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Abstract:  VADEMECUM FOR A HISTORY OF ART THAT THERE IS NOT   Historical-artistic research must confront an incontrovertible fact: the loss, for various reasons, of most paintings, sculptures and architectural feats of the past. Considering the works of art that have reached us through the centuries a “whole”. rather than a surviving fraction of a far greater production would be a serious methodological error. This is especially true with regard to the Middle Ages and all other eras in which a change in taste, natural catastrophes (earthquakes, fires) and wars played a major role. Rome is a perfect example of this situation that also involves the rest of Western civilization. The greatest losses that have been suffered regard frescoes and other wall decorations due to their fixed and non-transferrable nature. A large amount of data can be derived from archives, sketches, prints and the direct examination of monuments, but this presents a methodological problem which is discussed in this essay.