Camposanto Monumentale
The Campo Santo, known as Camposanto Monumentale or Camposanto Vecchio, is a historical edifice at the northern edge of the Cathedral Square in Pisa, Italy. A legend claims that bodies buried in that ground will rot in just 24 hours, the burial ground lies over the ruins of the old baptistery of the church of Santa Reparata, the church that once stood where the cathedral now stands. The term monumental serves to differentiate it from the urban cemetery in Pisa. The building was the fourth and last one to be raised in the Cathedral Square and it dates from a century after the bringing of the soil from Golgotha, and was erected over the earlier burial ground. The construction of huge, oblong Gothic cloister was begun in 1278 by the architect Giovanni di Simone. He died in 1284 when Pisa suffered a defeat in the battle of Meloria against the Genoans. The cemetery was completed in 1464. It seems that the building was not meant to be a cemetery, but a church called Santissima Trinità. However we know that the part was the western one.
The outer wall is composed of 43 blind arches, the one on the right is crowned by a gracious Gothic tabernacle. It contains the Virgin Mary with Child, surrounded by four saints and it is the work from the second half of the 14th century by a follower of Giovanni Pisano. This was the entrance door. Most of the tombs are under the arcades, although a few are on the central lawn, the inner court is surrounded by elaborate round arches with slender mullions and plurilobed tracery. In the Aulla chapel we can see the original incense lamp that Galileo Galilei used for calculation of pendular movements and this lamp is the one Galileo saw inside the cathedral, now replaced by a larger more elaborate one. The last chapel was Dal Pozzo, commissioned by archbishop of Pisa Carlo Antonio Dal Pozzo in 1594, it has a dedicated to St. Jerome. Also in the Dal Pozzo chapel sometimes a Mass is celebrated, the sarcophagi were initially all around the cathedral, often attached to the building itself. That until the cemetery was built, they were collected in the all over the meadow.
Carlo Lasinio, in the years he was the curator of the Campo Santo, nowadays the sarcophagi are inside the galleries, near the walls
Surveying
Surveying or land surveying is the technique and science of determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is called a land surveyor, Surveyors work with elements of geometry, regression analysis, engineering, programming languages and the law. Surveying has been an element in the development of the environment since the beginning of recorded history. The planning and execution of most forms of construction require it and it is used in transport, communications and the definition of legal boundaries for land ownership. It is an important tool for research in other scientific disciplines. Basic surveyance has occurred since humans built the first large structures, the prehistoric monument at Stonehenge was set out by prehistoric surveyors using peg and rope geometry. In ancient Egypt, a rope stretcher would use simple geometry to re-establish boundaries after the floods of the Nile River. The almost perfect squareness and north-south orientation of the Great Pyramid of Giza, built c.2700 BC, the Groma instrument originated in Mesopotamia.
The mathematician Liu Hui described ways of measuring distant objects in his work Haidao Suanjing or The Sea Island Mathematical Manual, the Romans recognized land surveyors as a profession. They established the basic measurements under which the Roman Empire was divided, Roman surveyors were known as Gromatici. In medieval Europe, beating the bounds maintained the boundaries of a village or parish and this was the practice of gathering a group of residents and walking around the parish or village to establish a communal memory of the boundaries. Young boys were included to ensure the memory lasted as long as possible, in England, William the Conqueror commissioned the Domesday Book in 1086. It recorded the names of all the owners, the area of land they owned, the quality of the land. It did not include maps showing exact locations, abel Foullon described a plane table in 1551, but it is thought that the instrument was in use earlier as his description is of a developed instrument. Gunters chain was introduced in 1620 by English mathematician Edmund Gunter and it enabled plots of land to be accurately surveyed and plotted for legal and commercial purposes.
