Florence Finding the British Institute

It’s easier said than done. How do you find the British Institute in Florence? Florence has always had an incredibly strong relationship with British people but the British Institute was only founded in 1917(opened formally in 1918) with government support largely due to the writer John Buchan.

Their famous library is housed in the Palazzo Lanfredini, a sixteenth century pile attributed by Vasari to Baccio d’Agnolo. When you go there for the first time, you have a problem. Where is it? I know it is facing the Arno and the name of the street but that is all.

Because the building is an ancient monument, the Institute cannot put up a sign saying what it is. But some nice ladies guarding the slightly grand ground floor direct me up the large staircase where I find a tiny door leading to a narrow passageway past the Music Collection which they can’t fit into the main library. And there I am in the largest English library on the continent of Europe!

As it happens, the librarian once worked in the Arts Council in London. When I worked in the Music Department, I didn’t even know we had a library. I started at the Arts council when we occupied Lady Astor’s old house. (My room was once her kitchen I believe) but we moved to 105 Piccadilly later where I presume they organised our books into a proper library. The librarian left the Arts Council for (I guessed it before she said it) the British Council, often regarded as a cover for slightly intellectual spies. She travelled Europe using the British Council then took her present job. And she intends to stay here. A good decision!

I join the Institute and I’m told that I can borrow four items at a time. Even most of the historic items are on open shelves. Members can even operate the stack themselves. I note with amusement that we are not supposed to operate the stack when there are people in between the shelves!!! (It is difficult not to imagine a scene from a James Bond movie)

The Reading Room attracts a few very ‘English’ people who maintain their silence, dignity and solemnity in a way only very ‘English’ people can do. I snatch a copy of the Guardian and read it next door out of their sight!

Access to the ground floor is only gained from the upper floor via a spiral staircase. I’m astonished to hear American students who have learned from the British that you only whisper – not talk – to each other in the presence of books. That must be a real achievement when they are the only people in the computer room!