Century Italian Research Articles

„Енигми и парадигми у някои италиански писателки от ХХ век“ – представяне на книгата на Радея Гешева

“Enigmas and Paradigms in Some Twentieth Century Italian Women Writers” – Review of Radeya Gesheva’s Book

Оn the Enigmas and Paradigms in Women’s Writing (Gesheva, R., 2023. Enigmas and paradigms in some 20th Century Italian Women Writers)

Оn the Enigmas and Paradigms in Women’s Writing (Gesheva, R., 2023. Enigmas and paradigms in some 20th Century Italian Women Writers)

Recent Research In Singing

Abstract: This Recent Research in Singing article chronicles four (4) academic documents authored during 2023. Dissertations by Andrew Lane Ellis, “Mapping First and Second Formants in Italian Opera: Classification of Vowel Phonemes Sung by 20th Century Italian Tenors on Middle C”; Song Lyu, “The Connection Between Text and Music in Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été from a Singer’s Perspective”; Malia Shorman, “Acoustic Measures of the Voices of University Choral Singers Before and After Choir Rehearsal and Vocal Rebound Time”; and Keying Xu, “Spanish Nationalism and Catalanism in Music: An Analysis of Songs by Granados, Vives, Mompou, and Toldrà.” Each includes a complete bibliographic citation and an Author/ProQuest abstract.

Acoustic Characterization and Quality Assessment of Cremona’s Ponchielli Theater

The Ponchielli theater of Cremona was built in 1808 after a fire destroyed the old wooden structure. The interior, the architecture and the shape of the plan layout are reminiscent of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, a masterpiece by the architect Piermarini, albeit on a smaller scale. The four orders of balconies crowned by the top gallery are typical features of a 19th Century Italian Opera theater. Acoustic measurements have been undertaken across the stalls and in some selected boxes according to ISO 3382. The main acoustic parameters resulting from the measurements have been used for the acoustic calibration of a 3D model representing the Ponchielli theater. The calibration has been used to compare different scenarios involving the acoustic response of the main hall at 50% and 100% occupancy. The outcomes indicate that no significant change can be detected when the seats are provided with robust upholstery, which can be considered a positive result, especially for the actors who are not forced to change their effort between rehearsal and live performance. In order to contextualize the measured values in relation to the optimal ones, a comparison with other Italian Opera theaters provided with similar architectural characteristics has been carried out. Overall, the findings indicate that the acoustics of the Ponchielli theater are suitable for both music and speech in line with the other selected theaters, as these places were mainly created for multifunctional purposes in the 19th Century.

„O sztuce cukrowej”, czyli dlaczego piętnastowieczni aptekarze włoscy wytwarzali słodycze?

“ON SUGAR ART”; OR, WHY DID FIFTEENTH CENTURY ITALIAN PHARMACISTS MAKE CANDY?
 This article looks at the production of candy by late mediaeval Italian pharmacists. The author discusses the roots of candy production and shows its development was connected to the use of medical products based on honey, sugar, spices and fruits. For many centuries such products were treated as medicines and only at the end of the Middle Ages did people start to perceive them as candy. Pharmacists from Italian nations, known as speziari, were central to the process. They had access to a range of spices imported from the Orient, know-how and experience inherited from their ancestors and their own acquired skills. In effect, they started producing candy on the base of existing, sweet medical products. The richest and most helpful source for the study of the candy production is De artificium zuchari, the thirteenth chapter of Lumen apothecariorum, a work by the fifteenth-century Piedmont physicist and pharmacist, Quirico de Augustis.

