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Discovered in 1995, the remarkable thirteenth-century frescoes in the great hall, or Aula Gotica, of Rome's Santi Quattro Coronati complex are among the most important vestiges of medieval Italian painting. In this volume, Marius Hauknes offers a thorough investigation of the fresco cycle, which includes allegorical representations of the liberal arts, the virtues and vices, the seasons, the signs of the zodiac, and the months of the year. Hauknes relates these subjects to the papacy's growing interest in fields of worldly knowledge, such as music, time, astrology, and medicine. He argues that the Santi Quattro Coronati frescoes function as a large-scale, interactive encyclopedia that not only represented secular knowledge but also produced philosophical speculation, stimulating beholders to draw connections between pictorial motifs across architectural space. Integrating medieval intellectual history with close attention to multi-sensory and architectural conditions of fresco Hauknes'study offers new insights into religion, art, science, and spectatorship in medieval Italy.

From the images carved and painted to the buildings edified, from liturgical objects to reliquaries and tombs, from books to personal objects of piety, this volume reflects the many domains where the relation between materiality and devotion can be a prospect and a problem. It intersects the material, functional, performative and aesthetic dimensions with the different readings it calls for, the cognitive and emotional apprehensions, the representations (erudite and popular) it associates with, the practices that it sustains, the memories that polarize and legitimize, the powers that were affirmed through it. It discloses the diversity of variants such as wealth and social position, literate training, and gender differences.

Con uno stile chiaro e semplice e con un impianto divulgativo, il libro narra le tragiche vicende vissute dalla popolazione siciliana nel Secondo conflitto mondiale (1940-1943). La Sicilia è un caso particolare: la prima terra europea ad essere coinvolta nel “fronte bellico” e la prima a venirne fuori, con un bilancio pauroso di circa diecimila vittime civili. È l'unica regione italiana dove gli angloamericani operano come forza “occupante”, senza alcun appoggio dell'antifascismo militante e col pieno sostegno dei mafiosi “perseguitati”. Usano la strategia del terrore dal cielo, per ottenere il cedimento totale del morale della popolazione. Cedimento che nell'Isola non arriverà mai. Per gli Alleati non è una passeggiata e neppure una guerra “in guanti bianchi”: impiegano 38 giorni, senza risparmiare ai siciliani stragi e strazi, come fanno anche le truppe tedesche. E poi la festosa accoglienza, la “caccia” al fascista e l'epurazione, la difficile convivenza di militari e civili ed il degrado morale, sociale ed economico. Fino all'armistizio, accolto senza molto entusiasmo, perché in Sicilia “la morte della Patria” era arrivata con due mesi di anticipo. Le vicende successive pongono l'Isola al di fuori della ricorrente narrazione sulla Resistenza, per la mancata adesione popolare e incondizionata alla guerra di “liberazione”. La Sicilia “si restituisce” all'Italia solo nel 1945, con l'avvio del processo che porterà la monarchia alla concessione dello Statuto speciale.

The WJEC Eduqas GCSE Sociology Student Book has been revised and updated to reflect the latest social changes and is endorsed by WJEC Eduqas. With new real-life examples and updated statistics, along with revised coverage of exam components, this accessible and engaging resource will support students through their GCSE Sociology course.What's new in the Revised Edition?- New updated real-life examples of sociological ideas to help with understanding and for students to apply in the exam.- Updated sections including new social contexts to reflect recent developments in culture and society.- Up-to-date statistics and information to help students evaluate sociological theories, equality/inequality.- Up-to-date information about the exam components including new practice questions and completely new model answers to help students with the skills they need for assessment.What have we retained?- A simple and straightforward double-page-spread layout for easy navigation around the topics.- A range of activities to help students to think sociologically, including `Take it Further'and `Think Theory'.- A dedicated Sociological enquiry and research methods chapter which introduces students to one of the key areas of study in Sociology.- Exam practice chapter provides students with advice and guidance on how to revise and refine their exam technique, helping them thoroughly prepare for the exams.- A variety of features throughout the book challenges learners to think for themselves and help develop their understanding of the topics.

In Christ Came Forth From India, Timothy Paul Grove offers a survey and contextualiztion of early modern Georgian writings on astrology, astronomy, and cosmology. These texts include the widely distributed translations of the Almanacco Perpetuo of Ottavio Beltrano (1653), a text brought to the Caucasus by Roman Catholic missionaries, several texts attributed to King Vakht'ang VI of Kartli (1675–1737), and two 19th century manuscripts which incorporate much older material. The numerous Georgian texts are described and examined in terms of their chronology and interrelated content, their literary relationship to texts from outside the Caucasus, and their context within the astrological literature of Europe, the Near East, and the Far East.

