Museums, compilations and collections in Puglia

This paper has, as starting point, a survey about museums of Puglia. The main question is if all these museum institutions are real museums or not. With this purpose, this research deepens two main aspects. The first one is to understand the meaning of the museum concept, focusing on normative and doctrinal levels, and the differences between a museum institution and a collection. Then, after a brief description about the museum origins, the regional normative, and the museums of Puglia state of the art, the paper presents the analysis model developed in order to distinguish between "real" museums and "mere" collections. The conclusion of this research shows the analysis results of 85 museums of Puglia and some observations based on the emerging context and the analysis model.