1.
Bern
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The city of Bern or Berne is the de facto capital of Switzerland, referred to by the Swiss as their Bundesstadt, or federal city. With a population of 141,762, Bern is the fourth-most populous city in Switzerland, the Bern agglomeration, which includes 36 municipalities, had a population of 406,900 in 2014. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000, Bern is also the capital of the canton of Bern, the second-most populous of Switzerlands cantons. The official language in Bern is German, but the language is an Alemannic Swiss German dialect. In 1983, the old town in the centre of Bern became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Bern is ranked among the top ten cities for the best quality of life. The etymology of the name Bern is uncertain and it has long been considered likely that the city was named after the Italian city of Verona, which at the time was known as Bern in Middle High German. As a result of the find of the Bern zinc tablet in the 1980s, it is now common to assume that the city was named after a pre-existing toponym of Celtic origin. The bear was the animal of the seal and coat of arms of Bern from at least the 1220s. The earliest reference to the keeping of bears in the Bärengraben dates to the 1440s. No archaeological evidence that indicates a settlement on the site of city centre prior to the 12th century has been found so far. In antiquity, a Celtic oppidum stood on the Engehalbinsel north of Bern, fortified since the second century BC, during the Roman era, a Gallo-Roman vicus was on the same site. The Bern zinc tablet has the name Brenodor, in the Early Middle Ages, a settlement in Bümpliz, now a city district of Bern, was some 4 km from the medieval city. The medieval city is a foundation of the Zähringer ruling family, according to 14th-century historiography, Bern was founded in 1191 by Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen. In 1218, after Berthold died without an heir, Bern was made an imperial city by the Goldene Handfeste of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. In 1353, Bern joined the Swiss Confederacy, becoming one of the eight cantons of the period of 1353 to 1481. The city grew out towards the west of the boundaries of the peninsula formed by the river Aare, the Zytglogge tower marked the western boundary of the city from 1191 until 1256, when the Käfigturm took over this role until 1345. It was, in turn, succeeded by the Christoffelturm until 1622, during the time of the Thirty Years War, two new fortifications – the so-called big and small Schanze – were built to protect the whole area of the peninsula
2.
Swiss Reformation
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The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate and population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in life and state matters in Zürich. Seven cantons remained Roman Catholic, though, which led to inter-cantonal wars known as the Wars of Kappel, after the victory of the Catholic cantons in 1531, they proceeded to institute counter-reformatory policies in some regions. The schism and distrust between Catholic and Protestant cantons would define their interior politics and paralyse any common foreign policy well into the 18th century. Despite their religious differences, and despite an exclusively Catholic defence alliance of the seven Catholic cantons, soldiers from both sides fought in the French Wars of Religion. The Three Leagues of the Grisons, at that time not yet a member of the confederacy, were involved in the war from 1620 on, after the violent conflicts of the late 15th century the Swiss cantons had had a generation of relative political stability. As part of their struggle for independence, they had already in the 15th century sought to limit the influence of the Church on their political sovereignty. Many monasteries had already come under secular supervision, and the administration of schools was in the hands of the cantons, nevertheless, many of the problems of the Church also existed in the Swiss Confederacy. Many priests were educated, and spiritual Church doctrines were often disregarded. Many priests did not live in celibacy but in concubinage, the new reformatory ideas thus fell on fertile ground. The main proponent of the Reformation in Switzerland was Ulrich Zwingli and his own studies, in the renaissance humanist tradition, had led him to preach against injustices and hierarchies in the Church already in 1516 while he was still a priest in Einsiedeln. When he was called to Zürich, he expanded his criticism also onto political topics and his ideas were received favourably, especially by entrepreneurs, businessmen, and the guilds. The first disputation of Zürich of 1523 was the breakthrough, the city decided to implement his reformatory plans. In the following two years, profound changes took place in Zürich, priests were relieved from celibacy, the opulent decorations in the churches were thrown out. The state assumed the administration of Church properties, financing the social works, the last abbess of the Fraumünster, Katharina von Zimmern, turned over the convent including all of its rights and possessions to the city authorities on 30 November 1524. She even married the next year, over the next few years, the cities of St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, Basel, Bienne, Mulhouse, and finally Bern all followed the example set by Zürich. Their subject territories were converted to Protestantism by decree, in Basel, reformer Johannes Oecolampadius was active, in St. Gallen, the Reformation was adopted by mayor Joachim Vadian. In Glarus, Appenzell, and in the Grisons, which all three had a more structure, individual communes decided for or against the Reformation
3.