The Jameson Raid was a pivotal moment in the history of South Africa, linking events from the Anglo-Boer War to the declaration of the Union of South Africa in 1910. For more than a century, the failed revolution has been interpreted through the lens of British imperialism, with responsibility laid at the feet of Cecil Rhodes. Yet, the raid was less a serious attempt to overthrow a Boer government than a wild adventure with transnational roots in American filibustering.In The Cowboy Capitalist, renowned South African historian Charles van Onselen challenges a historiography of over 120 years, locating the raid in American rather than British history and forcing us to rethink the histories of at least three nations. Through a close look at the little-remembered figure of John Hays Hammond, a confidant of both Rhodes and Jameson, he discovers the American Old West on the South African Highveld. This radical reinterpretation challenges the commonly held belief that the Jameson Raid was quintessentially British and, in doing so, drives splinters into our understanding of events as far forward as South Africa's critical 1948 general election, with which the foundations of Grand Apartheid were laid.

Tra le regioni del Nord Italia, il Veneto è quella meno interessata da inchieste giudiziarie e giornalistiche che abbiano portato alla luce la presenza di gruppi mafiosi strutturati e radicati. Di fronte a scarsi riscontri documentali, nella costruzione sociale del fenomeno mafioso prevalgono le impressioni, in una sorta di cortocircuito emozionale in cui l'evocata presenza delle mafie è chiamata in causa per spiegare le diversificate dinamiche di illegalità che caratterizzano il contesto politico e imprenditoriale di questo territorio. Il volume presenta i risultati di una ricerca sulle vicende criminali che coinvolgono organizzazioni mafiose, impresa e politica, offrendo una descrizione della cronologia e della geografia delle presenze mafiose in Veneto. Attraverso quattro studi di caso, gli autori osservano da una prospettiva ravvicinata i principali episodi in cui sono stati coinvolti gruppi mafiosi in questo territorio: l'incontro tra clan e tessuto imprenditoriale locale; le ricadute di questo incontro sul mondo del lavoro in relazione alle attività di intermediazione di manodopera gestite dai clan; i rapporti tra gruppi di'ndrangheta e politica nel Veronese; il caso del Consorzio Venezia Nuova e la costruzione del Mose, un caso limite, in cui non sono coinvolte organizzazioni criminali di tipo mafioso, che consente agli autori di mettere alla prova le chiavi di lettura adottate per interpretare il funzionamento dell'economia locale e la sua «sregolazione» politica. L'indagine permette di approfondire la convergenza tra i gruppi criminali e il tessuto imprenditoriale del Veneto, nonché il ruolo di facilitazione degli affari assunto dalla politica al tempo della crisi. La corruzione diviene così il luogo predestinato di incontro tra attori di diverso tipo, l'inevitabile approdo di una serie di condotte proprie del fare politica e del fare impresa in territorio veneto.

The Jameson Raid of 1895–1896 was a pivotal moment in the history of South Africa, linking events from the Anglo-Boer War to the declaration of the Union of South Africa in 1910 and the advent of apartheid in 1948. For over a century, the failed revolution has been interpreted through the lens of British imperialism, with responsibility laid at the feet of Cecil John Rhodes. But rigorous historical analysis points in a different direction – to a plot that drew not only on British jingoes and disgruntled Afrikaner fifth-column elements, but also on the culture of the American West, a culture that embraced wild adventurism, filibustering and the writ of the vigilance committees. In The Cowboy Capitalist, Charles van Onselen challenges a historiography of over 120 years, locating the raid in American rather than British history and forcing us to rethink the histories of at least three countries. He identifies Californian mining engineer John Hays Hammond, a confidant of both Cecil Rhodes and Leander Starr Jameson, as the principal architect of the attempted coup in Paul Kruger's Boer republic. In so doing, he uncovers the hidden history of the American West on the South African Highveld, situating Hammond's career against the backdrop of the global expansion of the United States during the Gilded Age. This radical reinterpretation challenges the commonly held belief that the Jameson Raid was quintessentially British and, in doing so, drives splinters into our understanding of South African history at the turn of the 19th century and well beyond.