Un mancato Tractatus logico-architectonicus? L’architettura della città e Wittgenstein

Is it still possible to say anything new on a book as famous and extensively analysed as 'The Architecture of the City'? The present text aims at answering affirmatively on the basis of a hypothesis that is supported by various clues, even if it is in fact unprovable: that one of the main references of the author, while writing the book, was Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico-philosophicus; and that it is precisely the absence of any direct reference to the Austrian philosopher that forces you to look once more into Rossi's original intention; that is, into the reasons why he claimed the intention of writing a 'handbook' or an architectural 'treatise' with scientific ambitions, but ended up publishing a unique and complex book like 'The Architecture of the City'.