Chieri
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Chieri is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, located about 11 kilometres southeast of Turin,15 km by rail and 13 km by road. It borders the municipalities, Baldissero Torinese, Pavarolo, Montaldo Torinese, Pino Torinese, Arignano, Andezeno, Pecetto Torinese, Riva presso Chieri, Cambiano, Santena. Between the Neolithic and the Iron Age, the inhabitants of this part of the Italian peninsula were the Ligures. The Ligures living in this area of the Po river plain belonged specifically to the Taurini tribe, the location of Chieri is within the Taurini tribes territory, in the belt of hills which surround Turin. The original settlement was most likely founded by them, being sited on a prominent hill and which grew to be the geographical focus of the city centre. Its original name would have been Karreum or a variant thereof e. g. Sometime around 400 BCE, Celtic tribes crossed the Alps from Gaul, Gaul this side of the Alps. It is likely sometime after 176 BCE that Cisalpine Gaul was completely subdued by Roman legions, and this was possibly under the command of Roman consul Caius Claudius Pulcrus, leading a military response to a rebellion the year before by the Ligures. It would appear the Forum and the main Temple were located in the area where the Cathedral, by the 1st Century AD, Carreum Potentia was indeed referred to as a Roman municipium, i. e. a seat of local government for the surrounding area. The city underwent conversion to Christianity sometime in the 5th century, no further historical records exist regarding Chieri until the 10th century, when it came under feudal subjection to the Bishop of Turin. The work included a strengthening of the fortifications and tower atop the hill, now incorporated into the Church of San Giorgio which occupies the hilltop and overlooks the city. In 1238 the Republic was granted the status of camera speciale by Emperor Frederick II, the city eventually passed in its entirety to the House of Savoy, when the line of Acaia died out. During this time the church of San Giorgio was also rebuilt into its current incarnation. The 16th century covered a period of succeeding plagues, epidemics, and wars, the year 1630 saw a terrible outbreak of the Bubonic Plague, which is still commemorated every 12 September with the ceremony of the Madonna delle Grazie. In 1785 Chieri became a Principality under the control of the duke of Aosta, numerous other textile factories followed in the late 19th century, with textile manufacture originating from Chieri playing a prominent role even in international textile fairs. The year 1850 saw the demolition of the old city gates and the privatisation of the city walls. The early 20th century brought the electrification of the textile industries and this is being counteracted by the establishment of a new industrial area outside the city, and also by a rediscovering and redeveloping of Chieris significant cultural and historical heritage. Today Chieri is a center for the provision of a varied portfolio of commercial, retail, financial. Its glass stained windows are the work of renowned glass artist Silvio Vigliaturo, San Giorgio, hill-top church dominating the historical centre and offering commanding views of the entire city
4.
Landvogt
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The territory or area of responsibility of a Vogt is called a Vogtei. The term also denotes a mayor of a village, the range of social status and degrees of responsibility of persons so titled varied greatly, from the humble—the equivalents of the English reeve or bailiff—to the very elevated. The concept of the Vogt was related to the Old German idea of the Munt, or guardian, such representatives had been assigned to the church since late antiquity, as it was not supposed to act for itself in worldly affairs. Beyond that, he administered the high justice instead of the count from the Vogt court, in the German-ruled Holy Roman Empire, the term Vogt can refer to two different offices, church vogt or imperial vogt. Imperial vogts are further subdivided into land vogts and city vogts, in addition, the term vogt was used for administrative officers of territorial rulers, such as bailiffs. In private and family monasteries the proprietor himself often also held the office of Vogt, in Austria, the teaching of the Church that, according to canon law individuals were prohibited from exercising authority over Church property, was only with reluctance accepted by the nobles. An imperial Vogt was an officer of the king, who served as administrator and judge of a subdivision of royal property, the seat of an imperial Vogt was often at an imperial city. When the imperial cities gained more independence, the office was split into city Vogt for the cities, the offices of city volts were usually bought by the imperial cities by the late Middle Ages, which led to the independence of the cities. Most land Vogt offices became meaningless as the amount of property was reduced more and more in favor of territorial rulers. The land Vogt office of the Alsace, consisting of the ten cities of the Décapole, was ceded to the king of France in 1648. However, the cities were soon annexed by France. Several small land votes continued to exist until the end of the Empire in 1806, the title of Landvogt appears in the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1415. A Landvogt ruled a Landvogtei, either representing a sovereign canton, or acting on behalf of the Confederacy, or a subset thereof, in the case of condominiums, the cantons took turns in appointing a Landvogt for a period of two years. In exceptional cases, the population of the Landvogtei was allowed to elect their own Landvogt and this concerned Oberhasli in particular, which was nominally a subject territory of Berne, but enjoyed a special status as a military ally. The office of Landvogt was abolished in 1798, with the foundation of the Helvetic Republic, the monarchs reigning in Madrid and Vienna controlled these through governors known variously as landvoogd or gouverneur-generaal. The status of protective lordship, however, in relation to ecclesiastical estates as held, there is no single equivalent in English history. The office of reeve was much the same at a village or peasant level, in France, the office of vidame, the temporal administrator for certain bishoprics, showed some connection. The most frequent translations in that connection are either advocate or lord protector, in medieval Poland the title of Wójt was used to denote hereditary heads of towns
5.
