Il progetto di una Storia dell’architettura italiana (1940-1947)

At the beginning of the 20th century, the history of architecture was in Italy, traditionally, a field of research for art historians. But, between 1920 and 1940, engineers and architects started claiming history as their own field of investigation. One of the last volumes of Storia dell’arte italiana by Adolfo Venturi, published in 1938, was the object of a fiery argument between the old art historian and Gustavo Giovannoni, who began working on the idea of an Italian History of Architecture, able to connect in an organic vision different aspects: forms, functions, construction, materials and techniques. The Ancient Architecture was entrusted to Massimo Pallottino and Roberto Paribeni; Carlo Cecchelli wrote about the Early Christian Architecture; the Medieval Ages was the research’s field of Mario Salmi, Enrico Calandra and Giulio Ulisse Arata; Giovannoni personally dealt with the Renaissance while Roberto Pane with the Baroque; Arata was also appointed for the 19th century. The Second World War and Giovannoni’s death interrupted the editorial plan. Retracing the framework of the Storia dell’architettura italiana lead us to reflect again on a historiographical method, in part still valid, and highlight one of the points of departure of contemporary Italian historiography (sometimes forgotten), written by engineers and architects for engineers and architects.