Le fortificazioni nelle fonti edite = Fortifications in published sources

While major expressions of medieval European architecture, along with ecclesiastical works, defensive structures have largely been neglected by architectural historians who still consider them part of the military sphere. Since the late 1960s, they have gained stature in disciplines like History, Archaeology and Architecture, resulting in the delineation of numerous historical-political, typological, architectural and socio-economic issues. Studies of fortified architecture in Sardinia are highly heterogeneous in terms of content and quality. This heterogeneity stems first and foremost from the many sectoral points of view that study its architectural artefacts. On the other hand, the lack of documentary sources and the limited number of such architectural artefacts has compromised the quality and comprehensiveness of the research conducted. In historical terms, it is worth noting the 16th-century writings by Fara that provide information on the historical events of some structures and their state of preservation. From the 17th century onwards, reports by government officials, sent first by the Spanish and then the Savoys, to assess the general conditions of the Sardinian territory provide up-to-date information in this regard. Furthermore, several interesting 19th-century iconographic documents by Bofarull y Mascaró address several Sardinian fortresses. The memoirs of Italian and foreign travellers who visited the island in the 19th and 20th centuries (Valery 1996, Wagner 2001) contain further evidence. The interest of historians has increased significantly since the 1990s, whether to highlight the relationship between fortified sites and their topographical distribution (Casula 1980; Id. 2015) or to focus on the phenomenon of encastellation and the origins, evolution and abandonment of some long-gone medieval villages (Day 1981) and the correlation between local defensive systems and their historical-political context (Ortu 1998; Id. 2009). In the field of Archaeology, interest in local medieval fortified systems has grown since the 1980s. To this end, extensive archaeological survey methods have been applied to fortified settlements (Poisson 1983, Id. 1989, Id. 1990b), followed by numerous excavation campaigns (Milanese; Murru; Panedda; Pani Ermini; Pinna; Salvi; Sanna). The first signs of interest in the field of Architectural History date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and came from Heritage Preservation institutions (Vivanet, Scano, Aru, Delogu). They refer to contemporary studies by Coroneo. Some authors who face the subject by adopting a systemic approach (Carta Raspi 1933; Fois 1992; Rass u 2007; Fiorino, Pintus 2015) made a fundamental contribution to the field. Regarding the History of Construction, some studies explore construction techniques (Spiga 1990; Frulio 2002), mainly concerning masonry (Putzu 2017), and sometimes also for chrono-typological purposes (Giannattasio 2020).