Hans Holbein the Younger
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Hans Holbein the Younger was a German and Swiss artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century and he also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history of book design. He is called the Younger to distinguish him from his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, Born in Augsburg, Holbein worked mainly in Basel as a young artist. At first he painted murals and religious works and designed for stained glass windows and he also painted the occasional portrait, making his international mark with portraits of the humanist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. When the Reformation reached Basel, Holbein worked for reformist clients while continuing to serve traditional religious patrons and his Late Gothic style was enriched by artistic trends in Italy, France and the Netherlands, as well as by Renaissance humanism. The result was a combined aesthetic uniquely his own, Holbein travelled to England in 1526 in search of work, with a recommendation from Erasmus. He was welcomed into the humanist circle of Thomas More, where he built a high reputation. After returning to Basel for four years, he resumed his career in England in 1532 and this time he worked under the patronage of Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell. By 1535, he was Kings Painter to King Henry VIII, in this role, he produced not only portraits and festive decorations but designs for jewellery, plate and other precious objects. His portraits of the family and nobles are a record of the court in the years when Henry was asserting his supremacy over the English church. Holbeins art was prized from early in his career, the French poet and reformer Nicholas Bourbon dubbed him the Apelles of our time, a typical contemporary accolade. Holbein has also described as a great one-off of art history. After his death, some of his work was lost, but much was collected, recent exhibitions have also highlighted his versatility. He turned his fluid line to designs ranging from jewellery to monumental frescoes. Holbeins art has sometimes been called realist, since he drew and his portraits were renowned in their time for their likeness, and it is through Holbeins eyes that many famous figures of his day, such as Erasmus and More, are now seen. Holbein was never content, however, with outward appearance and he embedded layers of symbolism, allusion, and paradox in his art, to the lasting fascination of scholars. In the view of art historian Ellis Waterhouse, his portraiture remains unsurpassed for sureness and economy of statement, penetration into character, Holbein was born in the free imperial city of Augsburg during the winter of 1497–98. He was a son of the painter and draughtsman Hans Holbein the Elder, whose trade he and his brother, Ambrosius
6.
Swiss mercenaries
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Their service as mercenaries was at its peak during the Renaissance, when their proven battlefield capabilities made them sought-after mercenary troops. There followed a period of decline, as technological and organizational advances counteracted the Swiss advantages, switzerlands military isolationism largely put an end to organized mercenary activity, the principal remnant of the practice is the Swiss Guard at the Vatican. In William Shakespeares Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5, Swiss mercenaries are called Switzers, Swiss mercenaries were valued throughout Late Medieval Europe for the power of their determined mass attack in deep columns with the pike and halberd. Some Swiss also hired themselves out individually or in small bands and this was furthered by later successful campaigns of regional expansion. By the fifteenth century they were valued as mercenary soldiers. The standing mercenary army of king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary also contained Swiss pikemen units, the native term Reisläufer literally means one who goes to war and is derived from Middle High German Reise, meaning military campaign. The Valois Kings of France, in fact, considered it an impossibility to take the field of battle without Swiss pikemen as the infantry core of their armies. Until roughly 1490, the Swiss had a monopoly on pike-armed mercenary service. However, after that date, the Swiss mercenaries were increasingly supplemented by imitators, Landsknechts were Germans and became proficient at Swiss tactics, even surpassing them with their usage of the Zweihänder to crush opposing pike formations. This produced a force that filled the ranks of European armies with mercenary regiments for decades, after 1515 the Swiss pledged themselves to neutrality, other than regarding Swiss soldiers serving in the ranks of the Royal French army. The Landsknecht, however, would continue to serve any paymaster, even, the Landsknecht often assumed the bright soldiers outfits of the Swiss. Although the Swiss generally had a significant edge in a push of pike, the resulting combat was nonetheless quite savage. Period artists such as Hans Holbein attest to the fact that two such huge pike columns crashing into each other could result in a maelstrom of battle, with many dead. Never before had the Swiss suffered such heavy losses while being unable to inflict damage upon their foe. The early contingents of Swiss mercenary pikemen organized themselves rather differently than the cantonal forces, in the cantonal forces, their armies were usually divided into the Vorhut, Gewalthut and Nachhut, generally of different sizes. In mercenary service they became less likely to resort to outmaneuvering the enemy. Such deep pike columns could crush lesser infantry in combat and were invulnerable to the effects of a cavalry charge. The Swiss mercenaries did deploy crossbows, handguns and artillery of their own, however these always remained very subsidiary to the pike and halberd square
7.