Tempo: Excursions in 21st Century Italian Poetry ed. by Luca Paci

Tempo: Excursions in 21st Century Italian Poetry ed. by Luca Paci

The Phenomenon of Intertextuality in 19th Century Italian Opera Libretti: The Example of G. Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”

The Phenomenon of Intertextuality in 19th Century Italian Opera Libretti: The Example of G. Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor”

A Journey Inside the Perception of the Self-Image - from the 15th Century Italian Portrait to the Glamorized Image on the Facebook

This article aims to present the philosophical perspective upon the birth of the idea of the individual and the consequences of the discovery of the self-image on the techniques of image reproduction from the Renaissance to the present day. The process of projecting the self-image into the public space acquires a special importance with the elaboration of the portrait technique in the Italian painting of the 15th century. Through Leonardo da Vinci's paintings, this technique of reproducing self-image reaches a certain perfection. Following the evolution of this kind of projections and reproductions of the self-image, it is found that there is an obvious tendency by which the individual tends to free himself from certain patterns, or rather canons, which a certain epoch imposes. This process manifested in the visual arts corresponds to a new philosophical perception of man opened by the works of Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. The assertion of a new type of dignity, correlated with the idea of the microcosm, of the Renaissance man will lead to an affirmation of his own personality and especially to an increase of the will to power reflected more and more in the works of art. With the resurgence of the Italian renaissance, artists and philosophers experienced a decline, but found a favorable space for their development at the court of Elizabeth I, Queen of England. The art of portraiture, but also the philosophy of renaissance survives and is even more flourishing at the court of this queen. But the most important moment of this renaissance is marked by Dutch art after its liberation from Spanish rule. From this moment on, the emancipation of the individual will occur on an unimaginable scale until then.

Exploring directional and fluctuating asymmetry in the human palate during growth.

ObjectivesPalate morphology is constantly changing throughout an individual's lifespan, yet its asymmetry during growth is still little understood. In this research, we focus on the study of palate morphology by using 3D geometric morphometric approaches to observe changes at different stages of life, and to quantify the impact of directional and fluctuating asymmetry on different areas at different growth stages.Materials and MethodsThe sample consists of 183 individuals (1–72 years) from two identified human skeletal collections of 19th and early 20th Century Italian contexts. A 3D‐template of 41 (semi)landmarks was applied on digital palate models to observe morphological variation during growth.ResultsAsymmetrical components of the morphological structure appears multidirectional on the entire palate surface in individuals <2 years old and become oriented (opposite bilateral direction) between 2 and 6 years of age. Specifically, directional asymmetry differentially impacts palate morphology at different stages of growth. Both the anterior and posterior palate are affected by mild alterations in the first year of life, while between 2 and 6 years asymmetry is segregated in the anterior area, and moderate asymmetry affects the entire palatal surface up to 12 years of age. Our results show that stability of the masticatory system seems to be reached around 13–35 years first by females and then males. From 36 years on both sexes show similar asymmetry on the anterior area. Regarding fluctuating asymmetry, inter‐individual variability is mostly visible up to 12 years of age, after which only directional trends can be clearly observed at a group level.DiscussionMorphological structure appears instable during the first year of life and acquires an opposite asymmetric bilateral direction between 2 and 6 years of age. This condition has been also documented in adults; when paired with vertical alteration, anterior/posterior asymmetry seems to characterize palate morphology, which is probably due to mechanical factors during the lifespan. Fluctuating asymmetry is predominant in the first period of life due to a plausible relationship with the strength of morphological instability of the masticatory system. Directional asymmetry, on the other hand, shows that the patterning of group‐level morphological change might be explained as a functional response to differential inputs (physiological forces, nutritive and non‐nutritive habits, para‐masticatory activity as well as the development of speech) in different growth stages. This research has implications with respect to medical and evolutionary fields. In medicine, palate morphology should be considered when planning orthodontic and surgical procedures as it could affect the outcome. As far as an evolutionary perspective is concerned the dominance of directional asymmetries in the masticatory system could provide information on dietary and cultural habits as well as pathological conditions in our ancestors.

