Only from a strictly anatomical point of view the occipital lobe can be traced with relative facility. Apparentely it constitues a morphological unit representing the site of structures basically related to visual perception, therein included some other oculo-motor integrative mechanisms which are nothing else but components of this complex perceptive phenomenon. The principal parts of the conventional superficial anatomy of the occipital lobe (striated, peristriaded and para-striated cortical areas) and the principal connections (optical radiations, association tracts, projection and commissural libers) with different structures of the nervous system are indicated. The vascularization of the occipital lobe is revised by the use of serial and selective anatomic-radiological preparations of the different arterial trunks in which it could be verified wide intercommunications between the terminal sectors of posterior, medial and anterior cerebral arterial systems. Some morphological variations of the occipital horns of the lateral ventricles are emphasized. However purely anatomic data are not sufficient enough for the understanding of the psycho-physiological functions of the occipital lobe which has to be considered as a part of a perceptive highly complex system. Very probably this system in the same way of many other cerebral ones is composed by several circuits mutually conjugated acting under the principle of servomechanisms and ruled by the conception of totality (Gestalten) whose funccionality does not depends on the sum of its components but on the relationships that the different parts mantain among themselves. This means that, as in every superior cerebral function, the visual activity cannot be strictly localised as it results from the integration of many structures working harmoniously. A better understanding of this function is being progressivly increased by the study of pathology, by the results of experimental neurosurgery and neurosurgical ablations in man and, above all, by experimental rechearches based on refined electroneurophysiological techniques. Nevertheless, in spite of some advances there are still many aspects waiting for further elucidation.