1.
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
2.
Castel Goffredo
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Castel Goffredo is a comune in the province of Mantua, in Lombardy, Italy, lying 35 kilometres from Mantua and a few more from Brescia. It lies in a region of springs at the foot of the slopes drain into Lake Garda. Castel Goffredo borders the municipalities, Castiglione delle Stiviere, Medole, Ceresara, Casaloldo, Asola, Acquafredda. Founded in a region inhabited from the Bronze Age, Castel Goffredo belonged to the count-bishops of Brescia from the century to 1115. When Brescia proved unable to come to the defense, in 1337 it placed itself under the protection of Mantua. From 1348 to 1404 it was governed from Milan by the Visconti, Castel Goffredo became the seat of an autonomous feudo of marquis Aloysio Gonzaga in 1511. At his death, his fiefs of Castel Goffredo, Castiglione delle Stiviere, the territory was annexed in 1603 by the duchy of Milan following a bitter suit heard before the Emperor, and remained Milanese territory until 1707. In 1707, the Austrians took over the region and the Habsburgs then ruled the area until 1859, after the Battle of Solferino, the town was briefly part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, until that kingdom itself developed, in 1861, into the united Kingdom of Italy. Tortello amaro di Castel Goffredo The town of Castel Goffredo has been involved in production since medieval times. The original source material was wool, but in the 1700s, the family of the town. Cotton weaving was introduced around this time. The production of cotton and silk was revolutionised by the processes of the twentieth century. During the 20th century, the area underwent a period of sustained and steady economic development, in 2002, Castel Goffredo was recognised as a titular città, though it remains a comune and not a city in the general sense. The first modern textile-factory was built in 1925 and others soon followed and they took great advantage of the post-war boom and began to specialise, in particular, in the manufacture of hosiery. The area is now a centre of expertise in the production of socks and of lingerie, Piran, the Acerbi family, the towns leading family, following the Gonzagas, Palazzo Gonzaga-Acerbi. In particular, Giacomo Acerbi, the patriarch and the founder of the regions silk-industry, giuseppe Acerbi, naturalist, explorer and composer. Giovanni Acerbi, supply officer for Garibaldis 1,000 Camicie Rosse, Castel Goffredo - Guide for the tourist Castel Goffredo Images of an ancient lordship Italian municipalities
3.
Tortona
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Tortona is a comune of Piemonte, in the Province of Alessandria, Italy. Tortona is sited on the bank of the Scrivia between the plain of Marengo and the foothills of the Ligurian Apennines. Known in ancient times as Dertona, the city was probably the oldest colony under Roman rule in the westernmost section of the Valley of the Po, on the road leading from Genua to Placentia. 123–118 BC at the junction of the roads, the Via Postumia. The site made Dertona an important military station under the Romans, strabo speaks of it as one of the most considerable towns in this part of Italy, and we learn from Pliny that it was a Roman colony. Velleius mentions it among those founded under the Republic, it appears to have been recolonised under Augustus, until the 9th century, the city was under the rule of its bishop, in 1090 it became a free commune with the name of Terdona. In 1133 the diocese was separated from the archbishopric of Milan to the new archdiocese of Genoa, in 1155 Frederick Barbarossa leveled Tortona to the ground, leaving not one stone upon another. During the Middle Ages, Tortona was an ally of the Guelphs and was destroyed several times. According to Machiavelli By this union Filippo became powerful, and reacquired Milan, by way of being grateful for these numerous favors, as princes commonly are, he accused Beatrice of adultery and caused her to be put to death. In this way, in 1347, Tortona was decisively incorporated into the territories of the Duchy of Milan, under which remained until 1735. Then following the vicissitudes of the War of the Polish Succession, the city was occupied by the King of Sardinia, Roman remains, traditionally identified as the Mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Maiorianus Palazzo Guidobono, rebuilt in 1939 with a Gothic façade. It has traces of Renaissance frescoes, the façade is a neoclassicist addition of the 19th century. The interior has works by Camillo Procaccini, Aurelio Luini and others and it houses also the relics of St. Martianus, patron of Tortona, and the tombs of many important religious figures, including Don Lorenzo Perosi and his brother Cardinal Carlo Perosi. Liceo Giuseppe Peano, built in the 19th century, the Bishops Palace, with a noteworthy Renaissance portal. It has a triptych of Madonna with Child and Saints by Macrino dAlba, abbey of Santa Maria di Rivalta, in the frazione of Rivalta Scrivia. It is a Romanesque structure founded before 1151, saint Innocent of Tortona, who survived the persecutions and was sent as bishop to Tortona by Pope Sylvester. Bishop Gezo of Tortona in the 10th century wrote a Treatise on the Body, marziano da Tortona, secretary to duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan is one of the people credited with inventing the card game of Tarocchi. Saint Luigi Orione founded the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Guardia in Tortona, Lorenzo Perosi, an associate of Orione, was a composer of church music and Perpetual Director of the Sistine Choir
4.
