Abstract

Due to the close interplay of art history and policies for the protection of cultural heritage that took place in the region, Umbria in the 1970s represented a laboratory for the experimentation of practices and theories, which made of it a laboratory for innovative experiences, albeit of limited duration, or ambitious projects, acknowledged by the local authority but not realised. There were numerous initiatives of different types and in different fields: the Pilot Project for the Regeneration of the Historic Sites in the Apennines (1972-1976), the workshop series for cultural heritage maintenance and restoration operators in Spoleto (from 1974), the Pilot Plan for the Programmed Conservation of the Cultural Heritage in Umbria (1972-1976), the Ricerche in Umbria (1976-2006), the Plan for the Regional Catalogue (1977- 1979), I Manuali per il territorio (1977-1980), the District Consortia (1980). The common denominator was the participation of Bruno Toscano (1930) in each one of these experiences. This short essay will focus on these projects, the discussions that accompanied them, and revolve around the events and research of Toscano, who was one of the most active militant art historians of this period, in professional and friendly association with Andrea Emiliani, Enrico Castelnuovo, Antonio Paolucci, Giovanni Previtali and Giovanni Romano and many others. A recent article by Bruno Toscano, published in the Festschrift for Fabio Bettoni, makes this attempt at reconstruction easier. In fact, the question Toscano poses there closely resembles the one around which this issue of «Quaderni storici» is structured: whether and to what extent the common engagement of scholars, here art historians, had political impact.