Giovanni Tancredi (1866-1948), jurist, publicist and self-taught scholar, was part of the lively context of the renewed interest in local cultures that, between the late 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century, swept through Italy and Europe, contributing to the birth and development of demo-ethno-anthropological sciences. An atypical figure in terms of training and method, Tancredi operated with a strikingly modern approach, based on the integration of direct observation, oral sources, photographic documentation and archival research, anticipating practices that would only decades later become canonical in anthropological research.

His most relevant work, Folclore Garganico, published in 1938, is a fundamental contribution to knowledge of the popular culture of southern Italy. The result of years of meticulous fieldwork focused particularly on the reality of Monte Sant’Angelo, the volume returns an articulate fresco of traditional Garganic life. Tancredi scrupulously investigates aspects such as the festive cycle, religious and magical-superstitious beliefs, nuptial and funerary practices, toponymy, clothing, down to local handicrafts, offering a vivid and detailed cross-section of everyday life and pre-industrial technical knowledge.

Particularly innovative is the use of photography as a documentation tool. The collected images, now housed in the Tancredi Photo Library at the Martella Study Center in Monte Sant’Angelo, constitute an iconographic corpus of exceptional ethnographic value, capable of effectively flanking the written narrative. The work, although produced in the context of fascism, is distinguished by the absence of ideological rhetoric: Tancredi returns a complex and dynamic representation of peasant reality, capturing its internal tensions between tradition and modernity, and proposing an empathetic and respectful reading of subaltern cultures.