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
5.
Theology
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Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as a discipline, typically in universities, seminaries. Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity, the term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or fields of study. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument to help understand, explain, test, critique, the English equivalent theology had evolved by 1362. Greek theologia was used with the discourse on god in the fourth century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii. Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of discourse, mythical, rational and civil. Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some manuscripts, in the heading to the book of Revelation, apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy. The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of study, dealing with the motionless. Boethius definition influenced medieval Latin usage, Theology can also now be used in a derived sense to mean a system of theoretical principles, an ideology. They suggest the term is appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently. Kalam. does not hold the place in Muslim thought that theology does in Christianity. To find an equivalent for theology in the Christian sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the usul al-fiqh as much as to kalam. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who argues that the use of theology is appropriate, can only do so, he says, I take theology not to be restricted to its etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of course atheological, rejecting as it does the notion of God, within Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God and of the Atman. The Sanskrit word for the schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana. Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been active and highly significant for Christian. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law, the history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions themselves. Modern Western universities evolved from the institutions and cathedral schools of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages
6.
Mantua
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Mantua is a city and commune in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua became Italian Capital of Culture, as chosen by the Italian Government on 27 October 2015, in 2017, Mantua will also be European Capital of Gastronomy, included in the Eastern Lombardy District. In 2007, Mantuas centro storico and Sabbioneta were declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. Mantuas historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family has made it one of the artistic, cultural, and especially musical hubs of Northern Italy. Mantua is noted for its significant role in the history of opera, the city is known for its architectural treasures and artifacts, elegant palaces. It is the place where the composer Monteverdi premiered his opera LOrfeo and it is the nearest town to the birthplace of the Roman poet Virgil, who was commemorated by a statue at the lakeside park Piazza Virgiliana. Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes, created during the 12th century, as the defence system. These lakes receive water from the Mincio River, a tributary of the Po River which descends from Lake Garda, the three lakes are called Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore. A fourth lake, Lake Pajolo, which served as a defensive water ring around the city. These dated, without interruption, from Neolithic times to the Bronze Age and the Gallic phases, and ended with Roman residential settlements, which could be traced to the 3rd century AD. Mantua was a settlement which was first established about the year 2000 BC on the banks of River Mincio. In the 6th century BC, Mantua was an Etruscan village which, the name may derive from the Etruscan god Mantus. This new Roman territory was populated by soldiers of Augustus. Mantuas most famous ancient citizen is the poet Virgil, or Publius Vergilius Maro, after the fall of the western Roman Empire in 476 AD, Mantua was invaded in turn by Goths, Byzantines, Longobards, and Franks. In the 11th century, Mantua became a possession of Boniface of Canossa, the last ruler of that family was the countess Matilda of Canossa, who, according to legend, ordered the construction of the precious Rotonda di San Lorenzo in 1082. The Rotonda still exists today and was renovated in 2013, free Imperial City of Mantua After the death of Matilda of Canossa, Mantua became a free commune and strenuously defended itself from the Holy Roman Empire during the 12th and 13th centuries. In 1198, Alberto Pitentino altered the course of River Mincio, three of these lakes still remains today and the fourth one, which ran through the centre of town, was reclaimed in the 18th century. Podesteria Rule From 1215, the city was ruled under the podesteria of the Gallic-Guelph Rambertino Buvalelli, during the struggle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, Pinamonte Bonacolsi took advantage of the chaotic situation to seize power of the podesteria in 1273
7.
