Italian Peninsula Research Articles

Leukocyte formula of the Walser’s Viper (Vipera walser)

Vipera walser is a recently assessed species of North-Western Italian Alps, that has been regarded as an isolated population of V. berus until 2016, when it has been identified as a separate taxonomical unit according to molecular markers. Due to its restricted and fragmented range and the potential threat of climate change in mountain systems, it complies with the IUCN criteria to be classified as EN. In order to investigate, in part, the health status of this taxon, we have performed blood smears to describe whether a haematological parameter such as leukocytes is consistent with those of more widespread viperids of the Italian peninsula. Overall, we sampled 20 Walser’s Vipers across the species range and characterised leukocyte formula. We found that lymphocytes were the most common (~ 70% of total leukocytes). Eosinophils and heterophils were less abundant, while neutrophils and monocytes are the least represented. Our data is in accordance with that of other European viperids

The politics of persuasion: foreign powers and the first Italian newspapers

This article studies the involvement and the relationships between diplomats and the periodical press in Italian cities during the seventeenth century. Newspapers first appeared on the Italian peninsula in the early 1640s: 1639 in Genoa, 1640 in Milan and Florence, 1642 in Bologna and 1645 in Turin. A novelty on the Italian information market, foreign diplomats turned their attention towards influencing newspaper coverage immediately. News editors would often exchange news with ambassadors, but maintaining such relationships was a delicate balancing act for all the actors involved. On the one hand, the news editors own governments certainly not always welcomed too overtly friendly relationships with representatives of foreign powers. On the other hand, not maintaining relationships with these foreign representatives could be detrimental to their own news business as competitors might easily obtain better quality news. This article studies this difficult balance of power and argues that it is crucial to appreciate these dynamics to understand how diplomats address audiences. It seeks to demonstrate these men went much further than spreading printed material to promote their patrons or employers; physical threats and attacks could be equally part of an agent’s tools to influence newspaper publishers to retract or not publish a certain piece of news.

Renaissance Self-Fashioning after 44 Years: Hybridity, Conversos, Individuation, and littérature totale

Abstract While Stephen Greenblatt’s 1980 book, Renaissance self-fashioning: from More to Shakespeare, was methodologically innovative within the field of literary criticism, his work also grew from the roots of Jacob Burckhardt’s old cultural history, and his method of new historicism developed alongside the new cultural history. Although certain parts of Burckhardt’s arguments have been discarded, the work of Greenblatt and others has continued to build upon his foundation. Courtiership, anxiety, and the relationship between outward and interior identities, text and context, hybridity, and individuation are all useful concepts for constructing less monolithic understandings of early modern identities. With a European scale, this article traces early modern historiography and literary criticism from the nineteenth century to 2024 and introduces historical examples of identity formation from early modern England, France, Iberia, the Italian peninsula, and the Holy Roman Empire. The article reflects upon early modern examples of self-fashioning in the light of Burckhardt, the Annales, Greenblatt, and others who have contributed to our understanding of agency and identity up to the present day, arguing that these historians and literary scholars have worked together to answer questions that are fundamentally psychological in nature.

Prehistoric Italian foodways: Meta-analysis of stable isotope data from the Neolithic to the Iron Age

Italian Later Prehistory was characterised by profound changes that impacted everyday life in many aspects. Whether or not and how such changes were reflected in the subsistence practices of ancient populations is an ongoing question in the archaeological debate. This question has been investigated using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis for several decades. Here, we present a 6000-year-long review of isotopic studies in the Italian Peninsula from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. We reconstruct chronological variations in food practices by observing δ13C and δ15N trends for 776 humans, 382 animals, and 432 C3 plants from 111 archaeological sites. During the Neolithic, when farming is first introduced, a homogenous signal characterised by terrestrial protein consumption is visible. The Copper Age, instead, shows a more varied pattern, possibly representative of a more diversified use of the landscape, characteristic of those millennia. The new cultural paradigm that invested Europe during the Bronze Age is also reflected in food practices in Italy, with the introduction of millets - signalled by high δ13C values in the Northern regions - possibly representing a pivotal shift. Not much data is available for the Iron Age, as only two sites from Northern Italy, showing a diffused consumption of C4 plants, and one site from Southern Italy, with a diet centred around C3 plants, are available for this period. The analysis of this extensive set of data suggests that the “Secondary Products Revolution” probably meant a shift in subsistence practices, with secondary sources substituting meat rather than integrating it.

