Searching for Columbus in the quincentennial: Three recent books on the discovery

Libro Copiador de Cristóbal Colón: Correspondencia inédita con los Reyes Católicos sobre los viajes a América. Estudio histórico‐crítico y edición. By ANTONIO RUMEU DE ARMAS. Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura and Testimonio Compañía Editorial, 1989. 2 Vols. Pp. 593.

In Search of Columbus: The Sources for the First Voyage. By DAVID HENIGE. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991. Pp. xiii, 359.

Columbus and the Ends of the Earth: Europe's Prophetic Rhetoric as Conquering Ideology. By DJELAL KADIR. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. Pp. xiv, 256.     

Negro problems in tropical Africa: Reviews of recent books

Changes in Scottish planning since the 1960s are discussed, especially the greater involvement of central government and increased consultation with the public. Steady pressure from the economic crisis and from technological change has limited the scope of the regions in planning though they retain a strategic role.     

Duelling after the Duce: postwar conflicts of honour in Italy

Unlike other western European countries, Italy did not see the waning of the duel of honour after the First World War. On the contrary, there was an increase in the practice during the 1920s as the Fascists used mechanisms of honour to facilitate and legitimize their rise to power. However, Mussolini's regime found the individualism of the chivalric tradition inconsistent with its totalitarian notions of discipline and duty and worked in a variety of subtle ways to try to eliminate the ritual from Italian life. For the most part, the Second World War finished the process and, in the wake of defeat, destruction and partisan conflict, duelling virtually disappeared as a means of settling disputes of honour among elites. Nevertheless, one can point to a handful of formal duels, which adhered to traditional regulations, that occurred in the decade after the war. This article investigates these encounters in order to understand why these particular participants decided to opt for a ritual that was both out of fashion and had lost much of its legal immunity. It also argues that their actions actually demonstrate just how alienated the duel had become from Italy's social mainstream after the war.     

Settling Accounts: Retribution,Emotion and Memory during the Fall of Mussolini

Abstract

The fall of Mussolini on 25 July 1943, and the concomitant collapse of the Fascist regime, have long been recognized as a pivotal moment in the Second World War and, indeed, contemporary Italian history. To date, however, these events have been viewed almost exclusively ‘from above’, in terms of elite politics, international diplomacy, and military strategy. Drawing on the analytical frameworks of Alltagsgeschichte (‘everyday history’), the present contribution examines the experiences, reactions and behaviors of ordinary Italians during the fall of Fascism. In particular, it explores incidents of retributive and symbolic violence, political denunciation, and popular demonstration, in order to understand how individuals and communities expressed emotions and memories, negotiated relationships, and sought to redress grievances and antipathies developed over more than twenty years of ‘totalitarian’ dictatorship.     

Avant-garde modernism and Italian Fascism: cultural politics in the era of Mussolini

The article explores the efforts of Marinetti's futurists, Sarfatti's Novecento movement, and the Tuscan circle that propounded strapaese to shape a cultural basis for Italian Fascism. The first two movements sought to become an official art for Fascism, while the third sought to produce a culture that would remain true to Fascism's origins in 1919, but all were in different ways 'modernist' movements and they are therefore contextualized both in terms of the challenge presented by Fascism and those faced by their modernist counterparts elsewhere in Europe. It is argued that the three movements enjoyed some success in the 1920s but were effectively shut down by the rise of the intransigent Right in the 1930s. Yet it is also argued that they needed the regime because they were too weak by themselves to assert the principle of artistic autonomy in the face of an internationally ascendant commodity culture. L'articolo esplora i tentativi dei futuristi facenti capo a Marinetti, del movimento Novecento di Sarfatti, così come del circolo toscano detto di Strapaese, nel costruire e definire le basi culturali del fascismo italiano. I primi due movimenti cercarono di costituire un'arte ufficiale del fascismo, mentre la terza si protese a far nascere una cultura che rimanesse legata alle origini del movimento fascista del 1919; ma tutti erano, in maniera diversa, movimenti 'modernisti' e sono qui tra l'altro posti sia nel contesto del cambiamento, nel clima politico e culturale, rappresentato dal fascismo che in quello degli altri movimenti modernisti europei. Viene messo in evidenza che i tre movimenti ottennero un discreto successo negli anni venti, ma furono censurati da una destra intransigente che emergeva negli anni trenta. Tuttavia, è possibile affermare che tutti e tre i movimenti avevano bisogno del Regime perché troppo deboli ed incapaci di consolidare un principio di autonomia artistica nei confronti di una emergente cultura consumista nel contesto internazionale.     

