100 years ago, Antarctica was still mostly unknown and unexplored. The first landings on the Antarctic coast took place in the early decades of the nineteenth century and were made by whalers and sealers. In the following years the first scientific expeditions began and European and US expeditions started the geographical discovery and the mapping of the Antarctic coasts. But it was only in the years 1911-1912 that two expeditions, very different but equally well prepared, arrived almost simultaneously at the South Pole. The events that happened in the Antarctic together with the different nature of the two leaders Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott determined the outcome of these expeditions and the fate of their teams. The centenary of the conquest of the South Pole (December 14, 1911) is an opportunity to remember the passion for science, the spirit of adventure and the fierce perseverance that characterized those extraordinary men and that even now form the basis of scientific research and of human progress, not only in Antarctica but in all areas of knowledge and life.

This work aims to describe and attribute the annotations on some reviews of Renato Serra. In particular it analyzes the handwritten notes of the Giovanni Pascoli and Rudyard Kipling texts on which are found comments and corrections in color pencil made by a sharply different handwriting from Serra’s. The thesis of the paper is that such notes should be ascribed to Luigi Ambrosini. Elements supporting the thesis are the relationship of trust and respect which bound the two critics, and especially the correspondence between the handwritings. The comparison between the handwritten texts and the final ones shows that Serra seriously took into account the suggestions in pencil. The result is a new perspective on Serra’s review works, and on the relationship between Serra and Ambrosini.

The paper begins by looking at the most recent edition of Alberti’s Latin works, whose textual and literary acquisitions are taken as a starting point for further analyses of a key problem in Alberti’s writings: that is the question of originality, first of all in comparison to classical authors. The paper will focus on this crucial theme, through a close examination of paradigmatic introductions, from De commodis to Momus, and selected passages from vernacular works, particularly from Profugiorum ab erumna libri. The pursuit of writing "something new" – as far as difficult or nearly impossible to get for a modern author, because of ancient authors’ writings about everything – not only joins Latin and vernacular works but shows Alberti’s subtle and depth consciousness of the original foundations that mark his modernity.

The purpose of this paper is to point out the unsolved problem of the anapaestic monodies’ unsecure colometry in Seneca’s tragedies as well as expose the so called sense-correspondence principle to help scholars propose a metrical subdivision of lines closer to the original one. In the first part of the paper I explain the difficulties about colometry that concern the division of trimeters into dimeters and monometers. I then outline a brief status quaestionis about this matter and the attempts at solving it. Proposals by Richter, Zweirlein and Fitch are examined, their methods and criteria analysed in detail in the second paragraph. In the third I propose an analysis of three passages of Thyestes 938-956 using Fitch’s criteria so as every aspect of the text, including metrical or stylistic characteristics, is more respected than in Zwierlein’s text. I then show how sense-correspondence is used to analyse a text and help understand the employment and meaning of the anapaestic metre to express a conflict or psychological dilemma such as in the Thyestes. Lastly, I suggest new areas of possible research pertaining to poetry using this principle, as it also respected in Ovid’s elegiac distiches and late antique poetry. A detailed metrical analysis of Zwierlein’s and Fitch’s texts is supplied in the appendix.

At a ten-year mark, a verse written by Virgil (Aen. 1.291) looks like a longexpected answer to his friend Horace, who had in turn alluded to a Virgil’s poem in epod. 16. During the hundred-year-old discussion about the relationships between eclogue 4 and epode 16, the stylistic element known as "motto" has seemed conclusive to determine the precedence of Virgil’s poem on Horace’s one. At different stages, Alberto Cavarzere argued that Hor. epod. 16.1 was an answer to Verg. ecl. 4.4. In my opinion, the same rhetoric device was used about ten years later by Virgil, answering in turn to Horace’s "motto". As a conclusion, we can indeed relate Hor. epod. 16.1 and Verg. Aen. 1.291, since from several points of view (content, context, style, metric features) Virgil’s verse seems to continue the alexandrine dialogue engaged ten years before by Horace’s epode.