Biomolecular analysis of the Epigravettian human remains from Riparo Tagliente in northern Italy

The Epigravettian human remains from Riparo Tagliente in northern Italy represent some of the earliest evidence of human occupation in the southern Alpine slopes after the Last Glacial Maximum. Genomic analyses of the 17,000-year-old Tagliente 2 mandible revealed the oldest presence of a genetic profile with affinities to the Near East in the Italian peninsula, which later became the most widespread hunter-gatherer ancestry across Europe. However, a comparable biomolecular characterization of the Tagliente 1 burial remains unavailable, preventing us from defining its biological relationships with Tagliente 2. Here, we apply paleogenomic, isotopic, and radiocarbon dating analyses on a femur fragment of Tagliente 1 and compare the reconstructed data with previously reported results from Tagliente 2. Despite their different isotopic signatures and non-overlapping radiocarbon dates, we reveal that the two human remains belong to the same male individual. We determine that the distinct isotopic values can be explained by different dietary practices during lifetime, whereas the non-overlapping radiocarbon dates can be caused by minimal radiocarbon contamination, possibly deriving from chemical treatments for conservation purposes. These findings highlight the importance of interdisciplinary biomolecular studies in offering new perspectives on the Palaeolithic fossil record and addressing long-standing bioarchaeological questions.

Climatic and environmental changes of ~100 thousand years: The mammals from the early Middle Pleistocene sequence of Notarchirico (southern Italy).

Here we revise all the paleontological sample of Notarchirico, including historical collections and new findings collected during 2016-2023 excavations. Notarchirico is one of the most significant sites for the study of human evolution and terrestrial ecosystem dynamics during the Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition, preserving nearly 100.000 years of environmental and climatic changes constrained between 695 ± 6 ka and 614 ± 12 ka. The deposit yielded the oldest human fossil of the Italian Peninsula, and one of the oldest European evidence of Homo heidelbergensis, as well as one of the earliest evidence of bifacial tools in western Europe, commonly associated with the Acheulean techno-complex. Our paleontological results revealed the presence of three different mammal complexes, documenting faunal dynamics in response of climatic driven-changes recognized during the early Middle Pleistocene. The lower complex (levels I2-G) indicates the dominance of wooded spaces, sparse steppes, and the existence of water bodies (lakes or ponds), indicating a deterioration of the fully interglacial conditions recorded during the end of MIS 17; the middle complex (levels G-C) with a low number of mammal remains can be attributed to the glacial conditions of MIS 16; the upper complex (levels B-above α) indicates an improvement in climate, transitioning towards the full interglacial conditions of the of MIS 15. The faunal sample of Notarchirico, based on its firm chronological setting, offers important data for the Biochronological Scheme of European Land Mammals, including one of the oldest records of Palaeoloxodon antiquus and Cervus elaphus in Europe, Panthera spelaea in southwestern Europe, Dama cf. roberti in Italian Peninsula, and one of the latest occurrences of Bison schoetensacki in Europe.

