1.
Editorial Ivrea
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Editorial Ivrea is an Argentine manga and comics publisher that publishes in Argentina, Spain and Finland. They also published Lazer, a magazine which was specialized in anime, comics, manga, series, the magazine has an acid humor and has also organized parties in Argentina. On June 15,2008, they started Lazer Royale, in which they made Concourse for cosplayers, famous singers Nobuo Yamada and Ricardo Cruz also appeared during the event. During August 2009, Ivrea announced the end of Lazers publication due to issues with Shueisha. Editorial Ivrea was founded in 1997 in Argentina, and since then, initially, they published manga volumes of 200 pages and others of 100 pages, which are half of the tankōbon format. Later, they started releasing manwhua and Argentinian comics, including EL NEGRO BLANCO, the Spanish publisher specializes in comics focused on different ages and has also released South American and European books, as well as artbooks from manga series
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
4.
Regions of Italy
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The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of Italy, constituting its second NUTS administrative level. There are 20 regions, of five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes. Each region, except for the Aosta Valley, is divided into provinces, regions are autonomous entities with powers defined in the Constitution. As the administrative districts of the state during the Kingdom of Italy. The original draft list comprised the Salento region, friuli and Venezia Giulia were separate regions, and Basilicata was named Lucania. Abruzzo and Molise were identified as regions in the first draft. They were later merged into Abruzzo e Molise in the constitution of 1948. Implementation of regional autonomy was postponed until the first Regional Elections of 1970, the ruling Christian Democracy party did not want the opposition Italian Communist Party to gain power in the regions, where it was historically rooted. Regions acquired a significant level of autonomy following a reform in 2001. In June 2006 the proposals, which had been associated with Lega Nord. The results varied considerably among the regions, ranging from 55. 3% in favour in Veneto to 82% against in Calabria, number of regions controlled by each coalition since 1995, Macroregions are the first-level NUTS of the European Union. These regions, whose statutes are approved by their councils, were created in 1970. Since the constitutional reform of 2001 they have had residual legislative powers, the regions have exclusive legislative power with respect to any matters not expressly reserved to state law. Yet their financial autonomy is quite modest, they just keep 20% of all levied taxes, Article 116 of the Italian Constitution grants to five regions home rule, acknowledging their powers in relation to legislation, administration and finance. These regions became autonomous in order to take into account cultural differences, moreover, the government wanted to prevent their secession from Italy after the Second World War. Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol constitutes a special case, the region is nearly powerless, and the powers granted by the regions statute are mostly exercised by the two autonomous provinces within the region, Trentino and South Tyrol. In this case, the regional institution plays a coordinating role, the latter is directly elected by the citizens of each region, with the exceptions of Aosta Valley and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, where he is chosen by the regional council. Under the 1995 electoral law, the winning coalition receives a majority of seats on the council
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Piedmont
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Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.6 million, the capital of Piedmont is Turin. The name Piedmont comes from medieval Latin Pedemontium or Pedemontis, i. e. ad pedem montium, meaning “at the foot of the mountains”. Other towns of Piedmont with more than 20,000 inhabitants sorted by population and it borders with France, Switzerland and the Italian regions of Lombardy, Liguria, Aosta Valley and for a very small fragment with Emilia Romagna. The geography of Piedmont is 43. 3% mountainous, along with areas of hills. Piedmont is the second largest of Italys 20 regions, after Sicily and it is broadly coincident with the upper part of the drainage basin of the river Po, which rises from the slopes of Monviso in the west of the region and is Italy’s largest river. The Po collects all the waters provided within the semicircle of mountains which surround the region on three sides, from the highest peaks the land slopes down to hilly areas, and then to the upper, and then to the lower great Padan Plain. 7. 6% of the territory is considered protected area. There are 56 different national or regional parks, one of the most famous is the Gran Paradiso National Park located between Piedmont and the Aosta Valley, Piedmont was inhabited in early historic times by Celtic-Ligurian tribes such as the Taurini and the Salassi. They were later subdued by the Romans, who founded several colonies there including Augusta Taurinorum, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was repeatedly invaded by the Burgundians, the Goths, Byzantines, Lombards, Franks. In the 9th–10th centuries there were incursions by the Magyars. At the time Piedmont, as part of the Kingdom of Italy within the Holy Roman Empire, was subdivided into several marks, in 1046, Oddo of Savoy added Piedmont to their main territory of Savoy, with a capital at Chambéry. Other areas remained independent, such as the powerful comuni of Asti and Alessandria, the County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy in 1416, and Duke Emanuele Filiberto moved the seat to Turin in 1563. In 1720, the Duke of Savoy became King of Sardinia, founding what evolved into the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Republic of Alba was created in 1796 as a French client republic in Piedmont. A new client republic, the Piedmontese Republic, existed between 1798 and 1799 before it was reoccupied by Austrian and Russian troops, in June 1800 a third client republic, the Subalpine Republic, was established in Piedmont. It fell under full French control in 1801 and it was annexed by France in September 1802, in the congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Sardinia was restored, and furthermore received the Republic of Genoa to strengthen it as a barrier against France. Piedmont was a springboard for Italys unification in 1859–1861, following earlier unsuccessful wars against the Austrian Empire in 1820–1821 and this process is sometimes referred to as Piedmontisation. However, the efforts were countered by the efforts of rural farmers
6.
Metropolitan cities of Italy
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The metropolitan city is an administrative division of Italy, operative since 2015. In 2009, amendments added Reggio Calabria to the list, the metropolitan areas individuated by the autonomous regions were, Trieste in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Cagliari in Sardinia, Catania, Messina and Palermo in Sicily. On 3 April 2014 the Italian Parliament approved a law that establishes 10 metropolitan cities in Italy, the new metropolitan cities have been operative since 1 January 2015. The metropolitan city is composed by the municipalities that before had been members of the same province, each metropolitan city is headed by a metropolitan mayor assisted by a legislative body, the Metropolitan council, and by a non-legislative assembly, the metropolitan conference. Members of the Metropolitan council are elected and chosen by mayors and city councilors of each municipality in the metropolitan city, the metropolitan conference is composed by the mayors of the municipalities closest to the capital. The main functions devolved to the new cities are, local planning and zoning, provision of local police services, transport. Regions of Italy Provinces of Italy Municipalities of Italy Media related to Metropolitan cities of Italy at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Metropolitan City of Turin
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The Metropolitan City of Turin is a metropolitan city in the Piedmont region, Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin and it replaced the Province of Turin and comprises the city of Turin and 315 other municipalities. It was first created by the reform of local authorities and then established by the Law 56/2014 and it has been officially operative since 1 January 2015. The Metropolitan City of Turin is headed by the metropolitan mayor, since 1 January 2015 Piero Fassino, as mayor of the capital city, has been the first mayor of the metropolitan city. It has an area of 6,830 km2, and a population of 2,306,676. There are 315 comuni in the metropolitan area – the most of any province or metropolitan city in Italy, the second province with the highest number of comuni is that of Cuneo, with 250. The territory consists of an area to the west and north along the border with France and with the Valle dAosta. The mountainous part is home to part of the Hautes Alpes, the highest point in the Metropolitan City of Turin is the Roc, located in the Gran Paradiso massif on the border with Valle dAosta. Several wildlife reserves are located in the province, including the Sacro Monte Natural Reserve in Belmonte, the Residences of the House of Savoy, located in Turin and several other towns in the province, as well as the Sacro Monte of Belmonte are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Metropolitan City currently has a number of rail and road work sites. Although this activity has increased as a result of the 2006 Winter Olympics, one is the Spina Centrale project which includes the doubling of a major railway crossing the city, the Turin-Milan railway locally known as Passante Ferroviario di Torino. The railroad previously ran in a trench, which will now be covered by a boulevard running from North to South of Turin, in a central position along the city. Porta Susa, on this section, will become Turins main station to substitute the terminus of Porta Nuova with a through station. Other important stations are Stura, Rebaudengo, Lingotto and Madonna di Campagna railway stations, the other major project is the construction of a subway line based on the VAL system, known as Metrotorino. The first leg of the system linked the nearby town of Collegno with Porta Susa in Turins city centre. On 4 October 2007 the line was extended to Porta Nuova and then, in March 2011, to Lingotto. A new extension of the so-called Linea 1 is expected in the near future, furthermore, an alleged Linea 2 is in the pipeline and it is supposed to cross Turin from North to South. As of 2010 also a bicycle sharing system, the ToBike, is operational, the metropolitan area is served by Turin metropolitan railway service
8.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
9.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
10.
