Discovering Medieval Art While Looking for Antiquity. Travellers in Southern Europe (17th – Early 19th Centuries)

ROMA, 2024, Viella. Cm. 24×17, pp. 315, ill. in nero n.t., br.

This book collects essays on writings by erudite travellers who explored the Mediterranean countries in search of classical antiquities between the 17th and the 19th centuries, but encountered the art of the Middle Ages, nearly always unexpectedly. The analysis of this literature allows to evaluate the diverse perceptions of medieval heritage, particularly in Southern Italy and the lands of modern-day Croatia and Greece – considered prime destinations for the on-site study of Antiquity besides Rome. The texts are scrutinised from the perspective of the vocabulary employed by the authors, so to evaluate the interpretative categories they adopted in the examination and classification of the art and architecture from the Middle Ages, before history of medieval art was developed as an academic discipline during the 19th century.