War of the League of Cambrai
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The War of the League of Cambrai, sometimes known as the War of the Holy League and by several other names, was a major conflict in the Italian Wars. Although the League was initially successful, friction between Julius and Louis caused it to collapse by 1510, Julius then allied himself with Venice against France. In the aftermath of the First Italian War, Pope Alexander VI had, with French assistance, in 1507, Julius returned to the question of the cities in Venetian hands, once again rebuffed by the Senate, he encouraged Emperor Maximilian I to attack the Republic. Julius, humiliated by the failure of the Imperial invasion, turned to Louis XII of France with an offer of alliance. On 10 December 1508, representatives of the Papacy, France, on 15 April 1509, Louis left Milan at the head of a French army and moved rapidly into Venetian territory. Consequently, when Louis crossed the Adda River in early May and Alviano advanced to him, Pitigliano, believing it best to avoid a pitched battle. Alviano, disregarding the new orders, continued the engagement, his army was surrounded and destroyed. DEste, having joined the League and been appointed Gonfalonier on 19 April, the newly arrived Imperial governors, however, quickly proved to be unpopular. In mid-July, the citizens of Padua, aided by detachments of Venetian cavalry under the command of the proveditor Andrea Gritti, the landsknechts garrisoning the city were too few in number to mount effective resistance, and Padua was restored to Venetian control on 17 July 1509. The success of the revolt finally pushed Maximilian into action, in early August, a massive Imperial army, accompanied by bodies of French and Spanish troops, set out from Trento into the Veneto. In mid-November, Pitigliano returned to the offensive, Venetian troops easily defeated the remaining Imperial forces, capturing Vicenza, Este, Feltre, although a subsequent attack on Verona failed, Pitigliano destroyed a Papal army under Francesco II of Gonzaga in the process. Francesco Guicciardini credited the victory to Alfonso himself. A new French advance soon forced Pitigliano to withdraw to Padua once again, faced with a shortage of both funds and men, the Senate decided to send an embassy to Julius in order to negotiate a settlement. The Senate argued over the terms for two months, but finally accepted them on February 24,1510 and this apparent reconciliation between Venice and the Pope did not stop the French from again invading the Veneto in March. Gritti garrisoned Padua for an attack by a combined Franco-Imperial army, but Louis, more concerned by the death of his advisor. His own forces being inadequate for the venture, the Pope hired an army of Swiss mercenaries, ordering them to attack the French in Milan, the Republic, facing a renewed French onslaught, readily accepted the offer. By July 1510, the new Veneto-Papal alliance was on the offensive, Julius now excommunicated Alfonso dEste, thus justifying an attack on the Duchy itself, in anticipation of his coming victory, the Pope traveled to Bologna, so as to be nearby when Ferrara was taken. The French army, however, had been left unopposed by the Swiss and was free to march south into the heart of Italy
8.
Huldrych Zwingli
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Huldrych Zwingli or Ulrich Zwingli was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. He continued his studies while he served as a pastor in Glarus and later in Einsiedeln, in 1519, Zwingli became the pastor of the Grossmünster in Zurich where he began to preach ideas on reform of the Catholic Church. In his first public controversy in 1522, he attacked the custom of fasting during Lent, in his publications, he noted corruption in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, promoted clerical marriage, and attacked the use of images in places of worship. In 1525, Zwingli introduced a new liturgy to replace the Mass. Zwingli also clashed with the Anabaptists, which resulted in their persecution, historians have debated whether or not he turned Zurich into a theocracy. The Reformation spread to parts of the Swiss Confederation, but several cantons resisted. Zwingli formed an alliance of Reformed cantons which divided the Confederation along religious lines, in 1529, a war between the two sides was averted at the last moment. Meanwhile, Zwinglis ideas came to the attention of Martin Luther and other reformers and they met at the Marburg Colloquy and although they agreed on many points of doctrine, they could not reach an accord on the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. In 1531 Zwinglis alliance applied an unsuccessful food blockade on the Catholic cantons, the cantons responded with an attack at a moment when Zurich was ill prepared. Zwingli was killed in battle at the age of 47 and his legacy lives on in the confessions, liturgy, and church orders of the Reformed churches of today. The Swiss Confederation in Huldrych Zwinglis time consisted of thirteen states as well as affiliated areas, unlike the modern state of Switzerland, which operates under a federal government, each of the thirteen cantons was nearly independent, conducting its own domestic and foreign affairs. Each canton formed its own alliances within and without the Confederation and this relative independence served as the basis for conflict during the time of the Reformation when the various cantons divided between different confessional camps. Military ambitions gained an additional impetus with the competition to new territory and resources. The wider political environment in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries was also volatile, for centuries the relationship with the Confederations powerful neighbour, France, determined the foreign policies of the Swiss. Nominally, the Confederation formed a part of the Holy Roman Empire, however, through a succession of wars culminating in the Swabian War in 1499, the Confederation had become de facto independent. During this time the mercenary pension system became a subject of disagreement, the religious factions of Zwinglis time debated vociferously the merits of sending young Swiss men to fight in foreign wars mainly for the enrichment of the cantonal authorities. At the same time, Renaissance humanism, with its universal values, within this environment, defined by the confluence of Swiss patriotism and humanism, Zwingli was born in 1484. Huldrych Zwingli was born on 1 January 1484 in Wildhaus, in the Toggenburg valley of Switzerland, to a family of farmers and his father, Ulrich, played a leading role in the administration of the community
9.