Leonard Digges described a Theodolite that measured horizontal angles in his book A geometric practice named Pantometria, joshua Habermel created a theodolite with a compass and tripod in 1576. Johnathon Sission was the first to incorporate a telescope on a theodolite in 1725, in the 18th century, modern techniques and instruments for surveying began to be used. Jesse Ramsden introduced the first precision theodolite in 1787 and it was an instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes
Abacus
The exact origin of the abacus is still unknown. Today, abaci are often constructed as a frame with beads sliding on wires. The use of the word abacus dates before 1387 AD, when a Middle English work borrowed the word from Latin to describe a sandboard abacus, the Latin word came from Greek ἄβαξ abax which means something without base, and improperly, any piece of rectangular board or plank. Alternatively, without reference to ancient texts on etymology, it has suggested that it means a square tablet strewn with dust. Whereas the table strewn with dust definition is popular, there are those that do not place credence in this at all, Greek ἄβαξ itself is probably a borrowing of a Northwest Semitic, perhaps Phoenician, word akin to Hebrew ʾābāq, dust. The preferred plural of abacus is a subject of disagreement, with both abacuses and abaci in use, the user of an abacus is called an abacist. The period 2700–2300 BC saw the first appearance of the Sumerian abacus, some scholars point to a character from the Babylonian cuneiform which may have been derived from a representation of the abacus.
Archaeologists have found ancient disks of various sizes that are thought to have used as counters. However, wall depictions of this instrument have not been discovered, during the Achaemenid Empire, around 600 BC the Persians first began to use the abacus. The earliest archaeological evidence for the use of the Greek abacus dates to the 5th century BC, Demosthenes talked of the need to use pebbles for calculations too difficult for your head. The Greek abacus was a table of wood or marble, pre-set with small counters in wood or metal for mathematical calculations and this Greek abacus saw use in Achaemenid Persia, the Etruscan civilization, Ancient Rome and, until the French Revolution, the Western Christian world. A tablet found on the Greek island Salamis in 1846 AD, dates back to 300 BC and it is a slab of white marble 149 cm long,75 cm wide, and 4.5 cm thick, on which are 5 groups of markings. Below these lines is a space with a horizontal crack dividing it. Also from this frame the Darius Vase was unearthed in 1851.
It was covered with pictures including a holding a wax tablet in one hand while manipulating counters on a table with the other. The earliest known documentation of the Chinese abacus dates to the 2nd century BC. The Chinese abacus, known as the suanpan, is typically 20 cm tall and it usually has more than seven rods. There are two beads on each rod in the deck and five beads each in the bottom for both decimal and hexadecimal computation
Geometry
Geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer, Geometry arose independently in a number of early cultures as a practical way for dealing with lengths and volumes. Geometry began to see elements of mathematical science emerging in the West as early as the 6th century BC. By the 3rd century BC, geometry was put into a form by Euclid, whose treatment, Euclids Elements. Geometry arose independently in India, with texts providing rules for geometric constructions appearing as early as the 3rd century BC, islamic scientists preserved Greek ideas and expanded on them during the Middle Ages. By the early 17th century, geometry had been put on a solid footing by mathematicians such as René Descartes. Since then, and into modern times, geometry has expanded into non-Euclidean geometry and manifolds, while geometry has evolved significantly throughout the years, there are some general concepts that are more or less fundamental to geometry.
These include the concepts of points, planes, angles, contemporary geometry has many subfields, Euclidean geometry is geometry in its classical sense. The mandatory educational curriculum of the majority of nations includes the study of points, planes, triangles, similarity, solid figures, Euclidean geometry has applications in computer science and various branches of modern mathematics. Differential geometry uses techniques of calculus and linear algebra to problems in geometry. It has applications in physics, including in general relativity, topology is the field concerned with the properties of geometric objects that are unchanged by continuous mappings. In practice, this often means dealing with large-scale properties of spaces, convex geometry investigates convex shapes in the Euclidean space and its more abstract analogues, often using techniques of real analysis. It has close connections to convex analysis and functional analysis, algebraic geometry studies geometry through the use of multivariate polynomials and other algebraic techniques.