Central European Summer Time
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It corresponds to UTC + two hours. Other names which have been applied to Central European Summer Time are Middle European Summer Time, Central European Daylight Saving Time, and Bravo Time. Since 1996 European Summer Time has been observed between 1,00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and 1,00 on the last Sunday of October, the following countries and territories use Central European Summer Time. In addition, Libya used CEST during the years 1951–1959, 1982–1989, 1996–1997, European Summer Time Other countries and territories in UTC+2 time zone Other names of UTC+2 time zone
11.
Sabinus of Spoleto
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For other saints called Sabinus, see Sabinus Saint Sabinus of Spoleto was a Bishop in the Christian church who resisted the persecutions of Diocletian and was martyred. According to legend, Venustian, governor of Etruria and Umbria, had Sabinus, diocletians order required all Christians to sacrifice to the gods or be put to death, with their estates seized for the state. Venustian mocked Sabinuss faith, accusing him of leading the people to the worship of a dead man, when Sabinus said that Christ rose on the third day, Venustian invited him to do the same thing. He had Sabinuss hands cut off, the deacons were in great fear, but Sabinus encouraged them to hold to their faith, and they died after being torn apart by iron hooks. In prison after the martyrdom of his deacons, he was tended by a woman named Serena, while in prison, he healed a man born blind. Venustian heard of the cure and sought a cure for his own eyes from Sabinus, Sabinus healed the governor and converted him to Christianity. Maximianus Herculius, hearing of this, ordered the tribune Lucius to address the matter, Lucius had Venustian, his wife, and his two sons beheaded at Assisi, and he had Sabinus beaten to death at Spoleto. Sabinuss feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is 7 December and he is depicted in the Maestà of Duccio. The Roman Martyrology lists six saints called Sabinus, three of whom were bishops, the other two are Sabinus of Canossa and Sabinus of Piacenza
12.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
13.
Aosta Valley
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The Aosta Valley is a mountainous semi-autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France to the west, Valais, Switzerland to the north, covering an area of 3,263 km2 and with a population of about 128,000 it is the smallest, least populous, and least densely populated region of Italy. It is the only Italian region that is not sub-divided into provinces, provincial administrative functions are provided by the regional government. The region is divided into 74 comuni, the Aosta Valley is an Alpine valley which with its tributary valleys includes the Italian slopes of Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, Gran Paradiso and the Matterhorn, its highest peak is Mont Blanc. The region is cold in the winter, especially when compared with other places in the Western Alps. Winter temperatures average around −3 °C or −4 °C, and summers between 13 °C and 15 °C, the snow season starts in November and lasts until March. Mist is common during the morning from April until October, the main communities in this area are Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Brusson and Gressoney-La-Trinité. The valleys above 1600 metres usually have a Cold Continental Climate, in this climate the snow season is very long, as long as 8 or 9 months at the highest points. During the summer, mist occurs almost every day and these areas are the wettest in the western Alps. Temperatures are low, between −7 °C and −3 °C in January, and in July between 10 °C and 13 °C. In this area is the town of Rhêmes-Notre-Dame. which may be the coldest town in the Western Alps, areas between 2000 metres and 3500 metres usually have a Tundra Climate, where every month has an average temperature below 10 °C. Temperature averages in Pian Rosà, at 3400 metres high, are −11.6 °C in January and 1.4 °C in July and it is the coldest place in Italy where the climate is verifiable. In the past, above 3500 metres, all months were having a temperature below freezing. In recent years there was a rise in temperatures. See as an example the data for Pian Rosà, the first inhabitants of the Aosta Valley were Celts and Ligures, whose language heritage remains in some local placenames. Thus, the name Valle dAosta literally means Valley of Augustus, saint Anselm of Canterbury was born in Aosta in 1033 or 1034. In the mid-13th century Emperor Frederick II made the County of Aosta a duchy, the region remained part of Savoy lands, with the exceptions of French occupations from 1539 to 1563, later in 1691, then between 1704 and 1706. As part of the Kingdom of Sardinia it joined the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861 and it was also ruled by the First French Empire between 1800 and 1814
14.
Via Francigena
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As such, the route passes through England, France, Switzerland and Italy. The route was known in Italy as the Via Francigena or the Via Romea Francigena, in mediaeval times it was an important road and pilgrimage route for those wishing to visit the Holy See and the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul. In the Middle Ages, Via Francigena was the pilgrimage route to Rome from the north. It was Via Francigena-Francisca in Italy and Burgundy, the Chemin des Anglois in the Frankish Kingdom and also the Chemin Romieux, the name Via Francigena is first mentioned in the Actum Clusio, a parchment of 876 in the Abbey of San Salvatore al Monte Amiata. Later itineraries to Rome include the Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan of the Icelandic traveller Nikolás Bergsson, two somewhat differing maps of the route appear in manuscripts of Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum, from the 13th century. Reports of journeys before Sigeric can only be apocryphal and we may be quite certain that the Benedictine William of St-Thierry, used the roads towards Rome on several occasions at the end of the 11th century. The return journey by sea was likely to be easier, thanks to the prevailing south-westerly winds, a statement that a historical figure died in Rome may have been a historical falsity, but a metaphorical truth. The Via Francigena was not a road, like a Roman road, paved with stone blocks. Rather, it comprised several possible routes that changed over the centuries as trade, the Lombards financed the maintenance and security of the section of road through their territories as a trading route to the north from Rome, avoiding enemy-held cities such as Florence. Another important point is that unlike Roman roads, the Via Francigena did not connect cities, circa 990 AD, Archbishop Sigeric journeyed from Canterbury to Rome and then back again but only documented his itinerary on the return journey. Sigerics return journey consisted of 80 stages averaging about 20 km a day, from Saint-Maurice they must traverse the Great St. James pilgrims route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Roughly 1,200 pilgrims were estimated to have walked the VF in 2012, one reason for this is a lack of infrastructure and suitable support facilities. Affordable pilgrims accommodation and other facilities can be hard to come by for those traveling along the route, however increasingly in Italy, some monasteries and religious houses offer dedicated pilgrims accommodation. These are called spedali and — like the refugios found on the Way of St. James in France and Spain — they offer cheap, spedali accept pilgrims who bear a valid credenziale, usually for one night only. Some places offer meals as well, only a few decades ago, interest in the Via Francigena was limited to scholars. This began to change in recent years many who, after travelling the Way of St. James in Spain. In Italy, this gave birth to a network of lovers of the Via Francigena and these people were joined by religious and local government agencies who also tried to recover the original route. Where possible todays route follows the ancient one but sometimes it deviates from the path in favour of paths
15.
