"Antichità, resti e monumenti di un tempo immemore". Modelli e prescrizioni per una tutela del patrimonio negli Stati dell’Europa moderna

In the early modern centuries, a number of countries in Europe established pioneering laws dedicated to the protection of what they tough of as ‘heritage’. These early forms of safeguarding reflected aesthetic perceptions, cultural backgrounds, political interests, as well as economic and religious concerns of each relevant place. This study analyses the most significant of these early decrees in a comparative perspective, aiming to understand the development of the first concepts and instruments elaborated to protect antiquities and artefacts in 15th- to 18th- century Europe. As will be argued, some of these early constructs prove to be still valid and fully effective at the present time.