Architectural Drawings, Archiving, Collecting, and History: some Cases from the 18th century

Abstract

The essay addresses the problem of interpreting and reading eighteenth-century architectural drawings through several insights involving Mediterranean examples, from Avignon, Naples, Palermo, Puglia and Cagliari.

It emphasises that archiving criteria and collecting practices involving the systematic separation of drawings from documentation can lead to distortions and methodological biases. It is important to assess the history of individual drawings and the practices that allowed their preservation. Given that drawings can also conceal negotiation and compromise, it is necessary to move beyond the limitations imposed by approaches focused on attribution and simple aesthetic evaluation.