95696 - STORIA DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURALE NELL'ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA

Learning outcomes

This course aims to give students tools for analyzing and understanding the importance of cultural heritage, its promotion, and the political control it wields in contemporary Italy. Throughout the semester, we will study the public and parliamentary debates that have shaped institutional and legislative organizations in the field of cultural conservation. The chronological arc will span the initial decades following Italian unification to the creation of an autonomous ministry in 1974, thereby exploring the practices and initiatives implemented by liberal, fascist, and republican governments. By the end of the course, students will be able to explain the evolution in the relationship between politics and cultural heritage over time and discuss that relationship within its European context. Students will also have a good grasp of the main texts written on this subject and will be able to apply historiographic methods of analysis to the study of the protection and safeguarding of their cultural and environmental heritage

Course contents

The course will deal with the origins of the definition of cultural and environmental good and their protection, starting from a survey of what this has meant from ancient times to the contemporary age. After this introductory phase, it will delve into the history of the initiatives undertaken after the Italian unification. fundamental for the legislative bases that were laid in the field of protection of the cultural and environmental heritage. The fascist era and the highly political use of cultural heritage will then be addressed, up to the launch of the Bottai law of 1939. Finally, the course will address the issues of republican Italy, namely how the protection and enhancement of heritage was faced by the constituent fathers after the Second World War, up to the debate which, starting from the 1960s, led to the launch of the Ministero of Beni Culturali in the 1970s.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending students will have to study the lecture notes and a book chosen from the following:

A. Ragusa, Alle origini dello Stato contemporaneo. Politiche di gestione dei beni culturali e ambientali tra Ottocento e Novecento, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2011.

A. Ragusa, I giardini delle muse. Il patrimonio culturale ed ambientale in Italia dalla Costituente all'istituzione del Ministero (1946-1975), Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2015.

A. Varni (a cura di), A difesa di un patrimonio nazionale, Ravenna, Longo, 2002.

P. Traniello, Storia delle biblioteche in Italia dall'Unità a oggi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014.

C. Tosco, I beni culturali. Storia, tutela e valorizzazione, il Mulino, 2014

Non-attending students will have to study two books chosen from those mentioned in the list.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons.

Assessment methods

The exam is oral, and includes a verification of basic knowledge with attention to the ability to understand the problems faced during the lessons; the knowledge of the discipline in its historical development will be verified, the ability to frame the objects studied in their context, and to discuss them critically. The quality of oral expression and the ability to construct a logical-argumentative speech will also be taken into account.


The final evaluation will follow the following indications:


- insufficient grade: lack of basic knowledge and inability to produce a correct interpretation of the texts and / or problems -


- sufficient grade: possession of basic knowledge; mainly correct interpretation, but conducted with imprecision and little autonomy.


- good grade: possession of intermediate level knowledge; fully correct interpretation, but not always precise and autonomous.


- excellent grade: possession of high level knowledge; interpretation of problems not only correct but conducted with autonomy and precision. Excellent oral expression skills.

Teaching tools

In support of class work, slides with images and reproduction of sources will be used.

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Malfitano