Italian Counterparts Research Articles

Commercial conflict resolution across the religious divide in the thirteenth-century Mediterranean

Commercial conflict resolution in the medieval Mediterranean has been treated by a number of scholars in recent years, notably through the use of documents from the Cairo Geniza and the archives of the Italian port of Genoa. Recent research on this subject, and more specifically on contract enforcement, has focused on contract reinforcement within the Mediterranean Jewish community, largely because of the sources available. Parallels drawn with medieval Italian mechanisms of conflict resolution emphasize differences between public- vs. private-order responses, that is, the reliance on personalized groups in the Islamic world rather than on public institutions typical of the Italian port-cities. These studies do not, however, examine how commercial conflicts were resolved across religious and political lines, despite the growing role of Italian merchants in the trade networks of Islamic North Africa, a role that inevitably led to trade disputes and occasional uncollected payments. Through close textual analysis of 14 Latin and Arabic letters exchanged between Islamic Almohad Tunis and Christian Italian Pisa, this article explores how Almohad commercial agents and governmental authorities sought to maintain positive trade relations across the religious divide while protecting the interests of their own clients and citizens when disputes arose over commercial payments and debt collection. Rather than relying on commercial conflict resolution methods specific to one culture or the other, these documents reveal a middle ground of borrowed vocabulary and procedures. Through these letters, Almohad merchants and officials attempted to negotiate through the bonds of personal trust and reputation established with their Italian counterparts. However, they also appealed to Italian sensibilities with hybridized methods recognizable by the legal and public institutions of both cultures.

Review: King Sigismund Chapel at Cracow Cathedral (1515–1533), by Stanisław Mossakowski

Stanislaw Mossakowski King Sigismund Chapel at Cracow Cathedral (1515–1533) Cracow: IRSA, 2012, 376 pp., 277 b/w and 89 color illus. €120, ISBN 978838983114 The importance of Cracow as a center of Renaissance humanism during the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has long been recognized by Anglophone historians and linguists interested in the early modern achievements of scholars at the Jagiellonian University and their contacts with Italian counterparts. Among the more familiar figures are the humanist Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus (1437–1496), who served as tutor to the sons of King Casimir IV Jagiellon (r. 1447–92), and Nicolaus Copernicus, who studied ancient Greek, mathematics, and astronomy at the Jagiellonian. In spite of Cracow’s renown as a humanist center, there is a paucity of English-language scholarship dedicated to the architecture of Poland-Lithuania, which at its greatest extent, in the early seventeenth century, was the largest state in Europe. This lacuna is in part due to factors such as the linguistic inaccessibility of secondary scholarship written in Polish, as well as geopolitical circumstances between 1939 and 1989. Thus Stanislaw Mossakowski’s erudite monograph King Sigismund Chapel at Cracow Cathedral (1515–1533) , first issued in Polish in 2007, is a significant scholarly achievement. Mossakowski, the well-known and prolific former director of the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, presents here the mausoleum that most clearly embodies some of the earliest Italian Renaissance visual forms to appear in the European borderlands of Poland-Lithuania. The study underlines the relevance of the Sigismund chapel to classically inspired architecture, and by extension to the rich traditions that inform East-Central European architectural history. In nine highly detailed chapters examining the monument’s site, patronage, ideology, and iconography, Mossakowski asserts the uniqueness of the commission and its significance to the broader history of early modern European, and particularly Italian, art and architecture. The centrally planned, elliptically domed monument, located on the south side of the Wawel cathedral nave, decorated and vaulted …

Lost in Translation? Comparing British, Japanese, and Italian Children’s Theory-of-Mind Performance

Findings from cross-cultural theory-of-mind studies highlight potential measurement effects and both general (e.g., East-West) and specific (e.g., pedagogical experiences) cultural contrasts. We compared theory-of-mind scores for children from UK and Italy (two Western countries that differ in age of school entry) and Japan (a Far-Eastern country in which children, like their Italian counterparts, start school later than British children). Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to data from 268 age-gender- and verbal ability-matched 5- to 6-year olds. Key findings were that (i) all 8 indicators loaded onto a single latent factor; and (ii) this latent factor explained significant variance in each group, with just one indicator showing differential item functioning. Supporting the importance of pedagogical experiences, British children outperformed both their Italian and Japanese counterparts.

