Toward a history of the Trecento diptych: Format, materiality, and mobility in a corpus of diptychs from Angevin Naples

2018 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Sarah K. Kozlowski

Abstract Laying the groundwork for a larger project, this essay brings together for the first time a working corpus of diptychs connected with the Angevin court in Naples in the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Comprising both surviving diptychs and diptychs now lost but recorded in inventories, this body of material reveals that objects of this type were commissioned and collected in significant numbers at the Neapolitan court, in a range of sizes, mediums, and subjects, and were produced by workshops linked not only to Naples but also to central Italy, Genoa, and the Eastern Mediterranean. In turn, diptychs in Naples raise larger questions about the histories, materialities, and meanings of the format in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in Europe and the Mediterranean. Above all, the objects brought together here press us to set diptychs in motion through networks of artworks, artists, and patrons on the move across the Mediterranean.

Author(s):  
G.V.V. Murina ◽  
M.A. Pancucci-Papadopoulou ◽  
A. Zenetos

The bibliography concerning the Mediterranean Sipuncula is reviewed, particularly that from the eastern Mediterranean. Additional data are provided from macrobenthic samples collected between 1974 and 1997 in the Hellenic waters. A total of 17 species are recorded, five of which (Sipunculus norvegicus, Golfingia elongata, Nephasoma lilljeborgi, Thysanocardiacatharinae and Aspidosiphon (Akrikos) mexicanus) are reported for the first time in Hellenic waters. Three more species (Onchnesoma squamatum squamatum, Aspidosiphon (Aspidosiphon) elegans, Apionsoma (Apionsoma) trichocephalus) which are found exclusively in the extreme eastern basin (Israel, Egypt) raises the number of eastern Mediterranean Sipuncula species to twenty.


Author(s):  
K. Nomikou ◽  
S. Maan ◽  
N. S. Maan ◽  
P. P.C. Mertens

Bluetongue virus (BTV) is the prototype species of the genus Orbivirus within the family Reoviridae. There are 24 (possibly 25) distinct serotypes of BTV, eleven of which have entered, or have been identified in Europe and the Mediterranean region since 1998 (types 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 24 and 25). The first BTV to arrive in Greece during 1998 was serotype 9 (iso­late GRE1998/01), followed by BTV-16 (GRE1999/13) during 1999. BTV-9 spread to mainland Greece, South-Eastern Bulgaria and European Turkey during 1999, to Italy during 2000, then to Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, mainland Italy and Sicily in 2001. In 2002, BTV-9 was again identified in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Yugoslavia and Albania, and was identified in Libya for the first time in 2008. The whole genome was sequenced for representative field and vaccine strains of BTV-9 and 16 from the Mediterranean region, identifying the levels of genetic heterogeneity in each genome segment. The early European isolates of BTV-9 (1998 onwards) were identified as ‘eastern’ strains related to those from India, Indonesia and Australia. BTV-16 isolates are also eastern strains that are most closely related to strains from Turkey and the South African reference strain of type 16 (originally from Pakistan). Analyses of the more conserved genome segments coding for structural and non-structural proteins of BTV-9 (from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey) and BTV-16 (from Greece and Turkey) show that the Eastern European isolates of these two serotypes have the remaining eight genome segments (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10) with more than 99% similarity, in each case belonging to the same eastern lineage. These data show that the BTV-9 and 16 isolates that were circulating in the Mediterranean region are reassortants, with the majority of their genome seg­ments derived from a single parental lineage. However, the BTV-9 isolate from Libya (LIB2008/08) is more closely related to the western BTV-9 reference strain from South Africa than to the earlier BTV-9 isolates from Eastern Europe. Analysis of the more conserved segments of LIB2008/08 showed only 79.8–80.2% similarity with the eastern European BTV-9 isolates from the Eastern Mediterranean region, but 89–93.5% similarity with the BTV-9 reference and vaccine strains from South Africa. BTV-9 from Libya belongs to a distinct western lineage of viruses and represents both a new introduction to the Mediterranean region and a new threat to Europe.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioannis D. Polemis ◽  
Theodora Antonopoulou