IUP Technological Signatures or Mousterian Variability? The Case of Riparo l'Oscurusciuto (Southern Italy)

In the Italian peninsula, the Late Middle Paleolithic exhibits significant technological diversity, featuring blades, points, and bladelets. Assemblages displaying these distinctive characteristics have, in some cases, been labeled as Musteriano evoluto or Evolved Mousterian, and they are interpreted as contributing to the technological and typological variability within the Middle Paleolithic. In this study, we report the results of a detailed technological analysis of the lithics recovered from the latest layers preserved at Riparo l’Oscurusciuto (SU1 to SU3) in southern Italy. These layers were previously attributed to the Late Mousterian based on their chronological age and a preliminary techno/typological analysis of a small number of artifacts. Our comprehensive analysis of entire assemblages reveals the presence of original technological features, including blades, bladelets, and specific production of micro-points on flake cores. Some of these technological traits are comparable to those recently described at Grotte Mandrin in south-eastern France, which have been attributed to an early phase of the Initial Upper Paleolithic and associated with one modern human tooth. The study confirms the variability of the Late Middle Paleolithic in southern Italy and emphasizes the necessity to reassess it considering recent theories on the earlier arrival of Homo sapiens in Europe and their potential interaction with local populations.

A Cippus from Turris Libisonis: Evidence for the Use of Local Materials in Roman Painting on Stone in Northern Sardinia

The ancient Roman town of Turris Libisonis was located on the northern coast of Sardinia and was known in the past as an important naval port. Located in the Gulf of Asinara, it was a Roman colony from the 1st century BCE and became one of the richest towns on the island. Among the archaeological finds in the area, the cippus exhibited in the Antiquarium Turritano is of great interest for its well-preserved traces of polychromy. The artefact dates back to the early Imperial Age and could have had a funerary or votive function. The artefact was first examined using a portable and non-invasive protocol involving multi-band imaging (MBI), portable X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF), portable FT-IR in external reflectance mode (ER FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy. After this initial examination, a few microfragments were collected and investigated by optical microscopy (OM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in ATR mode (ATR FT-IR) and micro-ATR mode (μATR FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to improve our knowledge and characterize the materials and to determine their provenience. The results contribute to a better understanding of the provenance of materials and shed light on pigments on stone and their use outside the Italian peninsula and, in particular, Roman Sardinia.

Mapping Italian high-altitude ponds.

Permanent and temporary ponds are considered peculiar ecosystems which provide important ecosystem functions, services, supporting biodiversity on small and large scales. Pond's conservation status is globally critical. Moreover, their ecological functioning and conservation status is frequently overlooked, because of the habitat small size, their seasonal occurrence and their unique appearance. While a certain attention is given to Mediterranean Temporary Ponds and, in general, to low altitude ponds, the ecological importance of high-altitude ponds is critically unrecognized, especially in the Italian peninsula. The main aim of this research is to create the first georeferenced checklist of Italian high-altitude ponds. In order to achieve this goal, we integrated spectral, spatial characteristics, and morphological operations based on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 image data using the Google Earth Engine (GEE). Overall, 2156 ponds were identified: 62% (n = 1343) in the Alps and 38% (n = 813) in the Apennines. The highest number of ponds was detected in Central Alps (n = 642), followed by Western Alps (n = 479), Central Apennines (n = 412), Eastern Alps (n = 222), Southern Apennines (n = 216) and Northern Apennines (n = 185). For what concerns the Alps, the average altitude was estimated in 2428 m a.s.l., while in the Apennines the average altitude was estimated in 784 m a.s.l. The total area covered from ponds has been estimated in 4.258.640 m2, with a mean of 1716 m2. Ponds were described as 20% temporary (n = 445) and 80% permanent (n = 1711). Considering the land use, 83% (n = 1797) of ponds were described as "natural" and 17% (n = 359) as "anthropized". Identification and georeferentiation of high-altitude ponds are primary actions to the application of management plans and this research could be considered the first step towards the safeguard of these threatened ecosystems.

