Progetto di un’architettura istorica. Entwurff einer Historischen Architectur

The editing and complete translation (the first in Italian) of the Entwurff einer Historischen Architectur. Project for a History of Architechture (Vienna, 1721) by Bernhard Fischer von Erlach has the aim of filling a serious gap in Italian historiography, since the Entwurff undoubtedly represents a crucial work to understand the compositional dimension of modern architectural design intended as the relationship between mimesis and inventio. The 'historical' dimension, that is the heterogeneous set of materials, is arranged and re-woven by a project whose guidelines converge at the central point of an imaginative, 'fantastic' force - or force of poiesis - able to overcome the simple, linear relationship between 'nature' and 'artifice', thus representing the problem of always rethinking the architectural expressive code.