The Greek dossier on St. Christodoulos, founder of the monastery of Patmos (1088), consists of four texts, three vitae and a narrative of a miracle, all written within roughly two centuries after the saint’s death by brethren of his monastic community. They are not only important for the reconstruction of the course of life of one of the most famous Byzantine saints, but they are also a unique source for the political and social history of Byzantium and the Eastern Mediterranean from the late 11th to the 13th century. Despite their great importance, these texts have remained almost unknown until today because they are contained in a 19th century edition that is hardly accessible any more and was intended exclusively for the monks and visitors of the John Prodromos Monastery. The new critical edition, which is accompanied by a critical and exhaustive apparatus of sources as well as an index of personal names and of all passages of previous authors quoted or referred to in the texts, will be appreciated by historians and literary scholars alike. Historians will now have at their disposal an important source for the history of the Comnenian period and beyond, while scholars interested in Byzantine literature will have the opportunity to examine in depth four important and rather complex documents, which offer three different visions of the phenomenon of sanctity in Byzantium at the eve of the Fourth Crusade. The introduction discusses several literary, historical and text-critical aspects of the dossier. Extensive summaries in English make these texts available to a wider audience for the first time.


2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Gómez

Diversity and Distribution of the DinoflagellatesBrachidinium, AsterodiniumandMicroceratium(Brachidiniales, Dinophyceae) in the open Mediterranean SeaBrachidiniacean dinoflagellates have been investigated in the open waters of the Mediterranean Sea, along a transect from the south of France to the south of Cyprus (20 June-18 July 2008).BrachidiniumandKarenia papilionaceaoften co-occurred,B. capitatumpredominating in the surface waters. The highest abundance ofBrachidiniumwere found in the upper 25min the western Mediterranean with amaximum (24 cells L-1) at a depth of 5 m in the Balearic Sea.Asterodinium(up to 4 cells L-1) was recorded below of deep chlorophyll maxima. The genusMicroceratium, only known from the tropical Indo-Pacific region, is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea.Microceratiumwas found below 100min the eastern Mediterranean Sea, with the highest abundance of 8 cells L-1at 125 m depth, in the Levantine Basin. This study also illustrates for the first time specimens under the division ofBrachidiniumandMicroceratium. This first occurrence ofMicroceratiumin the Mediterranean Sea should be considered an indicator of climate warming. However, it should not be considered a non-indigenous taxon.Microceratiumis the ‘tropical morphotype’, the adaptation of a local species (a life stage ofKarenia - Brachidinium - Asterodinium) to the tropical environmental conditions that prevail in summer in the open Mediterranean Sea.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Johnson ◽  
Clara Manno ◽  
Patrizia Ziveri

Abstract. Shelled pteropods represent an excellent sentinel for indicating exposure to ocean acidification (OA). Here, for the first time, we characterise spring pteropod distribution throughout the Mediterranean Sea, a region that has been identified as a climate change hot-spot. The presence of a west–east natural biogeochemical gradient makes this region a natural laboratory to investigate how the variability in environmental parameters may affect pteropod distribution. Results show that pteropod abundance is significantly higher in the eastern Mediterranean Sea where there is a higher aragonite saturation state (Ωar), showing that distribution is positively correlated with Ωar. We also observed a resilience of pteropods to higher temperatures and low nutrient conditions, including phosphorous limitation. The higher abundance of pteropods in ultra-oligotrophic conditions (eastern Mediterranean Sea) suggests that this organism can play an important role as the prime calcifying zooplankton within specific oligotrophic regions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Armetta ◽  
Maria Luisa Saladino ◽  
Antonella Scherillo ◽  
Eugenio Caponetti

AbstractTwo Monterfortino helmets, recovered in the Mediterranean seabed, show unusual features with respect to the more common helmets of the same period and found in underwater environments. Hence, they were investigated by a multi-analytical approach, which allowed us to identify the compounds constituting the helmets and to make some considerations about their metallurgy, although all the metal was converted to degradation products. The helmets, originally made in bronze, have maintained their original shape because of copper sulphides formation. The observed differences in composition between the two helmets were attributed to the position modification, of one of them, into the seabed along centuries. For the first time, a microstructural investigation permits to reconstruct the history of the aging processes involved in the total oxidation of roman bronze helmet metal.