Dora Baltea
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Dora Baltea or Doire Baltée, is a river in northern Italy. It is a tributary of the Po River and is about 170 kilometres long. It originates by Mont Blanc as the confluence of the Dora di Ferret, fed by the Pré de Bar Glacier in Val Ferret, and the Dora di Veny, fed by the Miage Glacier in Val Veny. As it crosses the Aosta Valley, the Dora Baltea flows through the city of Aosta and near all the cities of the lower Aosta Valley, Châtillon, Saint-Vincent, Verrès. It is a place for whitewater rafting and kayaking. Early in the summer, in May and June, the rivers are usually high with snow melt from the mountains, during July, August and September the water levels are usually lower and the temperature warmer. The Dora Riparia is another tributary of the Po
16.
Canavese
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Canavese is a subalpine geographical and historical area of North-West Italy which lies today within the Metropolitan City of Turin in Piedmont. Its main town is Ivrea and it is famous for its castles, to the North it borders on the Aosta Valley and to the East on the provinces of Biella and Vercelli. To the South and West the borders have varied over time but might be taken as being the rivers Stura di Lanzo, the valley of the river Orco and the area around Corio fall within the Canavese. The main centres, in addition to Ivrea, are Caluso, Chivasso, Cirié, Cuorgnè, the first inhabitants of Canavese were the Salassi, a tribe of Celto-Ligurian roots, the Romans arrived in 22 BCE. When the Roman Empire fell, Canavese fell under the domination of Byzantium and it was then conquered by Lombards and later by Franks. After the death of Arduino, marquis of Ivrea and the first to bear the title of king of Italy and this was the beginning of the big families of Canavese, San Martino, Valperga, de Candia, Castellamonte, and later the Biandrate family from Novara. The House of Savoy started its expansion in Canavese in the 14th century. In the 16th century, Canavese came under French domination, then Spanish domination, napoleons defeat in 1814 returned Canavese under the House of Savoy. Media related to Canavese at Wikimedia Commons CORSAC Official web site for European Sacred Mounts
17.
Celts
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The history of pre-Celtic Europe remains very uncertain. According to one theory, the root of the Celtic languages, the Proto-Celtic language, arose in the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of Central Europe. Thus this area is called the Celtic homeland. The earliest undisputed examples of a Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions beginning in the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names, Insular Celtic languages are attested beginning around the 4th century in Ogham inscriptions, although it was clearly being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century, coherent texts of Early Irish literature, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge, survive in 12th century recensions. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a cohesive cultural entity. They had a linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from the culture of the surrounding polities. By the 6th century, however, the Continental Celtic languages were no longer in wide use, Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels and the Celtic Britons of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival. The first recorded use of the name of Celts – as Κελτοί – to refer to a group was by Hecataeus of Miletus, the Greek geographer, in 517 BC. In the fifth century BC Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the head of the Danube, the etymology of the term Keltoi is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European *kʲel ‘to hide’, IE *kʲel ‘to heat’ or *kel ‘to impel’, several authors have supposed it to be Celtic in origin, while others view it as a name coined by Greeks. Linguist Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel falls in the group. Yet he reports Celtic peoples in Iberia, and also uses the ethnic names Celtiberi and Celtici for peoples there, as distinct from Lusitani, pliny the Elder cited the use of Celtici in Lusitania as a tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. Latin Gallus might stem from a Celtic ethnic or tribal name originally and its root may be the Proto-Celtic *galno, meaning “power, strength”, hence Old Irish gal “boldness, ferocity” and Welsh gallu “to be able, power”. The tribal names of Gallaeci and the Greek Γαλάται most probably have the same origin, the suffix -atai might be an Ancient Greek inflection. Proto-Germanic *walha is derived ultimately from the name of the Volcae and this means that English Gaul, despite its superficial similarity, is not actually derived from Latin Gallia, though it does refer to the same ancient region
18.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
19.
Alps
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The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high mountain peaks such as Mont Blanc, Mont Blanc spans the French–Italian border, and at 4,810 m is the highest mountain in the Alps. The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4000 metres, the altitude and size of the range affects the climate in Europe, in the mountains precipitation levels vary greatly and climatic conditions consist of distinct zones. Wildlife such as live in the higher peaks to elevations of 3,400 m. Evidence of human habitation in the Alps goes back to the Palaeolithic era, a mummified man, determined to be 5,000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian–Italian border in 1991. By the 6th century BC, the Celtic La Tène culture was well established, Hannibal famously crossed the Alps with a herd of elephants, and the Romans had settlements in the region. In 1800 Napoleon crossed one of the passes with an army of 40,000. The 18th and 19th centuries saw an influx of naturalists, writers, in World War II, Adolf Hitler kept a base of operation in the Bavarian Alps throughout the war. The Alpine region has a cultural identity. The Winter Olympic Games have been hosted in the Swiss, French, at present, the region is home to 14 million people and has 120 million annual visitors. The English word Alps derives from the Latin Alpes, maurus Servius Honoratus, an ancient commentator of Virgil, says in his commentary that all high mountains are called Alpes by Celts. The term may be common to Italo-Celtic, because the Celtic languages have terms for high mountains derived from alp and this may be consistent with the theory that in Greek Alpes is a name of non-Indo-European origin. According to the Old English Dictionary, the Latin Alpes might possibly derive from a pre-Indo-European word *alb hill, Albania, a name not native to the region known as the country of Albania, has been used as a name for a number of mountainous areas across Europe. In Roman times, Albania was a name for the eastern Caucasus, in modern languages the term alp, alm, albe or alpe refers to a grazing pastures in the alpine regions below the glaciers, not the peaks. An alp refers to a mountain pasture where cows are taken to be grazed during the summer months and where hay barns can be found. The Alps are a crescent shaped geographic feature of central Europe that ranges in a 800 km arc from east to west and is 200 km in width, the mean height of the mountain peaks is 2.5 km. The range stretches from the Mediterranean Sea north above the Po basin, extending through France from Grenoble, the range continues onward toward Vienna, Austria, and east to the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. To the south it dips into northern Italy and to the north extends to the border of Bavaria in Germany
20.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
21.
Western Roman Empire
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Theodosius I divided the Empire upon his death between his two sons. As the Roman Republic expanded, it reached a point where the government in Rome could not effectively rule the distant provinces. Communications and transportation were especially problematic given the vast extent of the Empire, for this reason, provincial governors had de facto rule in the name of the Roman Republic. Antony received the provinces in the East, Achaea, Macedonia and Epirus, Bithynia, Pontus and Asia, Syria, Cyprus and these lands had previously been conquered by Alexander the Great, thus, much of the aristocracy was of Greek origin. The whole region, especially the cities, had been largely assimilated into Greek culture. Octavian obtained the Roman provinces of the West, Italia, Gaul, Gallia Belgica and these lands also included Greek and Carthaginian colonies in the coastal areas, though Celtic tribes such as Gauls and Celtiberians were culturally dominant. Lepidus received the province of Africa. Octavian soon took Africa from Lepidus, while adding Sicilia to his holdings, upon the defeat of Mark Antony, a victorious Octavian controlled a united Roman Empire. While the Roman Empire featured many distinct cultures, all were often said to experience gradual Romanization, minor rebellions and uprisings were fairly common events throughout the Empire. Conquered tribes or cities would revolt, and the legions would be detached to crush the rebellion, while this process was simple in peacetime, it could be considerably more complicated in wartime, as for example in the Great Jewish Revolt. In a full-blown military campaign, the legions, under such as Vespasian, were far more numerous. To ensure a commanders loyalty, an emperor might hold some members of the generals family hostage. To this end, Nero effectively held Domitian and Quintus Petillius Cerialis, governor of Ostia, the rule of Nero ended only with the revolt of the Praetorian Guard, who had been bribed in the name of Galba. The Praetorian Guard, a sword of Damocles, were often perceived as being of dubious loyalty. Following their example, the legions at the increased participation in the civil wars. The main enemy in the West was arguably the Germanic tribes behind the rivers Rhine, Augustus had tried to conquer them but ultimately pulled back after the Teutoburg reversal. The Parthian Empire, in the East, on the hand, was too remote. Those distant territories were forsaken to prevent unrest and also to ensure a more healthy, the Parthians were followed by the Sasanian Empire, which continued hostilities with the Roman Empire
22.