It has applications in areas, including cryptography and string theory. Discrete geometry is concerned mainly with questions of relative position of simple objects, such as points. It shares many methods and principles with combinatorics, Geometry has applications to many fields, including art, physics, as well as to other branches of mathematics. The earliest recorded beginnings of geometry can be traced to ancient Mesopotamia, the earliest known texts on geometry are the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus and Moscow Papyrus, the Babylonian clay tablets such as Plimpton 322. For example, the Moscow Papyrus gives a formula for calculating the volume of a truncated pyramid, clay tablets demonstrate that Babylonian astronomers implemented trapezoid procedures for computing Jupiters position and motion within time-velocity space
Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja
Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja was an Italian count and mathematician, who became known for his love and subsequent theft of ancient and precious manuscripts. He was sentenced in France to 10 years in jail in absentia, some of the works were returned when he died. The letter was written by Descartes to Father Marin Mersenne who had been overseeing the publication of Descartess Meditations on First Philosophy and he was born on born on New Years Day, January 1,1803 in Florence, Italy. He entered the University of Pisa in 1816, starting to study law and he graduated in 1820, his first works being praised by Babbage and Gauss. In 1823, at the age of 20, he was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics at Pisa, but did not relish teaching and the following year went on sabbatical leave, traveling to Paris. There, he became friends with many of the most prominent French mathematicians of the day, including Laplace, Ampère, Fourier and Arago. Upon his return to Italy, he involved in politics.
Faced with arrest and prosecution, he fled to France In 1833 and he was elected to the Academy and given the Légion dhonneur. Although his friendship with Arago helped him obtain some these prestigious posts, eventually their relationship went sour, between 1838 and 1841 Count Libri wrote and published a four volume History of the Mathematical Sciences in Italy from the Renaissance of literature to the 17th Century. In 1841, Libri obtained an appointment as Chief Inspector of French Libraries through his friendship with influential French Chief of Police François Guizot, in 1842, he stole the Ashburnham Pentateuch at the Library of Tours. He did not, hesitate to mutilate certain manuscripts, five volumes of the Peiresc fund, in 1848, as France was involved in a liberal revolution and the government fell, a warrant was issued for Libris arrest. However he received a tip-off and fled to London, shipping 18 large trunks of books and manuscripts, about 30,000 items, before doing so. On June 22,1850, he was, found guilty of theft by a French Court and his friend, the archaeologist and writer Prosper Mérimée, argued in his favor and was prosecuted for this.
Although Libri had arrived in England with nothing but his books and manuscripts, he led a good life and his money came from selling his books. Two large sales held in 1861 reputedly netted him over a million francs, in 1868, when his health started to deteriorate, Libri returned to Florence and died in Fiesole, Italy on September 28,1869. In 1888, the 5th Earl of Ashburnham sold a part of the documents stolen in France to the French national library including the Ashburnham Pentateuch. In 2010, one of the items, a letter from Descartes to Father Marin Mersenne concerning the publication of “Meditations on First Philosophy”, was discovered in the library of Haverford College. The college has returned the letter to the Institut de France on June 8,2010, andrea Del Centina, Alessandra Fiocca, Guglielmo Libri, matematico e storico della matematica
Piazza dei Miracoli
Considered sacred by the Catholic Church, its owner, the square is dominated by four great religious edifices, the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistry, the Campanile, and the Camposanto Monumentale. Partly paved and partly grassed, the Piazza dei Miracoli is the site of the Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito, which houses the Sinopias Museum, the square is sometimes called the Campo dei Miracoli. In 1987, the square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The heart of the Piazza del Duomo is the Duomo, the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Pisa. The cathedral has two aisles on either side of the nave, the transept consists of three aisles. The church is as the Primatial, the archbishop of Pisa being a Primate since 1092. Its construction began in 1064 by the architect Buscheto and it set the model for the distinctive Pisan Romanesque style of architecture. The mosaics of the interior, as well as the pointed arches, the façade, of grey marble and white stone set with discs of coloured marble, was built by a master named Rainaldo, as indicated by an inscription above the middle door, Rainaldus prudens operator.