New books: Books received

In early January 1203, the majority of the leading barons of the Fourth Crusade concluded the Treaty of Zara with Prince Alexios, son of Isaak II, the deposed Byzantine Emperor, thereby agreeing to divert the crusade to Constantinople in order to place the young prince on the throne of Byzantium. The treaty was ratified, despite fierce general opposition and dissension within the crusade, which led hundreds to leave the crusading army either to make their own way to Palestine or to return home. In April 1204, a year after the crusading fleet sailed from Zara to the Byzantine Empire on the pretext of defending the ‘rights’ of the ‘legitimate heir’ to the throne of Constantinople, the crusaders attacked and conquered the Byzantine imperial capital for themselves. Through a new and close examination of the primary evidence, this paper reconsiders the motives of the crusader leaders for their decision to conclude the treaty and then to conquer Constantinople. Although the crusaders proclaimed a range of high-minded motives, which have been largely accepted by modern historians, the real reason for the diversion to the Byzantine capital in 1203 by the Venetians and the French, and their subsequent attack on the city in 1204 was a simpler and, in the crusaders' minds, increasingly pressing concern: the payment of outstanding debts.     

中国古代书籍的装帧形式与形制

中国古代书籍装帧形制的形成与演变,同书籍的制作材料、制作方法、便于检阅、利于保护等诸方面因素紧密相关.例如,据考古学家们考证,甲骨文书的装订采用中间钻孔用绳串连的办法,是由甲骨这种材料的特质所决定的.它无法象简策一样编连卷舒,也无法象缣帛、纸张一样舒卷折叠,因为甲骨本身不具备这种品质.且甲骨文书只是一种档案,并不提供常人阅览,只备史官或卜人查阅,因而也无须装订得结实,只要有序即可.     

《四库全书》的种数问题

<四库全书>是我国古代乃至十八世纪中叶世界上最大的一部丛书.初缮七份,分庋七阁.     

反映藏族风情的第一位散曲家——林乔荫

在中国文学史上,以诗歌吟咏西藏风情的作家不乏其人,如清代的杨揆、孙士毅等,但以散曲来反映西藏风情的作家则较罕见,从笔者掌握的资料来看,清嘉庆年间的林乔荫或许可属第一人.他用二组套曲记述了藏族的风俗民情,反映了藏汉人民和睦相处的历史事实,在中国散曲史上有着特殊的地位.     

敦煌变文写卷的文本属性及其整理中存在的问题

敦煌变文的整理校勘,经过几代学者的不懈努力,取得了举世瞩目的辉煌成就,日臻完善.但由于整理者以对待作家作品的理念对待变文写卷,忽视了变文写卷文本的独特属性,因此现在的整理方式也不无可议之处.     

Introduction: towards trans geographies

Gender geographies have focused on normatively gendered men and women, neglecting the ways in which gender binaries can be contested and troubled. Trans people question hegemonic conventions that link sexed bodies, gender roles and lives. This collection spans a range of theoretical fields in this context, including trans theories, queer engagement, feminist geographies, gender geographies and sexualities geographies. It offers empirical investigations of trans lives, while addressing the often theoretical use of ‘trans’ to render gender fluid, incoherent and unintelligible. As a whole this themed section questions geography's presumption of man/woman and male/female.     

Urban planning in Russia: towards the market

The article discusses the recent transformation of the Russian system of urban planning from the socialist system to a market one. The focus is on new problems of the Russian planning system, the relationship between the new and old systems, and the role of the bureaucracy and participation. A case study of the city of Moscow develops the subject at a metropolitan level. It is argued that Russian planning in transition has been planning in crisis and it is only now becoming an effective and pluralistic social institution. The recent revival of planning has been much dependent on Russia's regions; a diversification of planning systems throughout the country is expected.