The Paul Oskar Kristeller Fund
By John Monfasani
The Executive Board of the Society voted in Toronto in March 2003 to solicit member donations for a new fund dedicated initially to help with completing the cataloguing of the papers, microfilms, and photographs that Paul Oskar Kristeller left to Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Room and then, once that task is done, to support Renaissance manuscript research and what Kristeller once described as "depth bibliography."
Kristeller gave a large quantity of material to Columbia in the 1980s, and using money from his MacArthur fellowship, he was able to pay for its cataloging. Thus, for instance, one can consult today at Columbia the fiftynine boxes of his correspondence from the 1920s to the 1980s in order to study his relationship not only with the likes of Martin Heidegger and Werner Jaeger but also with many living figures. To give another example, the Rare Book and Manuscript Room has recently also created a database running forty-one legal sized pages in printed form of the microfilms of manuscripts and printed books that Kristeller accumulated over the years as he worked on Iter Italicum and other projects.
The consignment of materials turned over to Columbia after the completion of the 1980s project, along with the large quantity of papers, photographs of manuscripts, correspondence, and related items received by the Library after Kristeller's death remain to be processed (142 boxes covering 171.5 linear feet). Since the generous bequest left by Professor Kristeller is earmarked for acquistions and academic events only, funds are being sought to speed up the cataloging of these materials. Such cataloging is expensive because its technical nature requires professional expertise. One cannot expect workstudy students to understand Vatican fondi or to be able to read Kristeller's German gothic cursive script.
I have come to an agreement with Jean Ashton, the head of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, that the RSA would assist the Library with the cataloging project by providing matching funding through the Paul Oskar Kristeller Fund. Although completion of the catalog may take a year or more after it begins, a sum of $4,000 would help to get the work underway.
If this appeal is successful, we hope to see the cataloging of all the Kristeller material completed in the next several years. Thereafter, the RSA will use any remaining money and the contributions that we hope will continue to flow into the fund to support the sort of fundamental technical scholarship reflected by Iter Italicum. The Executive Board has yet to decide the specific form or forms of this support, but research grants and publication subsidies are, of course, the most likely. Those who wish to contribute to the Paul Oskar Kristeller Fund will find a new line added for that purpose in the membership form.