POLYGRAPHUS POLIGRAPHUS (L.) (COLEOPTERA CURCULIONIDAE SCOLYTINAE) AND ITS ASSOCIATED FUNGAL COMMUNITY COLONIZING PICEA ABIES (L) KARST. IN THE ITALIAN APENNINES

The ecology and distribution of P. poligraphus were investigated in several artificial spruce stands located along the Apennines. Results suggest that, in certain conditions, this species may play an active role, together with other bark beetles, in the decline of the Norway spruce Picea abies. Interestingly, in some spruce sites such as Abetone and Pratomagno, P. poligraphus was observed to colonize not only thin-diameter branches but also larger stems, being able to occupy various ecological niches on its host plants. Our findings highlighted that, this beetle, hitherto known in Italy only for some Alpine sites, was able to “follow” Picea abies in spruce formations along the Apennine ridge. That occurred in different as well as very distant and disjunct environments, with the site of Montedimezzo in “Alto Molise” (Isernia) representing the southernmost record in Italy. Moreover, Danielozyma ontarioensis a saprophyte ascomycetous yeast frequently isolated from this insect and other fungi such as Penicillium glabrum, Talaromyces rugulosus, Beauveria bassiana and Ophiostoma piceae species complex may be associated with this beetle. Key Words: Scolytinae, Norway spruce, Polygraphus poligraphus, associated fungi and yeasts, Italian peninsula

Morphostructural evidence of crustal-scale, active along-strike segmentation of the Umbria-Marche Apennines, Italy

This paper discusses the response of topography and river networks to non-uniform lithology and tectonic forcing in the Umbria-Marche sector of the Apennines fold and thrust belt. We ruled out the role of variable erosion of rock types and interpret channel steepness data in terms of rock uplift, discovering a southward increase in the total amount of uplift. Such a trend appears as the large-scale response to uneven vertical motions of different sectors of the mountain ridge and foothills. The general coincidence between sector boundaries and transversal, NE-SW striking faults mapped by seismic interpretation in the outer zone of the fold and thrust belt, suggests that such faults extend to the SW, beneath the allochthonous thrust sheets of the mountainous area. Therefore, it may be inferred that such transversal faults represent long-lived, deeply rooted basement structures compartmentalizing both the axial and the outer zones of the fold and thrust belt. We suggest that differential uplift was essentially controlled by variable amounts of basement thrust displacement characterizing the compartmentalized belt. This interpretation deviates from a more conventional view that uplift of the central Apennines, particularly prominent in the south, is dynamically supported. Our results, besides shedding new light into the active tectonic behavior of a large portion of the Italian peninsula, also provide general insights into the surface response to the differential behavior of crustal blocks produced by along-strike segmentation of active mountain belts.

When bodies fall apart

Anatomical votives have largely been considered by scholars in connection with Roman expansion in Central Italy. Within this ‘religious romanization’ frame, scholars have viewed the presence of the anatomical terracottas of the 4th–2nd cc. BC as the material manifestation of Roman presence in the religious sphere of the Italian peninsula. This paper presents the results from recent and ongoing archaeological studies on pre-Roman sanctuaries in Central and Northern Italian and focuses on the presence of bronze body parts among their votive offerings. The data allows for a reconsideration of the influence of Rome on local religious traditions and sheds light on the mechanism of continuity and change after the Roman expansion.

Life history and ancestry of the late Upper Palaeolithic infant from Grotta delle Mura, Italy

The biological aspects of infancy within late Upper Palaeolithic populations and the role of southern refugia at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum are not yet fully understood. This study presents a multidisciplinary, high temporal resolution investigation of an Upper Palaeolithic infant from Grotta delle Mura (Apulia, southern Italy) combining palaeogenomics, dental palaeohistology, spatially-resolved geochemical analyses, direct radiocarbon dating, and traditional anthropological studies. The skeletal remains of the infant – Le Mura 1 – were directly dated to 17,320-16,910 cal BP. The results portray a biological history of the infant’s development, early life, health and death (estimated at ~72 weeks). They identify, several phenotypic traits and a potential congenital disease in the infant, the mother’s low mobility during gestation, and a high level of endogamy. Furthermore, the genomic data indicates an early spread of the Villabruna-like components along the Italian peninsula, confirming a population turnover around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, and highlighting a general reduction in genetic variability from northern to southern Italy. Overall, Le Mura 1 contributes to our better understanding of the early stages of life and the genetic puzzle in the Italian peninsula at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum.