Lombards
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The Lombards or Longobards were a Germanic people who ruled large parts of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. In the 1st century AD, they formed part of the Suebi, the Lombard king Audoin defeated the Gepid leader Thurisind in 551 or 552, his successor Alboin eventually destroyed the Gepids at the Battle of Asfeld in 567. The Lombards were joined by numerous Saxons, Heruls, Gepids, Bulgars, Thuringians, and Ostrogoths, by late 569 they had conquered all north of Italy and the principal cities north of the Po River except Pavia, which fell in 572. At the same time, they occupied areas in central Italy and they established a Lombard Kingdom in north and central Italy, later named Regnum Italicum, which reached its zenith under the 8th-century ruler Liutprand. In 774, the Kingdom was conquered by the Frankish King Charlemagne, however, Lombard nobles continued to rule southern parts of the Italian peninsula, well into the 11th century when they were conquered by the Normans and added to their County of Sicily. In this period, the part of Italy still under Longobardic domination was known by the name Langbarðaland in the Norse runestones. Their legacy is apparent in the regional name Lombardy. The fullest account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon, pauls chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum. The Origo Gentis Langobardorum tells the story of a tribe called the Winnili dwelling in southern Scandinavia. The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left their land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably overpopulation, the departing people were led by the brothers Ybor and Aio and their mother Gambara and arrived in the lands of Scoringa, perhaps the Baltic coast or the Bardengau on the banks of the Elbe. Scoringa was ruled by the Vandals and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, the Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute. The Vandals prepared for war and consulted Godan, who answered that he would give the victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise. The Winnili were fewer in number and Gambara sought help from Frea, at sunrise, Frea turned her husbands bed so that he was facing east, and woke him. So Godan spotted the Winnili first and asked, Who are these long-beards. and Frea replied, My lord, thou hast given them the name, from that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the Longbeards. When Paul the Deacon wrote the Historia between 787 and 796 he was a Catholic monk and devoted Christian and he thought the pagan stories of his people silly and laughable. Paul explained that the name Langobard came from the length of their beards, a modern theory suggests that the name Langobard comes from Langbarðr, a name of Odin. Priester states that when the Winnili changed their name to Lombards, they changed their old agricultural fertility cult to a cult of Odin
23.
Franks
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Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium, the kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 CE. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, which greatly increased their power. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages, the term Frank was used in the east as a synonym for western European, as the Franks were then rulers of most of Western Europe. The Franks in the east kept their Germanic language and became part of the Germans, Dutch, Flemings, the Franconian languages, which are called Frankisch in Dutch or Fränkisch in German, originated at least partly in the Old Frankish language of the Franks. Nowadays, the German and Dutch names for France are Frankreich and Frankrijk, respectively, the name Franci was originally socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike, they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the tribes, though the older names have survived in some place-names, such as Hesse. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English and it has been suggested that the meaning of free was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation. It is traditionally assumed that Frank comes from the Germanic word for javelin, there is also another theory that suggests that Frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning. Words in other Germanic languages meaning fierce, bold or insolent, eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures, Ubi nunc est illa ferocia. Feroces was used often to describe the Franks, contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. According to their law and their custom, writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that the word Frankish quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest. Two early sources describe the origin of the Franks are a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar. Neither of these works are accepted by historians as trustworthy, compared with Gregory of Tourss Historia Francorum, the chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy
24.
Arduin of Ivrea
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Arduin was an Italian nobleman who was Margrave of Ivrea and King of Italy. Arduin was born in 955 in Pombia during a period in which the Kingdom of Italy was struggling to maintain its independence from the ambitions of the Holy Roman Empire, Italy was conquered in 961 by Emperor Otto I, and the Italian King Berengar II was deposed. Arduin, Berengars grand-nephew, was only a boy when this happened, he later became Margrave of Ivrea in 990, Arduin was initially supported by the Archbishop of Milan. The new German king Henry II opposed Arduin, in 1004, Henry invaded Italy, defeated Arduin, and was crowned King of Italy in Pavia, however, he soon withdrew back to Germany, and Arduin was able to reassert his authority for the next decade. Henry II invaded Italy again in 1014 and was proclaimed Emperor in Rome and he died soon after at Fruttuaria Abbey, ending the independence of the Kingdom of Italy. There would not be another native King of Italy until Italian Reunification in 1861, in the year 961 the Emperor Otto I deposed Berengar II, King of Italy, and took the title for himself, unifying the crowns of Italy and Germany. But this did not erase the influence of Berengars Anscarid dynasty in northern Italy, Arduin was born around 955 in Pombia and named after his maternal grandfather, Arduin Glaber. His father, Dado, Count of Pombia, was a nephew of King Berengar II, Arduin married Bertha, who is often said to be the daughter of Otbert II, Margrave of Milan. They had three sons, Arduin, Otto, and Guibert, from them descended the later counts of Ivrea and in turn those of Agliè, Brosso, Castellamonte, Front and Rivarolo. In 990, Arduin succeeded his kinsman Conrad in the March of Ivrea, Conrad was Berengar IIs son and was married to a daughter of Arduin Glaber. It is unclear if Arduin was appointed to Ivrea by the king–emperor Otto III or if he succeeded as Conrads heir, Arduin became Count of the Sacred Palace of Lateran in Rome in 991. During his rule as Margrave of Ivrea, Arduin backed the claims of the orders and of the secondi milites. The hostility turned into open conflict in the year 997, when the Emperor Otto III granted to Pietro, Bishop of Vercelli, Arduin did not recognise the donation. There were riots in the city of Vercelli between the secondi milites and the followers, during which the bishop was killed. Arduin intervened in the city, formally to restore order, during the clashes, the cathedral, in the year 1000 Arduin was in Rome to explain his position to the newly appointed Pope Sylvester II. Arduin did not accept the sentence, at that point a clash with the Emperor seemed inevitable, but Otto III suddenly died near Rome on 23 January 1002 without leaving a direct heir, throwing the empire into a succession crisis. On 15 February, a diet of feudal lords and secondi milites in Pavia acclaimed Arduin King of Italy, according to the chronicler Arnulf of Milan, Arduin was elected by the Lombards in Pavia and was called caesar by all. He then made the rounds of the kingdom with the Archbishop of Milan publicly at his side, in Germany, Henry II was acclaimed king on 7 June 1002, and he did not recognize Arduins coronation
25.
