DIS-AR-MER*-Drawings of Architecture ) in Southern Italy (15th -18th century) *The acronym, derived from the Italian title (DISegni di ARchitettura nel MERidione), prefigures the intent to defuse (disarm) the commonplace of cultural delay in Southern Italy and of the simple local acceptance of models which had been elaborated elsewhere.

Tools for evaluating the design process and artistic manifestations, the architectural drawings have been enriched in recent times with new important connotations, gratifying even for a wide audience, and, at the same time, a valid documentary testimony integrating the history of architecture with the knowledge of the distinctive particularities of individual personalities. In fact, when scrutinized, they lend themselves to reveal intricate social dynamics of legitimation and self-representation, where craftsmanship, building entrepreneurship and the design profession, converge or conflict. Southern Italy participated fully in the progressive interest in architectural drawings; however, an overall work of systematization of a patrimony of knowledge, composed of specific research and partial contributions, is still lacking. The DIS-AR-MER project intends to follow diverse models, adapting them to the reality of a vast but poorly investigated territory such as Southern Italy. It is not only a matter of collecting data, measuring discrepancies or detecting hierarchies of quality, but also of paying more general attention to the architectural profession in this geographical area. The operational units (Palermo, Reggio Calabria, Naples) are called to collaborate in order to cover as much territory as possible involved by the research.