Berchtold Haller
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Berchtold Haller was a German Protestant reformer. He was the reformer of the city of Bern, Switzerland, Haller was born at Aldingen in Württemberg. After schooling in Pforzheim, where he established a friendship with Philipp Melanchthon and he became a teacher in Rottweil in 1510 and in Bern in 1513, where he was appointed assistant preacher at the church of St Vincent in 1515. In 1520 he became a canon and the people’s priest, zwingli became his friend and adviser and they began a lively exchange of letters. Zwinglis 1531 death brought the Reformation in Bern to a crisis, Haller was especially concerned as Zwinglis successor Heinrich Bullinger was unable to attend. However, he received support from Wolfgang Capito who arrived in Bern shortly before the opening of the Synod. In 1532 Haller became the leader of the Reformed Church of Bern and he was in contact with Guillaume Farel in the western part of Switzerland and Heinrich Bullinger in Zürich and acted as a mediator between the Calvinist Reformation and Zürich. He died in Bern, leaving no writings except a few letters which are preserved in Zwinglis works, Rudolf Dellsperger, Berchtold Haller In, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz. Retrieved 24 November 2009 Rudolf Dellsperger, Haller, Berchtold In, Gerhard Müller, Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Volume 14, de Gruyter, Berlin 1985, retrieved 24 November 2009 Christian Neff, Haller, Berchthold. In, Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online,1956, retrieved 24 November 2009 Donald Hasler et al. Synodalrat des Synodalverbandes Bern-Jura, Bern 1994 Dan Lee Hendricks, The Bern Reformation of 1528, the vision, the peoples work. University Microfilms International 1978 Carl Pestalozzi, Berchtold Haller, Elberfeld 1861
10.
Bern Minster
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The Bern Minster is a Swiss Reformed cathedral, in the old city of Bern, Switzerland. Built in the Gothic style, its construction started in 1421 and its tower, with a height of 100.6 m, was only completed in 1893. It is the tallest cathedral in Switzerland and is a Cultural Property of National Significance, the Minster of Bern is located on the southern side of the Aare peninsula. The cathedral is oriented east and west like the rest of the Old City of Bern, to the north, Münstergasse runs along the side of the building. The west façade of the Münster dominates Münsterplatz, on the south side of the cathedral is the Münsterplattform. It is a three nave basilica without a transept, the entire cathedral is 84.2 meters long and 33.68 m wide. The central nave is 39.37 m long by 11.10 m wide and is 20.70 m high. The two side naves are very similar in dimensions, the nave is 52.50 m long. They are both 6.45 m wide and 10.40 m high, the altar house and choir together are 25.20 m long,10.92 m wide and 19.40 m high. The cathedral has a tower in the west, which is 100.60 m high. Below the tower, there is a 10.15 m long by 10.46 m wide, there are a total of ten bays in the building. The central nave has five of these bays, each of the side naves has two bays, with side chapels built against the exterior walls. The last bay is within the choir, the central nave walls are supported by fourteen flying buttresses. Each buttress starts at a column which rises above the roof of the side naves. The buttresses rise at an angle of 43° 30’, the lower side of the buttresses are decorated with egg-shaped cut outs, with vesica piscis and spandrel designs. The majority of the building is built from local sandstone, the vaults are built of brick. In the 18th Century, limestone sheathing was added to the pillars, most of the sandstone came from a quarry at Ostermundingen. Additional material came from three quarries, each with differing color and quality
11.
Novara
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Novara listen is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With about 105,000 inhabitants, it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin and it is an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin and from Genoa to Switzerland. Novara lies between the rivers Agogna and Terdoppio in northeastern Piedmont,50 kilometres from Milan and 95 kilometres from Turin, Novara was founded in ancient times by the Romans. Its name is formed from Nov, meaning new, and Aria, ancient Novaria, which dates to the time of the Ligures and the Celts, was a municipium and was situated on the road from Vercellae to Milan. Its position on perpendicular roads dates to the time of the Romans, after the city was destroyed in 386 by Magnus Maximus for having supported his rival Valentinian II, it was rebuilt by Theodosius I. Subsequently, it was sacked by Radagaisus and Attila, under the Lombards, Novara became a duchy, under Charles the Fat, a countship. Novara came to enjoy the rights of an imperial city. In 1110, it was conquered by Henry V and destroyed, at the end of the 12th century, it accepted the protection of Milan and became practically a dominion of the Visconti and later of the Sforza. In the Battle of Novara in 1513, Swiss mercenaries defending Novara for the Sforzas of Milan routed the French troops besieging the city and this defeat ended the French invasion of Italy in the War of the League of Cambrai. In 1706, Novara, which had long ago been promised by Filippo Maria Visconti to Amadeus VIII of Savoy, was occupied by Savoyard troops, with the Peace of Utrecht, the city, together with Milan, became part of the Habsburg Empire. After its occupation in 1734, Novara passed, in the following year, after Napoleons campaign in Italy, Novara became the capital of the Department of the Agogna, but was then reassigned to the House of Savoy in 1814. In 1821, it was the site of a battle in which regular Sardinian troops defeated the Piedmontese constitutional liberals, in the even larger Battle of Novara in 1849, the Sardinian army was defeated by the Austrian army of Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. This defeat led to the abdication of Charles Albert of Sardinia, the defeat of the Sardinians can be seen as the beginning of the Italian unification movement. A decree in 1859 created the province of Novara, which included the present-day provinces of Vercelli, Biella. The city of Novara had a population of 25,144 in 1861, industrialisation during the 20th century brought an increase in the citys population to 102,088 in 1981. The citys population has changed little in subsequent years, oscar Luigi Scalfaro, former president of Italy and Italian senator for life, was born in Novara in 1918. Novaras sights can be divided into two groupings, the citys most important sights lie within its historic centre, the area once enclosed by the city walls. However, several important sights also lie outside the line of the city walls
12.
