L’editoria in Italia nel Dopoguerra e la Collana storica di Architettura di Einaudi

After the Second World War, Italy started up a process of cultural renovation in response to the restrictions on publications – particularly from abroad – imposed by the Fascist regime and the crisis that had hit the book market during the war years. Within this context, the Italian publisher Einaudi began a collaboration with the Roman architect Bruno Zevi for the introduction of a specific series on architecture in its catalogue. The collaboration lasts over than twenty years, leading to the publication of seven volumes of architectural history. Starting from the analysis of Einaudi’s catalogue, this essay aims to trace the relationships between the curator, the publisher and the set of actors involved, and to reconstruct the long genesis of the publishing project, placing it in relation with the history of Italian publishing. The correspondence between the various protagonists allows to deepen the evolution of the cultural project, described, in the essay, through four phases: the launch of the publishing initiative between 1944 and 1947; its consolidation in the years 1948-1950; the necessity of a first evaluation in 1951 and, finally, the last years of publications, between 1961 and 1964. Through the use of different sources, the essay traces a series of links that reflect on the role played by Zevi, together with a set of other actors, in spreading, also in Italy, of a possible history of modern architecture.