LA GEOGRAFIA DELLO SPARTIACQUE ALPINO: REGIONE E CONFINE NELLE SCIENZE GEOGRAFICHE IN ITALIA (1890-1939)

The question about Italian terrestrial border is strongly related with academic geography development and cartographical repre- sentation. This article firstly takes into account Giovanni (1846-1900) and Olinto (1876-1926) Marinelli's theoretical definitions of region and border. Their scientific effort disguised a potential political meaning in the definition of Italian national state and in prospect of the Italian space of influence. The challenge for the geographer was to reduce the multi- plicity of regional characters to a single line, which could be depicted on a map, in order to go beyond the ambiguous belt boundaries described by Friedrich Ratzel in his Political Geography. In this context cartogra- phy plays a double function: first, as an archetype that shapes geographi- cal sciences; second, as a medium to propagate clear spatial and political concepts. By a comparison with German geography, this article attempts to understand these issue in a transnational perspective.