Ugo Pellis: a linguist-photographer's journey through Italy

The Atlante Linguistico Italiano - conceived by the linguist Matteo Giulio Bartoli and implemented by the linguist and photographer Ugo Pellis (1882-1943) - is a systematic collection of maps on which, for each explored location, the corresponding dialectal translation of a concept obtained directly from native speakers is reported. With millions of dialect cards and thousands of ethnographic photographs of the highest documentary value, it constitutes the largest national dialectological project and stands among the foremost of its kind in Europe and globally.

From 1925 until the outbreak of World War II, Ugo Pellis conducted 727 surveys single-handedly. To ensure neutrality in his questions, he used drawings and illustrations to present different objects from his questionnaire, allowing informants to translate them into their local dialects without linguistic mediation. He also employed the photographic medium to document these objects in their fullest sense as cultural records.

The Società Filologica Friulana preserves the original 7,156 glass plates and film negatives produced by Pellis between 1925 and 1942. This invaluable photographic collection underwent an initial digitization and cataloging campaign, completed in 2008.

With our assignment we will review the 7,156 existing catalog entries and enhance them with additional photographic documentation, including the original handwritten envelopes storing the photographic negatives. The project will proceed in separate but complementary phases. First, all original envelopes will be digitized. Then, their handwritten information will be studied and integrated into the catalog entries. The result will be a coherent and effective semantic mapping, updated to align with the latest communication standards for photographic heritage.

We would like to express our gratitude to the Società Filologica Friulana for kindly allowing the publication of some images from the Ugo Pellis photographic collection.