A little history of restoration

This volume offers a concise and critically informed history of restoration, tracing the development of the discipline from its earliest theoretical formulations to contemporary practice. It introduces readers to the complex historical processes that have shaped restoration over time, situating its evolution within broader cultural, intellectual, and institutional contexts.
Through an examination of the positions advanced by its principal protagonists, the book reconstructs the principal debates and methodological turning points that have defined the field. Particular attention is devoted to enduring critical issues highlighting both the transformations and the continuities that have characterized restoration across the centuries.
By outlining shifting paradigms while identifying persistent foundations, the volume offers an interpretative framework for understanding restoration as a historically grounded yet continually evolving practice at the core of cultural heritage discourse.

Susanna Caccia Gherardini is Full Professor of Restoration and Director of the Department of Architecture at the University of Florence. Her scientific interests focus primarily on issues related to the conservation, protection and restoration of cultural heritage, with particular attention to 20th-century architecture, especially that of Le Corbusier. She explored this latter topic in depth with a grant from the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. She is the author of international publications, including most recently: Le Corbusier and the villa Savoye: a case of authorial restoration, published in 2023, and The Genealogy of Restoration. The Conservation of Monuments from the Athens Conference to the Venice Charter (1931-1964), published in 2025 in this same series.