Il Corpus della scultura altomedievale della Fondazione CISAM Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo di Spoleto: nuove prospettive

The Corpus della scultura altomedievale was officially established in 1959, when a first issue devoted to the diocese of Lucca was published. What is more, it was Mario Salmi who prompted the creation of the series already in 1951. He devised the Corpus as a part of a broader editorial project concerning pre-Romanesque monuments in Italy. Each of the Corpus volumes deals with the territory of an early medieval ecclesiastical diocese and the sculptures to be found in it. It is the CISAM scientific Committee, led by Letizia Ermini Pani, which is entrusted with the coordination and editing of the volumes. As a permanent member of the Committee, the author of this paper aims at outlining the progressive fulfilment of such a long-lasting and complex endeavour. To date, the Corpus project has at its credit the publication of twenty-five volumes and provides scholars with an extraordinary companion for the studies of early medieval Italy. Recently, the Committee started up a further specific project relevant to the city of Rome. Its purpose is the publication of the rich collection of drawings made by Ferdinando Mazzanti in the late 19th century. The drawings, still mostly unpublished, represent an invaluable source for the knowledge of early medieval sculpture of Rome, in particular when lost sculptural contexts are to be investigated.