THE LETTER KILLS: ON SOME IMPLICATIONS OF 2 CORINTHIANS 3:62

The paper focuses on an argument put forward by Augustine in his De doctrina Christiana: there are passages in the Bible that need to be read in a literal, contextual, and ultimately rhetorical perspective. This approach to the Bible (usually overshadowed by Augustine's own parallel emphasis on the importance of allegory) was needed to deal with customs—for instance the patriarchs' polygamy—that had to be evaluated, Augustine argued, according to standards different from those prevailing in the present day. This need inspired Augustine to utter some sharp remarks on the need to avoid (as we would say today) ethnocentric, anachronistic projections into the Biblical text. The long‐term impact of Augustine's argument was profound. The emphasis on the letter played a significant role in the exchanges between Christian and Jewish medieval readings of the Bible, which affected Nicholas of Lyra's influential commentary (Postilla). The same tradition may have contributed to Valla's and Karlstadt's audacious hermeneutic remarks on the Biblical canon, which covertly or openly focused on contradictions in the Biblical text, questioning the role of Moses as author of Deuteronomy. Traces of those discussions can be detected in Spinoza's Tractatus theologico‐politicus. The paper suggests that the emphasis on a literal, contextual reading of the Bible provided a model for secular reading in general. The possible role of this model in the aggressive encounter between Europe and alien cultures is a matter of speculation.     

DAMAGE AND DUCTILITY DEMAND SPECTRA ASSESSMENT OF HYSTERETIC DEGRADING SYSTEMS SUBJECT TO STOCHASTIC SEISMIC LOADS

Damage phenomena observed in structures subject to intense seismic events are the result of stiffness and strength degradation. This paper studies the damage assessment of hysteretic degrading structures described by means of the Bouc-Wen model, modified to represent the mechanical degradation induced by severe earthquakes. In order to consider randomness of seismic action, the analysis is performed by adopting a stochastic approach and the Park and Ang damage functional is also evaluated in stochastic way. A parametric analysis is carried out with the aim to analyse the effect of mechanical characteristics and measure parameters of earthquake intensity on seismic response and damage level. Damage spectra are finally obtained and they are used to develop, on the basis of the Performance Based Seismic Design, ductility demand spectra.     

THE LEAD INGOTS OF CAPO PASSERO: ROMAN GLOBAL MEDITERRANEAN TRADE

Summary.   Epigraphic and isotopic analysis of the lead ingots recovered from a shipwreck off Capo Passero (in Sicily) in mid-2006 suggests that the ingots were produced in Spain, in the Cartagena region. The shipwreck is estimated to have occurred around 38 BC, at the beginning of the Hispanic era. This provides further evidence that the Romans were trading lead throughout the Mediterranean Sea.     

QUICK ESTIMATES OF SOFT SEDIMENT THICKNESSES FROM AMBIENT NOISE HORIZONTAL TO VERTICAL SPECTRAL RATIOS: A CASE STUDY IN SOUTHERN ITALY

An approach devoted to quickly assess the thickness of soft sedimentary cover in areas of unknown subsurface morphology is applied in this study. In particular, soil thickness (h) is derived by combining estimates of the resonance frequency (f _r ) relative to soft sediments with the local shear-wave velocity (V_s) profile. For this purpose, (f _r ) values are assessed from horizontal to vertical (H/V) spectral ratios of seismic noise recordings and the (V _s ) profile is obtained by considering information from shallow seismic surveys. Results obtained for a Quaternary sedimentary basin in Southern Italy are discussed. Since in the investigated area only weak independent constraints are available, special emphasis is given to the assessment of uncertainties involved in this estimate of soil thickness.     

DEFENDING SPIRIT,SPIRITUALIZING MATTER: NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH ACADEMIC PHILOSOPHY AND THE MEDICAL SCIENCES

This review essay discusses Larry Sommer McGrath's Making Spirit Matter: Neurology, Psychology, and Selfhood in Modern France (2020), a history of the philosophical current known as “spiritualism.” The book covers the long nineteenth century, focusing especially on the first part of the Third Republic (1870–1914), and studies how French academic philosophers confronted the discourses about human cognition and behavior that were produced by physicians—namely, physiologists and pathologists, phrenologists, neurologists, alienists, and psychiatrists. It describes how, while engaged in this confrontation, French philosophy took a peculiar shape, eventually influencing the development of some sciences—namely, psychology, which emerged progressively as a discipline at the crossroads of medicine and philosophy. In the second part of the essay, starting from a terminological analysis of a series of terms dealing with “spirit,” I consider the formation of spiritualism by adopting an approach that diverges slightly from the ones proper to history of philosophy and intellectual history. I inscribe the philosophical discourses in their contexts of emergence, paying particular attention to institutional macrostructures and their inertia. This provides another perspective on “spiritualism,” which may no longer be conceived as a current or a school; rather, it should be conceived as the effect of the conditions of possibility of academic philosophy in France. It seems to me that, starting from the beginning of the nineteenth century, because of the organization of the educational institutions, the French philosophers’ agenda consisted mainly in opposing all forms of materialism, mechanism, and determinism and in defending the legitimacy of their discipline.     

EXPERIMENTAL BEHAVIOUR OF R/C FRAMES RETROFITTED WITH DISSIPATING AND RE-CENTRING BRACES

An extensive program of shaking table tests on 1/4-scale three-dimensional R/C frames was jointly carried out by the Department of Structure, Soil Mechanics and Engineering Geology (DiSGG) of the University of Basilicata, Italy, and the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Portugal. It was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of passive control bracing systems for the seismic retrofit of R/C frames designed for gravity loads only. Two different types of braces were considered, one based on the hysteretic behaviour of steel elements, the other on the superelastic properties of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA). Different protection strategies were pursued, in order to fully exploit the high energy dissipation capacity of steel-based devices, on one hand, and the supple-mental re-centring capacity of SMA-based devices, on the other hand. The experimental results confirmed the great potentials of both strategies and of the associated devices in limiting structural damage. The retrofitted model was subjected to table accelerations as high as three times the acceleration leading the unprotected model to collapse, with no significant damage to structural elements. Moreover, the re-centring capability of the SMA-based bracing system was able to recover the undeformed shape of the frame, when it was in a near-collapse condition. In this paper the experimental behaviour of the non protected and of the protected structural models are described and compared.     

DUCTILITY AND LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY PREDICTION OF STEEL BEAM-TO-COLUMN CONNECTIONS UNDER CYCLIC REVERSAL LOADING

Abstract

The economy and reliability of steel-framed buildings in seismic areas depend basically on the hysteretic behaviour of its individual components, such as members and joints. With reference to the latter, despite the recent semi-continuous frame approach (which appears generally very convenient for the design of low- and medium-rise steel buildings), the present state of knowledge does not allow for a complete understanding of the behaviour and the low-cycle fatigue life of beam-to-column connections under dynamic loads.

This paper presents a criterion for the definition of the low-cycle fatigue strength of steel connections, and proposes two approaches for the design of steel frames in seismic zones via the assessment of the fatigue damage, which is evaluated alternatively on the basis of either the ductility or of the load carrying capacity.