Kenneth B. Murdock '16, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of English Literature and former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was named yesterday as director of the Villa I Tatti, the University's new center for humanistic studies near Florence.

I Tatti was long the residence and workshop of Bernard Berenson. Left to the University in Berenson's will, the villa will become a research center for scholars studying the history and culture of the Mediterranean world, particularly in the field of the Italian Renaissance, for which the I Tatti library is famous.

Murdock, who expects to assume his new duties this summer, will be in residence at I Tatti as director of the study center. A former Master of Leverett House and for five years chairman of the General Education Program, Murdock is a scholar of the history and literature of the 17th Century. Known especially for his studies of the literature of Colonial New England, he is the general editor of a forthcoming edition of Cotton Mather's Magnalla Christl Americans.

Murdock is a Knight of the Royal Order of the North Star of Sweden, and holds honorary degrees from Upsala University, Harvard, Trinity, Middlebury, Bucknell and Vermont.

The University is seeking a $2 million fellowship fund to provide support for selected scholars to work at the Italian villa. Until the fund can be raised, a limited number of scholars who are working in the fields of art, history, and literature will be invited to join the I Tatti research group.