong advocate of giving scholars direct access to
original documents. Through the BIA platform (bia.medici.org), MAP has
brought the contents of one of Europe’s most important early modern
archival collections, the epistolary archive of the Grand Ducal Medici,
to a global audience of students and scholars. Comprising some three
million letters, the collection provides an unparalleled insight into
the entire early modern world, from the early sixteenth through to the
mid eighteenth century. Based upon this wealth of material, much of it
unexplored, MAP has developed both an international fellowship of
scholars and several research programs (more details can be found at
our website: www.medici.org).

Thanks to the continued generous support of Samuel H. Kress Foundation,
MAP is offering fellowships for graduate students to join MAP in
Florence to undertake specialized archival research on-site at the
Archivio di Stato, utilizing the Mediceo del Principato archival
collection, as well as other collections housed in Florence and across
Italy. The Samuel H. Kress Graduate Art History Fellowships will
provide graduate students with the opportunity to examine and study
original source materials and to receive scholarly guidance from MAP
Staff.

The Fellowships

There are two Samuel H. Kress Graduate Art History Fellowships
available for 2016:

A Spring/Summer Fellowship, covering a period of no less than three
months, with a stipend of $8,000. The fellowship must take place within
the period extending April 1st to July 31st 2016.

A Fall/Winter Fellowship, covering a period of no less than three
months, with a stipend of $8,000. This fellowship must take place
within the period September 1st to December 31st, 2016.

Eligibility

Candidates must either have American citizenship or be enrolled in
graduate programs at universities in the United States. Dissertation
topics that treat any aspect of Italian Renaissance or Baroque art
history and research related to Medici family collections and
patronage, will be given preference.

Details

If feasible, Kress Fellows will be able to enroll, free of charge, on
our on-line paleography course before arriving in Florence. Further
training in reading documents and using archival sources will be
available through our archival studies seminar held at Santa Maria
Novella in May/July of 2017, as well as through daily contact with MAP
Staff during the course of the Fellows’ tenure. Fellows will be also
encouraged to participate in a variety of MAP initiatives, including
our upcoming conferences (including “Vasari at Santa Croce”, 4 March
2016 and “Against the Medici: Art and Dissent in Renaissance Italy”, 26
& 27 May 2016) and publications (our series, Medici Studies, with
Brepols/Harvey Miller).

To Apply

There is no application form for this fellowship. Instead, suitable
candidates are invited to send via email to [log in to unmask], the
following documents in a collated PDF by 15 February 2016:

1) A cover letter, stating which fellowship is sought, either
“Spring/Summer” OR “Fall/Winter” and the proposed dates which the
fellow will be in residence.

2) A copy of the candidate’s finalized dissertation proposal, or should
the proposal still be a work-in-progress, the date of the proposal
defense.

3) A short essay (no more than two pages) on how the candidate’s topic
will benefit from archival research.

4) An up-to-date curriculum vitae.

5) The name and email address of a scholar in the field, preferably the
candidate’s supervisor, who can comment on the applicant’s
qualifications and the merits of the research proposal (please do not
include letters of recommendation with the application).

Please do not include supplementary material (publications, papers,
syllabi, etc.) not asked for above.

All materials must be submitted in English.

For further information, contact Dr. Samuel M. Gallacher
([log in to unmask])

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~