Foreigners and immigrants in Italy’s penal and administrative detention systems

The aim of this article is to address the two strictest forms of immigration control in Italy: penal and administrative detention. The first core section of the article discusses key trends in the use of penal detention against foreigners and immigrants, whilst the second and longest core section of the article explores key trends in the administrative detention of irregular migrants. As concerns penal detention, it is shown that the significant growth of Italy’s prison population over time has been because of a rapid rise in the number of foreign prisoners, which has outpaced the decline observed in the number of their Italian counterparts. As regards administrative detention, which was first introduced in Italy in 1998 for irregular migrants who cannot immediately be deported, the article demonstrates that only a proportion of irregular migrants transit through a CIE ( Centro di Identificazione e di Espulsione, or Identification and Deportation Centre). This is because of the high selectivity that is exhibited by Italy’s administrative detention system, itself based on a range of considerations, from the availability of beds and the likelihood of repatriation for apprehended migrants to public opinion. The findings of this article also imply that there has been an impressive degree of consistency in the immigration control policies adopted by governments of different party-political orientation.

The Poet as Translator: Mary Wortley Montagu Approaches the Turkish Lyric

The Poet as Translator: Mary Wortley Montagu Approaches the Turkish Lyric

Incarcerated Foreign Minors in Italy: How to Treat them?

The aim of this study is to provide data regarding the treatment of foreign juveniles in the Italian justice system. The authors examined the records from juvenile detention centers and primary juvenile reception centers in Italy in order to gain a better understanding of how foreign minors are treated with respect to their Italian counterparts. Statistical analysis was then carried out and the results revealed many inequalities. The authors believe that it is important to create secondary and tertiary prevention services in order to decrease the likelihood of recidivism, and to promote the minor’s integration into the social fabric of their adopted country. Foreign minors are more frequently placed in jail than their Italian counterparts. The authors conclude that only through the development of a united partnership can a welcoming network be created: one that is able to pick up on the first signs of trouble that often confront foreign minors.

HBV Infection in Italian and Non-Italian Patients in Northern Italy

Aims: The introduction of HBV vaccination in Italy has reduced the incidence and prevalence of HBV infection. However, increasing immigration from countries in which HBV is endemic has led to a wave of new HBsAg-positive subjects and their clinical impact needs evaluation. We compared the serological, clinical and epidemiological data relating to Italian and non-Italian subjects referred to a hospital in Northern Italy. Study Design: We retrospectively analysed the laboratory and clinical records of 488 subjects, including 107 (21.9%) non-Italians, in order to find data concerning clinical diagnoses, possible routes of infection, anti-HCV and anti-HDV antibodies. Results: The differences in gender distribution and mean age between the non-Italian Research Article British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research, 3(1): 1-12, 2013 2 and Italian patients were statistically significant (p<.001). There were no significant differences in the prevalence of anti-HCV (2.9% vs 4.9%, p=.86) or anti-HDV (4.7% vs 5.0%, p=.89) co-infection, or the presence of HBeAg in chronic infection. There were no differences in the rates of acute (3.3% vs 5.1%; p=.68) or chronic infections (96.7% vs 94.9%; p=.68) infections, but there were statistically significant differences (p<.001) in the rates of prevalent (54.5% vs 85.3%) and incident cases (45.5% vs 14.7%). The differences in the rates of asymptomatic (70.6% vs 34.9%) and symptomatic patients (29.4% vs 65.1%) were also statistically significant (p<.001). The only significant differences in terms of risk factors related to transfusions (0% vs 6.8%; p=.04), and vertical/perinatal transmission (44.1% vs 6.8%; p<.001). Conclusion: The non-Italian HBsAg-positive subjects were mainly women and younger than their Italian counterparts, and had a recent diagnosis. They were predominantly asymptomatic and probably considered themselves healthy and fit to emigrate. Perinatal transmission among non-Italians is still an important risk factor that reflects the epidemiological situation of their countries of origin.

