British School at Rome Archive & Special Collections
About:
The British School at Rome (BSR) is a residential centre for higher research in the humanities and for the practice of the fine arts and architecture.
It was originally founded in 1901 as a School of Archaeology, History and Letters by a body of scholars and archaeologists under the inspiration of the late Professor Henry Pelham, President of Trinity College, Oxford. Its activities were devoted to the study of antiquity, but it was established on a broad enough basis to make it a valuable centre of research for students of Art travelling in Italy.
The BSR was enlarged in 1912 to make provision for the study and practice of the Fine Arts, thanks to the initiative of the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, who in 1910 decided to extend their scholarships. After the 1911 International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rome, the Commissioners received, through the British Ambassador in Rome, Sir Rennell Rodd, an unexpected offer from the Municipality of Rome of the land in Valle Giulia, north of the Borghese Gardens, which had been temporarily occupied by the British Pavillion. This offer was made on condition that a building devoted to the arts or other cultural purposes should be erected there and that the façade should be a re production in permanent materials of Sir Edward Lutyens' design for the British Pavillion, which was based on the west front of St. Paul's Cathedral.
By June 1912, a Royal Charter of Incorporation was granted to the School, conferring to the new organisation the power to recreate and maintain in Rome a National Institution for the study and practice of the Fine Arts, and for the study and investigation of the Archaeology, Literature and History of Rome and Italy at every period.
In 1916, following significant adaptation by Lutyens, the BSR moved from Palazzo Odescalchi, where it was headquartered, into its current home in via Gramsci, in Rome’s Valle Giulia.