scholarly journals PAOLO MANTEGAZZA E GLI UCCELLI DEL CIELO

Author(s):  
Renato Massa

The earliest interest of Paolo Mantegazza in bird biology was expressed as an attention to the world of ornamental bird breeders. Later on, Mantegazza was so deeply fascinated by Riccardo Stradi’s research on bird feather’s pigments to sponsor a magnificent University annual book just dedicated to this theme. At the same time he became very much interested and openly supported the establishment of a new ornithological station at Albonico, a supporting institution that readily produced several degree theses in biological and /or natural sciences and, in addition, several research papers on special ecological themes regarding . the life history of song birds. The success of the above cited station also suggested to try to save the old Milan zoo by establishing a zoo research station on the model of the corresponding institutions of the Milan aquarium and natural history museum. The project was discussed in comparison with the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, and, as such, was strongly supported by Mantegazza, but due to a political change of the Miano city hall administration, it was suddenly rejected while the whole work done up to that point was completely lost. The unfortunate story of the Milan zoo was shortly followed by a much luckier one, regarding the study of the parrot language. With the moral and material help of Mantegazza, a number of African parrots were even hosted in an especially built glass structure within the domain of the Department of Pharmacology. In addition, they were also studied on the field in a series of short expeditions to Tanzania and Uganda. The results of these activities were summarized in a numbers of papers and books. A special memory is also worth about the world list of the Italian bird names, a project that was started almost as a semantic joke and was subsequently so much developed to suggest to ask to our Rector (and readily obtain) a University contribution for its publication. The resulting bird name list was even worth a Crusca Academy praise and was extensively adopted since its publication in the popular ornithological literature in the Italian language. The first paper print, delivered in 1993, was followed by a second paper print in the year 2000 and, more recently, by an electronic version enriched by introductory texts to orders and families as well as by several pictures by a number of photographers. In summary, Paolo Mantegazza was deeply interested in bird biology and encouraged/sponsored a number of researches and cultural events on this topic within the University of Milano.

The Natural History Museum of the University of Florence, founded in 1775 by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, is one of the oldest scientific museum in the world. With this third volume on the collections of the Geology and Paleontology Section, Firenze University Press continues its series dedicated to the six Sections of the Museum. The first part of the volume shows a detailed and fascinating descriptions of the history of this museum section's collections, the contribution of scholars who from the 17th century endeavoured to expand and study the Florentine geological-paleontological collections, and the importance of the collections to the development of modern geological-paleontological thinking. The second part describes and documents the collections, that are presented in geo-chronological order, divided into the Invertebrate, Vertebrate, Paleobotanical and Geological collections. In the last part are presented the most important activities and research projects, based on this important cultural heritage, carried out by the paleontologists of the University of Florence.


1971 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Taylor

Editorial note. March 17th, 1971 was the fiftieth anniversary of the opening by Marie Stopes of her birth control clinic in Holloway, London, the first of its kind in the UK and possibly in the world. In recognition of this notable event, the Board of the Marie Stopes Memorial Foundation, in conjunction with the University of York, has established a Marie Stopes Memorial Lecture to be given annually for a term of years. The first of the series was delivered on 12th March in the Department of Sociology, University of York, by Mr Laurie Taylor of that department. In introducing the speaker, Dr G. C. L. Bertram, the Chairman, emphasized the great contribution made by Marie Stopes to human welfare and gave a brief history of the clinic, which was soon moved to Whitfield Street. On Marie Stopes' death in 1958 the Memorial Foundation was set up to manage the clinic, still in Whitfield Street, and as a working monument to a great women.Mr Taylor's script is printed below as delivered and it will be seen that the lecture was a notable one. Not only that, but it was delivered with the verve of a Shakespearean actor and the members of the large and appreciative audience will not readily forget the occasion.


2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radmila Sajkovic

In this text the author reviews the life and work of Zagorka Micic, famous Serbian woman-philosopher, in honour of the 100th anniversary of her birth. She was one of the first students of Edmund Husserl, and her Ph. D. thesis was among the earliest ones in phaenomenology, which was waking in that time. Her cooperation with Husserl has continued for a decade. After the World War II Zagorka Micic worked as a professor of logic and history of philosophy at the University of Skoplje (now FYRM). Stressing her individual qualities, the paper is full of personal memories and reminiscences of mutual encounters.