Indian Contribution to Obstetrics and Gynecology

Dr. Subodh Mitra The founder of “Mitra operation for Cancer Cervix and Mitra operation of Uterus Cancer” Prof. Subodh Mitra was born on 1st November 1896 in Jessore (now in Bangladesh). Though hailing from a middle class family, he had a dream of becoming a doctor. With zeal and enthusiasm he fulfilled his dream. He got his MBBS degree from Calcutta University in the year 1922. As an undergraduate, he saw the plight and suffering of female patients which made him take up obstetrics and gynaecology as a career. Those days Germany was considered as one of the best destination for study in medical science and therefore, immediately after completing his MBBS he headed for Germany. His academic brilliance can be judged from the fact that he passed his post graduation in Obstetrics and Gynaecology within 2 years. He got MD from Berlin University in Germany in the year 1924. However, he was not satisfied with this and headed to Edinburgh. He received additional degrees of FRCS in 1925 and FRCOG in 1928. Germany was his second home but his roots were in India. After completing his study, he returned to India and started working as Assistant Superintendent and Resident Surgeon at R.G. Kar Medical College. Going through the list of his appointments and attachments gives us an idea how much he was loved and appreciated by his colleagues and seniors. He became the director of Chittaranjan Seva Sadan, one of the biggest women’s Hospital in Calcutta. He also became the Principal of Chittaranjan Seva Sadan College of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and child health. He was appointed as Dean of the faculty of medicine and member of the senate of the academic council of the Calcutta University. His dedication was appreciated by his first hospital and college. He became the Director-Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at R.G. Kar Medical College Calcutta. He was a very good orator and had good organising skill. This is reflected in the fact that he became the 9th president of All India Obstetrics and Gynaecology Conference held at Amritsar in the year 1957. He also presided as the president during the 43rd India Science. He was appointed vice chancellor of Calcutta University. He was a surgeon par excellence. He developed innovative techniques in the surgery of cancer and uterus. His technique was well appreciated world over. The technique developed by Dr. S. Mitra for Cancer Cervix Operation Extended Radical Vaginal Hysterectomy with Extra peritoneal Lymphadenectomy was officially announced in British, America and Germany gynecological conferences. He demonstrated this technique in Vienna in 1952. As an appreciation, this technique of operation has been embodied in a monograph “Mitra Operation for Cancer of the Cervix”. This was published simultaneously in U.S.A. by Charles C. Thomas, in Canada by the Ryerson Press, Toronto and in London by Blackwell Scientific Publication Ltd. Oxford, England. Dr. Mitra’s association with Germany was from his M.D. days and was associated with Germany as visiting faculty. He addressed the German Academy of science which is the oldest Academy of Science in the world. During this trip he demonstrated his “Mitra Operation for Cancer of the Cervix” at the Berlin University. During this trip he was highly appreciated at the German Gynaecological Congress for his contribution in the field of Gynaecological malignancy. He also received appreciation from Italian counterparts. He was awarded Honoris Causa Memberships of the OB & GYN society of Germany and Italy for his scientific contribution in the field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Cancer surgery was at his heart. With his hard earned money and handsome donation from Deshbandhu Memorial Trust he built Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital in Calcutta, one of the most up to date cancer hospital for comprehensive cancer care. It is worth noting that Madam Curie inaugurated this hospital. Teaching was his passion. He built the University college of Medicine for the post graduate studies in basic medical science as well as for higher clinical degrees. Also as a director of Chittaranjan Seva Sadan Hospital he was instrumental in raising the status of the hospital into a post graduate college of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and clinical health. It is said that the best death for an artist is to die on the stage while performing. Thus the great clinician, surgeon, teacher died on the 5th September, 1961 (Teachers Day) Vienna while attending the 3rd International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. India will remember his contribution for ever.

Degrees of grammaticalization in three Romance languages: A comparative analysis of existential constructions

Grammaticalization is generally assumed to be a gradual process and languages are thought to be grammaticalized to different degrees. For Romance languages, it has often been claimed that French is far more grammaticalized than Spanish, and that Italian occupies an intermediate position between these two. The aim of this study is to investigate to what extent this claim applies to existential constructions. In present-day French, Italian and Spanish, the most frequent existentials are il y a, c’e and hay respectively, all three being highly grammaticalized expressions. My analysis of these constructions will be based on the six parameters of grammaticalization as defined by Lehmann (1985, 1995), looking at instances drawn from a large newspaper corpus. The discussion will suggest that, as expected, French existential constructions display several signs of a highly advanced grammaticalization process which their Spanish and Italian counterparts lack. Moreover, it will be shown that the existential construction is least grammaticalized in Italian.