2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Gargouri Ben Abdallah ◽  
N. Trigui El Menif ◽  
F. Maamouri

AbstractCercaria lata (Digenea, Faustulidae), discovered by Lespés (1857) in Tapes decussata (L.) in the basin of Arcachon, was found for the first time, from the eastern Mediterranean, in the same lamellibranch from Tunisia (Bizerte and Tunis lagoons and Gulf of Gabes). These cercariae develop in daughter sporocysts, which develop in mother sporocysts in the gonads. Daughter sporocysts are observed in the gonads and sometimes in the digestive gland. A redescription and the behaviour of the naturally emerging cercariae and spatio-temporal distribution of the sporocysts are reported. A comparative study using multivariate analyses associated with morphology, biology and seasonality confirm the distinctness of Cercaria lata and the cercaria of Cercaria pectinata from Donax trunculus.


Fishes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thodoros Kampouris ◽  
Debora Milenkova ◽  
Ioannis Batjakas

The finding of a rare crab, Paragalene longicrura, is herein recorded from Thermaikos Gulf. This constitutes the northmost record of the species in Greek waters. The species is only known from sporadic records in the eastern Mediterranean basin. Ecological remarks on the habitat of P. longicrura and other decapod species are described for the first time for the Mediterranean.


Author(s):  
F. Marra ◽  
G. L. Cardello ◽  
M. Gaeta ◽  
B. R. Jicha ◽  
P. Montone ◽  
...  

AbstractHere, we report on the Quaternary Volsci Volcanic Field (VVF, central Italy). In light of new 40Ar/39Ar geochronological data and compositional characterization of juvenile eruptive products, we refine the history of VVF activity, and outline the implications on the pre-eruptive magma system and the continental subduction processes involved. Different from the nearby volcanic districts of the Roman and Campanian Provinces, the VVF was characterized by small-volume (0.01–0.1 km3) eruptions from a network of monogenetic centers (mostly tuff rings and scoria cones, with subordinate lava occurrences), clustered along high-angle faults of lithospheric depth. Leucite-bearing, high-K (HKS) magmas (for which we report for the first time the phlogopite phenocryst compositions) mostly fed the early phase of activity (∼761–539 ka), then primitive, plagioclase-bearing (KS) magmas appeared during the climactic phase (∼424–349 ka), partially overlapping with HKS ones, and then prevailed during the late phase of activity (∼300–231 ka). The fast ascent of primitive magma batches is typical of a tectonically controlled volcanic field, where the very low magma flux is a passive byproduct of regional tectonic strain. We suggest that the dominant compressive stress field acting at depth was accompanied by an extensional regime in the upper crust, associated with the gravity spreading of the Apennine chain, allowing the fast ascent of magma from the mantle source with limited stationing in shallow reservoirs.


Author(s):  
RAZY HOFFMAN ◽  
HIROSHI KAJIHARA

The ribbon worm Evelineus mcintoshii is reported for the first time from the Mediterranean Sea. Observations that took place, during two algal surveys, on the intertidal abrasion platforms at the middle of the Levantine Sea of Israel indicated that this species is hiding inside a mixture of local and non-indigenous marine seaweeds. It is probably another alien species, one of many, that adopted the Levantine basin of the Eastern Mediterranean due to tropical environmental conditions that characterize this sea. We discuss the first record of this species and its possible origins as well as the first report of Notospermus geniculatus, the other marine nemertean species recently reported from Israel.


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