The centenary of Scott’s arrival at the South Pole in 1912 and of his tragic death during the return journey has been celebrated through exhibitions and conferences, while a general reassessment of Scott’s figure has been provided by several scholars. In particular, the scientific role of the 1910-12 British Antarctic expedition is now emphasized: Scott’s aim was not only to reach the Pole but especially to collect data and geological specimens of a completely unknown continent. This introduction focuses on the scientific dimension of Scott’s enterprise, giving special attention to the role of photography, employed during the expedition as a tool of scientific exploration, and to the crucial impact of photographs on the modern perception of the Antarctic. Another important point concerns the Scott Polar Research Institute (Cambridge, UK), founded in 1920 to commemorate Scott, that laid the foundations of Polar studies and pioneered scientific research throughout the twentieth century.

This paper uses the release of Ealing Studios’ Scott of the Antarctic (1948) to initiate a reflection on how the then UK government was preparing to anticipate and prepare for growing geopolitical and scientific challenges to its polar sovereignty. Two counter-claimants (Argentina and Chile) and one close ally (United States) refused to accept that the Falkland Islands Dependencies were part of the British Empire. While most investment and overall strategy was directed towards mapping and surveying, the Colonial Office did offer support to a filmic project focussing on the heroics of Edwardian polar explorers. The rationale for and the reaction to the film are interwoven with a broader geopolitical assessment, which suggests that celebrating manly character and stoic leadership was not going to be sufficient in a world where British imperial authority was being challenged and indeed corroded south of 60 degrees South.

The announcement of the death of the British polar explorer Captain Robert Scott on his return from the South Pole, which he had reached on 17 January 1912, caused a sensation in Britain and around the world. Although he lost the race to the South Pole to a Norwegian party led by Roald Amundsen, the recent centenary of Scott’s last expedition aroused widespread interest not only in Britain but around the world. This paper examines why the British public continues to consume Scott’s story, with particular reference to the period since 1945. Part one examines how Scott’s story has been adapted to the cultural context of post-imperial Britain, in part by emphasising the scientific aims of his last expedition. Part two moves on to emphasise how this new emphasis was supported by the Royal Geographical Society and the Scott Polar Research Institute, and drew on the extensive material culture and striking visual record left by the Terra Nova expedition.

Titus Groan (1946) and Gormenghast (1950) are the first two books of the trilogy written by Mervyn Peake. They are set in the ancient and crumbling castle of Gormenghast, a place where time seems to have stopped and where nobody has ever left or come to. The first aim of this essay is the exploration of the representation of the castle of Gormenghast: since it has been defined as the typical gothic structure, it is considered how Gormenghast diverges from the traditional stereotypes of the genre. Mervyn Peake creates a labyrinthine place, isolated in time and space, which gradually seems to expand its volume, multiplying rooms and roofs. It is remarked the symbolic value of the castle and how the inhabitants and the villain relate with this place. In fact, all the characters, except for the protagonist and the villain, are defined in their identity by a room, which becomes their own universe. In the last part of the essay, it is underlined how the metamorphosis of the castle is followed by the metamorphosis of the villain Steerpike as embodiment of pure evil.

My paper deals with the analysis of the mythological short poem La Favola di Narcisso by Luigi Alamanni, focusing on the rewriting of the episode of Narcissus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. This study takes into account the particular literary devices through which the author aims to reproduce and reinforce the rhetorical richness of the Latin example, such as the amplificatio, the modification of dispositio and the respect of decorum. Furthermore, the intertextual relationships between the Favola and the most important vernacular and Latin writers are highlighted; Petrarca’s poems Rvf 23 and 50, suggesting the idea of painful love, are the primary models for Alamanni and will serve as the main sources. Alamanni’s rewriting of the Ovidian text, as well as the connections between the different parts of the poem, lead to a new interpretation of the story of Narcissus. As the prologue and the conclusion of the Favola clearly point out, the episode of Narcissus represents a negative exemplum of amorous behaviour, in coherence with the author’s poetics and with the poetical culture of the Renaissance. Finally, the Favola is placed in the literary tradition of the mythological short poems, the translations of Ovid and in the tradition of the lyrical-narrative octave.