Battle of Bicocca
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The Battle of Bicocca or La Bicocca was fought on 27 April 1522, during the Italian War of 1521–26. A combined French and Venetian force under Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, was defeated by an Imperial–Spanish. Lautrec then withdrew from Lombardy, leaving the Duchy of Milan in Imperial hands, having been driven from Milan by an Imperial advance in late 1521, Lautrec had regrouped, attempting to strike at Colonnas lines of communication. The Swiss pikemen advanced over open fields under heavy fire to assault the Imperial positions. Having suffered massive casualties from the fire of Spanish arquebusiers, the Swiss retreated, meanwhile, an attempt by French cavalry to flank Colonnas position proved equally ineffective. The Swiss, unwilling to further, marched off to their cantons a few days later. It was also one of the first engagements in which played a decisive role on the battlefield. At the start of the war in 1521, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Pope Leo X moved jointly against the Duchy of Milan, the principal French possession in Lombardy. A large Papal force under Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, together with Spanish troops from Naples and some smaller Italian contingents, concentrated near Mantua. For the next months, Colonna fought an evasive war of maneuver against Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec. By the autumn of 1521, Lautrec, who was holding a line along the Adda river to Cremona, began to suffer losses from desertion. Colonna took the opportunity this offered and, advancing close to the Alps, crossed the Adda at Vaprio, Lautrec, lacking infantry and assuming the years campaign to be over, Colonna had no intention of stopping his advance, however. On the night of November 23, he launched an attack on the city. Following some abortive street-fighting, Lautrec withdrew to Cremona with about 12,000 men, the French proceeded to attack Novara and Pavia, hoping to draw Colonna into a decisive battle. Colonna, leaving Milan, fortified himself in the monastery of Certosa south of the city, Lautrec was suddenly confronted, however, with the intransigence of the Swiss, who formed the largest contingent of the French army. They complained that they had not received any of the pay promised them since their arrival in Lombardy, the Swiss captains, led by Albert von Stein, demanded that Lautrec attack the Imperial army immediately—else the mercenaries would abandon the French and return to their cantons. Lautrec reluctantly acquiesced and marched south towards Milan, Colonna had meanwhile relocated to a formidable new position, the manor park of Bicocca, about four miles north of Milan. The north side of the park was bordered by a road, Colonna deepened this
13.
Erlach, Switzerland
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Erlach is the capital municipality of the Seeland administrative district in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. The nearby Jolimont hills, a 4 km long range of hills, have been constantly inhabited for thousands of years. In 1847, three grave mounds from the Middle Bronze Age were excavated, the graves dated to the mid 2nd millennium BC and contained numerous grave goods and weapons. Other graves have been discovered from the Hallstatt era, around 500 BC, a Roman road runs along the southern foot of the hills, between Lake Biel and the town of Petinesca. Erlach is first mentioned in 1185 as Erilacho and in 1274 as Cellie, in French it is called Cerlier. In 1264/66 Erlach received a Handfeste or document of rights from Count Rudolf II of Neuchâtel-Nidau, the village of Sunkorts church was built and consecrated in the 11th Century. Around 1100 the Benedictine Erlach Abbey was founded on Saint Peters Island, during the 14th Century, the city walls were built. The only remaining city gate, currently part of the Rathaus or town hall, is from this era, towers were added to the walls in the 15th Century. In 1455 the citizens of Erlach founded a hospital, based on the rights granted by Rudolf II, Erlach had a mayor and until 1798 a 12-member town council with a 6-18 member advisory body. Portions of Erlach Castle were built in the Middle Ages, in 1848, during the foundation of the Federal State, Erlach Castle became the district seat. However, thirty years later in 1874, it became a school, Erlach became a market town in 1367, when it was granted the right to hold a weekly market along with two yearly fairs. During the 19th century the number of yearly fairs increased to four, the towns economy was diverse and included agriculture, vineyards on the sunny south-facing hill sides, fishing and transportation on Lake Biel. During the 19th century, the industry provided many jobs. The Jura water correction projects of 1874-82 and 1962-72 lowered the level in the lake. Erlach has an area of 3.51 km2, of this area,1.54 km2 or 43. 9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.97 km2 or 27. 6% is forested. Of the rest of the land,0.53 km2 or 15. 1% is settled,0.01 km2 or 0. 3% is either rivers or lakes and 0.4 km2 or 11. 4% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 8. 5%, while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 2. 8%. Out of the land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests
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Nidau
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Nidau is a municipality in the Biel/Bienne administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Nidau is first mentioned in 1196 as Nidowe, the remains of a number of stilt house settlements from the neolithic until the late Bronze Age have been found along the lake shore in Nidau. A La Tene artifact was discovered in the Thielle/Zihl canal, several iron ingots which were probably from the Roman era were found in the old Thielle/Zihl river. Along the river, a castle was built in 1140. A second castle was built in 1180, which was replaced with the stone Nidau Castle in the early 13th century, the town was built south of the castle. It was either built or expanded just before the Battle of Laupen in 1338, the triangular town pointed toward the castle and had a main street that paralleled the river and ran north-south. Three cross streets ran west from the main street, the last count of Nidau, Rudolf IV died in 1375 in a battle in the Gugler War. The next owner of the castle was the Prince-Bishop of Basel, however, he was defeated in 1376 and the Counts of Kyburg