DEVELOPMENT OF IMITATION METHODS IN THE PAINTING PRACTICE OF THE 16th-17th CENTURY ITALIAN MASTERS

The article explores the imitation methods in Italian Renaissance and Baroque painting, which were widespread in the forms of copying, replication, compilation and imitation. Italian art inherited the practice of imitation from the era of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It was the basis of apprenticeship and organization of work in art studios. Model imitation and, at the same time, search for stylistic originality from the second half of the 15th century led to the spreading of replication, compilation, imitation and emulation techniques. The practice of imitation was continued by the 17th century Italian masters in the form of self-copying. Thus, the processes of imitation in the form of copying, replication, and compilation during the Renaissance and Baroque were a major component of everyday artistic practice and produced a significant impact on its theoretical comprehension and continuation at the subsequent stages of development.

Transforming the Law of Nations: The Case of the Eighteenth Century Italian Peninsula

Abstract This article aims to demonstrate and investigate how natural law and law of nations theories were used and adapted within the context of the Italian peninsula of the late eighteenth century. It proposes to retrace the ways in which the texts of the so called Ecole romande du droit naturel and particularly the Droit des gens ou principes de la loi naturelle, appliqués à la conduite et aux affaires des Nations et des Souverains by Emer de Vattel (1758) were used in and adapted to the Italian environment, which was extremely different from the one in which these texts were written and published, in order to contribute to the legal transformation process of the Italian states during the eighteenth century.

Spontaneous Generation and an Eighteenth Century Italian Rabbi-Physician.

Spontaneous generation is usually stated to have been laid to rest by Louis Pasteur with his swan-necked flask experiments. However, a century and a half earlier an Italian physician-Rabbi, Isaac Lampronti, was so convinced of the falsity of spontaneous generation that he was willing to overturn Jewish legal precedent.

Shaping the Soviet Mass Reader, Moulding Italian Literature

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the different phases of the Soviet editorial process in order to understand on which basis and through which strategies the publication of foreign literature texts was ideologically oriented to the formation of a mass readership. The main object of this study is the analysis of the troubled publishing history of the anthology The Twentieth Century Italian Novella (Ital’yanskaya novella XX veka, 1969), which unfolded during a significant decade (1958-1968), at the turn between the Khrushchev era and the Brezhnev era and against the background of the crisis of the European left, when many European intellectuals changed their position toward Soviet policies. By analysing a corpus composed of critical reviews (obzory) and editorial documents (analyses, critical evaluations and editorial notes) used by the Soviet publishing house Khudozhestvennaya literatura, I will focus on the changes made to the anthology in order to highlight the delicate relationship between the editorial strategies and the political dynamics aimed at a broader control of cultural production in the transition period between Thaw (ottepel’) and Stagnation (zastoi).

Shaping the Soviet Mass Reader, Moulding Italian Literature Publishing Strategies in the URSS between Thaw and Stagnation

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the different phases of the Soviet editorial process in order to understand on which basis and through which strategies the publication of foreign literature texts was ideologically oriented to the formation of a mass readership. The main object of this study is the analysis of the troubled publishing history of the anthology The Twentieth Century Italian Novella (Ital’yanskaya novella XX veka, 1969), which unfolded during a significant decade (1958-1968), at the turn between the Khrushchev era and the Brezhnev era and against the background of the crisis of the European left, when many European intellectuals changed their position toward Soviet policies. By analysing a corpus composed of critical reviews (obzory) and editorial documents (analyses, critical evaluations and editorial notes) used by the Soviet publishing house Khudozhestvennaya literatura, I will focus on the changes made to the anthology in order to highlight the delicate relationship between the editorial strategies and the political dynamics aimed at a broader control of cultural production in the transition period between Thaw (ottepel’) and Stagnation (zastoi).

