Sulle tracce di Alfonso Frangipane: origini dell’iconografia storica della Calabria

The Elenco degli edifici monumentali of the Calabrian provinces of Catanzaro, Cosenza and Reggio, published in 1938 by Alfonso Frangipane (Catanzaro, 1881 - Reggio Calabria, 1970), following upon Frangipane’s similar publication, Inventario degli oggetti d’arte published in 1933, proclaimed its author as a pioneer of the surveyance and critical analysis of the Calabrian artistic and architectural heritage. and, moreover, as the protagonist for its collective knowledge. Two decades later, Frangipane, in his first personal reflection on his past research activity in Calabria, reaffirmed his objectives in discovering the true image of the region in the footsteps of the authors of the earliest printed views. Drawing on Frangipane’s literary suggestions, this contribution is dedicated to the origin of the printed iconography of Calabria, that coincides with the urban and territorial iconography of Reggio, the city that ten years after the traumatic earthquake of 1908 the scholar chose as his residence, perceiving Calabria’s strong symbolism as a physical site between the persistence of memory and the transformation in the global context of the Mediterranean.