Splitting intensity tomography to image depth-dependent seismic anisotropy patterns beneath the Italian Peninsula and surrounding regions

The region between central Europe and the centre of the Mediterranean is characterised by complex tectonics and kinematics. Here, the interaction between thickened crust, subducting lithosphere and surrounding asthenosphere produces strong and pervasive anisotropy in the upper mantle. Shear wave splitting measurements, the most adopted method to image seismic anisotropy so far, when interpreted in a ray-based framework result in little or no depth resolution, hampering a correct image of the anisotropy distribution with depth. In this study, we aim to better constrain the depth-dependent seismic anisotropy beneath Italy and surrounding regions, by isolating for the first time the source region of anisotropy at different depths. To do that, we perform an anisotropy tomography, adopting the splitting intensity inversion method. It is entirely based on the finite-frequency effect in the splitting of SKS waves. We first computed the splitting intensity using SKS waves recorded at all available permanent and temporary stations over the region, obtaining a huge dataset of measurements used as an input for the tomographic inversion. The large-scale 3D model of seismic anisotropy obtained with the inversion shows a clear change of anisotropy properties in terms of fast polarisation direction and intensity for different depths, thus improving the characterization of the main sources of anisotropy in the mantle as a function of depth. Shallower layers (70–100 km depth) are characterised by a complex and variable oriented pattern of anisotropy fast direction and intensity, which becomes progressively more organised with depth (100–300 km). This pattern suggests a strong control exerted by the geometry and motion of the different slab segments and the large-scale asthenospheric flow generated by subduction and roll-back processes. The strength of anisotropy increases with depth, with high values affecting the bulge of the Alps and Apennines chains and the southern Tyrrhenian subduction system. On the contrary, weaker anisotropy characterises the transition zone from the Apennines to Alpine domains beneath the Po plain, and both the Adriatic and European domains.

Locating Anglo-Italian Communities in Bevis and the Naples Manuscript

This article contextualises the Anglo-Italian aspects of Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS XIII.B.29. This fifteenth-century paper miscellany contains Bevis of Hampton, Chaucer’s Clerk’s Tale, St Alexius, Libeaus Desconus, as well as a recipe collection, a section of Lydgate’s “Doublenesse”, and a fragment of Sir Isumbras. The book is among a very select number of codices containing Middle English texts that are presently preserved in an Italian institution. Previous research has demonstrated XIII.B.29 must have travelled to the Italian peninsula at a relatively early date, but the exact reason behind its compilation and the method by which it arrived in Italy remain uncertain. This article reviews the manuscript’s design, provenance, and contents, arguing the book is not just an English manuscript in Italy, but also to some degree an English manuscript about Italy and Italian experiences. Specifically, the article contends that an episode in the manuscript’s Bevis, which describes a street fight near Lombard Street in London, benefits from a reading that acknowledges late medieval developments in finance and long-distance Anglo-Italian commerce, as well as the emergence of Italian communities in Southampton and the capital.

Chronometric data and stratigraphic evidence support discontinuity between Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens in the Italian Peninsula

The process by which Palaeolithic Europe was transformed from a Neanderthal-dominated region to one occupied exclusively by Homo sapiens has proven challenging to diagnose. A blurred chronology has made it difficult to determine when Neanderthals disappeared and whether modern humans overlapped with them. Italy is a crucial region because here we can identify not only Late Mousterian industries, assumed to be associated with Neanderthals, but also early Upper Palaeolithic industries linked with the appearance of early H. sapiens, such as the Uluzzian and the Aurignacian. Here, we present a chronometric dataset of 105 new determinations (74 radiocarbon and 31 luminescence ages) from four key southern Italian sites: Cavallo, Castelcivita, Cala, and Oscurusciuto. We built Bayesian-based chronometric models incorporating these results alongside the relative stratigraphic sequences at each site. The results suggest; 1) that the disappearance of Neanderthals probably pre-dated the appearance of early modern humans in the region and; 2) that there was a partial overlap in the chronology of the Uluzzian and Protoaurignacian, suggesting that these industries may have been produced by different human groups in Europe.