acquired the castle. In 1379, Count Rudolf von Kyburg sold the castle and town to the Habsburgs, the Habsburgs then gave the castle as a fief to Enguerrand de Coucy, the former commander of the Guglers, in 1387. During the Sempach War, in May 1388, Swiss Confederation forces from Bern and Solothurn attacked and besieged the town, the castle was heavily damaged and the Swiss forces suffered heavy losses in the battle. Following the war, the town and castle were awarded to Bern in the peace settlement, portions of the city were damaged or destroyed in fires in 1388,1413,1513 and 1743. In 1425 Bern granted the town a charter, though only the 1548 version still exists, the town market and granary were first mentioned in 1411. A hospital opened in 1430 and a house was built in 1474. Its location on the Bern-Jura Mountains-Basel and the Geneva-Lake Constance roads as well as the shores of Lake Biel made Nidau into a transshipment point. Rich trade allowed the town to grow quickly, most of the residents worked in the markets, ship building, goods transportation and hospitality. Fishing, viticulture and farming provided most of the food for the town, the local tanners were the only group that formed a guild, beginning in 1485. The guild house was built in 1500, the town originally belonged to the parish of Bürglen. The town church was first mentioned in 1368, when it was a church of Bürglen
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Tagsatzung
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The Diet was a meeting of delegates from the individual cantons. Though it was the most wide-reaching political institution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, its power was very limited, organised as a Diet since 1500, the seat of the Swiss legislature was called the Federal Diet. This was not the source of authority in the loosely joined country. Though a representative body, it differed from modern constitutional assemblies as its member were drawn almost exclusively from the picked interest of the landed, the presiding canton of the Federal Diet was known as the Vorort and was usually the canton which had called the Diet. The Diet was held in varying locations, with Zurich becoming increasingly important following the 16th century, the last three presiding cantons before the French invasion were Bern, Lucerne, and Zürich. Following the invasion and victory of the French Republican forces, the Old Swiss Confederation was disbanded and replaced by the Helvetic Republic and this was a more centralized form of government than the previous and it was widely opposed as revoking the traditional liberties of local powers. Opposition was particularly fierce among the Catholic population, for whom the French imposed government was associated with the radical anti-clericalism of the French Revolution and this opposition eventually lead to the Stecklikrieg, which pitted a Swiss rebellion against the forces of the Helvetic Republic. The opposition was successful in forcing the Helvetic Republic to accepting the French negotiated Acts of Mediation in 1803 and these acts secured the federal, decentralized nature of Switzerland. Switzerland was organized according to the terms of the Acts of Mediation under the defeat of the French Empire in 1815. The Long Diet had been in session for over a year until 1815, the Swiss government maintained it federal structure, though no longer under the forms of the Acts of Mediation and coordinated by a re-named Federal Assembly. This is the system which would govern the Swiss for over three decades, seeing the addition of new, French-speaking cantons, the system showed its weaknesses in 1845, when a league of Catholic cantons joined together in opposition to Federal authority and formed the Sonderbund League in 1845. This was the beginnings of a war, which lasted through 1848. Following their victory, a new constitution was adopted and the Federal Assembly of Switzerland was created in its modern form, Bern was chosen as the federal city, or Bundesstadt, in a deliberate avoidance of the term capital city, or Hauptstadt. In its modern form, the Federal Assembly is a representative body which elects its members according to the votes of the citizens of each canton. List of Presidents of the Swiss Diet Landammann Landsgemeinde Tagsatzung in German, French, Vorort in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
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Augsburg Fortress
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Augsburg Fortress is the official publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and also publishes for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada as Augsburg Fortress Canada. The current CEO of Augsburg Fortress is Beth Lewis and its two predecessor companies were, Augsburg Publishing House, At the time of the 1988 ELCA merger, the company was affiliated with The American Lutheran Church. It was founded in 1891 in Minneapolis at Augsburg Seminary, at that time both the publishing house and seminary were part of the United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, however the seminary would leave the UNLC to form the Lutheran Free Church in 1897. The publishing house left the campus in 1894, relocating to the area in 1908. By 1960 it was the house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. With the 1960 merger of Lutheran denominations that formed the new American Lutheran Church, when the Lutheran Free Church joined in 1963, its publishing house, Messenger Press, was added. Fortress Press, Fortress Press was the arm of the Lutheran Church in America. It came into existence in 1962 with the merger of Lutheran denominations that created the LCA, the forerunner of the Fortress Press was Henkel Press, started by the son of Paul Henkel. Augsburg Fortress continues to use Fortress Press as an imprint for academic titles, concordia Publishing House, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synods official publishing house. Northwestern Publishing House, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synods official publishing house
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
