Fighting the Risorgimento: foreign volunteers in southern Italy (1860–63)

Abstract

Between 1860 and 1863 hundreds of men from all over Europe volunteered for service in the wars of southern ‘brigands’ on behalf of the exiled King Francis II of Naples. In an attempt to correct the often biased interpretation of this involvement (that was attributed simply to a thirst for adventure, romanticism or even psychological disorder) that coloured the accounts by Italian patriots, this essay suggests the need for fresh consideration. It develops three lines of inquiry that focus respectively on the strong impact of Italian Unification on conservative and Catholic opinion and the ways in which these sources portrayed the struggles of the southern insurgents, the clumsy efforts made by the Neapolitan government-in-exile to recruit volunteers and organize armed expeditions against the former kingdom, and the so-called ‘white international’ in which the warriors of the counter-revolution were depicted as combatants in conflicts that were both civil wars and at the same time episodes in a much longer international ideological struggle. In this context, the significance of foreign involvement in defence of the Neapolitan Bourbons takes on a significance that goes far beyond its poor military outcome.     

The politics of finance in Napoleonic Italy (1802‐1814)

Abstract

The Republic and Kingdom of Italy (1802‐14) served as an important source of revenues for Napoleonic France. Most importantly, the authorities had to pay for a growing Italian army and for the French troops in northern Italy. To satisfy the Emperor's increasing financial pressure, Prina, the Finance Minister, increased the tax burden and reorganized the financial administration and tax collection. Prina kept a moderate property tax to secure the support of the landowners and raised indirect taxes, thereby increasing the burden on the poor. His reforms in the financial administration made it more orderly, uniform and efficient, thus strengthening the central state. While Prina modernized the financial machinery and expanded the state's resources, the fiscal pressure contributed to growing hostility from the population to the Napoleonic state. Following the fall of the Kingdom of Italy, the Austrians left the Napoleonic financial system intact, a demonstration of Prina's effective reforms and long‐term impact.     

A Static Nonlinear Procedure for the Evaluation of the Elastic Buckling of Anchored Steel Tanks Due to Earthquakes

Ground-supported steel tanks experienced extensive damage in past earthquakes. The failure of tanks in earthquakes may cause severe environmental damage and economic losses. This study deals with the evaluation of the elastic buckling of above-ground steel tanks anchored to the foundation due to seismic shaking. The proposed nonlinear static procedure is based on the capacity spectrum method (CSM) utilized for the seismic evaluation of buildings. Different from the standard CSM, the results are not the base shear and the maximum displacement of a characteristic point of the structure but the minimum value of the horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA) that produces buckling in the tank shell. Three detailed finite element models of tank-liquid systems with height to diameter ratios H/D of 0.40, 0.63, and 0.95 are used to verify the methodology. The 1997 UBC design spectrum and response spectra of records of the 1986 El Salvador and 1966 Parkfield earthquakes are used as seismic demand. The estimates of the PGA for the occurrence of first elastic buckling obtained with the proposed nonlinear static procedure were quite accurate compared with those calculated with more elaborate dynamic buckling studies. For all the cases considered, the proposed methodology yielded slightly smaller values of the critical PGA for the first elastic buckling compared to the dynamic buckling results.     

PROCEDURE AND SPECTRA FOR ANALYSIS OF RC STRUCTURES SUBJECTED TO STRONG VERTICAL EARTHQUAKE LOADS

Abstract

In view of the compendium of field evidence and supporting analysis work indicating the possible damaging effects of vertical earthquake ground motion, this paper addresses the problem of code-type vertical force calculation. In light of recent engineering seismology studies of the relationship between vertical and horizontal peak ground acceleration, the inadequacy of the 2/3-rule depicted by codes is highlighted. A simple piece-wise linear relationship is proposed and shown to represent existing strong-motion measurements adequately. Bilinear and inelastic spectra are derived and studied. It is demonstrated that net tensile forces and displacements may ensue, thus eroding the shear resistance of RC columns. A simple procedure is outlined whereby modal analysis may be employed to estimate conservatively vertical earthquake forces on buildings. Finally, areas of further exploration and refinement are identified.     

