Salvatore Di Pasquale

Salvatore Di Pasquale graduated from the faculty of architecture of the University of Naples in 1955. He lectured in descriptive geometry at the same establishment between 1961 and 1968 and after that bridges and large structures. Di Pasquale became a professor at the University of Naples as early as 1964 and finally became a full professor for construction theory at the faculty of architecture of the University of Florence in 1973, where he had begun work in 1971 and where he continued to work until his transfer to emeritus status in 1997. He served as dean of the faculty of architecture at his Alma Mater from 1986 to 1992 and was also head of the Construction Institute there from 1983 to 1995. Di Pasquale continued to give lectures as emeritus professor, e. g. in theory of structures and construction theory, at the faculty of architecture of the University of Catania, where he also served as dean. In addition, from 1976 until his death he taught structural theory and the stability of monuments in the foundation studies course on the restoration of monuments at the Federico II University in Naples, and the structural analysis of masonry structures at the Centre d’études pour la conservation du patrimoine architectural et urbain R. Lemaire in Leuven (Belgium); Di Pasquale was also a visiting professor at the architecture faculties of the universities in Pescara, Ferrara, Venice and Milan. He was for a long time a member of the scientific advisory committee for the international journal Meccanica published by the Associazione Italiana Meccanica Teorica e Applicata (AIMETA) and the journal Palladio (journal of history of architecture and restoration). With more than 200 publications on modern theory of structures to his name (also with special emphasis on historically important structures), Di Pasquale can be counted among Italy’s leading construction engineering theorists. That is why his name together with that of Giuffrè and Benvenuto represents the exploration of the historical dimensions of loadbearing systems. Salvatore Di Pasquale, Antonio Giuffrè and Edoardo Benvenuto form the triumvirate behind a history of construction engineering containing theory of structure elements, the foundations of which were principally created by them and whose productive energy they have shown in the sensitive refurbishment of historically important structures.

Main contributions to structural analysis:

On the elastic problem of the non-homogeneous anisotropic body resting on lattice [1967]; On the elastic problem of the orthotropic plate [1968]; Energy forms in the finite element techniques [1972]; Scienza delle costruzioni. Introduzione alla progettazione strutturale [1975]; Metodi di calcolo per le strutture spaziali [1978]; Questions concerning the mechanics of masonry [1988]; New trends in the analysis of masonry structures [1992]; On the art of building before Galilei [1995]; L’arte del costruire. Tra conoscenza e scienza [1996]; Brunelleschi. La costruzione della cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore [2002] 

Source: Kurrer, Karl-Eugen The History of the Theory of Structures, Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH, Berlin (Deutschland), ISBN 3-433-01838-3, 2008; p. 725/726