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volves the Spanish fortifications of Santo Domingo. The contribution made by the Antonelli family to the
Santo Domingo city fortress walls has been examined by Professor Sandro Parrinello, who at the beginning of
2020 carried out onsite research promoted by the Italian Embassy and whose results are presented in his article
“The Walls of Santo Domingo and Documentation of the Construction Projects by the Antonelli Family.”
A visit to the cathedral with Virginia Flores Sasso and Esteban Prieto allowed me to discover the important
Italian roots of this extraordinary monument, the first cathedral in the Americas, and of its place in world his-
tory. They introduced me to the figure of Alessandro Geraldini, explaining his importance to Santo Domingo
and to the world. With gratitude to both, and due to their assistance, the academic basis was established for
the subsequent celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first resident bishop, Alessandro
Geraldini, in Santo Domingo; as part of these celebratory activities, the current Archbishop of Santo Domingo
Monsignor Ozoria celebrated a Te Deum in the cathedral to mark the 500th anniversary of Geraldini’s arrival.
In “The Funerary Monument to Alessandro Geraldini at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo,” Virginia Flores
Sasso describes the chapel and monument of the first resident bishop Alessandro Geraldini, contextualizing it
in time and in Renaissance funerary art. In the essay titled “The Italian Influences on the Basilica Church of
Santa María la Menor, First Cathedral of the Americas,” Esteban Prieto Vicioso studies the lasting impressions
left over the centuries by Italian architects and artists on the Santo Domingo cathedral.
The Italian contribution to architecture is rich and multifaceted and also of the modern age. The section
on modern architecture opens with two essays concerning a symbolic Santo Domingo building, the Nation-
al Palace, designed by Guido d’Alessandro. The chapter by Emilio José Brea, “The Italian Engineer Guido
D’Alessandro Lombardi and the Construction of the Dominican National Palace,” outlines the figure of Guido
D’Alessandro, the palace, and its construction, while in “The Dome of the Dominican National Palace and
Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi,” his grandson Jesús D’Alessandro, Dean of Architecture at UNIBE University
and head of the Town Planning Department in the municipality of Santo Domingo, agreed to my request to
write about the Italian influence on the style of the palace dome. Interestingly, he highlights the line of inspira-
tion followed by his grandfather Guido, who started from important models of the past, and recalls previously
unknown anecdotes of family history relating to the construction of the building.
Gustavo Luis Moré in “The Italian Training of Modern Dominican Architects, 1950-2019” retraces the
influence of Dominican architects whose studies were conducted in Italy, bringing to light the continuous
thread linking important buildings in the Dominican Republic to what was learned during their Italian studies.
The Italian influence on one of the most famous tourist complexes in the Caribbean, and an authentic icon of
the Dominican Republic, Casa de Campo, is studied in two chapters that describe the contribution of Italian
ideas to Dominican beauty. Alba Mizoocky Mota López explains the Italian origins of the medieval-inspired
complex of Altos de Chavón in the chapter “Altos de Chavón: A Mediterranean Village Nestled in the Carib-
bean,” while Diego Fernández describes the Italian inspiration of the Casa de Campo marina and the role of
the architect Gianfranco Fini in the chapter titled “The Influence of the Porto Rotondo Marina on the Casa de
Campo Marina, La Romana.”
The section on literature and the arts opens with an essay by Danilo Manera entitled “Marcio Veloz Mag-
giolo: AWriter of Italian Descent at the Very Heart of Dominican literature.” It was Professor Manera himself
who introduced me to leading Dominican intellectuals with whom we discussed this book, many of whom
subsequently became its authors. I am indebted to Professor Manera for introducing me to Marcio Veloz Mag-
giolo, who was the first to open discussions about twenty years ago on the need to publish such a book. It must
be remembered that it was precisely at the urging of Danilo Manera and the then-Dominican ambassador in
Rome, Peggy Cabral, that Milan University dedicated the first Italian chair in Dominican studies to Marcio
Veloz Maggiolo in the 2019-2020 academic year. The section is concluded by the winner of the Dominican Na-
tional Literature Prize of 2018, Manuel Salvador Gautier, who wrote the chapter titled “Italy and Literature” in
which he offers interesting testimony of his years in Rome as a student of architecture and of how the beauty
of Italy subsequently influenced his writing career.
INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR