Italy

Come abbiamo visto citando Marx, ciò che è dato per un paese è dato per il mondo intero, è solo una questione di tempi. Va da sé che bisogna tener conto del grado di sviluppo di una società per spiegare analogie e differenze. Essendo l'Italia il più antico paese capitalistico, la sua borghesia era già decrepita quando riuscì finalmente a contrastare le forze internazionali che impedivano l'unificazione nazionale. Quest'ultima non era ancora completata che già si manifestavano in pieno le peculiarità di questa classe dominante trafficona, corrotta, politicantesca e completamente succuba del capitale. Tenendo conto del ripetersi storico da tragedia in farsa, questo retaggio storico è ben rappresentato dal quindicennio del partito berlusconiano con i suoi presunti nemici, in realtà simbiotici rappresentanti di un governo unico del capitale. Specie fuori d'Italia, sembra che sia difficile capire la genesi di questo fenomeno sociale. I commenti sono per lo più improntati a stupore che possa accadere. Eppure non solo accade, ma si generalizza, dato che non si contano i casi di governi che, in modo più o meno sbracato o clownesco, si dimostrano stupidi strumenti del capitale. Devono essere stupidi per svolgere la loro funzione.

In the last twenty years, many different approaches to deal with Computer-Interpretable clinical Guidelines (CIGs) have been developed, each one proposing its own representation formalism (mostly based on the Task-Network Model) execution engine. We propose META-GLARE a shell for easily defining new CIG systems. Using META-GLARE, CIG system designers can easily define their own systems (basically by defining their representation language), with a minimal programming effort. META-GLARE is thus a flexible and powerful vehicle for research about CIGs, since it supports easy and fast prototyping of new CIG systems.

Numerose ambivalenze, conflitti interpretativi e problemi di traduzione culturale sorgono
quando si usa il concetto di care. Per l’antropologia medica, esso ha offerto la
possibilità di criticare forme di riduzionismo bio-medico della cura. Allo sviluppo di
questa visione morale ha contribuito l’aumento di malattie croniche per cui non esiste
“cura”, nel senso di guarigione – cure. Allo stesso tempo, il lavoro di cura informale ha
assunto un’importanza strategica nello scenario di ristrutturazione dei servizi pubblici
di assistenza. In questo senso, la visione morale del “prendersi cura” è stata accusata
di distogliere l’attenzione dalle forme di diseguaglianza sociale che si riproducono
nell’ambiente domestico e familiare attraverso la cura stessa.
Attraverso il racconto etnografico di un convegno di antropologia medica a Edimburgo e un’ulteriore riflessione su una ricerca fra un servizio territoriale di assistenza ad anziani e caregiver in Emilia-Romagna, questo articolo offre alcune indicazioni analitiche sull’antropologia del prendersi cura. Sostengo che la distinzione fra “cura” e “prendersi
cura” non rispecchi fino in fondo ciò che c’è davvero in gioco nelle pratiche di assistenza.
Per superare le ambivalenze che derivano dallo stesso linguaggio morale che adotta, è necessario che l’antropologia del prendersi cura sposti l’attenzione sui modi in cui è classificata la relazione fra l’accudimento nella sfera domestica e il sistema istituzionale dei servizi di assistenza. Altrimenti, il rischio è quello di perdere di vista la questione di come, in quali circostanze e con quale sostegno pubblico, vengono assegnate le responsabilità di assistenza.
Parole chiave: caregiving, ambivalenza, morale, assistenza, invecchiamento

In this chapter we consider the afterlife of the remains of unidentified migrants who have died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Albania and North Africa to Italy. Drawing on insights from long-term, multi-sited field research, we outline paths taken by human remains and consider their multiple agencies and distributed personhood through the relational modalities with which they are symbolically and materially engaged at different scales of significance. The rising number of migrant deaths related to international crossings worldwide, especially in the Mediterranean, has stimulated a large body of scholarship, which generally

La storia dei futuri non è una disciplina, eppure a un bisogno di storia corrisponde sempre più un bisogno di futuro. Come è possibile coniugare questi bisogni a partire dalle culture del design? La dimensione anticipatoria del progetto, la necessità di pensare criticamente a futuri possibili e desiderabili,
il destino culturale dei processi e delle strumentazioni concettuali e operative, attraversano il testo come
un campionario di visioni nate nel momento in cui
le culture italiane del progetto incontrano, da una parte, gli approcci proposti dagli studi sul futuro e, dall’altra,
i temi dell’ambientalismo, per unirsi a una critica della contemporaneità e proporre riflessioni ancora oggi attuali. Queste narrazioni raccontano uno spaccato della storia del design italiano e documentano una possibile traiettoria della relazione tra culture del progetto, futuri e sostenibilità che matura a cavallo tra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta. Al tempo stesso, sono un’occasione per stabilire relazioni con ricerche in atto; per accogliere nuove prospettive di lettura delle vicende storiche del design contemporaneo; per interrogare l’impatto degli strumenti, degli approcci, dei processi impiegati dalle culture del progetto e dai suoi attori per prefigurare scenari futuri; per verificare i percorsi attraverso cui attivare una conoscenza dinamica della temporalità della nostra cultura materiale; per aprire a una riflessione metodologica multidisciplinare.

To study incidence and distribution of deciduous molar ankylosis. study design: longitudinal retrospective study. A total of 512 consecutive subjects (aged 5 to 15 years) were examined at the Orthodontics and Paediatric Dentistry Department of the Genoa University School of Dentistry; for each subject an ortopantomography x-ray was taken. Thirty-four children were affected by deciduous molars ankylosis (6.6%). A statistically significant difference was revealed between the distributions: the lower deciduous molars were ankylosed more frequently than the upper ones (P < 0.001); the second deciduous molars were ankylosed more frequently than the first molars (P < 0.001). No statistical significance was found between sex and number of infraoccluded teeth (P = 0.74). This study found an incidence of deciduous molar ankylosis of about 6.6%; the lower deciduous molars and second deciduous molars were ankylosed more frequently (P < 0.001).

The period 550 to 750 was one in which monastic culture became more firmly entrenched in Western Europe. The role of monasteries and their relationship to the social world around them was transformed during this period as monastic institutions became more integrated in social and political power networks. This collected volume of essays focuses on one of the central figures in this process, the Irish ascetic exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (c. 550-615), his travels on the Continent, and the monastic network he and his Frankish disciples established in Merovingian Gaul and Lombard Italy.

The post-Roman kingdoms through which Columbanus travelled and established his monastic foundations were made up of many different communities of peoples. As an outsider and immigrant, how did Columbanus and his communities interact with these peoples? How did they negotiate differences and what emerged from these encounters? How societies interact with outsiders can reveal the inner workings and social norms of that culture. This volume aims to explore further the strands of this vibrant contact and to consider all of the geographical spheres in which Columbanus and his monastic communities operated (Ireland, Merovingian Gaul, Alamannia, Lombard Italy) and the varieties of communities he and his successors came in contact with — whether they were royal, ecclesiastic, aristocratic, or grass-roots.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Contributors
Foreword Walter Pohl
Part I: Columbanus in Context
Chapter 1: Introduction: Columbanus and Europe Alexander O'Hara
Chapter 2: Columbanus and the Language of Concord Damian Bracken
Part II: The Insular Background
Chapter 3: The Political Background to Columbanus's Irish Career Dáibhí Ó Cróinín
Chapter 4: Movers and Shakers? How Women Shaped the Career of Columbanus Elva Johnston
Chapter 5: Columbanus's Ulster Education Alex Woolf
Part III: The Frankish World
Chapter 6: Columbanus in Brittany Ian Wood
Chapter 7: Columbanus and Shunning: The Irish peregrinus between Gildas, Gaul, and Gregory Clare Stancliffe
Chapter 8: Orthodoxy and Authority: Jonas, Eustasius, and the Agrestius Affair Andreas Fischer
Chapter 9: Columbanus and the Mission to the Bavarians and the Slavs in the Seventh Century Herwig Wolfram
Part IV: On the Fringe: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia
Chapter 10: Between the Devil and the deep Lake Constance: Jonas of Bobbio, interpretatio Christiana, and the Pagan Religion of the Alamanni Bernhard Maier
Chapter 11: Drinking with Woden: A Re-Examination of Jonas's Vita Columbani I. 27 Francesco Borri
Chapter 12: Between Metz and Überlingen: Columbanus and Gallus in Alamannia Yaniv Fox
Chapter 13: Quicumque sunt rebelles, foras exeant! Columbanus's Rebellious Disciple Gallus Philipp Dörler
Part V: Lombard Italy and Columbanus's Legacy
Chapter 14: Columbanus, Bobbio, and the Lombards Stefano Gasparri
Chapter 15: Disputing Columbanus's Heritage: The Regula cuiusdam patris (with a translation of the Rule) Albrecht Diem

Background  Extremely low and very low gestational age (ELGA and VLGA) constitutes a risk factor for development even in absence of cerebral damage, as an immature central nervous system is exposed to invasive and inadequate stimulation. We tested the hypothesis that GA impacts developmental outcomes and trajectories of preterms without major cerebral damage in the first 2 years of life, expecting poorer developmental outcomes and higher rate of impairment with the decreasing of GA. We also evaluated whether GA, together with developmental outcomes in the first year of life, was related to developmental outcomes at 24 months.Methods  Eighty-eight infants, divided into three GA groups (ELGA: ≤28 weeks; VLGA: 29–32 weeks; full term: >37 weeks) were assessed longitudinally at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months using the Griffiths Mental Development Scales.Results  Use of a repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance resulted in several significant findings. GA was associated with the developmental quotient (DQ) scores (P= 0.006); and locomotor (P < 0.001), eye and hand co-ordination (P= 0.016) and performance (P= 0.040) sub-scale quotient (SQ) scores; age of evaluation was also associated with DQ scores (P= 0.002), and locomotor (P < 0.001) and performance (P < 0.001) SQ scores. In particular, ELGAs exhibited lower DQ and SQ scores compared with the VLGA and full-term groups; some ELGAs showed mild, moderate or severe cognitive impairments, while few VLGAs mild impairments. Linear regression analysis showed that GA (P= 0.034) and 12-month developmental outcome (P < 0.001) were related to 24-month developmental outcome.Conclusions  Different developmental trajectories emerged in relation to GA, with poorer developmental outcomes and higher rates of impairment in ELGAs and few mild impairments in VLGAs. The relevance of taking into account both GA and repeated assessments in the first 2 years of life was shown.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century the commercial commune of Pisa was one of the two most powerful maritime forces in the Mediterranean, alongside Venice and ahead of Genoa. By the end of the century, however, the city had declined to a position of solely regional political and economic importance. This dissertation delves into the reasons behind Pisa’s decline during the very period when Italy’s three most famous commercial economies of Venice, Genoa, and Florence were experiencing their greatest growth. This study primarily utilizes traditional historiographic approaches for examining Pisa during the long thirteenth century, but also incorporates the interdisciplinary use of statistical and social network analyses to uncover facets of the socio-economic landscape during the final decades of the century.

The strength of the present work lies in the chronological breadth of its study, encompassing just over a century of Pisan history. Unlike previous scholarship which has focused more narrowly on a few decades, a broader period of study permits the uncovering of communal behavioral trends and patterns in decision making. The causes of thirteenth-century decline can generally be divided into four categories: imperial allegiance at all costs, ignoring structural changes in the global economy, unquenchable Sardinian aspirations, and the consequences of the traumatic naval defeat at Meloria in 1284. Since at least 1081 Pisa had traded its allegiance for imperial commercial concessions, often to the consternation of the city’s mostly papally-aligned neighbors. During the thirteenth century, as imperial power in Italy waned and factional conflict intensified, Pisa adherence to the imperial strategy repeatedly brought them into military conflict with the rest of Tuscany, ultimately isolating Pisa politically on the mainland. Pisa had built its economic-political prominence primarily through the spice trade with the East and the success of its leather industries at home. Political events and changing consumer preferences conspired to move the primary trade routes northward and westward while market demand for spices was eclipsed by demand for woolen textiles; while Pisa was slow to respond to these changes, the city’s chief competitors adapted quickly and reaped the bulk of the benefits, largely excluding Pisa from later entry.

In Sardinia, what had begun as a twelfth-century argument with Genoa over episcopal supremacy evolved into a land grab by Pisa’s most powerful families. As these families wielded significant political power, their personal ambitions bent communal policies to their own interests, repeatedly bringing the commune into violent competition with Genoa. One such encounter was the Battle of Meloria in 1284 which resulted in the death or capture of over 10,000 Pisan men, possibly 25% of the city’s population. This demographic tragedy, combined with the counterproductive policies of a series of strongmen and oligarchies, sent the city spiraling into a protracted economic depression. This depression, discovered for the first time by the statistical and social network analyses of the present study, crippled the already declining economic and political importance of the city, permanently removing any hope of the municipality achieving anything beyond regional importance.

Giuseppe Garibaldi’nin iki yüzüncü doğum senesi, iki âlemin kahramanının görüntü ve yapıtı hakkında ciddi bir tartışma ortamı yaratılmasına fırsat verdi. Zamanın geçmesi ve pek çok siyasal görüşlerin değişmesi neticesinde efsanenin son bulması üzerine bu zatın şimdi kişiliği ve yapıtı üzerine daha gerçekçi bir biçimde ciddi bir şekilde eğilebiliriz. Evrensel değerleri sebat ve uygunluk içinde savunduğu kadar İtalya için olmasa bile tam bir
hümanizmaya sahip olduğu görülen bu vatan babası veya babalardan birisinin kim olduğu da şimdi daha iyi anlaşılabilir. Gençliğinin ilk yılları üzerinde çalıştığımız zaman onun anılarında bu duruma pek fazla bir yer vermediğini görüyoruz ve araştırmacılarda bunun sonradan pek fazla bir değeri olmadığını gördüler. Ziyaret ettiği mahalleri,
karşılaştığı insanları, yaşadığı âlemi incelemeye başladığımız zaman, onun gelişmesi ve kişiliğine dair ilgi çekici bazı şeyler keşfedebiliriz. 1807 senesinde dünyaya gelip de, bir takım ihtilalci hareketlere girişmesi üzerine 1834 senesinde idam cezasına çaptırılmasından sonra sürgüne gitmeye zorunlu olmasından dolayı, aradan geçen zamanın ne kadar önemli olduğunu görmek gerçekten bizi hayrete düşürüyor. Böylece onun gerçek yaşam öyküsünün bu noktada başladığını söyleyebiliriz. Fakat bu delikanlı Rio de Jenerio şehrine geldiği zaman henüz otuz yaşında idi. Yirmi seneden beri
ismi duyulmakta olan Mazzini’nin gençliği ile hiçbir ilgisi yoktu

International conference. Trieste, Novembre, 13-15 2014
This conference aims at analyzing the history of Italy’s nuclear energy policies during the Cold War, by placing the Italian case in a comparative perspective and highlighting the importance of the international context in shaping the country’s specific experience. It builds upon a previous conference, organized by Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A and the University of Trieste in 2012 (Nuclear Energy in Italy after the Second World War: Research, Culture, Politics - http://www.elettra.trieste.it/Ippolito/). This conference proposes to examine the ways in which international politics and economics, technological and scientific exchanges, as well as social and cultural movements, influenced Italian nuclear energy policies, both civilian and military. Furthermore, it seeks to understand how the Italian case compares to other national histories, in Western and Eastern Europe, the U.S., Latin America, Asia and Africa.
With few important exceptions, the Italian case has largely remained on the margins of a growing scholarship on the history of nuclear energy. This conference intends to provide a venue for work-in- progress by junior and senior scholars, with the aim of consolidating a national and international research group on this topic. We are particularly interested in fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue and encourage papers that use a variety of approaches, such as history, science and technology studies, physics, engineering, political science, economics, international relations, anthropology, and geography.
Some of the issues that the conference will address are:
1. The ways in which the Cold War shaped Italian civilian and military nuclear policies.
2. The role public opinion, social and cultural groups, anti-nuclear and pro-nuclear movements, had in shaping Italian nuclear policies.
3. The ways in which an interdisciplinary approach such as that of Science and Technology Studies (STS) might provide a new understanding about the history of nuclear energy in Italy.

This conference is organized by Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., the Department of Humanities of the University of Trieste, the Department of Political Sciences of the University of Roma Tre, and the Department of Documentary, Linguistic-Philological and Geographic Sciences of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
The working group responsible for the conference programme includes professors and researchers from the University of Trieste – Humanities Department; University of Roma Tre – Political Science Department; Machiavelli Center for Cold War Studies – CIMA; University of Rome “La Spaienza” - Physics Department and Departments for Documentary, Linguistic-Philological and Geographical Sciences; Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A.


Scientific Committee:
Giovanni Battimelli (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)
Elisabetta Bini (University of Trieste)
Igor Londero (Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A.)
Leopoldo Nuti (University of Roma Tre)
Giovanni Paoloni (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)
Carlo Rizzuto (Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A.)
Elisabetta Vezzosi (University of Trieste).


Organizing offices: Giulia Iannuzzi (University of Trieste)
Contacts: nuclearitaly@gmail.com
Web: www.elettra.eu/Conferences/2014/NuclearItaly

Different definitions of bioethics in American and Italian literature are reported. It is argued that they refer to three different conceptions of the epistemological status of bioethics: the first conceives of it as an application of moral principles to biomedical problems, the second as a methodology for the working out of clinical judgement, the third as a broader and interdisciplinary public inquiry. It is suggested that each approach grasps a part of the truth, for each singles out one level of the bioethical work. Bioethics is in fact a complex, three-level form of knowledge. The misunderstanding of this complexity has led to some confusion and to conflicts of attribution among those who are concerned with it.

Il castello nasce, storicamente, come entità di natura urbanistica ancora prima che architettonica. La sua relazione con la struttura fisica e l’immagine della città si afferma al momento dell’edificazione e si conferma nei secoli stabilendo forme di interdipendenza in continua evoluzione. A Rimini, il binomio castello-città offre l’occasione per descrivere i diversi volti che assume il paesaggio costruito in più di cinquecento anni di storia.

Historically, the castle’s structure has always been more urban than architectural. Its connection with the physical structure and outlook of the city gets clear already at the time of its construction and continues over the centuries, constantly developing new types of interdependence. In Rimini, the castle-city duo offers the opportunity to describe the different landscapes that have been built in more than five hundred years of history.

We analyze the urban and rural property in the area of Oltresarca, specifically in the villages of Bolognano and Massone, through the austrian cadastre dated in 1858. We will focus in the qualitative and socio-economic analysis of the typologies of the existent propertys. This work is part of the research proyect of the 4º Summer School of Participatory Archeology that had place in july of the year 2017,
organized by the University of Padua.

Il Post Scriptum aggiunge ulteriori riflessioni alla scheda sui due frammenti inediti di Jacopo Bassano raffiguranti la "Vergine" e un "Pastore" redatta nel 2019 per l'esposizione presso Banca Mediolanum a Bassano del Grappa. L'intervento è inserito nel numero speciale del Notiziario che gli Amici dei Musei hanno pubblicato per celebrare il dono dei quadri al locale Museo Civico nel 2021 grazie a una raccolta fondi e si concentra sul problema delle repliche nella bottega dei Bassano, ma anche sull'ipotesi di una possibile provenienza antica dei pezzi dalla collezione Ludovisi.

The role of morphology in reading aloud was examined measuring naming latencies to pseudowords and words composed of morphemes (roots and derivational suffixes) and corresponding simple pseudowords and words. Three groups of Italian children of different ages and reading abilities, including dyslexic children, as well as one group of adult readers participated in the study. All four groups read faster

Magic rituals and Nigerian prostitution: the experience of an anthropological consultation for an Italian court of law.
International Conference: “Life on Ioan: work, debt, dependence”, Certosa di Pontignano (Siena) september, 24th to 26th 2004.
The paper illustrates a part of the results which emerged during the research I carried out on behalf of Bergamo Law Court, in my capacity as technical adviser in the field of cultural anthropology. This type of consultation is far from commonplace in Italy. The magistrates who, in pioneering fashion, commissioned the report, needed to arrive at a better understanding of the claims of young Nigerian women who reported their pimps (“madams”), also Nigerian women, to the police. The crimes the latter  are accused of (the trial is still under way) are reduction into slavery; aiding and abetting and living on the earnings of prostitution; and aiding and abetting illegal immigration. The accounts of the accusers featured references to the use of magic rituals (commonly referred by the mass media to as “voodoo ceremonies”) as well as to forms of violent intimidation. Moreover, searches carried out by criminal police in the houses where the accusers and the accused cohabited revealed organic and inorganic materials, which appeared to bear out the supposition that magic rituals had taken place. The petition for an anthropological consultation regarded the cultural contextualization of these practices through a comparison with existing ritual practices in Nigeria. The report did not so much aim to confirm the credibility of the accusers’ claims, but rather to provide a cultural context useful for understanding the circumstances recalled. The work used the testimony of young Nigerian women, victims of the trade (some of these were interviewed personally), documentation provided by the court and numerous ethnographical texts on Nigeria. The work was first delivered in the form of a written report and then presented in court during a hearing.
The ritual practices Nigerian women involved in the activity of prostitution in Italy claim they have been subjected to by the madam are divided into two types, which we have examined separately: the first performed by an adept back in Nigeria, and the second performed in the madam’s house in Italy.
As far as the ritual performed in Nigeria is concerned (despite the heterogeneity of the young women’s descriptions probably owing to the fact that the adepts who carry out the ritual come from different traditions), we can find accounts of similar acts in ethno-anthropological literature on the “magical-therapeutic” rituals of the populations of the south of Nigeria The ritual the girls are subjected to often assumes the form of a sort of oath-curse through which the girls are enjoined, under threat of death, to settle their “debt” (that is to pay back the sum they are told was loaned to pay for their journey) and not to report the madam.
The ritual practices performed in Italy by the madam require  more extensive and detailed research. However, from studies carried out so far it is clear that these practices consist in removing organic substances (nails, hair, body hair, blood and menstrual blood), clothes or personal objects from the victim, as well as in parcelling them up. This with the threat that the material will be used in rituals which might lead to death, rituals which the girls normally do not see and which they are therefore unable to describe. In some cases the threat is that the material will be sent to the same native-doctor who performed the ritual in Nigeria.
Whether it is carried out or not, the madam’s threat to perform (or to have somebody  perform) the ritual at the girl’s expense appears to appeal to a shared native cultural substratum, pertinent to the existence in Nigeria of magic-medicinal practices. Indeed, these practices are widespread and familiar in Nigeria, though not always accepted by worshippers of various religious faiths. In the case of young Christian girls- though scarcely aware of details concerning the adepts and the techniques and the materials they use- it emerges that they at least know of the existence of these practices and some of their aims. I am especially alluding to the very much feared practice of the curse.
To sum up, we can affirm that we are actually dealing with two types of ritual. The first  is the oath-curse performed in Nigeria by which the girl’s escape would betoken her death. This appears to be central. The second is the removing of organic substances carried out in Italy, which appears to act as a call to order, done as a precaution, or at critical moments (when the girl fails to obey the madam), involving the threat of performing a magic ritual and/or the evoking of the magic ritual previously performed in Nigeria.
On the other hand, oaths and curses performed by ritual adepts are  recorded at length in anthropological literature, just as Nigerian legal literature testifies to rituals performed to subjugate an individual (Penal Code and Criminal Code). The aims expressed or threatened by the madam’s rituals do not appear to be an entirely new phenomenon. Subjugating someone, cursing them, preventing them from speaking or reacting, are the aims of some types of ritual which are described in ethnographic literature as often as they are found in the evidence given by Nigerian women in Italy. A peculiar element of the rituals commissioned by the madam consists in their methodical, organised and large-scale nature (indeed they do not act on a single “enemy”). This enables us to interpret these rituals as a criminal “recycling” of traditional “magic-medicinal” knowledge and techniques.
Regarding the ritual performed in Italy, the marked preponderance of human organic materials compared with the numerous other ingredients (vegetal, mineral, etc..) listed in ethnographical literature on Nigerian rituals, is striking. This preponderance is observed both in victims’ accounts –where the extraction of organic substances appears to be fundamental- and in the criminal police’s descriptions of materials seized.
Between rituals belonging to Nigerian tradition and those performed within the context of the trade there appear to be both divergences and parallels concerning the purposes, techniques, or materials employed. Besides these divergences or parallels, what matters most of all is that- by virtue of common references to the madam and her victims to a universe of practices existing in Nigeria- there is clearly some form of blackmail taking place. Organic substances are extracted, appealing to the deep feelings and emotions these trigger, as they are associated with the victim’s individuality, with the aim of frightening the victims of the trade. Other objects or materials represent specific cultural references. These seem to have the purpose of directly and explicitly evoking magic practices (principally curses) current in Nigeria. Being organic substances, these objects and materials either foreshadow a future act of magic, or are genuinely used in a ritual, their principal role appearing to be explicitly, within the context of the madam/victim relationship , that of threatening the latter, and preserving and representing on a physical and sensorial level the relationship of total subjugation to the madam.

Negli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta la società italiana attraversa un periodo decisivo, nel quale cambia in modo rapido e profondo, come forse mai nella sua storia. Il libro racconta questo momento di passaggio utilizzando una categoria di fonti storiche inconsueta e formidabile: le canzoni di Sanremo. Da Nilla Pizzi a Claudio Villa, da Modugno a Celentano, da Mina alla Cinquetti, quelle prime, seguitissime edizioni del Festival riflettono il percorso dell'Italia dal Dopoguerra al Boom, dalla povertà al benessere, da società contadina a moderna potenza industriale. Analizzando le canzoni sia da un punto di vista testuale che musicale ed inquadrandole nel generale contesto di ricostruzione storica di quegli anni, viene messo in luce come quelle musiche e parole, quei divi e quel pubblico rivelino i mutamenti (e le resistenze al cambiamento) di un Paese attratto e spaventato dalla modernità. Cambia il modo di rappresentare la realtà, di guardare all'America, nonché l'immagine dell'amore, della donna e della famiglia. Mentre partiti politici ed intellettuali come Pasolini, Eco, Fallaci e Montanelli si interrogano sul Festival, gli italiani ne decretano a gran voce il successo, canticchiandolo, criticandolo o facendo entrambe le cose.

(303 pagine - Nota introduttiva di Stefano Bollani)
http://www.mondadorieducation.it/libro/leonardo-campus/non-solo-canzonette/120900039852

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In the Fifties and the Sixties, Italian society undergoes changes as quick and deep as probably never before in its history. The book deals with this pivotal moment through an unusual, yet very powerful category of historical sources: the songs of the Sanremo Festival.
With singer-stars such as Nilla Pizzi, Claudio Villa, Domenico Modugno, Adriano Celentano, Mina and Gigliola Cinquetti, those early, very popular editions of the Sanremo Festival reflect the path Italy was covering from postwar to the "boom" years, from poverty to prosperity, from rural society to a modern industrialized power.
By analyzing the songs both from a textual and a musical point of view, and by placing them into the historical context, the book underlines how those notes and lyrics, those singer-stars and their audiences may reveal us the changes (and efforts to resist them) of a country that was both attracted and scared by modernity.
Among things that change are the way songs represent social reality, the relation with America and its culture, the image of love, woman and family.
As political parties and intellectuals such as Pasolini, Eco, Fallaci and Montanelli judge the Festival, Italian people sanction its success with a loud voice, by either whistling it, criticizing it, or doing both at the same time.

(pages 303; Foreword by Stefano Bollani)
http://www.mondadorieducation.it/libro/leonardo-campus/non-solo-canzonette/120900039852

A History of Italian Cinema, 2nd edition is the much anticipated update from the author of the bestselling Italian Cinema – which has been published in four landmark editions and will celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2018. Building upon decades of research, Peter Bondanella and Federico Pacchioni reorganize the current History in order to keep the book fresh and responsive not only to the actual films being created in Italy in the twenty-first century but also to the rapidly changing priorities of Italian film studies and film scholars. The new edition brings the definitive history of the subject, from the birth of cinema to the present day, up to date with a revised filmography as well as more focused attention on the melodrama, the crime film, and the historical drama. The book is expanded to include a new generation of directors as well as to highlight themes such as gender issues, immigration, and media politics. Accessible, comprehensive, and heavily illustrated throughout, this is an essential purchase for any fan of Italian film.

The goal of this work is to describe the relations and contacts between the most representative italian left wing terror group and the East Germany intelligence service at the time of the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, one of the most investigated crimes in the italian 70's.

Inserito nel numero speciale del Notiziario pubblicato dagli Amici dei Musei e dei Monumenti di Bassano del Grappa per celebrare il dono al locale Museo Civico di due frammenti inediti di Jacopo Bassano raffiguranti la "Vergine" e un "Pastore", l'intervento fa  il punto sugli studi e sul mercato delle opere dei Bassano negli ultimi dieci anni.

The Mostra della Pittura Italiana del Seicento e Settecento held in 1922 at the then Pitti Royal Palace (Florence) was the first in a series of exhibitions defining an art historical chronology, schools and the hierarchies of Baroque art, most of which are still valid to date. This exhibition was also the first to showcase a re-discovered Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) then presented akin to a revelation. The exhibition undoubtedly dealt with new readings of art history at face value but was also motivated by explicitly political overtones informed by the politics and international ambitions of the Kingdom of Italy.

This paper explores the duality of the exhibitions’ complex narrative bridging politics and art history. It also reviews the genesis of 20th century Caravaggio studies and the ways and means how this was acknowledged within the Anglo-Saxon world of academia over time.