“Portare lo studio sul terreno concreto dei documenti". Pietro Pirri e lo studio dell'architettura gesuitica

Jesuit historian and archivist Pietro Pirri (1881-1969) dedicated the greater part of his life to the study of the architecture of the order, and his contributions are to this day of fundamental importance. His research took place in the Fifties and Sixties of the past century, when the long-established concept of Jesuitenstil had not yet been revised by more recent critics. Pirri's work, based on the rigorous examination of the documents preserved in the Company's archives, evidenced for the first time the structure, organization and practical aspects of the order's building activity. After some early essays, dealing with historic and artistic matters, his appointment as archivist of the Company directed Pirri's interest to more specific issues. His achievements include biographic studies of the most important Jesuit architects, including Giovanni Tristano, Giuseppe Valeriano, Giovanni de Rosis; the definition of "modo nostro" (our way) as the peculiar and exclusive planning practice of the Order; and the role in it of the "consiliarius aedilicius" or building conselour. Above all, he made a systematic study and promoted the diffusion of the huge quantity of documents available in the archives, considered the primary source, the "concree ground" for all subsequent researches.