Funds for I Tatti Reach $1 Million

The $2-million fund drive for Villa I Tatti, the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, has reached the half-way mark, Myron P. Gilmore, director of the Center, said Friday.

An anonymous donor contributed $500,000 to the fund on the condition that the fund drive be completed by November, 1967. The rest of the first million dollars came from foundations and private sources.

$100,000 Annual Increase

Income from the estate of Bernard Berenson, who willed the villa and its library to Harvard in 1959, is $65,000. A two-million dollar endowment would increase the annual income by $100,000.

Most of the money is needed to increase the number of I Tatti Fellowships. Center funds now support five or six of the 11 fellows. The others are sponsored by Guggenheim, Fulbright or other grants. New income would be used to increase the number of European scholars and to aid Americans whose fellowships are not renewed.

The rest of the increased income would be used for publications and to enlarge the library and photograph collection.

Gilmore is in Cambridge for conferences with the I Tatti committee to select next year's fellows and to discuss the construction of a permanent photograph library at the Center.