Historiography of the restorations in Pompeii: from its discovery to the early nineteenth century. Digitization of the recent past to support the transmission of knowledge

Abstract

The current research activity, carried out within the PhD Architettura: Innovazione e Patrimonio, Consorzio Argonauti, aims to retrace the history of the restoration of the ancient city of Pompeii in a defined period, from the second half of the eighteenth century (after its discovery in 1748) to the first half of the nineteenth century. The objectives of the present research include two main points: arrange systematically the events related to the restoration, in order to fill the knowledge gap, and provide a case study of restorative techniques in the past that the historian and the restorer can use as a tool for understanding the archaeological buildings and sites as they are today. Although Pompeii has always been the object of restorative methods, there are currently no organized publications to refer to, while previous publications calls for a thorough examination and reorganization. The methodology involves three main phases: literature search, archival research and field verification of the data collection. A mapping of the restoration works carried out in Pompeii in the period this research refers to is being conducted in order to provide the Superintendence with a practical, immediate and concise tool that experts can easily manage. For this purpose, starting from the geo-referenced map data the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni archeologici di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia has provided, I am defining a land information system (LIS) supported by GIS tools aiming at displaying a detailed data sheet, which contains restoration interventions relevant to the single building. The shape files processed during this study will be made available to the Siav (Sistema Informativo Archeologico Vesuviano) of the Superintendence in order to perform database queries created and any spatial analysis.