Earthquakes,grants, and public expenditure: How municipalities respond to natural disasters

We analyze the response of municipalities to the occurrence of natural disasters in terms of spending behavior, use of upper-tier transfers and recovery, using balance sheet data of about 8,000 Italian municipalities for the period 2000–2015, and the universe of earthquakes events. We find evidence of increasing expenditure for about 12 years after the shocks, with asymmetric responses between earthquake-related and unconditional grants, and heterogeneous flypaper effects across the country. While in northern municipalities expenditure tends to regress to pre-earthquake levels, southern municipalities stick to higher expenditure levels when grants drop. This evidence is coupled with a faster recovery of private income and housing prices in northern municipalities.     

Archaeometric characterisation of coarse and painted fine ware from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Posta Crusta</Emphasis> (Foggia,Italy): technology and provenance

Coarse and painted fine wares from the Late Antique residential complex of Posta Crusta (Lucera, Foggia, Italy) have been here investigated. The ceramic characterisation was our main concern; even so, the provenance and the production technology have been further investigated, focusing on both ceramic bodies and coatings. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and a set of bulk chemical analyses (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, instrumental neutron activation and X-ray fluorescence) were used for the characterisation of 44 samples. Chemical and mineralogical data here obtained were compared with results previously achieved on San Giusto local production, in order to distinguish production areas and identify possible exchanges. As for coarse wares, the characterisation of Posta Crusta pottery shed new light for the reconstruction of the production/distribution framework of this part of northern Apulia. The following trends can be identified: (1) pots from Posta Crusta and San Giusto settlement that can be referred to a single production site, likely located in the nearby territory of one of this two sites; (2) pots from San Giusto kiln exported to Posta Crusta; (3) pots of unknown origin but compatible with the northern Apulian area. Furthermore, it was possible to verify that all Posta Crusta ceramics used the alluvial deposits widely outcropping in northern Apulia as received. As for painted fine wares, Posta Crusta samples enucleated a distinct and homogenous group, including six samples from San Giusto. This result is highly encouraging as it provides the clear evidence of a production group, although it is not possible to refer it to a precise locality. The marine deposits outcropping in northern Apulia can have been surely exploited for raw materials supply. Coatings texture seems to suggest two different ways of application: immersion and painting.     

The apostles in the new world: Monotheism and idolatry between revelation and fetishism

After the discovery of America the image of the native as being naturally monotheistic became widespread in the humanistic milieu, but this image was soon to disappear: the Council of Trent decreed that since Americans had no knowledge of the Gospel, they were dominated by the devil. The paradoxical character of such attitude, that attributed the sin of infidelity to peoples who were involuntarily ignorant, gave rise to the hypothesis that the Gospel had been preached in America by one of the Apostles (either Thomas, Bartholomew or Matthew). As proof of this on the one hand was produced the belief in one God and, on the other, the similarities with the Christian faith — including the worship of the cross — which existed among many American peoples. Even if later disbelieved, the apostolic myth was instrumental in keeping alive the image of Indians as being fundamentally monotheistic and in posing the problem regarding the origin of their religious similarities with Christianity. In the 17th century the latter found a diffusionistic type explanation but also stimulated the resort to the theory of original Revelation (perfected in the 18th century by Lafitau) as well as, in a different way, to the interpretation of the worship of the cross as being an aspect of the fetichism typical of uncouth minds (according to the theory of original polytheism that was perfected by De Brosses). At the same time as Christian symbols were being reduced to the status of superstitions, the idea of a fundamentally monotheistic nature of the American peoples — having been shed in the meantime of the elements of the apostolic myth by the Inca Garcilaso — became part, thanks to Herbert of Cherbury, of the deistic doctrine which considered original monotheism no longer as the result of Revelation but (like that of the Humanists) as having exclusively natural origins.     

The European Union in the media coverage of the 2019 European election campaign in Italy: towards the Europeanization of the Italian public sphere

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the patterns of Europeanization of the Italian public sphere during the 2019 European Elections campaign. Europeanization is meant as a multifaceted process. The visibility and salience of the European Union (E.U.) within the public debate is realized by dynamics involving different actors, in terms of interactions, connections and contaminations between different public spheres. The aim of the article is to clarify whether and to what extent the Italian media covered the E.U. during the European Parliament (E.P.) elections campaign and more precisely to assess through which dynamics of Europeanization the E.U. entered the domestic public debate. We relied on data from a human content analysis carried out on 10 Italian media outlets during the seven weeks before election day. Our findings suggest that, compared to 2014, the visibility of E.U. and E.U. related issues is increasing within Italian media coverage. Italian media still maintain a neutral approach to the issue, resisting to Eurosceptic claims from political parties and public opinion. With regard to the Europeanization, we found that media tend to focus on the vertical dimension especially, providing visibility to domestic actors addressing the E.U. and its political actors. Elements of horizontal Europeanization, instead, are mainly referred to events from other E.U. member states, with few connections among political actors. All in all, our results confirm the idea of a growing centrality of the E.U. within national public debate combined with signals of more structured and substantial Europeanization.     

Natural theology and ancient theology in the Jesuit China mission

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the proselytical use of ancient theology that developed in the environment of the Jesuit China Mission in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This period is roughly coeval with the European diffusion of deistic doctrines based on a secularized interpretation of natural theology. I argue that the threat posed by the spread of such doctrines produced a significant effect on the philosophy that Jesuits developed in order to relate to Confucianism. In particular, in the late seventeenth century, Jesuits belonging to the China Mission gradually abandoned Matteo Ricci’s natural theology and espoused an approach grounded in ancient theology. The situation changed, however, after the turn of the eighteenth century. Deism continued to spread, and even ancient theology came to be perceived as dangerously close the libertinism. The increasing suspicion towards ancient theology was reflected, in the China Mission, by the reception of the doctrines advanced by the so-called “Figurists”, a group of French Jesuits who proposed an interpretation of certain characters of the Chinese Five Classics as figurae of the Bible.