His efforts in promoting new enthusiasm for the Geographical Society, Lega Navale or Istituto Coloniale scarcely seem enough to win Antonino Paternò Castello Di San Giuliano immortal fame. The fact that he was Italy's Foreign Minister in July 1914 has also granted him little recognition outside Italy. His Christian name is often misspelled; even his term of office is mistaken. The major English textbook on modern Italian history dismisses him as ‘timid and pro-German, the one politician whom the King really appreciated’.

Inside Italy, by contrast, San Giuliano's defenders have outnumbered his critics. One of his more intelligent juniors, Carlo Galli, looking back decades after San Giuliano's death, discerned that ‘after Cavour there certainly has not been any other Minister of Foreign Affairs of a higher ability, of a more ardent spirit and of a further vision’ than San Giuliano. From the senior Italian diplomatic historian of the period San Giuliano has earned the assessment ‘excellent’, in reference both to his ability and training. The Fascist historian, Francesco Salata, even depicted San Giuliano, the seer, prophesying in 1914 that Italy would fight another great war ‘twenty or thirty’ years later.

The motivation of such defenders was rather more patriotic than objective. For example, Galli was already a friend of the Nationalists, before 1914 a patriot and a Fascist-to-be. Augusto Torre has been the epitome of the official writer, having pursued an unbroken pedagogical career from 1913 to the 1970s. San Giuliano's reputation seems to rely on his success. While foreign affairs were under his administration Italy conquered Libya and suffered no international fiascoes.