Discourse Marker Dico in the 16th Century Italian Language

The article is devoted to the functional and semantic analysis of the form dico in the 16 th-century Italian language, the main aim being to show how it gradually begins to function as a discourse marker. The study is performed on the basis of texts belonging to different genres (mainly comedies and treatises in the dialogue form) where certain peculiarities of spoken language are imitated. We come to the conclusion that the invariant pragmatic meaning of this unit is "second attempt to establish successful communication". We also claim that the promotion of dico to the role of a discourse marker is the result of the secondary metaphorization of dire. We point out to the parallelism between the metaphoric uses of dire, namely, the epistemic one ("to say" = "to claim, to consider") and the volitional one ("to say" = "to order, to command"), on the one hand, and the use of dico in its two main functions, on the other hand. The functions in question are a) adducing a comment to the previous statement, and b) urging the addressee to act in a certain way. In both cases one can speak of a partial desemantization of dico and its metaphorization that allows it to function as a pragmatic signal rather than a regular verbal form. On the formal level it is manifested by the absence of complements, syntactic freedom of dico and its tendency to occupy a certain position within a sentence depending exclusively on its pragmatic (and not grammatical-syntactic) function.

프란체스코 아예즈의 작품 세계에 드러난 19세기 낭만주의와 네오르네상스

프란체스코 아예즈의 작품 세계에 드러난 19세기 낭만주의와 네오르네상스

How Hard is it to Maximise Profit? Evidence From a 19-th Century Italian State Monopoly

In this paper we study the ability of the 19-th century Italian government to choose profit maximising prices for a multiproduct monopolist. We use very detailed historical data on the tobacco consumption in 62 Italian provinces from 1871 to 1888 to estimate a differentiated product demand system. The demand conditions and the legal environment of the period made this market as close to a textbook monopoly as is practically possible. The government’s stated aim for this industry was profit maximisation: since at the time tobacco revenues constituted between 10 and 15 percent of the revenues for the cash-strapped government, the stated aim was very likely the true one. Cost data for the nine products suggest that the government was not wide off the mark: the tobacco prices were “not far” from those dictated by the standard monopoly formulae for profit maximisation with interdependent demand functions.

Palaeoproteomic Profiling of Conservation Layers on a 14th Century Italian Wall Painting

AbstractAhead of display, a non‐original layer was observed on the surface of a fragment of a wall painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (active 1319, died 1348/9). FTIR analysis suggested proteinaceous content. Mass spectrometry was used to better characterise this layer and revealed two protein components: sheep and cow glue and chicken and duck egg white. Analysis of post‐translational modifications detected several photo‐oxidation products, which suggest that the egg experienced prolonged exposure to UV light and was likely applied long before the glue layer. Additionally, glycation products detected may indicate naturally occurring glycoprotein degradation or reaction with a carbohydrate material such as starch, identified by ATR‐FTIR in a cross‐section of a sample taken from the painting. Palaeoproteomics is shown to provide detailed characterisation of organic layers associated with mural paintings and therefore aids reconstruction of the conservation history of these objects.

Palaeoproteomic Profiling of Conservation Layers on a 14th Century Italian Wall Painting.

Ahead of display, a non‐original layer was observed on the surface of a fragment of a wall painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (active 1319, died 1348/9). FTIR analysis suggested proteinaceous content. Mass spectrometry was used to better characterise this layer and revealed two protein components: sheep and cow glue and chicken and duck egg white. Analysis of post‐translational modifications detected several photo‐oxidation products, which suggest that the egg experienced prolonged exposure to UV light and was likely applied long before the glue layer. Additionally, glycation products detected may indicate naturally occurring glycoprotein degradation or reaction with a carbohydrate material such as starch, identified by ATR‐FTIR in a cross‐section of a sample taken from the painting. Palaeoproteomics is shown to provide detailed characterisation of organic layers associated with mural paintings and therefore aids reconstruction of the conservation history of these objects.

高橋友子著, 『捨児たちのルネッサンス-一五世紀イタリアの捨児養育院と都市・農村-』, 名古屋大学出版会, 二〇〇〇・四刊, A5, 三四〇頁, 四八〇〇円

高橋友子著, 『捨児たちのルネッサンス-一五世紀イタリアの捨児養育院と都市・農村-』, 名古屋大学出版会, 二〇〇〇・四刊, A5, 三四〇頁, 四八〇〇円