Comparing German and Italian Public Universities: Convergence or Divergence in the Higher Education Landscape?

In this paper, we examine and compare the efficiency of Italian and German public universities and its evolution in the period 2001–2007. This topic is particularly important because of two main reasons: (i) as the universities are funded through public money in both countries, it is necessary to assess whether it has been used efficiently; (ii) the comparison among (similar) European countries can stimulate a benchmarking exercise that can be useful for managerial and policy making purposes. The results show that German universities are more efficient than their Italian counterparts are, using data envelopment analysis. However, the latter are catching up: in the period 2001–2007, their efficiency has improved more rapidly. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

History of a Bite: Cleopatra in Thirteenth-Century Castile

History of a Bite:Cleopatra in Thirteenth-Century Castile Javier Jiménez-Belmonte Inspired by an encyclopedic aim to exhaust all known history, the compilers involved in Alfonso X's historiographic project did not hesitate to provide the reader with multiple versions of the same historical event. This is the case with the famous suicide of the last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII: unas de las estorias dizen que fueron dos culebras e que se las puso a las tetas e que la mordieron e la empoçoñaron de guisa que murió luego; pero cuenta Paulo Orosio que una fue la serpiente e que gela pusieran en el braço siniestro sobre la vena principal e que allí la mordió e la empeçoñó, donde la fallaron luego muerta. (Alfonso X, General estoria 458) The ambitiousness of the Alfonsine General estoria justifies the meticulous narration of Cleopatra's suicide, but by providing two endings to Cleopatra's estoria, the royal scriptorium was also implying two different moral readings of the historical exemplum. To the medieval reader, the image of a woman bitten by an asp on her arm did not carry the same connotation as that of a woman bitten by two asps, one on each breast. In fact, it could be argued that the Western history of Cleopatra is the history of that bite and its power [End Page 5] to reformulate the queen's royal body by inscribing on it different meanings. This is, of course, also true for the Hispanic renditions of the history of the Egyptian queen. This article has a twofold goal. First, it aims to explore the rhetorical and cultural contexts that facilitated the coexistence of different Cleopatras in thirteenth-century Castilian historiography. The choice of historiography was deliberate. It was mostly within the limits of this broad and inclusive genre that the Western Cleopatra was shaped and reshaped; it is not surprising, from the perspective of the Iberian context, that she became an object of interest in a moment in which Castile was producing its most ambitious historiographic projects, both in Latin and the vernacular. The second, and broader, goal of this article is to establish and analyze the genealogy of Cleopatra in Hispanic literature and culture, a field that -in contrast to its English, French, German or Italian counterparts- remains almost unexplored.1 Although the beginning of an early modern history of Cleopatra has been traditionally linked to the great Italian humanists' interest in the queen (particularly in Giovanni Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris and in De casibus virorum illustrium) and their further impact on other Continental literatures, the Iberian fortune of Cleopatra can be dated at least a couple of centuries earlier. A Hispanic history of Cleopatra, therefore, would not be complete without attending to the prehumanist trajectory of the queen on Iberian soil. Needless to say, the study of such a trajectory will be incomplete without considering the gen(d)eric, political, social and cultural conditions that particularized the production of such history. The discursive centrality of Cleopatra's own body and femininity in the queen's Western trajectory and the way it was narrated in thirteenth-century Castilian historiography delimits the approach of the following pages. [End Page 6] Two general questions could summarize that dual approach: What kind of sociocultural issues resonate in the fascination held by medieval Castilian historians with regard to Cleopatra's dead, eroticized body? How did the inclusion of this body (and the story it embodies) fit into the thirteenth-century Castilian historiographic discourse, and what does it tell us of that discourse? Anyone who has read any classical, medieval or modern description of the queen's final moments or has seen any of the numerous baroque paintings or movies that represent it would agree that this fascination is not restricted to the Middle Ages.2 Cleopatra's body is always placed at the core of the queen's representations, functioning as the depository of its potential moral, political or even religious meanings; this is also true for the numerous medieval accounts of the story. Yet the importance of the body -particularly of the female body- in the ideological discourse that shapes those...

Comparing German and Italian Universities: Convergence or Divergence in the Higher Education Landscape?