Italian city-states
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The Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent states mostly in the central and northern Italian peninsula between the 9th and 15th centuries. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, urban settlements in Italy generally enjoyed a greater continuity than in the rest of western Europe, many of these towns were survivors of earlier Etruscan, Umbrian and Roman towns which had existed within the Roman Empire. The republican institutions of Rome had also survived, the very first Italian city-state can be considered the Republic of Venice, which de facto broke apart from Byzantine Empire since 742, becoming also de jure independent in the following centuries. The other first Italian city-states appeared in northern Italy as a result of a struggle to gain greater autonomy when not independent from the German Holy Roman Empire, other city-states were associated to these commune cities, like Genoa, Turin and, in the Adriatic, Ragusa. It is important to say that Venice was never subjected to the Holy Roman Empire, around 1100, Genoa and Venice emerged as independent Maritime republics. For Genoa – nominally – the Holy Roman Emperor was sovereign, pisa and Amalfi also emerged as maritime republics, trade, shipbuilding and banking helped support their powerful navies in the Mediterranean in those medieval centuries. Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy was vastly different from feudal Europe north of the Alps, the Peninsula was a melange of political and cultural elements, not a unified state. Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel have argued that geography determined the history of the region, the very mountainous nature of Italys landscape was a barrier to effective inter-city communication. The Po plain, however, was an exception, it was the large contiguous area. Those that survived the longest were in the more rugged regions, such as Florence or Venice, while those Roman, urban, republican sensibilities persisted, there were many movements and changes afoot. Italy first felt the changes in Europe from the 11th to the 13th centuries and he argues that these states were mostly republics, unlike the great European monarchies of France and Spain, where absolute power was vested in rulers who could and did stifle commerce. Even northern cities and states were also notable for their merchant republics, geographically, and because of trade, Italian cities such as Venice became international trading and banking hubs and intellectual crossroads. It is estimated that the per capita income of northern Italy nearly tripled from the 11th century to the 15th century and this was a highly mobile, demographically expanding society, fueled by the rapidly expanding Renaissance commerce. In the 14th century, just as the Italian Renaissance was beginning, Italy was the capital of Western Europe. However, with the Bubonic Plague in 1348, the birth of the English woolen industry and general warfare, however, by the late 15th century Italy was again in control of trade along the Mediterranean Sea. It found a new niche in luxury items like ceramics, glassware, lace, however, Italy would never regain its strong hold on textiles. And though it was the birthplace of banking, by the 16th century German, by the 13th century, northern and central Italy had become the most literate society in the world. More than one third of the population could read in the vernacular, as could a small
26.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Frederick II was a Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily in the Middle Ages, a member of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, however, his enemies, especially the popes, prevailed, and his dynasty collapsed soon after his death. As such, he was King of Germany, of Italy, at the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily as a co-ruler with his mother, Constance of Hauteville, the daughter of Roger II of Sicily. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage, Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist. Speaking six languages, Frederick was a patron of science. He played a role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a form of an Italo-Romance language. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and he was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational. After his death, his line died out and the House of Hohenstaufen came to an end. Born in Iesi, near Ancona, Italy, Frederick was the son of the emperor Henry VI and he was known as the puer Apuliae. Some chronicles say that his mother, the forty-year-old Constance, gave birth to him in a square in order to forestall any doubt about his origin. In 1196 at Frankfurt am Main the infant Frederick was elected King of the Germans and his rights in Germany were disputed by Henrys brother Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick. At the death of his father in 1197, Frederick was in Italy travelling towards Germany when the bad news reached his guardian, Conrad of Spoleto. Frederick was hastily brought back to his mother Constance in Palermo, Sicily, Constance of Sicily was in her own right queen of Sicily, and she established herself as regent. Upon Constances death in 1198, Pope Innocent III succeeded as Fredericks guardian, Fredericks tutor during this period was Cencio, who would become Pope Honorius III. However, Markward of Annweiler, with the support of Henrys brother, Philip of Swabia, reclaimed the regency for himself, in 1200, with the help of Genoese ships, he landed in Sicily and one year later seized the young Frederick. He thus ruled Sicily until 1202, when he was succeeded by another German captain, William of Capparone, Frederick was subsequently under tutor Walter of Palearia, until, in 1208, he was declared of age. His first task was to reassert his power over Sicily and southern Italy, Otto of Brunswick had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in 1209
27.
March of Montferrat
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The March of Montferrat was a frontier march of the Kingdom of Italy during the Middle Ages and a state of the Holy Roman Empire. The margraviate was raised to become the Duchy of Montferrat in 1574, originally part of the March of Western Liguria established by King Berengar II about 950, the area of Montferrat was constituted as the marca Aleramica for his son-in-law Aleramo. The earliest secure documentation of Aleramo and his family is derived from the founding charter of the Abbey of Grazzano in 961. Occasioned by the recent death of Aleramos son Gugliemo, after King Otto I of Germany had invaded Italy in 961 and displaced Berengar II, he began, in a manner much like his predecessors Berengar and Hugh of Arles, to redefine the great fiefs of Italy. He reorganised the northwest into three great marches, Western Liguria he restored to Aleramo, Eastern Liguria or the marca Januensis he gave to Oberto I, and Turin he made a march for Arduin Glaber. Alerams descendants were relatively obscure until the time of Marquess Rainier in the twelfth century. About 1133 Rainiers son Marquess William V married Judith of Babenberg, a half-sister of King Conrad III of Germany, and so greatly increased his familys prestige. He entered into the Italian policies of Conrad and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, setting a Ghibelline precedent for his successors, Marquess Boniface I was the leader of the Fourth Crusade and established the Kingdom of Thessalonica in the Latin Empire of Greece. Reuniting Thessalonic, inherited by Bonifaces Greek son Demetrius, with Montferrat became a goal of Bonifaces Italian heirs, in the thirteenth century, Montferrat waffled between the Guelph and Ghibelline parties under Boniface II and William VII. The capital of Montferrat at this time was Chivasso, the centre of the margraves power, in 1305, the last Aleramici margrave died and Montferrat was inherited by the Greek imperial Palaiologos dynasty, who held it until 1533, during a period of diminishing territoriality. In that year, Montferrat was seized by the Spanish under Emperor Charles V of Habsburg, list of rulers of Montferrat, for a list of margraves and dukes Iudiciaria Torrensis Duchy of Montferrat
28.
House of Savoy
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The House of Savoy is one of the oldest royal families in the world, being founded in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to the attainment of the rank of king in 1713, the Savoyard kings of Italy were Victor Emmanuel II, Umberto I, Victor Emmanuel III, and Umberto II. The last monarch ruled for a few weeks before being deposed following the Constitutional Referendum of 1946, the name derives from the historical region of Savoy in the Alpine region between what is now France and Italy. Over time, the House of Savoy expanded its territory and influence through judicious marriages, from rule of a small region on the French/Italian border, the dynastys realm included nearly all of the Italian Peninsula by the time of its deposition. The house descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia, Humberts family are thought to have originated from near Magdeburg in Saxony, with the earliest recording of the family being two 10th century brothers, Amadeus and Humbert. Though Sabaudia was originally a county, later counts were diplomatically skilled. Two of Humberts sons were bishops at the Abbey of Saint Maurice on the River Rhone east of Lake Geneva and this diplomatic skill caused the great powers such as France, England, and Spain to take the counts opinions into account. Piedmont was later joined with Sabaudia, and the name evolved into Savoy, the people of Savoy were descended from the Celts and Romans. In 1494, Charles VIII of France passed through Savoy on his way to Italy and Naples, during the outbreak of the Italian war of 1521-1526, Emperor Charles V stationed imperial troops in Savoy. In 1536, Francis I of France invaded Savoy and Piedmont taking Turin by April of that year, Charles III, Duke of Savoy, fled to Vercelli. He served Philip II as Governor of the Netherlands from 1555 to 1559, in this capacity he led the Spanish invasion of northern France and won a victory at St. Quentin in 1557. He took advantage of various squabbles in Europe to slowly regain territory from both the French and the Spanish, including the city of Turin and he moved the capital of the duchy from Chambéry to Turin. The 17th century brought economic development to the Turin area. Charles Emmanuel II developed the port of Nice and built a road through the Alps towards France, and through skillful political manoeuvres territorial expansion continued. Savoy rule over Sicily lasted only seven years, the crown of Sicily, the prestige of being kings at last, and the wealth of Palermo helped strengthen the House of Savoy further. In 1720 they were forced to exchange Sicily for Sardinia as a result of the War of the Quadruple Alliance, on the mainland, the dynasty continued its expansionist policies as well. In 1798, Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV to abdicate, eventually, in 1814 the kingdom was restored and enlarged with the addition of the former Republic of Genoa by the Congress of Vienna. In the meantime, nationalist figures such as Giuseppe Mazzini were influencing popular opinion, the Kingdom of Italy was the first Italian state to include the Italian Peninsula since the fall of the Roman Empire
29.
Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy
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Amadeus VI, nicknamed the Green Count was Count of Savoy from 1343 to 1383. He was the eldest son of Aymon, Count of Savoy, though he started under a regency, he showed himself to be a forceful leader, continuing Savoys emergence as a power in Europe politically and militarily. He participated in a crusade against the Turks who were moving into Europe, when his father died in 1343, Amadeus inherited the County of Savoy. Since he was nine years old, his fathers will left two cousins as co-regents, Amadeus III of Geneva and Louis II of Vaud. The two agreed to a document limiting their power as regents, neither could make any significant decision without the other, and the decisions of both were subject to review by the resident council of nobles representing all bailis in the county. Though she died the year, in her will she left the county to Philip. In 1345, he negotiated a settlement to the one Joan reached with Aymon. Amadeus was educated both physically and mentally and he enjoyed learning to fight and ride. His education included classic works such as De Re Militari and more modern texts including De Regimine Principum and he also showed religious devotion, requesting a portable altar and the right for his chaplain to say mass for him every morning wherever he may be. He took vows to fast more often than was healthy for him, the pope agreed, asking him instead to feed twelve of the poor weekly. When the young Angevin queen Joanna I of Naples took the throne, several in northern Italy sought to take advantage of her inexperience, John II, Marquess of Montferrat led the first attacks, while James of Piedmont, a cousin and vassal of Amadeus, backed the queen. After her first army was defeated in 1345, the attackers moved next into the territory ruled by James, in 1347, James asked Amadeus for help, and Amadeus sent an army. That army swept the attackers back through July of that year, John then recruited the help of Humbert II, Dauphin of Viennois, an old enemy of the Savoyards, and Thomas II, Marquess of Saluzzo. Together, they conquered the Angevin lands, Pope Clement VI spent 1348 negotiating a truce to end the fighting, which none of the combatants were satisfied with. From 1348 through 1351, the Black Death ravaged the lands of Savoy, in 1348, many of the peasants thought that it was caused by Jews poisoning wells and fountains. Though the castellans in some places tried to protect them, quite a few were killed, in Chambéry, the Jews were locked in the castle for their protection, but a mob broke in and killed several. Court officers were pressured into finding the remainder guilty of poisoning, executing eleven. In 1349, Amadeus agreed to a treaty between himself, Amadeus of Geneva, James of Piedmont, and the House of Visconti, rulers of Milan and this treaty included provisions for Galeazzo II Visconti to marry Bianca of Savoy, sister of the count
30.
Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais
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Benedetto of Savoy was an Italian nobleman and military leader, who was prince of Savoy and Duke of Chablais. He was born in the reign of his father Charles Emmanuel III and he married his niece and was the owner of the Palazzo Chiablese in Turin, the two did not have descendants. Chablais was born at the Palace of Venaria and he was the youngest child of his father Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and Élisabeth Thérèse of Lorraine. His mother died giving birth to him and he was named after Pope Benedict XIV who became pope the year before his birth. His paternal cousins included Louis XV of France, the future Ferdinand VI of Spain and his maternal cousins included the future Queen of Naples and the famous Marie Antoinette. His uncle Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor proposed his daughter Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria as a prospective wife, the Emperor wanted the marriage to encourage ties between the House of Lorraine and the House of Savoy. In 1753 his father gave what is now the Palazzo Chiablese as his personal residence and it was under Savoy that the building would be embellished under the direction of Benedetto Alfieri, a popular Savoyard architect of the era. In 1763 his father made him the Duchy of Chablais with the lands of Cureggio, Trino, Dezan, Crescentino, Riva di Chieri, Well, Ghemme Pollenzo Tricerro. His brother later Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia created him the Marquis of Ivrea on 19 June 1796, in 1764 he also bought the fiefdom of Agliè, where the Ducal Palace of Agliè was situated. Purchased from his brother, Chablais also carried out improvements to the building under the direction of Ignatius Birago Borgaro, Chablais later married Maria Anna of Savoy at the Royal Palace of Turin on 19 March 1775. Maria Anna was his niece and sixth child of his oldest brother Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, the marriage produced no children, Maria Anna dying in 1824. Noted as a good soldier Chablais was given control of the Army of Italy which contained French troops and he took part in the Battle of Loano. He died in Rome aged 66 and was buried at the church of San Nicolo dei Cesarini then later moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga, at his death the title of Duke of Chablais reverted to the crown. 21 June 1741 –4 January 1808 His Royal Highness The Duke of Chablais Media related to Benedetto of Savoy at Wikimedia Commons
31.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
32.
Olivetti
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Olivetti S. p. A. is an Italian manufacturer of typewriters, computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been part of the Telecom Italia Group since 2003, the first commercial programmable desktop computer, the Programma 101, was produced by Olivetti in 1964 and was a commercial success. The company was founded as a manufacturer by Camillo Olivetti in 1908 in Ivrea. The firm was mainly developed by his son Adriano Olivetti, Olivetti opened its first overseas manufacturing plant in 1930, and its Divisumma electric calculator was launched in 1948. Olivetti produced Italys first electronic computer, the transistorised Elea 9003, in 1959, in 1964 the company sold its electronics division to the American company General Electric. It continued to develop new computing products on its own, one of these was Programma 101, in the 1970s and 1980s they were the biggest manufacturer for office machines in Europe and 2nd biggest PC vendor behind IBM in Europe. In 1980 Olivetti is distributed in Indonesia through Dragon Computer & Communication, in 1952, the Museum of Modern Art held an exhibit titled Olivetti, Design in Industry, today, many Olivetti products are still part of the museums permanent collection. Another major show, mounted by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1969, from the 1940s to the 1960s, Olivetti industrial design was led by Marcello Nizzoli, responsible for the Lexicon 80 and the portable Lettera 22. Later, Mario Bellini and Ettore Sottsass directed design, Bellini designed the Programma 101, Divisumma 18 and Logos 68 calculators and the TCV-250 video display terminal, among others. Sottsass designed the Tekne 3 typewriter, Elea 9003 computer, the Praxis 48 typewriter, the Valentine portable typewriter, michele De Lucchi designed the Art Jet 10 inkjet printer and the Gioconda calculator. During the 1970s Olivetti manufactured and sold two ranges of minicomputers, the A series started with the typewriter-sized A4 through to the large A8, and the desk-sized DE500 and DE700 series. George Sowden worked for Olivetti from 1970 until 1990, and designed their first desktop computer, Olivetti L1, in 1991, Sowden won the prestigious ADI Compasso dOro Award for the design of the Olivetti fax OFX420. Olivetti paid attention to more than the importance of design, graphic. Giovanni Pintori was hired by Adriano Olivetti in 1936 to work in the publicity department, Pintori was the creator of the Olivetti logo and many promotional posters used to advertise the company and its products. Those designers also created the Olivetti Synthesis office furniture series which mainly were used to be installed in Olivettis own headquarters, worldwide branch offices, Olivetti also produced some industrial production machinery, including metal working machines of the Horizon series. Olivetti began with mechanical typewriters when the company was founded in 1909, until the mid 1960s they were fully mechanical, and models such as the portable Olivetti Valentine were designed by Ettore Sottsass. With the Tekne/Editor series and Praxis 48, some of the first electromechanical typewriters were introduced, the Editor series was used for speed typing championship competition. The Editor 5 from 1969 was the top model of series, with proportional spacing
33.