From the Periphery: The Family Novels of Lilli Gruber and Simonetta Agnello Hornby

Recent criticism on the nature and history of the family novel has refined our understanding of this genre and of its persistence to the present day. Two recent examples of this sort of writing are the trilogies by the contemporary writers Lilli Gruber and Simonetta Agnello Hornby. Although these works treat what is roughly the same chronological period, they are set at different ends of the Italian peninsula, Gruber’s in the Tyrol region and Agnello Hornby’s in Sicily. While there are other important differences between the two works, both describe failures of once dominant patriarchal families whose demises are not lamented but simply chronicled from a new and more cosmopolitan perspective shared by both the novels’ characters and by their authors – a posture perhaps typical of many writers and thinkers in the new millennium.

Monastic Unrest on the Border of Carolingian Italy: The Strange Case of Abbot Poto of San Vincenzo al Volturno

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the Carolingian conquest of the Italian peninsula, a commission was held in Rome to judge the case of Poto, Abbot of San Vincenzo al Volturno, who was accused of infidelitas for refusing to pray for Charlemagne’s safety. The papal inquiry reveals the existence of two factions within the monastic community, each of them likely following a different approach to monastic discipline. However, regional politics soon overlapped with internal strife, as the group led by Ambrogio Autpert was supported by Duke Hildeprando of Spoleto and the other led by Poto was supported by Pope Adrian I. This article analyses this episode of monastic unrest by focusing on the opportunities that political uncertainty opened for public authorities in an unsettled border area. It also aims to challenge the ethnic framework (assuming a Lombard faction opposed to a Frankish faction) which historiography has traditionally applied when interpreting Poto’s act of disobedience.

More on the scoring of Josquin’s Huc me sydereo and the manuscript St Gallen 464

Abstract The motet Huc me sydereo by Josquin des Prez appears in both five- and six-voice versions, having led scholars to debate which version is authentic to the composer’s original conception. The authoritative New Josquin Edition presents the motet in its six-voice version; in the critical commentary, editor Bonnie Blackburn defended it as Josquin’s original. More recently, Joshua Rifkin has demonstrated on stylistic and source-critical grounds that the five-voice version was original, with a sixth voice having been added later. In this article, I present new findings on the manuscript St Gallen 464, an important early source for Huc me sydereo, which reinforce arguments defending the authenticity of the five-voice version. I show that the origin of the sixth voice can be isolated to a trio of sources produced on the Italian peninsula in the 1510s, all but eliminating Josquin as a candidate as its author. Moreover, through a new identification of the original scribe and owner of St Gallen 464, I shed new light on that manuscript’s date and provenance. In so doing, I demonstrate how the study of musical sources and transmission can carry direct importance for essential performance decisions.

Body mass estimate and in-vivo reconstruction of Hippopotamus antiquus from Figline, Upper Valdarno (Tuscany)

ABSTRACT Hippopotamus antiquus was an extinct semiaquatic megaherbivore foraging mainly on aquatic vegetation, with a biochronological range in the Italian peninsula spanning from around 2.2 to 0.4 Ma. Considering its large body size, and its lifestyle considered to be more aquatic than the current form H. amphibius, a correct estimate of the body mass is interesting to correctly interpret various biological aspects of this extinct megaherbivore. In this contribution, we propose an estimate of the body mass of H. antiquus by comparing the results obtained with classical regression formulae with the values obtained through a new 3D volumetric approach. For both approaches, we used the mounted specimen on display at the Museum of Geology and Palaeontology of the University of Florence. As already found in recent contributions, the estimates obtained with the regression methods provide very high ranges compared to the volumetric approach, with minimum estimates of 200 kg and maximum estimates of over 6 tons, completely incompatible with a tetrapod of this size. The new volumetric estimate provides an average value for the BM in H. antiquus of approximately 3170 tons, thus confirming a body weight approximately double compared to the average values in the extant species H. amphibius.