RICERCHE SULLE ILLUSTRAZIONI DELLA STORIA DELLA PITTURA ITALIANA DI GIOVANNI ROSINI

The topic of my research is an important illustrated book by Giovanni Rosini, the History of Italian Painting, published in Pisa between 1839 and 1847. Giovanni Rosini was a successful poet and novelist, professor at the University of Pisa and collector of paintings. He starts the history of Italian Painting from the art works he considered Greek and finishes it with the paintings of the beginning of the XIX century. The History of Italian Painting is completed by 248 big format prints representing the paintings Rosini deals with, executed by a group of draughtsmen and engravers chosen by Rosini himself. I have prepared a record card for every print, composed by the data about the painting represented, about an eventual draught and about the draughtsman and the carver employed in it. I have also tried to understand the way used by Rosini to create such a complex editorial business; he was able for example to establish a rich net of advisors who wrote to him about regional paintings and painters.