Typewriter
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A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for writing characters similar to those produced by printers movable type. A typewriter operates by means of keys that strike a ribbon to transmit ink or carbon impressions onto paper, typically, a single character is printed on each key press. The machine prints characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the used in movable type letterpress printing. At the end of the century, the term typewriter was also applied to a person who used a typing machine. After its invention in the 1860s, the quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It was widely used by writers, in offices. As with the automobile, telephone, and telegraph, a number of people contributed insights, historians have estimated that some form of typewriter was invented 52 times as thinkers tried to come up with a workable design. Some of the early typing instruments, In 1575 an Italian printmaker, Francesco Rampazzetto, invented the scrittura tattile, in 1714, Henry Mill obtained a patent in Britain for a machine that, from the patent, appears to have been similar to a typewriter. In 1802 Italian Agostino Fantoni developed a particular typewriter to enable his blind sister to write, in 1808 Italian Pellegrino Turri invented a typewriter. He also invented carbon paper to provide the ink for his machine, in 1823 Italian Pietro Conti di Cilavegna invented a new model of typewriter, the tachigrafo, also known as tachitipo. In 1829, William Austin Burt patented a machine called the Typographer which, the Science Museum describes it merely as the first writing mechanism whose invention was documented, but even that claim may be excessive, since Turris invention pre-dates it. Even in the hands of its inventor, this machine was slower than handwriting, Burt and his promoter John D. Sheldon never found a buyer for the patent, so the invention was never commercially produced, because the typographer used a dial, rather than keys, to select each character, it was called an index typewriter rather than a keyboard typewriter. Index typewriters of that era resemble the squeeze-style embosser from the 1960s more than they resemble the modern keyboard typewriter, by the mid-19th century, the increasing pace of business communication had created a need for mechanization of the writing process. Stenographers and telegraphers could take down information at rates up to 130 words per minute, from 1829 to 1870, many printing or typing machines were patented by inventors in Europe and America, but none went into commercial production. Charles Thurber developed multiple patents, of which his first in 1843 was developed as an aid to the blind, in 1855, the Italian Giuseppe Ravizza created a prototype typewriter called Cembalo scrivano o macchina da scrivere a tasti. It was a machine that let the user see the writing as it was typed. In 1861, Father Francisco João de Azevedo, a Brazilian priest, made his own typewriter with basic materials and tools, such as wood, in that same year the Brazilian emperor D
34.
Calculator
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An electronic calculator is a small, portable electronic device used to perform operations ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid state electronic calculator was created in the 1960s, building on the history of tools such as the abacus. It was developed in parallel with the computers of the day. The pocket sized devices became available in the 1970s, especially after the first microprocessor and they later became used commonly within the petroleum industry. Modern electronic calculators vary, from cheap, give-away, credit-card-sized models to sturdy desktop models with built-in printers and they became popular in the mid-1970s. By the end of decade, calculator prices had reduced to a point where a basic calculator was affordable to most. In addition to general purpose calculators, there are designed for specific markets. For example, there are scientific calculators which include trigonometric and statistical calculations, some calculators even have the ability to do computer algebra. Graphing calculators can be used to graph functions defined on the real line, as of 2016, basic calculators cost little, but the scientific and graphing models tend to cost more. In 1986, calculators still represented an estimated 41% of the worlds general-purpose hardware capacity to compute information, by 2007, this diminished to less than 0. 05%. Modern 2016 electronic calculators contain a keyboard with buttons for digits and arithmetical operations, most basic calculators assign only one digit or operation on each button, however, in more specific calculators, a button can perform multi-function working with key combinations. Large-sized figures and comma separators are used to improve readability. Various symbols for function commands may also be shown on the display, fractions such as 1⁄3 are displayed as decimal approximations, for example rounded to 0.33333333. Also, some fractions can be difficult to recognize in decimal form, as a result, Calculators also have the ability to store numbers into computer memory. Basic types of these only one number at a time. The variables can also be used for constructing formulas, some models have the ability to extend memory capacity to store more numbers, the extended memory address is termed an array index. Power sources of calculators are, batteries, solar cells or mains electricity, some models even have no turn-off button but they provide some way to put off. Crank-powered calculators were also common in the computer era
35.
Computer
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A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out an arbitrary set of arithmetic or logical operations automatically. The ability of computers to follow a sequence of operations, called a program, such computers are used as control systems for a very wide variety of industrial and consumer devices. The Internet is run on computers and it millions of other computers. Since ancient times, simple manual devices like the abacus aided people in doing calculations, early in the Industrial Revolution, some mechanical devices were built to automate long tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century, the first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II. The speed, power, and versatility of computers has increased continuously and dramatically since then, conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit, and some form of memory. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, and a sequencing, peripheral devices include input devices, output devices, and input/output devices that perform both functions. Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source and this usage of the term referred to a person who carried out calculations or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century, from the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of computer in the 1640s, one who calculates, the Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean calculating machine is from 1897. The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the use of the term. 1945 under this name, theoretical from 1937, as Turing machine, devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was probably a form of tally stick, later record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers. The use of counting rods is one example, the abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, the Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest mechanical analog computer, according to Derek J. de Solla Price. It was designed to calculate astronomical positions and it was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to circa 100 BC
36.
Arduino
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Arduino boards are available commercially in preassembled form, or as do-it-yourself kits. Arduino board designs use a variety of microprocessors and controllers, the boards are equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output pins that may be interfaced to various expansion boards and other circuits. The boards feature serial communications interfaces, including Universal Serial Bus on some models, the microcontrollers are typically programmed using a dialect of features from the programming languages C and C++. In addition to using traditional compiler toolchains, the Arduino project provides a development environment based on the Processing language project. Common examples of such devices intended for beginner hobbyists include simple robots, thermostats, the name Arduino comes from a bar in Ivrea, Italy, where some of the founders of the project used to meet. The bar was named after Arduin of Ivrea, who was the margrave of the March of Ivrea, the origin of the Arduino project started at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Ivrea, Italy. At that time, the students used a BASIC Stamp microcontroller at a cost of $100, the project goal was to create simple, low cost tools for creating digital projects by non-engineers. The Wiring platform consisted of a circuit board with an ATmega168 microcontroller. In 2003, Massimo Banzi, with David Mellis, another IDII student, but instead of continuing the work on Wiring, they copied the Wiring source code and renamed it as a separate project, called Arduino. The initial Arduino core team consisted of Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David Mellis, following the completion of the Wiring platform, lighter and less-expensive versions were distributed in the open-source community. The hardware reference designs are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 license and are available on the Arduino website, layout and production files for some versions of the hardware are also available. The source code for the IDE is released under the GNU General Public License, nevertheless, an official Bill of Materials of Arduino boards has never been released by Arduino staff. The official policy document on use of the Arduino name emphasizes that the project is open to incorporating work by others into the official product, several Arduino-compatible products commercially released have avoided the project name by using various names ending in -duino. Most Arduino boards consist of an Atmel 8-bit AVR microcontroller with varying amounts of memory, pins. The 32-bit Arduino Due, based on the Atmel SAM3X8E was introduced in 2012, the boards use single or double-row pins or female headers that facilitate connections for programming and incorporation into other circuits. These may connect with add-on modules termed shields, multiple, and possibly stacked shields may be individually addressable via an I²C serial bus. Most boards include a 5 V linear regulator and a 16 MHz crystal oscillator or ceramic resonator, some designs, such as the LilyPad, run at 8 MHz and dispense with the onboard voltage regulator due to specific form-factor restrictions. Arduino microcontrollers are pre-programmed with a loader that simplifies uploading of programs to the on-chip flash memory
37.