Battle of Pavia
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The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of 24 February 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–26. In the four-hour battle, the French army was split and defeated in detail, the French suffered massive casualties, including many of the chief nobles of France. Francis himself was captured by Habsburg troops and imprisoned by Charles V and forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Madrid, the outcome of the battle cemented Habsburg ascendancy in Italy. The French, in possession of Lombardy at the start of the Italian War of 1521–26, had forced to abandon it after their defeat at the Battle of Bicocca in 1522. Charles de Lannoy now launched an invasion of Provence under the command of Fernando dAvalos, Marquess of Pescara, in mid-October 1524, Francis himself crossed the Alps and advanced on Milan at the head of an army numbering more than 40,000. Bourbon and dAvalos, their troops not yet recovered from the campaign in Provence, were in no position to offer serious resistance. The French army moved in columns, brushing aside Imperial attempts to hold its advance. Having entered Milan and installed Louis II de la Trémoille as the governor, Francis advanced on Pavia, the main mass of French troops arrived at Pavia in the last days of October. By 2 November, Anne de Montmorency had crossed the Ticino River and invested the city from the south, inside were about 9,000 men, mainly mercenaries whom Antonio de Leyva was able to pay only by melting the church plate. A period of skirmishing and artillery bombardments followed, and several breaches had been made in the walls by mid-November, in early December, a Spanish force commanded by Ugo de Moncada landed near Genoa, intending to interfere in a conflict between pro-Valois and pro-Habsburg factions in the city. Francis dispatched a force under the Marquis of Saluzzo to intercept them. Confronted by the more numerous French and left without support by the arrival of a pro-Valois fleet commanded by Andrea Doria. Francis then signed a agreement with Pope Clement VII, who pledged not to assist Charles in exchange for Franciss assistance with the conquest of Naples. Against the advice of his commanders, Francis detached a portion of his forces under the Duke of Albany. In January 1525, Lannoy was reinforced by the arrival of Georg Frundsberg with 15,000 fresh landsknechts from Germany, by 2 February, Lannoy was only a few miles from Pavia. Francis had encamped the majority of his forces in the walled park of Mirabello outside the city walls. Skirmishing and sallies by the garrison continued through the month of February, the times given here are taken from Konstams reconstruction of the battle. On the evening of 23 February, Lannoys imperial troops, which had been encamped outside the east wall of the park, at the same time, the Imperial artillery began a bombardment of the French siege lines—which had become routine during the extended siege—in order to conceal Lannoys movement
8.
Lombardy
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Lombardy is one of the twenty administrative regions of Italy, in the northwest of the country, with an area of 23,844 square kilometres. Milan, Lombardys capital, is the second-largest city and the largest metropolitan area in Italy, the word Lombardy comes from Lombard, which in turn is derived from Late Latin Longobardus, Langobardus, derived from the Proto-Germanic elements *langaz + *bardaz, equivalent to long beard. Some sources derive the second element instead from Proto-Germanic *bardǭ, *barduz, Lombardy referred during the early Middle Ages to the entire territory of Italy ruled by the Lombards, a Germanic tribe who conquered much of the Italian peninsula beginning in the 6th century. During the late Middle Ages, the term shifted meaning and was used to identify the whole of Northern Italy, with a surface of 23,861 km2, Lombardy is the 4th largest region of Italy. It is bordered by Switzerland and by the Italian regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, three distinct natural zones can be fairly easily distinguished in the Lombardy region, mountains, hills and plains – the latter being divided in Alta and Bassa. Inconsistent with the three distinctions above made is the subregion of Oltrepò Pavese, formed by the Apennine foothills beyond the Po River. The mighty Po river marks the border of the region for a length of about 210 km. In its progress it receives the waters of the Ticino River, the other streams which contribute to the great river are, the Olona, the Lambro, the Adda, the Oglio and the Mincio. The numerous lakes of Lombardy, all of glacial origin, lie in the northern highlands, from west to east these are Lake Maggiore, Lake Lugano, Lake Como, Lake Iseo, Lake Idro, then Lake Garda, the largest in Italy. A minor mountainous area, the Oltrepò Pavese, lies south of the Po, in the plains, intensively cultivated for centuries, little of the original environment remains. The most commons trees are elm, alder, sycamore, poplar, willow, in the area of the foothills lakes, however, grow olive trees, cypresses and larches, as well as varieties of subtropical flora such as magnolias, azaleas, acacias. Numerous species of flora in the Prealpine area include some kinds of saxifrage, the Lombard garlic, groundsels bellflowers. The highlands are characterized by the vegetation of the whole range of the Italian Alps. At a lower levels oak woods or broadleafed trees grow, on the slopes beech trees grow at the lowest limits. Shrubs such as rhododendron, dwarf pine and juniper are native to the summital zone, Lombardy has a wide array of climates, due to local variances in elevation, proximity to inland water basins, and large metropolitan areas. In addition, there is a seasonal temperature variation. A peculiarity of the climate is the thick fog that covers the plains between October and February. In the Alpine foothills, characterised by an Oceanic climate, numerous lakes exercise a mitigating influence, in the hills and mountains, the climate is humid continental
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bandello, Matteo". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