Mapping languages from inside: Notes on perceptual dialectology

Language maps can represent many aspects of the linguistic situation in a certain territory. They usually draw particular views of the language setting as seen from outside, i.e. by linguists or scholars in general. However, maps can also be used to show the geographical distribution of the perception of language variation from the point of view of the speakers. The starting point for every kind of language map is the language border (and its definition): thus a perceptual language map needs a definition of border from the point of view of the speaker. To do that it is necessary to analyse 'perceptual data', that is to study the opinion the speaker has of the language diversities and compare the different kinds of perception. Points of interest can be, for example: the influence of the perceived ethnic diversity on the language variation—or vice versa, the fact that perceived ethnic borders do not match with perceived language borders; or moreover that perceived language borders do not necessarily match with the perceived comprehensibility of other language varieties (symbolic versus communicative function of language). Hence a possible linguistic borderline on perceptual language maps could be the limit among social language behaviours. From this point of view, sociolinguistic studies can be a good tool to draw perceptual language maps, since quantitative sociolinguistic researches provide the diatopic/diasthratic variation of the data, whilst qualitative research provides the perception of the variation. The paper discusses some field research case studies, coming from the Eastern and Western Alps in Italy, to better introduce this kind of perceptual geolinguistic explanation.     

Assessing Seismic Behavior of a Masonry Historic Building considering Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction (Case Study of Arge-Tabriz)

ABSTRACT

Historic heritage buildings are a part of historic basis of each society and an economic resource. Therefore, preserving and maintenance of these buildings are cultural, economic and social demand. This research investigates the seismic performance of a historical building named Arg of Tabriz (Arge Alishah) that dates back to 14th century and is located at the city center of Tabriz (NW of Iran). Static, modal, and finally nonlinear dynamic (time history) analysis were performed by both “Considering Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI)” and “fixed base (ignoring SSI)” Cases.

It is found from the results that, SSI extremely affects mode shapes and their frequencies and depending on the frequency content of the records, can has an incremental or decremental effect on structural responses. As expected, the building of Arg could carry gravity loads easily and despite its stability against earthquake loading in fixed base case, showed a weakness (especially in eastern and western walls direction) and overturned when it was analyzed in SSI case because of yielding of the surrounding soil.     

新时代高校国史教育的调查与思考——以山东泰安高校为例

对山东泰安高校开展问卷调查,目的是了解当前国史教育在省属本专科院校的基本状况,了解新时代大学生对国家一些重大政策和决策的学习认知情况,为完善和改进以高校思想政治理论课为依托的国史教育提供依据。通过数据统计和分析可知,当前高校国史教育成效显著,绝大多数大学生具备基本的国史素养,同时发现大学生的国史素养、认同水平、教育效果与其专业、年级、政治面貌有关。为了在当代大学生中继续深入开展国史教育,建议要进一步理顺高校国史教育的体制和机制、开设“中华人民共和国史”课程、打造一支高水平的国史教育队伍、创新国史教育模式和加大高校国史教育的督导检查力度。     

禹之鼎《王翚骑牛南还图》考略

世传清初著名画家王翚的肖像不止一幅,但真正能够反映其形神的作品,是与他相识多年、以肖像画称著的禹之鼎所绘《骑牛南还图》。本文通过叙述王翚请禹之鼎创作《骑牛南还图》与遍邀名流、友朋题诗的情况,阐释了像主和创作者各自的企望,同时,画家对像主还乡心情的体会深刻,也终令画作得以完美呈现。     

洛阳新发现唐天宝三载石幢考释

2016年8月,洛阳匾额博物馆前施工时挖出一件唐代石幢的幢身,据其刻铭可知,该石幢立于唐天宝三载(744年),为彭城县尉张悌所立,其上所刻经文为《佛说业报差别经·施灯明功德品》.经考证,该石幢应为唐代佛寺灯台的幢形灯身.此外,张悌为比丘尼之“养男”的身份也为同类刻铭中少见,为研究唐人的日常生活提供了重要的实物材料.     

贵州遵义市播州杨氏土司墓葬形制研究

纵观播州杨氏土司墓葬的发展,其规模、结构、雕刻均有由繁至简的发展趋势,对昭穆制的遵循从严格走向了松散。腰坑葬俗是宋元明时期播州境内比较盛行的丧葬习俗,墓志亦是播州杨氏礼制遵循和身份等级体现的一个方面。墓前神道或拜台有自南宋中期的繁复到宋元明之交的简单到明末又归于复杂的发展轨迹,体现出时代的特征和墓葬装饰自内向外的转变。