An Analytical Study on the Seismic Vulnerability of Masonry Buildings in India

Two analytical models for unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings are proposed with the aim to simulate their seismic response and to estimate corresponding vulnerability functions. The proposed models are implemented in SAP 2000 nonlinear software to obtain capacity curve parameters for representative Indian URM buildings, based on a field survey and statistical analysis. Vulnerability functions are estimated using the obtained capacity curves. Damage Probability Matrices (DPMs) are obtained using the approximate PGA-intensity correlation relationship as per Indian seismic building code and are compared with the commonly used intensity scales and empirical damage data observed after the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.     

Richard Southern and the Twelfth–Century Intellectual World: Essay Review of R. W. Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, Vol. I: Foundations, Vol. II: The Heroic Age

Richard Southern's most recent book proposes an interpretation of the intellectual life of twelfth–century Europe that deserves both close attention and critical scrutiny. Particular issues questioned in this review are the dominant centrality of the "scholastic enterprise," Southern's idiosyncratic definition of "humanism," and his prolongation of the twelfth–century renaissance through most of the thirteenth. It is argued that Southern's interpretation has led to the undervaluation of regions of western Europe such as Germany, and of non–scholastic communities such as Benedictine monasticism.     

Excavations at Dorestad,Vol. 1: The Harbour: Hoogstraat I. By W. A. Van Es and W. J. H. Verwers

This paper collates some examples of nineteenth-century church ‘restoration’, with special reference to their effect on medieval wall-paintings, and seeks to trace the motivation behind them. Their hitherto insufficiently recognised influence on prevailing views about the subject-matter of medieval wall-paintings is also suggested.