In October 1997, a book called "La Obra de Francesco Tamburini en Argentina. El espacio del poder I" was published in Jesi, as the catalogue book for the art exhibition with the same name which was held in Argentina - Rosario and Buenos Aires- as well as in Italy - Jesi and Ascoli Piceno-. Over the next months, it will also be hosted in the Argentinean Embassy in Rome.

The book is the joint effort of Mrs. IRMA ARESTIZÀBAL and architect ROBERTO DE GREGORIO for the Argentinean part, while Mrs. LORETTA MOZZONI and architect Stefano Santini have contributed to the Italian part. It is the first monograph devoted to this remarkable engineer-architect who was born in Ascoli in 1846. For a long time, Tamburini was a teacher at the Academy in Urbino and subsequently at the University of Pisa, then he became a lecturer at the School of Engineering in Rome and he finally emigrated to Argentina, where he had already signed a worthy contract with the Government in Buenos Aires.

Tamburini’s official entry into the nineteenth-century Italian culture is here marked by Mrs. Loretta Mozzoni’s detailed analysis of five watercolors by the famous architect. They show the projects made by Tamburini for the Congress Palace, the National Library and the Law Courts in the Argentinean capital. They were never put in practice, but these fine-painted projects are still kept in Jesi’s Municipal Art Gallery.

Thanks to architect Santini’s contribution, we can get acquainted with Tamburini’s personality, his life-story, his professional education and academic career, all of which were never described before.

Besides the biographical notes, the reader is given a critical interpretation of Tamburini’s architectural work in Argentina, by means of images from the picture album which was commissioned by the architect’s family to Samuel Boote in 1891. This collection of images was meant to live on as evidence of his outstanding achievements; it was then donated to Ascoli Piceno, Tamburini’s home town.

The artistic portrait which stems from the book is that of an eclectic architect, who succeeded in making the Italian artistic language known in Argentina. By erecting several impressive buildings, he was able to give expression to the Argentinean people’s need for self-assertion.

Alongside the previously-mentioned authors, the Italian scientific committee was supported by architect Monia Ciarloni, by Mr.Paolo Seghetti, Mrs.Giovanna Rosso del Brenna and, last but not least, by Mr.Amoreno Martellini who has carefully studied the events connected with Tamburini’s migration, his fortune, his sudden decline and finally his death in 1890.

The great relevance of Tamburini’s work in Argentina is emphasized by the authors who operated within the Argentinean scientific committee. Architect Ramon Gutiérrez described the cultural and architectural environment which preceded the advent of Tamburrini, whereas architect Roderio De Gregorio depicted the political and social implications, as well as the leading role of the Italian artist as Director of the National Board of Architects, operating both in the country capital and in the cities of Cordoba and Rosario.

The texts written by Prof. Juan José Ganduglia, by architects Alberto S.J. de Paula, Carlos A. Page and Claudia Shmidt are equally important, as they go into the critical analysis of Tamburini’s work as designer of the nation’s most representative buildings. Among them we can mention Casa Rosada, the Military Hospital, the Central Police Department and the project for the great Colon Theater which was never put in practice.

The travelling exhibition and the catalogue book have finally bestowed the deserved honors to Francesco Tamburini, both as a great architect of the late nineteen century and as an outstanding Italian citizen who emigrated overseas with great success, but was unjustly forgotten in his own land.

Such a detailed research project has been endorsed by the Italian and Argentinean public Institutions: in particular, this book has been supported by the Argentinean President Carlos Saul Menem, by the Special Plenipotentiary Argentinean Ambassador in Italy, Mr. Antonio Erman Gonzáles, by the Institute for Italian Culture in Buenos Aires, the Municipalities of Ascoli Piceno and Jesi, and finally by Jesi’s Rotary Club.