"Meno si fa, meglio è”:Jean-Philippe Schmit alle origini della conservazione

Jean-Philippe Schmit is almost ignored by the Italian historiography on architectural restoration and is also little considered by French authors. He had been decorator of ceramics, lithographer of the king, civil servant, catholic activist, politician, novelist. As chief division in the Administration for Religious Affairs was assigned to the control of the interventions on diocesan buildings, and in this role he began to study the characteristics of gothic architecture and the problems of conservation of monuments. As a member of the Comité historique des arts et monuments he published in 1845 the Nouveau manuel complet de l'architecte des monuments religieux, perhaps the first textbook about architectural restoration. The text was intended to collect and disseminate the thoughts of the French archaeologists and probably had a significant influence for the definition on the principles of restoration in the following century.