The massive bronze doors were made in the workshops of Giambologna. The original central door was of bronze, made around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano, worshippers have never used the façade doors to enter, instead entering by way of the Porta di San Ranieri, in front of the Leaning Tower, built around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano. Above the doors are four rows of galleries with, on top, statues of Madonna with Child and, on the corners. Also in the façade is found the tomb of Buscheto and an inscription about the foundation of the Cathedral, the interior is faced with black and white marble and has a gilded ceiling and a frescoed dome. It was largely redecorated after a fire in 1595, which destroyed most of the Renaissance art works, the impressive mosaic of Christ in Majesty, in the apse, flanked by the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Evangelist, survived the fire. It evokes the mosaics in the church of Monreale, although it is said that the mosaic was done by Cimabue, only the head of St. John was done by the artist in 1302, his last work, since he died in Pisa the same year.
The cupola, at the intersection of the nave and transept, was decorated by Riminaldi showing the assumption of the Blessed Virgin. Galileo is believed to have formulated his theory about the movement of a pendulum by watching the swinging of the lamp hanging from the ceiling of the nave. That lamp and simpler than the present one, is now kept in the Camposanto, the granite Corinthian columns between the nave and the aisle came originally from the mosque of Palermo, captured by the Pisans in 1063. The coffer ceiling of the nave was replaced after the fire of 1595, the present gold-decorated ceiling carries the coat of arms of the Medici
Mediterranean Sea
The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km.
The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer.
In Ottoman Turkish, it has been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its tower, the city of over 90,834 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces. Much of the architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics. The origin of the name, Pisa, is a mystery, while the origin of the city had remained unknown for centuries, the Pelasgi, the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Ligurians had variously been proposed as founders of the city. Archaeological remains from the 5th century BC confirmed the existence of a city at the sea, trading with Greeks, the presence of an Etruscan necropolis, discovered during excavations in the Arena Garibaldi in 1991, confirmed its Etruscan origins. Ancient Roman authors referred to Pisa as an old city, strabo referred Pisas origins to the mythical Nestor, king of Pylos, after the fall of Troy.
Virgil, in his Aeneid, states that Pisa was already a center by the times described. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti, or Pelops, the maritime role of Pisa should have been already prominent if the ancient authorities ascribed to it the invention of the naval ram. Pisa took advantage of being the port along the western coast from Genoa to Ostia. Pisa served as a base for Roman naval expeditions against Ligurians, Gauls, in 180 BC, it became a Roman colony under Roman law, as Portus Pisanus. In 89 BC, Portus Pisanus became a municipium, Emperor Augustus fortified the colony into an important port and changed the name in Colonia Iulia obsequens. It is supposed that Pisa was founded on the shore, due to the alluvial sediments from the Arno and the Serchio, whose mouth lies about 11 kilometres north of the Arnos, the shore moved west. Strabo states that the city was 4.0 kilometres away from the coast, currently, it is located 9.7 kilometres from the coast. However it was a city, with ships sailing up the Arno.
In the 90s AD, a complex was built in the city. During the years of the Roman Empire, Pisa did not decline as much as the cities of Italy, probably thanks to the complexity of its river system. After Charlemagne had defeated the Lombards under the command of Desiderius in 774, Pisa went through a crisis, politically it became part of the duchy of Lucca
National Central Library (Florence)
The library was founded in 1714 when scholar Antonio Magliabechi bequeathed his entire collection of books, encompassing approximately 30,000 volumes, to the city of Florence. By 1743, it was required that a copy of work published in Tuscany be submitted to the library. Originally known as the Magliabechiana, the library was opened to the public in 1747 and its holdings were combined with those of the Biblioteca Palatina in 1861, and by 1885, the library had been renamed as the National Central Library of Florence, or the BNCF. Since 1870, the library has collected copies of all Italian publications, since 1935, the collections have been housed in a building designed by Cesare Bazzani and V. Mazzei, located along the Arno River in the quarter of Santa Croce. Before this, they were found in various rooms belonging to the Uffizi Gallery, the National Library System, located in the BNCF, is responsible for the automation of library services and the indexing of national holdings. Unfortunately, a flood of the Arno River in 1966 damaged nearly one-third of the librarys holdings, most notably its periodicals and Palatine.
The Restoration Center was subsequently established and may be credited with saving many of these priceless artifacts, much work remains to be done and some items are forever lost
