Italian Garden-Magic: Edith Wharton and Florentine Villas

A Wednesday lecture by Gianfranca Balestra

May 28, 2025 at 6pm

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In 1904, American writer Edith Wharton published Italian Villas and their Gardens. In preparation for this project, she visited more than seventy villas and organised them by region.

Lecturer Gianfranca Balestra will focus on Wharton’s insight on Florentine villas and gardens, sharing illustrations from the first edition of the author’s book, as well as others included in a later Italian edition, published in 1983 with an Introduction by Harold Acton, owner of Villa La Pietra. According to Wharton, gardens have to be adapted to the architectural line of the house and must fit into the surrounding landscape. Additionally, this talk will explore Wharton’s professional attitude and her aesthetic principles.

Professor Balestra’s point of departure is Wharton’s Introduction, ‘Italian Garden-Magic’, and the fact that she dedicated her book to English author Vernon Lee “who, better than anyone else, has understood and interpreted the garden-magic of Italy”.

Gianfranca Balestra was Full Professor of American Literature at the University of Siena. She has published widely on Edith Wharton, particularly on her works related to Italy such as The Valley of Decision, Italian Backgrounds, Italian Villas and their Gardens, and poems about Italian art. She is co-editor of the segment on Italian translations of vol. 29 Translations and Adaptations in The Complete Works of Edith Wharton, to be published by Oxford University Press.

This “Wednesday Lecture” is sponsored by Calliope Arts and forms part of a larger 3-year programme: “Florentine Gardens: Early Women Expats and Artists of Today”, organised by Calliope Arts and Il Palmerino Cultural Association, in collaboration with the British Institute of Florence.

TO PARTICIPATE