Throughout the last decades Italian linguistics has offered a rich and varied picture, which is, however, widely ignored outside the Italian frontiers. This article is intended to make a contribution towards a better appreciation of Italian linguistics outside Italy by presenting a survey of the field of ‘history of linguistics’ which is particularly cherished in Italy. After having presented the exemplary way in which Italian linguistics has received international linguistic research work, the article maintains the thesis that there is no break with continuity in the passage from crocianesimo to modern linguistics of Saussurean coinage: For decades it has even been characteristic of Italian contributions to linguistic theory (Terracini, Devoto, Pagliaro) that they try to reach a synthesis of idealism and structuralism. Just as there is continuity in this respect, the preoccupation with the history of linguistics is more deeply rooted – that is to say less of a novelty — in Italy than in other countries, and this for three reasons: (1) the art of the portrait of scholars which is highly developed; (2) the questione della lingua which for centuries has held a predominant place, and (3) the fact that several distinguished linguists (Pagliaro, Tagliavini, Bolelli among others) have taken a special interest in linguistic historiography before it became fashionable. After discussing the historiographical parts of linguistic textbooks the article deals with recent Italian production in the field, starting from a relevant congress (1973) and concentrating on studies on the 18th and 19th centuries, where a predominant part is held by publications on Ascoli and his correspondence. Some methodically relevant studies giving rise to a discussion of principal problems of linguistic historiography conclude the article.