In this paper we examine and compare the efficiency of Italian and German public universities and its evolution in the period 2001-2007. This topic is particularly important because of two main reasons: (i) as the universities are funded through public money in both countries, it is necessary to assess whether it has been used efficiently – especially in a period of pressures on public budgets; (ii) the comparison among (similar) European countries can stimulate a benchmarking exercise that can be useful for managerial and policy making purposes. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) we first derive efficiency scores for higher education institutions in both countries. In a second step, we apply a Tobit regression in order to detect external factors associated with the efficiency of universities. Overall, the results show that German universities are more efficient than their Italian counterparts. However the latter are catching-up: in the period 2001-2007 their efficiency improved more rapidly. Among the external factors, three are statistically related to efficiency: the presence of a medical faculty, the regional unemployment rate, and the regional share of workers employed in science and technology.

The Two Faces of Familism: A Cross-Cultural Research in India and Italy

In the present research, we developed a familism scale comprised of two dimensions, namely support obligations and traditional norms, in order to examine cross-cultural and gender differences in a group of Indian (n = 107) and of Italian students (n = 106). We hypothesised and found that support obligations were judged more important than traditional norms in both groups. Moreover, the Indian participants considered both dimensions of familism more important than did their Italian counterparts. Indian women gave greater importance to traditional norms than Indian men did, while Italian women gave greater importance to support obligations than Italian men did. The social implications of cross-cultural and gender differences in familism are discussed.

When in India do as the…

PurposeThe emergence of India as an economic power over recent years has created a need to understand the way in which business is carried out in that part of the world. It is also important to realize how businesses are founded and structured in India. Many Indian companies are family‐run businesses just like their Italian counterparts. This research attempts to study a typical Italian company, its experiences in India, its aspirations, the challenges faced in the context of an emerging economy and the possible roadways to map the future.Design/methodology/approachThe work is based on an interview with Pietro Valfre'di Bonzo, chief corporate representative of Fiat International in India, conducted under the aegis of the GLOBE project (Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness Research Programme). The GLOBE study was conducted across 62 nations worldwide. It was initiated to study the leadership behaviours of top leaders across the globe and attempts to find out the key leader behaviours that are vital to the businesses. It also studies what leader behaviours are important in different countries and what might click in India may not click in France, and so on.FindingsThe automobile industry is a fast‐moving industry as far as India is concerned with global competitors present on Indian soil. Many authors observe that the industrial sector to which an organization belongs and the common kinds of pressures encountered by organizations, such as the rate of technological change and the general level of environmental turbulence, affect organizational cultural practices. Fiat too is trying to adapt with the changing dynamics of the Indian automobile industry.Practical implicationsWestern companies like Fiat face stiff competition from Indian car makers like Tata, Mahindra, Maruti etc. Pricing will play an important factor because of the emergence of a huge middle‐class population in India, promptly tapped by Tata, which has recently launched Tata Nano, touted as a triumph of Indian ingenuity and the world's cheapest car, costing just 100,000 rupees ($1,979; £1,366).Originality/valueThis is an original piece of work.

A Good Fit: Bryskett and the Bowre of Bliss

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Good Fit: Bryskett and the Bowre of BlissTobias GriffinTobias GriffinLarkspur, California Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Spenser Studies Volume 252010 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.7756/spst.025.016.377-379 Views: 11Total views on this site Copyright © 2010 AMS Press, Inc. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Pourquoi les immigrés portugais veulent-ils tant retourner au pays ?

The 2003 Survey on Immigrants’ Transition to Retirement helps one to understand why Portuguese residents in France express intentions to return to their home country in twice the proportion of their Spanish and Italian counterparts. Community differences in educational attainment, duration of stay , proficiency in French, location of relatives, and origin of spouse (for married respondents) explain a large share of the gaps. The application of non-linear decomposition methods reveals that differences between the characteristics chosen account for almost 70 percent of the gaps, while the differentiated effect of factors influencing the desired retirement location explains one-third.

