Vernon Lee: A Sibyl at Il Palmerino

"Had I ever really cared for any country except Italy?" asked Vernon Lee. "I am fond of this corner of the world and this ramshackle old house."

The "ramshackle old house" was the fifteenth-century villa Palmeri—the setting of the third booklet in the series — which would be her home—her "little ivory tower" — from the spring of 1889 until her death in 1935. Often to be found in the garden in a "vine-dresser's hat and apron, sowing seeds," or presiding over a symposium of the aesthetic women in her "culte" or striding over the hills in a riding habit in search of the genius loci, Lee occupied her villa like an oracle on sacred land: as Bernard Berenson described her, the "Palmerino Sibyl". This book traces the path that led Vernon Lee to make the hillside of Florence her immortal home and brings to life the intricacies of her network of friends (and enemies), neighbors, and international visitors, including many of the era's most famous writers and artists.

By Kate Thomas
32 pages
Published by Centro Di, 2024
Paperback