Romanesque architecture
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Romanesque Architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the late 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style, marked by pointed arches, examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman Architecture. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture, each building has clearly defined forms, frequently of very regular, symmetrical plan, the overall appearance is one of simplicity when compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics, Many castles were built during this period, but they are greatly outnumbered by churches. The most significant are the great churches, many of which are still standing, more or less complete. The largest groups of Romanesque survivors are in areas that were less prosperous in subsequent periods, including parts of southern France, northern Spain and rural Italy. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word Romanesque means descended from Roman and was first used in English to designate what are now called Romance languages, Romance language is not degenerated Latin language. Latin language is degenerated Romance language, Romanesque architecture is not debased Roman architecture. Roman architecture is debased Romanesque architecture, the first use in a published work is in William Gunns An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture. The term is now used for the more restricted period from the late 10th to 12th centuries, Many castles exist, the foundations of which date from the Romanesque period. Most have been altered, and many are in ruins. By far the greatest number of surviving Romanesque buildings are churches, the scope of Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture was the first distinctive style to spread across Europe since the Roman Empire. In the more northern countries Roman building styles and techniques had never been adopted except for official buildings, although the round arch continued in use, the engineering skills required to vault large spaces and build large domes were lost. There was a loss of continuity, particularly apparent in the decline of the formal vocabulary of the Classical Orders. In Rome several great Constantinian basilicas continued in use as an inspiration to later builders, the largest building is the church, the plan of which is distinctly Germanic, having an apse at both ends, an arrangement not generally seen elsewhere. Another feature of the church is its regular proportion, the plan of the crossing tower providing a module for the rest of the plan. These features can both be seen at the Proto-Romanesque St. Michaels Church, Hildesheim, 1001–1030, the style, sometimes called First Romanesque or Lombard Romanesque, is characterised by thick walls, lack of sculpture and the presence of rhythmic ornamental arches known as a Lombard band
38.
Saint Bessus
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Saint Bessus, sometimes Besse, is venerated as a member of the legendary Theban Legion, whose members were led by Saint Maurice and were martyred for their Christian faith in the 3rd century. Except for St. Maurices cult, veneration for Bessus enjoyed a wider popularity than those associated with other saints of the Theban Legion, according to tradition, Constantius survived the decimation of his Legion and fled to valleys of Aosta and Cogne. He then dedicated himself to converting the people in area to Christianity. In addition, there are two feast days associated with Bessus that were celebrated at Ivrea, August 10 and December 1, the cult of Saint Bessus may actually represent the Christianization of the cult associated with the Egyptian god Bes, also invoked for fertility. Bessus and Bes, as Fabio Arduino points out, are associated with an ostrich feather in their iconography. Numerous legends were connected with Bessus, a breviary dating from 1473 states that Bessus was martyred in the following manner, he was invited to a banquet by some Piedmontese who had stolen the cattle that was now being served as a meal. When Bessus discovered this, he denounced the cattle thieves, angered, the thieves chased him and forced him to jump the cliffs of Monte Fautenio. Bessus survived but was killed by the Roman legionnaires who had slaughtered the Theban Legion at Agaunum. The cliff preserves an imprint associated with the saint, according to local tradition, the sanctuary dedicated to the saint was constructed on the place of Bessus martyrdom, which remains today a place of pilgrimage. A different version of the states that the saint hid himself in the Valley of Cogne before being killed by the Roman soldiers. In 1912, Robert Hertz, a French historian and anthropologist, collected at Cogne a different version of Saint Bessus death, which was part of an oral tradition passed from generation. This version states that Bessus was not a soldier of the Theban Legion at all, but a shepherd who was so pious that God rewarded him with a prosperous, fat. Envious of his prosperity, some shepherds killed him by forcing him off a cliff. According to a tradition, Bessus’ relics were stolen in the ninth century and taken to Ozegna. Subsequently, during the reign of Arduin of Italy, the relics were translated to the cathedral of Ivrea, today, the relics rest in a lateral altar along with those associated with other martyr saints. Saint Bessus was considered to be a great thaumaturgus and miracle-worker, on August 10 of every year, a festival and pilgrimage is held every year in the mountains of Gran Paradiso National Park, in the Val Soana. A statue of the saint is carried to the cliff that is associated with his martyrdom, the honor of carrying the saint was once a cause of dispute between the towns of Cogne and Campiglia. Each town had once been under the jurisdiction of separate dioceses, but in the 13th century, studio di un culto alpestre”, in La preminenza della destra e altri saggi, Einaudi, Torino,1994
39.
Baroque architecture
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It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Baroque architecture and its embellishments were on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and on the other hand, the new style manifested itself in particular in the context of the new religious orders, like the Theatines and the Jesuits who aimed to improve popular piety. The architecture of the High Roman Baroque can be assigned to the reigns of Urban VIII, Innocent X and Alexander VII. Dissemination of Baroque architecture to the south of Italy resulted in variations such as Sicilian Baroque architecture or that of Naples. To the north, the Theatine architect Camillo-Guarino Guarini, Bernardo Vittone and Sicilian born Filippo Juvarra contributed Baroque buildings to the city of Turin and the Piedmont region. A synthesis of Bernini, Borromini and Cortona’s architecture can be seen in the late Baroque architecture of northern Europe which paved the way for the more decorative Rococo style. During the 17th century, Baroque architecture spread through Europe and Latin America, michelangelos late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peters Basilica, may be considered precursors to Baroque architecture. Colonialism required the development of centralized and powerful governments with Spain and France, the initial mismanagement of colonial wealth by the Spaniards bankrupted them in the 16th century, recovering only slowly in the following century. While this was good for the industries and the arts, the new wealth created an inflation. Rome was known just as much for its new sumptuous churches as for its vagabonds, one of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Gesù, was the church of Santa Susanna, designed by Carlo Maderno. The dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, central massing, there is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, but it still maintains rigor. These concerns are more evident in his reworking of Santa Maria della Pace. Probably the most well known example of such an approach is Saint Peters Square, the piazza, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is formed principally by two colonnades of free standing columns centred on an Egyptian obelisk. Berninis own favourite design was his church of SantAndrea al Quirinale decorated with polychome marbles. His secular architecture included the Palazzo Barberini based on plans by Maderno, Berninis rival, the architect Francesco Borromini, produced designs that deviated dramatically from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance. His building plans were based on geometric figures, his architectural forms were unusual and inventive. Borrominis architectural spaces seem to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the style of Michelangelo. A later work, the church of SantIvo alla Sapienza, displays the same playful inventiveness and antipathy to the flat surface, following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome
