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Charles S. Singleton Center at the Villa Spelman Johns Hopkins Center for Italian Studies The Johns Hopkins Center for Italian Studies at Villa Spelman was established in the early 1970s in accordance with the bequest of Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Mather Spelman. The Spelmans had acquired the Villa (formerly known as the Villa Razzolini) in 1919 and spent much of their lives there. Mr. Spelman was a composer of international reputation, while Mrs. Spelman (née Leolyn L. Everett) was a poet and amateur historian. Together they decided to bequeath their Florentine home to Johns Hopkins as a center for the study of Italian culture, history, and art. Villa Spelman, which first appears on the Florentine tax rolls in 1427, probably reached its present form between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. While it is only a short walk from the Ponte Vecchio and the center of Florence, it is immersed in the Tuscan countryside, surrounded by olive groves on an extensive estate. Its garden, which provides a view stretching from Fiesole to the medieval church of San Miniato al Monte, still preserves the tranquillity the Spelmans treasured. The Florentine painter Rosai lived nearby, while Tchaikovsky resided in the area for several months. In 1985 the Center at the Villa was dedicated to the memory of Charles S. Singleton, the internationally renowned scholar of Dante, medieval, and Renaissance literature, who was a professor of Italian literature at Johns Hopkins for many years. The Johns Hopkins University has a long and distinguished tradition of research and teaching in all areas of Italian and European culture, and the mission of the Singleton Center is to encourage and promote this activity. Programs at the Villa Spelman are fully integrated with those at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and serve undergraduate, graduate, and faculty constituencies. Download a "View of the Villa" video footage |