Ferdinando Castagnoli: il valore di un metodo

Ferdinando Castagnoli did not often write about method, but from his first lecture as Chair of Ancient Topography he made his approach clear: he defined topography not as a discipline but as a method, repositioning it in relation to “both historical geography and archaeology in general”. His was a method of studying antiquities in their topographical relationship, both horizontal and geographical, as well as vertical, i.e. stratigraphic, a concept not taken for granted in 1962. Castagnoli’s research path is outlined with his fundamental contributions to ancient town planning, centuriation, topography of Rome, the excavation of ancient Lavinium and his other numerous commitments and awards. In short, we can repeat the definition proposed by Paolo Sommella and Cairoli Fulvio Giuliani in the 1992 introduction to the collection of the master’s writings: “a scholar who made his speciality the specification of a method and not the identification of a disciplinary island”.