Giuseppe Gerola

Giuseppe Gerola (2 April 1877 - 21 September 1938) was an Italian historian known for his involvement in monument restoration projects, his studies on Venetian Crete and his investigation of political, cultural and artistic topics related to medieval Trentino.

His teachers included the palaeographer Cesare Paoli and the diplomat and historian Paul Scheffer-Boichorst (de) whose lectures he attended during a short stay at Berlin between 1898-99.

He also spent some time in Freiburg, here he met the medievalist Heinrich Finke (de) and started developing his interest in art history and architecture.

The result of this work was published in four monumental volumes,[1] which earned him the 1933 Mussolini award conferred by the Royal Academy of Italy.

These volumes are an invaluable source of information, saving from oblivion dozens of monuments that have been seriously damaged or even destroyed completely in recent years.