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The encyclopedia is published by a foundation under the patronage of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Swiss Historical Society and is financed by national research grants. Besides a staff of 35 at the offices, the contributors include 100 academic advisors,2500 historians and 100 translators. The encyclopedia is being edited simultaneously in three languages of Switzerland, German, French and Italian. The first of 13 volumes was published in 2002, the last volume was published in 2014. The 36,000 headings are grouped in, Biographies Articles on families and it makes accessible, for free, all articles ready for publication in print, but no illustrations. It also lists all 36,000 topics that are to be covered, lexicon Istoric Retic is a two volume version with a selection of articles published in Romansh. It includes articles not available in the other languages, the first volume was published in 2010, the second in 2012. An on-line version is also available
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MusicBrainz
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MusicBrainz is a project that aims to create an open data music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the placed on the Compact Disc Database. MusicBrainz has expanded its goals to reach beyond a compact disc metadata storehouse to become an open online database for music. MusicBrainz captures information about artists, their works, and the relationships between them. Recorded works entries capture at a minimum the album title, track titles, and these entries are maintained by volunteer editors who follow community written style guidelines. Recorded works can also store information about the date and country. As of 26 July 2016, MusicBrainz contained information about roughly 1.1 million artists,1.6 million releases, end-users can use software that communicates with MusicBrainz to add metadata tags to their digital media files, such as MP3, Ogg Vorbis or AAC. As with other contributions, the MusicBrainz community is in charge for maintaining and reviewing the data, besides collecting metadata about music, MusicBrainz also allows looking up recordings by their acoustic fingerprint. A separate application, such as MusicBrainz Picard, must be used for this, in 2000, MusicBrainz started using Relatables patented TRM for acoustic fingerprint matching. This feature attracted many users and allowed the database to grow quickly, however, by 2005 TRM was showing scalability issues as the number of tracks in the database had reached into the millions. This issue was resolved in May 2006 when MusicBrainz partnered with MusicIP, tRMs were phased out and replaced by MusicDNS in November 2008. In October 2009 MusicIP was acquired by AmpliFIND, some time after the acquisition, the MusicDNS service began having intermittent problems. Since the future of the free service was uncertain, a replacement for it was sought. The Chromaprint acoustic fingerprinting algorithm, the basis for AcoustID identification service, was started in February 2010 by a long-time MusicBrainz contributor Lukáš Lalinský, while AcoustID and Chromaprint are not officially MusicBrainz projects, they are closely tied with each other and both are open source. Chromaprint works by analyzing the first two minutes of a track, detecting the strength in each of 12 pitch classes, storing these 8 times per second, additional post-processing is then applied to compress this fingerprint while retaining patterns. The AcoustID search server then searches from the database of fingerprints by similarity, since 2003, MusicBrainzs core data are in the public domain, and additional content, including moderation data, is placed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0 license. The relational database management system is PostgreSQL, the server software is covered by the GNU General Public License. The MusicBrainz client software library, libmusicbrainz, is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, in December 2004, the MusicBrainz project was turned over to the MetaBrainz Foundation, a non-profit group, by its creator Robert Kaye
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Netherlands Institute for Art History
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The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in documentation, archives, and books on Western art from the late Middle Ages until modern times, all of this is open to the public, and much of it has been digitized and is available on their website. The main goal of the bureau is to collect, categorize, via the available databases, the visitor can gain insight into archival evidence on the lives of many artists of past centuries. The library owns approximately 450,000 titles, of which ca.150,000 are auction catalogs, there are ca.3,000 magazines, of which 600 are currently running subscriptions. Though most of the text is in Dutch, the record format includes a link to library entries and images of known works. The RKD also manages the Dutch version of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, the original version is an initiative of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California. Their bequest formed the basis for both the art collection and the library, which is now housed in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Though not all of the holdings have been digitised, much of its metadata is accessible online. The website itself is available in both a Dutch and an English user interface, in the artist database RKDartists, each artist is assigned a record number. To reference an artist page directly, use the code listed at the bottom of the record, usually of the form, https, for example, the artist record number for Salvador Dalí is 19752, so his RKD artist page can be referenced. In the images database RKDimages, each artwork is assigned a record number, to reference an artwork page directly, use the code listed at the bottom of the record, usually of the form, https, //rkd. nl/en/explore/images/ followed by the artworks record number. For example, the record number for The Night Watch is 3063. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus also assigns a record for each term, rather, they are used in the databases and the databases can be searched for terms. For example, the painting called The Night Watch is a militia painting, the thesaurus is a set of general terms, but the RKD also contains a database for an alternate form of describing artworks, that today is mostly filled with biblical references. To see all images that depict Miriams dance, the associated iconclass code 71E1232 can be used as a search term. Official website Direct link to the databases The Dutch version of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus
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Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
