The twenty-two essays in this volume explore the multiple perspectives adopted by French architects, not only the pensionnaires of the Académie de France, while traveling through the Italian peninsula and beyond, between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The analyses presented here focus on a variety of sources and objects of study, woven into a collective narrative that offers a critical reflection on the already rich historiography of the journey to Italy. At the same time, it provides space for further investigation, outlining original or renewed thematic and research angles. The plurality of stimuli and interests that emerges from the descriptions and representations of buildings and cities, equally attentive to the landscape dimension, makes it possible to portray, in all its complexity, one of the most prolific moments in the education of the architect, during a crucial period of transformation and continuity.
Antonio Brucculeri: Maître de conférences in the history of architecture at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Val de Seine, researcher at the EVCAU laboratory (ENSAPVS), and associate researcher with the HISTARA group (École Pratique des Hautes Études).
Cristina Cuneo: Associate professor of architectural history at the Politecnico di Torino, Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST).
