“Modern Italy”may sound like an oxymoron. For Western civilization,Italian culture represents the classical past and the continuity of canonical tradition,while modernity is understood in contrary terms of rupture and rapid innovation. Charting the evolution of a culture renowned for its historical past into the 10 modern era challenges our understanding of both the resilience of tradition and the elasticity of modernity. We have a tendency when imagining Italy to look to a rather distant and definitely premodern setting. The ancient forum, medieval cloisters,baroque piazzas,and papal palaces constitute our ideal itinerary of Italian civilization. The Campo of Siena,Saint Peter’s,all of Venice and San Gimignano satisfy us with their seemingly unbroken panoramas onto historical moments untouched by time;but elsewhere modern intrusions alter and obstruct the view to the landscapes of our expectations. As seasonal tourist or seasoned historian,we edit the encroachments time and change have wrought on our image of Italy. The learning of history is always a complex task,one that in the Italian environment is complicated by the changes wrought everywhere over the past 250 years. Culture on the peninsula continues to evolve with characteristic vibrancy. Italy is not a museum. To think of it as such—as a disorganized yet phenomenally rich museum unchanging in its exhibits—is to misunderstand the nature of the Italian cultural condition and the writing of history itself.

Reconnects ancient buildings with the people who made them, with their surroundings, and with practices in other times and cultures.

Writing Architecture in Modern Italy tells the history of an intellectual group connected to the small but influential Italian Einaudi publishing house between the 1930s and the 1950s. It concentrates on a diverse group of individuals, including Bruno Zevi, an architectural historian and politician; Giulio Carlo Argan, an art historian; Italo Calvino, a fiction writer; Giulio Einaudi, a publisher; and Elio Vittorini and Cesare Pavese, both writers and translators. Linking architectural history and historiography within a broader history of ideas, this book proposes four different methods of writing history, defining historiographical genres, modes, and tones of writing that can be applied to history writing to analyze political and social moments in time. It identifies four writing genres: myths, chronicles, history, and fiction, which became accepted as forms of multiple postmodern historical stories after 1957. An important contribution to the architectural debate, Writing Architecture in Modern Italy will appeal to those interested in the history of architecture, history of ideas, and architectural education.

This is the first study of Renaissance architecture as an immersive, multisensory experience that combines historical analysis with the evidence of first-hand accounts. Questioning the universalizing claims of contemporary architectural phenomenologists, David Karmon emphasizes the infinite variety of meanings produced through human interactions with the built environment. His book draws upon the close study of literary and visual sources to prove that early modern audiences paid sustained attention to the multisensory experience of the buildings and cities in which they lived. Through reconstructing the Renaissance understanding of the senses, we can better gauge how constant interaction with the built environment shaped daily practices and contributed to new forms of understanding. Architecture and the Senses in the Italian Renaissance offers a stimulating new approach to the study of Renaissance architecture and urbanism as a kind of 'experiential trigger' that shaped ways of both thinking and being in the world.

This classic work presents a stimulating survey of the most exciting and innovative period in the history of architecture. Lotz also goes beyond the more familiar locations, architects and buildings to conquer less well-known territories, exploring Piedmont and Vitozzi and ending with a study of bizzarrie.

Covering all regions of Italy—from Turin's Palace of Labor in northern Italy to the Monreale Cathedral and Cloister in Sicily—and all periods of Italian architecture—from the first-century Colosseum in Rome to the Casa Rustica apartments built in Milan in the 1930s—this volume examines over 70 of Italy's most important architectural landmarks. Writing in an authoritative yet engaging style, Jean Castex, professor of architectural history at the Versailles School of Architecture, describes the features, functions, and historical importance of each structure. Besides idetifying location, style, architects, and periods of initial construction and major renovations, the cross-referenced and illustrated entries also highlight architectural and historical terms explained in the Glossay and conclude with a useful listing of further information resources. The volume also offers ready-reference lists of entries by location, architectural style, and time period, as well as a general bibliography, a detailed subject index, and a comprehensive introductory overview of Italian architecture. Entries cover major architectural structures as well as smaller sites, including everything from the well-known dome of St. Peter's at the Vatican to the Fiat Lingotto Plant in Turin. Ideal for college and high school students, as well as for interested general readers, this comprehensive look at the architecture of Italy is an indispensable addition to every architectural reference collection.