Viticulture, opus doliare, and the patrimonium Caesaris at the Roman imperial estate at Vagnari (Puglia)

This article focuses on the establishment of a winery on the Roman imperial estate at Vagnari in southeast Italy in the 2nd c. CE and the ceramic vats (dolia defossa) needed to mature and store the estate's vintages. A scientific analysis of the clay used to make the dolia has revealed their likely place of manufacture to have been in Latium or on the border between Latium and Campania on the Tyrrhenian (west) coast of Italy. With these analytical results in hand, it is now possible to inquire into the historical and economic significance for the imperial fiscus of importing dolia for wine making in the vicus at Vagnari, the route and mechanisms by which they might have traveled to the other side of the Italian peninsula, and the connectivity between this Apulian imperial estate and other potential imperial properties in western Italy. This places the present study at the intersection of agriculture, manufacturing, and property transfer within the patrimonium Caesaris.

Conflict and Violence in Medieval Italy 568-1154

This collection of essays from both established and emerging scholars analyses the dynamic connections between conflict and violence in medieval Italy. Together, the contributors present a new critique of power that sustained both kingship and locally based elite networks throughout the Italian peninsula. A broad temporal range, covering the sixth to the twelfth century, allows this book to cross a number of ‘traditional’ fault-lines in Italian historiography – 774, 888, 962 and 1025. The essays provide wide-ranging analysis of the role of conflict in the period, the operation of power and the development of communal consciousness and collective action by protagonists and groups. It is thus essential reading for scholars, students and general readers who wish to understand the situation on the ground in the medieval Italian environment.

Innovations in a Traditional Landscape of Pilgrimage: The Via Francigena del Sud towards Rome and Other Apulian Pilgrim’s Routes

Religious routes and itineraries can be seen as promoting not only the sharing of ethical and religious values and sentiments of peace and brotherhood but also the awareness and personal growth of the traveller. Those who walk remote pilgrimage paths today wish to experience the fascination of the past, to feel something of the dread and the passion of ancient travellers, but they also seek to fulfil an emotional and intellectual need for authenticity, spirituality and culture. The Puglia region has numerous religious paths that arose in past centuries and continue to be practised by modern pilgrims, who treat the journey as an emotional, educational, social and participatory experience. Appropriate exploitation of this type of journey would enable the promotion of a “gentle” but no less successful tourism, above all in a period of social distancing and global suffering. The present study starts with a presentation of some of the precursors of the many routes that led from the Orient towards Rome, such as those of the Apostle Peter, St Francis of Assisi and the anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux. It then examines the new values that prompt people to follow the Via Francigena del Sud that runs along the Italian peninsula linking Europe north of the Alps to the ports of Puglia, and it is just an exemplary case aimed at fulfilling the potential of eastern Mediterranean coastal regions by offering cultural routes and itineraries for sustainable and quality tourism.

Monitoring newt communities in urban area using eDNA metabarcoding

Newts are amphibians commonly present in small ponds or garden pools in urban areas. They are protected in many countries and their presence is monitored through visual observation and/or trapping. However, newts are not easy to spot as they are small, elusive and often hidden at the bottom of water bodies. In recent years, environmental DNA (eDNA) has become a popular tool for detecting newts, with a focus on individual species using qPCR assays. Here, we assess the effectiveness of eDNA metabarcoding compared to conventional visual surveys of newt diversity in 45 ponds within urban areas of Geneva canton, Switzerland. We designed newt-specific mitochondrial 16S rRNA primers, which assign the majority of amplicons to newts, and were able to detect four species known to be present in the region, including the invasive subspecies Lissotriton vulgaris meridionalis, native to the Italian peninsula, that has been introduced in the Geneva area recently. The obtained eDNA results were congruent overall with conventional surveys, confirming the morphological observations in the majority of cases (67%). In 25% of cases, a species was only detected genetically, while in 8% of cases, the observations were not supported by eDNA metabarcoding. Our study confirms the usefulness of eDNA metabarcoding as a tool for the effective and non-invasive monitoring of newt community and suggests its broader use for the survey of newt diversity in urban area at larger scales.

Contra invidentium effascinationes: Prophylaxis and the evil eye in some gems of the republican Roman era with grotesque subjects

In the glyptic repertoire of roman-republican age, numerous subjects that must be recognized as amulets with probaskanica function. These objects are designed to protect the owner from the negative effects of the evil eye. The ridiculous and caricatural aspect often seen in these engraved gems characterized the grotesque and/or deformed beings such as hunchbacks, bald, dwarfs, pygmies. A further common typical element is the sexual hypertrophy, another characteristic that, in literature, has always been associated with a clear apotropaic function. From a functional perspective, all these features would contribute to identify these characters as useful expedients to ward off the charm. Instead, from a perspective of antithetical analogy, they communicate positive symbolic concepts, such as the fullness of life, fertility, rebirth and victory over death. Thanks to the analytical study of some pictures engraved in gems conducted by the authors, it has been possible to define a singular set similar for style, subject and type of material, produced between the second and first century BC in the Italian peninsula. The paper intends to explain the figurative and material elements, both constant or variable, that contribute to reinforce the symbolic and amuletic meaning of these gems.

Prosulas for Graduals and Tracts

Prosulas for graduals and tracts display a style that is either strophic or recitational. That these prosulas circulated only in the Italian peninsula shows a predilection for repetitive and simple melodic patterns in peninsular ecclesiastical circles. This preference, which could be fully exploited in prosulas for tracts and graduals, is also reflected in some Latin songs of Italian origins and that can be put in connection with monasteries and cathedral churches. The manuscript Ben35 is the largest testimony for prosula tracts compared to any other Italian source, thus revealing a particular propensity for the composition of tract prosulas by its scribe or at the monastery of St Peter Outside the Walls.

Epilogue

Prosulas were probably performed by younger cantors and were pedagogical tools to teach textual and musical composition. They reveal multidirectional exchanges among various regions, conceivably because of the exchange of books and the travels of people, including members of the lay society who traveled around the Italian peninsula to undertake juridical studies and then work as lawyers for cathedrals and monasteries. Certainly, prosulas were a means to express the values and culture of a society that we also see reflected in some of the literary works produced in southern Italy during the same period. The emphasis on foreign and especially African and West Asian saints and the involvement of nuns reveal a multiform society and counterbalances a male and Eurocentric view of medieval history.

Geochemical and isotopical variations within the Campanian Comagmatic Province: implications on magma source composition

A spatial variation in chemical and isotopical composition is observed between the volcanoes belonging to the Campanian Comagmatic Province. At a given MgO content, magmas from volcanic islands (Procida and Ischia) are enriched in Ti, Na, depleted in La, Ba, Rb, Sr, Th, K contents, and shows lower LREE/HFSE (e.g., La/Nb = = 1-2), lower Sr-Pb isotopic ratios and higher Nd isotopic ratios with respect to magmas from volcanoes locat- ed inland (Campi Flegrei and Somma-Vesuvius). The observed compositional variations are explained involving two different mantle sources in the genesis of the magmas erupted in this region: a deeper asthenospheric man- tle source, from which the Tyrrhenian magmas also derived and a lithospheric mantle source enriched by slab- derived fluids. The contribution of the enriched-lithospheric mantle became more pronounced moving from the Tyrrhenian abyssal plain through the Italian Peninsula where it dominates, likely in response to the thickening of the lithosphere observed under the Peninsula