I am sorry to inform the ARLIS readership that Alessandra Marchi passed away in Florence at the end of last week.

While she had not been present at ARLIS/NA conferences for some year now, many librarians, museum curators, and booksellers throughout the US will remember her presence from the 1970s to recent decades.

La Contessa Alessandra Pandolfini Marchi, with her late husband Ferruccio Marchi, founded Centro Di in Florence in 1968 after the disasters of the Great Flood in 1966. Their mission was to create the finest international center for art publications in Italy.

Their remarkable bookstore and publishing house, Centro Di, was a major platform for conceptual and minimal art as well as all vanguard art of the second half of the 20th Century. For many years, it was the best retail source in Italy for exhibition catalogues, artists' books and art monographs, they were also leading publishers of catalogues, art journals and scholarly books.

Centro Di somewhat reduced its general retail distribution a while ago, and much of Alessandra's remarkable personal collection of artists' books was placed in public collections, as she herself withdrew gradually from active operations.

However, her daughter Genevra continues on with the publishing side of the house under the name of Edizioni di Centro Di.

Alessandra's commitment and spirit will remain bright in the memory of her many former friends and colleagues in America.

Submitted by Faith Pleasanton