Forgotten images. The “Luigi Morosini-Giuseppe Sacconi” archive between conservation of drawings and recovery of a lost memory

Abstract

Our contribution makes known archival fonds of considerable interest for the history of architecture and representation between the 19th and 20th century, but hitherto little explored. Pre- served in Ferentino, it contains a series of drawings by Giuseppe Sacconi relating to the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Rome, but above all a considerable number of drawings by Luigi Morosini where no studies exist despite the fact that the collection documents his intense activity as an architect in Rome and Latium.

This article will illustrate the recent initiatives undertaken in 2019-24 for the recovery and valorisation of the archive and the prospects for research. The collection, previously inaccessible due to its precarious state of preservation, has been analysed, catalogued and digitised; an inventory was then drawn up and published in 2024. The fonds provides an insight into Morosini’s professional life – from his early training to the works of his maturity – and, to a lesser extent, into Sacconi’s much better-known life. Representations of all kinds – perspectives, elevations, plans, sections – appear in the collection, but it is worth emphasising the particular skill and graphic precision that the plates document. Although it refers to the production of two different architects, the “Luigi Morosini-Giuseppe Sacconi” archive presents it- self as an organic collection, circumscribed within a defined chronological span and referring to a restricted geographical area, which allows us outline a coherent graphic and design culture.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.34.2025.25