Il manoscritto Ambrosiano B 36 inf. testimone del Liber Glossarum

This paper aims to give a new reference for the codex Ambrosianus B 36 inf. (manuscript A in the Liber Glossarum tradition); it is divided into three main parts. The first section provides a general description of the manuscript analyzing pagination, physical conditions, omissions, etc.; the second section highlights specific features of the Milanese manuscript, especially as concerns the endpapers, signatures, ancient annotations; the third section offers a short historical information about the circulation of the manuscript before it entered the Ambrosiana collection

Allusioni ovidiane nel prologo delle Mythologiae di Fulgenzio

Al centro del prologo delle Mythologiae, incastonata in una sapiente architettura che si potrebbe definire “drammaturgica”, Fulgenzio pone una lunga preterizione (myth. 10,19- 11,18) con lo scopo di chiarire i propri intenti e dare l’avvio a una complessa dichiarazione programmatica, che getta luce sulla poetica alla base dell’intera opera mitologica. I giochi eruditi e i richiami ad autori classici nel prologo sono molti e a vari livelli. Il contributo che si propone ha lo scopo, a partire da tale preterizione e con brevi affondi in altri segmenti del testo, di mettere in risalto in particolare una serie di ammiccamenti al lettore che denunciano un cosciente ri-uso di materiale ovidiano

Il prologus delle Mythologiae di Fulgenzio. Introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento

Il volume offre uno studio completo del prologus delle Mythologie di Fulgenzio (V-VI sec.), il testo prosimetrico che precede la raccolta di fabulae. La sezione introduttiva del lavoro inquadra l'intricata "questione fulgenziana" relativa all'identità e alla cronologia dell'autore e dà conto delle principali caratteristiche del testo. Segue la storia della tradizione testuale, manoscritta e a stampa, che integra ampiamente il lavoro di Helm (1898), ultimo editore delle Mythologiae, e fornisce un'ipotesi di stemma. Il testo latino, restituito dunque criticamente rivisto e in più punti discosto dalla lezione helmiana, è accompagnato dalla (prima) traduzione italiana e da un ampio commento

Pontica. Un elegante frammento poetico sulle creature marine (AL 720 R2 = FPL4 76 BLAENSDORF)

In Bländorf’s collection of fragments, as entry 76 among the incertorum versus, it is registered a text consisting of 22 hexameters. It goes under the title Pontica. This fragment used to be ascribed to Solinus, as it is preserved in manuscripts containing the Collectanea rerum memorabilium. Mommsen printed the Pontica at the end of his edition of Solinus (1895[2]), but he cast doubt over the attribution of the hexameters. The text, really elegant but unfortunately incomplete, is (or seems to be) the preface to a didactic work on sea-creatures. This paper aims at presenting the text, its manuscript tradition and its critical problems, providing the poem with Italian translation and comment

Validation of Simplified Micro-models for the Static Analysis of Masonry Arches and Vaults

Compared to simple masonry walls, numerical modelling of masonry vaulted structures is particularly complex due to their three-dimensional curved geometry and articulated masonry pattern. Moreover, the scarce availability of experimental data makes it difficult to validate numerical models for these types of structures. Recently, the simplified micro-modelling approach has been applied by different authors, despite some intrinsic limits, such as huge numerical effort and adoption of ad-hoc written numerical codes. The aim of this study is to overcome these difficulties by using a commercial software with built-in friction interface models and to validate the proposed simplified-micro model through experimental tests on in-scale specimens of arch and cross vault. The proposed approach has shown promising features: experimental results have been numerically reproduced with a high degree of accuracy, both in case of planar and space structures, with both dry and mortar joints. The final result of the study is a validated modelling strategy that could be confidently applied to real masonry vaulted structures

Seismic in-plane displacement capacity of masonry barrel vaults: the role of constructive aspects

Historic masonry vaults are one of the most vulnerable elements with respect to the seismic action. Cracks are often detected after post-earthquake surveys. However, it is difficult to directly link the observed damage to causes. Different mechanisms can occur during an earthquake, such as in-plane horizontal shear distortion or longitudinal opening/closing of the abutments. These mechanisms are not necessarily associated to a specific crack pattern, since other factors are involved in the determination of the detected crack status. Among these factors, constructive aspects (such as the brick pattern) play a major role. This study aims at investigating the possible correlation between constructive aspects and the crack pattern in barrel vaults subjected to in-plane shear mechanism. Numerical simulations are carried out on an ideal circular vault with a rectangular base of dimensions 3.1x5.3 m, and rise of 1.175 m. Three brick patterns are considered: radial, diagonal and vertical. In order to investigate these aspects, a micromodelling numerical approach has been adopted. Results are presented in terms of ultimate displacement capacity, collapse mechanisms and crack pattern charts

The Lisbon Treaty and the British Press a Corpus-Based Contrastive Analysis of Evaluation Resources

Evaluation plays an important role in understanding speakers or writers’ attitude towards an event or their feelings about entities and propositions (Hunston and Thompson 2000). Bednarek (2006) argues that evaluation pervades human behaviour and is linked to our beliefs. She also points out the importance of evaluation in actual discourse as it is impossible for any human being not to judge or be completely objective on a particular event. Given the nature of evaluation to be linked to our beliefs, it can be argued that there is a close relationship between evaluation and metaphor as metaphor analysis ‘‘is often, then, an exploration of the inner subjectivity of speakers – what it is that is unique to their perception of the world – and forms the basis for their response to particular situations and particular ideas’’ (Charteris-Black 2004: 11). Against this background, the present paper starts from the findings of a research project on conceptual metaphor analysis in the British press related to the Lisbon Treaty debate and focuses on the evaluative lexis that has often been found to collocate or co-occur with the linguistic expressions of the conceptual conflict and movement metaphors analysed. The evaluative adjectives we are particularly interested in are bullying, desperate, reluctant, arrogant, frightening, surprised, insistent. The evaluative verbs that we intend to explore are admit, blast, praise. However, all the other evaluative terms that might come up to light and have a significant role in the analysis of the event will be taken into account. The aim of this paper is to explore, through the methodology of Corpus Linguistics, how the British press uses the evaluative resources to construe the event of ratification and to what extent it presents a similar description or attributes similar roles to the European leaders and uses both metaphors and evaluation to create a coherent text and image of the ratification issue

Dynamics of a Quantum Phase Transition and Relaxation to a Steady State

We review recent theoretical work on two closely related issues: excitation of an isolated quantum condensed matter system driven adiabatically across a continuous quantum phase transition or a gapless phase, and apparent relaxation of an excited system after a sudden quench of a parameter in its Hamiltonian. Accordingly the review is divided into two parts. The first part revolves around a quantum version of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism including also phenomena that go beyond this simple paradigm. What they have in common is that excitation of a gapless many-body system scales with a power of the driving rate. The second part attempts a systematic presentation of recent results and conjectures on apparent relaxation of a pure state of an isolated quantum many-body system after its excitation by a sudden quench. This research is motivated in part by recent experimental developments in the physics of ultracold atoms with potential applications in the adiabatic quantum state preparation and quantum computation.Comment: 117 pages; review accepted in Advances in Physic