Abstract
L'Allegorie du patrimoine or The invention of the Historic Monument (&translated by Lauren M. O'Connell) was written by Françoise Choay. She was born in 1925 in Paris, has been a historian of the theories and of the urban and architectural forms. She is an emeriti professor at the university of Paris I and VIII, also in Belgium, Italy and the United States of America. She is one of the most famous scholars of the contemporary school of thoughts with respect to landscapes and its links with built space (Wikipedia). In many of her books, she situates the description of the term "patrimony" through its history, through its distinct epochs, in order to criticize and analyze the current cult to the term "patrimony" and what it encompasses.
She has described this analysis and the patrimonial politics in her book Le Patrimoine en question, Anthologie pour un combat (Benoît de Sagazan). Choay chooses to fight against the current way the patrimony is being used for, indeed, her thought is that the contemporary globalization tends to turn the theme of patrimony into a critical asset for pure profit. In L'Allegorie du patrimoine, she defines the notion of patrimony through out several historical periods, starting from the antiquity to today's time. Choay highlights the evolution of the studies of the patrimony, pointing up parallel practices such as restoration, conservation or reemployment.
