Una riflessione sul restauro: Melchiorre Minutilla e il dovere di "conservare e non alterare i monumenti".

The debate on the restoration of monuments in Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century appears to be scattered in a multiplicity of reflections attested to the various periodicals. From the advertising point of view, the role of professional firms is particularly relevant, in particular the various colleges of engineers and architects present in the main Italian cities. In the context story, the engineer and architect Melchiorre Minutilla, author of restoration work on the cathedral of Monreale, entrusts his reflections on antiquity and restoration to the “Acts of the College of Engineers and Architects in Palermo”. It is a writing from 1878 that is noted for some hints of undoubted originality. He insists on the necessary literary cultural preparation, in particular for restorers, and lucidly sustained the impossibility of reproducing “the antique” with the copy, however accurate and scientifically documented.