What Nature Does Not Teach: Didactic Literature in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods ed. by Juanita Feros Ruys (review)

REVIEWS 321 which Weiss seeks to demonstrate how Hagius’s biography of Lotichius was composed from a perspective of privileged intimacy while retaining a thoroughly conventional view of the purposes of biography and its obligation to edify its reader. This incongruous representation therefore placed it at odds with the pedagogical purposes of humanist biography. At this point in his collection of essays, Weiss has often alluded to the rising German patriotism surrounding the Humanist movement, a theme which finally finds its voice in essays XI and XII. Essay XI, “The Harvest of German Humanism : Melchior Adam’s Collective Biographies as Cultural History,” discusses Adam’s Vitae, its importance in German history as the standard reference tool for German Renaissance biography, and its representation of the increased significance that individual biographies had acquired over the previous century (342). Essay XII, “References to Italy in the Biographies of German Humanists,” further investigates the patriotic aspect of humanist biography and how the German biographers sought to both compare and compete with their Italian counterparts. Weiss astutely details references to Italy in the German humanist biographies and explains how, if at first they sought to emulate and invoke Italians in their biographies, over time and with gained confidence, the German humanists began to set their work in contrast to Italian biographies. Finally , at the height of the German humanist movement, all references to Italy faded away as the Germans embraced the importance of their own representation for the geographical and literary map of humanism. Despite the minor shortcomings of a collection of essays written over an academic career and therefore inevitably somewhat repetitive and representative of a gradual shift in thought and approach to the academic subject, Weiss’s scholarship is a rare gem in the area of Renaissance biography. In this, his work demonstrates the much more prevalent strengths of a three decade-long academic pursuit in which his focus on the varying styles of biography and its rhetorical influences reveal an intensely supported work of scholarship. SIENNA HOPKINS, Italian, UCLA What Nature Does Not Teach: Didactic Literature in the Medieval and EarlyModern Periods, ed. Juanita Feros Ruys (Turnhout: Brepols 2008) xii + 527 pp. This handsome, compendious volume of essays on medieval and early-modern didactic literature is arranged in five thematic categories with three to five essays in each. On the whole, the essays are very accessible to beginners in the field of didactic writing, for they often introduce and survey the most important writers and texts of each geographic or cultural arena. Ruys’s introduction also includes a very useful survey of the contents of the volume. In the following survey of the chapters, I will wherever possible or desirable include direct quotations from the text of the authors’ theses, and a list of the texts or authors discussed within the essays for those essays primarily concerned with a survey of texts. 1. CONSTRUCTING DIDACTIC INTENT AND PERSONA “The Pseudo-Aristotelian Secret of Secrets as a Didactic Text” by Steven J. Williams, a systematic survey of the Secret of Secrets, is a useful and clear introduction to the centuries-long reception, adaptation, and translation of the Se- REVIEWS 322 cret of Secrets, which Williams labels the “quintessential secular didactic text of the Middle Ages,” highlighting its survival in nearly one thousand extant manuscripts in thirteen different languages (42). Williams takes no knowledge or assumption for granted in his essay, itself inspired by the medieval didactic structure of question and answer. In it, Williams addresses five major questions : What didactic message does the Secret of Secrets impart? (44) How do we know that the Secret of Secrets was read as a didactic text? (46) Who read the Secret of Secrets as a didactic text? (53) What passages of the Secret of Secrets were singled out for their didactic message? (54) When and why did the career of the Secret of Secrets as a didactic text come to an end? (54). His response to each question consists of a statement of a generally accepted concept, the premise so to speak, and is followed by specific examples that support his conclusions. “Preaching and Teaching: The Codex Rustici as Confused Pilgrimage Tale,” by Kathleen Olive...

Party Direction

The purpose of this article is to further our understanding of the directional nature of left—right scores. I suggest that a party’s ability to modify its perceived position is conditional on whether parties adopt their manifestos to alter their perceived position and on whether voters are persuaded by parties’ attempts to relocate in political space. As voters’ knowledge of political parties is a major determinant of where parties are perceived to be located, new parties or parties with weak identities are more likely than old parties to modify their perceived positions, and for two reasons: they are neither willing nor able to adopt an identity-based platform and their freedom to move in political space is not constrained by what voters know about them. The results of statistical analyses show that while Italian voters modified their perception of party positions in the light of party manifestos, this was not the case in the other countries under study, where parties had longer histories than their Italian counterparts.