The article attempts to comprehend the essence and possibility of forming discourse competence among foreign and Russian students with simultaneous immersion in patriotic discourse. It is highlighted that the addition of the humanitarian series of “History of Civilizations” and “Features of Russian Civilization” to the educational process at the university creates the necessary pedagogical conditions for organizing a special linguo-ethno-cultural environment that forms active social interaction of authors within the framework of the medical and patriotic linguistic scenario. The authors of the article conducted a semantic and historical analysis of interpretations of the concept of “patriotism” that were studied from the point of view of traditional and liberal culture. The article presents the results of a socio-pedagogical study of students' perceptions of this concept. The article describes various theoretical and methodological approaches to the definition of the concepts of “discourse” and “discursive picture of the world” as well as psycholinguistic features of the method of semantic differential. Special attention in the article is paid to the typologies of discourse presented in the scientific literature. The authors of the article present the principle of genre and the principle of thematic correlation as the basis for distinguishing between types of discourse and highlight differences in language and discursive pictures of the world. The tasks of educators is to form not only purely medical discursive competence, but also to immerse the listener in “correctly” interpreted picture, saturated with verbal patterns that allow to create statements of patriotic content.


Literator ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
H. Ester

The labyrinth in literature: From Baroque to Postmodernism The labyrinth has proved to be an essential symbol of postmodernist literature and the philosophy of our time. This symbol has apparently had the power to bridge the centuries between Ancient Greece and the year 2000. In reality the labyrinth as a geometrical figure has acquired various meanings in the course of time. The history of the labyrinth as symbol shows that the constant elements are as essential as the changes in meaning from the Middle Ages until the present day. Two of the new symbolic elements that accompany the labyrinth on its way through various cultural periods are the garden and the path of life. During the Baroque the labyrinth, for example, represented the synthesis of garden, path and maze. At the end of the twentieth century the labyrinth once more becomes a dominant and significant structure. The labyrinth reflects the inability and perhaps impossibility to find the key to the centre of the world and to discover the truth behind the words we use. On the other hand, the labyrinth suggests that the search for meaning and truth is an aim in itself or even that this search can lead to new forms of wisdom. The labyrinth therefore is an ambivalent and fascinating symbol of our time. Dedalus and Ariadne, however, have not yet brought the salvation we are waiting for.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaas Berkel ◽  
Guus Termeer

The University of Groningen has been an international university since its foundation in 1614. The first professors formed a rich international community, and many students came from outside the Netherlands, especially from areas now belonging to Germany. Internationalization, a popular slogan nowadays, is therefore nothing new, but its meaning has changed over time. How did the University of Groningen grow from a provincial institution established for religious reasons into a top-100 university with 36,000 students, of whom 25% come from abroad and almost half of the academic staff is of foreign descent? What is the identity of this four-century-old university that is still strongly anchored in the northern part of the Netherlands but that also has a mind that is open to the world? The history of the university, as told by Klaas van Berkel and Guus Termeer, ends with a short paragraph on the impact of the corona crisis.


Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2201 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
STEFAN KOERBER

In 1891 Axel Johan Einar Lönnberg became a Doctor of Science and a Fellow of Zoology at the University of Uppsala. From 1904 to 1933, he served as head of the Vertebrate Department of the Royal Natural History Museum of Stockholm where after his expeditions around the world he worked the collected material himself. Although he was specialized in ornithology and the fauna of his homecountry Sweden, Lönnberg worked on so many different zoological groups “that since the days of Linnaeus hardly anyone has known so much about so many branches in zoology as Lönnberg” (Anonymous 1943). One of his special interests was to educate his Swedish countrymen about their native animals and he accomplished this during many years as editor and multiple author of the journal Fauna och Flora.


1983 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
George L. Haskins

On October 3, 1881, William Henry Rawle, the distinguished Philadelphia lawyer and scholar, addressed students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School hoping to illustrate, ‘in a very general and elementary way,’ the differences between the growth of English and early Pennsylvania jurisprudence. ‘It would have been more interesting and more broadly useful,’ Rawle apologized to his audience, ‘if the attempt could have been extended to embrace the other colonies which afterwards became the United States, for there would have been not only the contrast between the mother country and her colonies, but the contrast between the colonies themselves.’ Rawle was confident that such an examination would have revealed how ‘in some cases, one colony followed or imitated another in its alteration of the law which each had brought over, and how, in others, the law was changed in one colony to suit its needs, all unconscious of similar changes in another.’ ‘Unhappily,’ Rawle explained, ‘this must be the History of the Future for the materials have as yet been sparingly given to the world.’


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