A Commentary of Herodotus Books I-IV (review)

Reviewed by: A Commentary of Herodotus Books I-IV John Marincola David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, and Aldo Corcella. A Commentary of Herodotus Books I–IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. lxxi, 721. $399.00. ISBN 978-0-19-814956-9. Originally published in Italian, this book has been translated by Barbara Graziosi, Matteo Rossetti, Carlotta Dus, and Vanessa Cazzato; and edited by Oswyn Murray and Alfonso Moreno; with a contribution by Maria Brosius. Herodotean scholars have long complained that an up-to-date replacement for the nonagenarian commentary of How and Wells is an urgent requirement of classical scholarship, even as they recognized that the task was daunting: the wide range of Herodotus' interests, combined with the explosion of research over the last century into the many cultures and lands that Herodotus treated, called for mastery on a scale rarely seen in a single individual. Whence would such heroes appear? The answer began to form in the 1970s and 1980s, first with A. B. Lloyd's monumental commentary on Book II (Brill, 3 vols., 1975–1988), and then with the new series of commentaries on individual Books of Herodotus, published for the Fondazione Lorenzo Valla by Mondadori (Milan), of which the jewels in the crown were those by David Asheri on Books I (1988) and III (1990). Lloyd produced for this same series a condensed version of his Book II commentary (1989), and the first half of Herodotus was rounded off by Aldo Corcella's excellent commentary on Book IV (1993). [End Page 502] Oxford University Press has now published an English translation of the Mondadori commentaries on Books I–IV, all of them revised by their authors (Asheri's two volumes up to his death in 2000) and printed here in a single, beautifully produced volume, enhanced by forty-four maps and plans (more attractive, to my eye at least, than their Italian counterparts) and with clear and helpful chronological tables. Alas, the wonderful illustrations of the Italian volumes have not made the transition. The result, at least for the first half of Herodotus, is the new commentary that has long been desiderated, a commentary that will serve as a new standard now and for as far into the future as anyone can see. Asheri's general introduction, more than fifty pages, must now be the first port of call for anyone interested in Herodotus: it is distinguished by wide learning and discriminating judgment and virtually every aspect of Herodotus' work is treated thoroughly and judiciously. Asheri's commentaries themselves possess the same qualities, and one notes as well the exceptionally high standards of learning and judgment displayed by both Lloyd and Corcella. The individual introductions to each of the books, complete with outlines, are likewise thorough and tremendously helpful for novice and expert alike. The editors "did not interfere in any way with the views of the original authors, or seek to add anything to their commentaries" (viii), and although this is understandable, it has led to a general dearth of cross-references and, in some cases, to a few problems, as when, for example, references are made to Lloyd's Brill commentary for matters treated in the present volume or cross-references seem to be made to the Italian versions. More substantially, the lack of an index is greatly to be regretted. But these drawbacks cannot detract from the great benefits to be won from this volume. The editors and their team of translators must be commended, with special thanks going to Oswyn Murray, who first conceived of the project and saw it through, despite its great challenges, to the end. He has also written a sensitive tribute to Asheri, to whose memory the volume is dedicated. This, then, is a volume that should be in the hands of every student and scholar, but at $399 that seems particularly unlikely; I worry that even some smaller college libraries might hesitate before spending so much on one book. So I end with a plea to Oxford University Press, that they find some way to produce an affordable paperback of this volume (once the big libraries have bought their copies, of course); in doing so, they will place...

Cross‐sectional Study on Psychiatric Symptoms in Immigrant Patients in a First Aid Setting: The Situation at Padova Hospital, 2003‐2004

Italy has recently become a country of net immigration, posing new challenges for health care, particularly psychiatry. Previous studies on migration and mental health have focused predominantly on individual psychopathologies or individual immigrant populations. The aim of this work is to determine the demand by foreign citizens for intervention at Padova‐based psychiatric services and to assess any differences in presentation of psychopathological symptoms in the various immigrant groups, with a view to developing adequate organisational and clinical responses. We reviewed 3,385 psychiatric consultations with Italian and immigrant patients, conducted between 2003 and 2004. Eleven per cent of these consultations were for immigrants, who were younger than their Italian counterparts. The most common geographical area of origin was Eastern Europe. North African immigrants were mainly male, while Eastern Europeans and Americans were chiefly female. Eastern European immigrants had a similar psychopathological pattern to Italians; North and Sub‐Saharan African and Asian patients presented more psychotic symptoms. The results of this study may contribute to planning treatment and prevention of psychotic disorders and to improving management of somatoform disorders by strengthening access to psychiatric treatment in the community.