Pietro della Valle's research and documentation in the Levant, Part I: Della Valle's exploration of the ruins of Persepolis in 1621 excerpts from: Pietro della Valle: Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il Pellegrino. Con minuto ragguaglio di tutte le cose notabili osservate in essi (Roma 1650-1663), including: Giovan Pietro Bellori: Vita di Pietro Della Valle il Pellegrino, in: Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il Pellegrino, seconda edizione, vol. I, (Roma 1662) (FONTES 66)

FONTES 66 presents the exploration of the ruins of Persepolis in 1621 by the Roman traveller Pietro Della Valle (1586-1652). During his years of travel (1614-1626) Della Valle recorded his experiences in fifty-four letters, published in three parts – La Turchia, La Persia and L’India – between 1650 and 1663 under the title Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il Pellegrino. Recently studied by archaeologists and literary historians, Della Valle’s travels have received little if any attention by historians of art. While Della Valle’s letters follow in a tradition of earlier Italian travellers, his methods of recording ancient monuments, art and artefacts were guided by up-to-date archaeological and antiquarian methods, first established in Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century. It was his intention from the beginning not only to describe the monuments and works of art, inscriptions, landscapes and people but to record these also graphically. This documentation was planned for the last volume which never appeared: "le figure di molte cose memorabili, sparse per tutta l’opera, la loro esplicatione". His exact observation and verbal documentation together with an extensive graphic record served his hermeneutic intentions

Pietro della Valle's research and documentation in the Levant, Part II: Della Valle's descriptions, explications and documentation of "Troia", Babylon ("Babèl"), Sultaniyya ("Sultania"), Ikkeri and the tombs of the poets in Shiraz excerpts from: Pietro della Valle: Viaggi di Pietro Della Valle il Pellegrino. Con minuto ragguaglio di tutte le cose notabili osservate in essi (Roma 1650-1663), including: Giovan Pietro Bellori: Vita di Pietro Della Valle il Pellegrino, in: Viaggi di Pietro Della Valle il Pellegrino, seconda edizione, vol. I, (Roma 1662) (FONTES 67)

FONTES 67 is a continuation of and a supplement to FONTES 66: Pietro Della Valle’s Research and Documentation in the Levant, Part I: Della Valle’s exploration of the ruins of Persepolis in 1621, excerpts from: Pietro Della Valle, Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il Pellegrino. Con minuto ragguaglio di tutte le cose notabili osservate in essi Roma 1650-1663), including: Giovan Pietro Bellori, Vita di Pietro Della Valle il Pellegrino, in: Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il Pellegrino,seconda edizione, vol. I, (Roma 1662), edited with an introductory study by Margaret Daly Davis. The following texts from Della Valle’s "Viaggi" are published in full text transcriptions and discussed: "Troia", Babylon ("Babèl"), Sultaniyya ("Sultania"), the Hindu Temple of Aghoresvara in Ikkeri and the tombs of the Poets Chogià and Sceich Saadì in Shiraz

MITS: the Multi-Imaging Transient Spectrograph for SOXS

The Son Of X-Shooter (SOXS) is a medium resolution spectrograph R~4500 proposed for the ESO 3.6 m NTT. We present the optical design of the UV-VIS arm of SOXS which employs high efficiency ion-etched gratings used in first order (m=1) as the main dispersers. The spectral band is split into four channels which are directed to individual gratings, and imaged simultaneously by a single three-element catadioptric camera. The expected throughput of our design is >60% including contingency. The SOXS collaboration expects first light in early 2021. This paper is one of several papers presented in these proceedings describing the full SOXS instrument

Optical design of the SOXS spectrograph for ESO NTT

An overview of the optical design for the SOXS spectrograph is presented. SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) is the new wideband, medium resolution (R>4500) spectrograph for the ESO 3.58m NTT telescope expected to start observations in 2021 at La Silla. The spectroscopic capabilities of SOXS are assured by two different arms. The UV-VIS (350-850 nm) arm is based on a novel concept that adopts the use of 4 ion-etched high efficiency transmission gratings. The NIR (800- 2000 nm) arm adopts the '4C' design (Collimator Correction of Camera Chromatism) successfully applied in X-Shooter. Other optical sub-systems are the imaging Acquisition Camera, the Calibration Unit and a pre-slit Common Path. We describe the optical design of the five sub-systems and report their performance in terms of spectral format, throughput and optical quality. This work is part of a series of contributions describing the SOXS design and properties as it is about to face the Final Design Review.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, published in SPIE Proceedings 1070

The VIS detector system of SOXS

SOXS will be a unique spectroscopic facility for the ESO NTT telescope able to cover the optical and NIR bands thanks to two different arms: the UV-VIS (350-850 nm), and the NIR (800-1800 nm). In this article, we describe the design of the visible camera cryostat and the architecture of the acquisition system. The UV-VIS detector system is based on a e2v CCD 44-82, a custom detector head coupled with the ESO continuous ow cryostats (CFC) cooling system and the NGC CCD controller developed by ESO. This paper outlines the status of the system and describes the design of the different parts that made up the UV-VIS arm and is accompanied by a series of contributions describing the SOXS design solutions.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, to be published in SPIE Proceedings 1070

The Acquisition Camera System for SOXS at NTT

SOXS (Son of X-Shooter) will be the new medium resolution (R$\sim$4500 for a 1 arcsec slit), high-efficiency, wide band spectrograph for the ESO-NTT telescope on La Silla. It will be able to cover simultaneously optical and NIR bands (350-2000nm) using two different arms and a pre-slit Common Path feeding system. SOXS will provide an unique facility to follow up any kind of transient event with the best possible response time in addition to high efficiency and availability. Furthermore, a Calibration Unit and an Acquisition Camera System with all the necessary relay optics will be connected to the Common Path sub-system. The Acquisition Camera, working in optical regime, will be primarily focused on target acquisition and secondary guiding, but will also provide an imaging mode for scientific photometry. In this work we give an overview of the Acquisition Camera System for SOXS with all the different functionalities. The optical and mechanical design of the system are also presented together with the preliminary performances in terms of optical quality, throughput, magnitude limits and photometric properties.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, SPIE conferenc

A multicenter randomized phase 4 trial comparing sodium picosulphate plus magnesium citrate vs. polyethylene glycol plus ascorbic acid for bowel preparation before colonoscopy. The PRECOL trial

Background: Adequate bowel preparation before colonoscopy is crucial. Unfortunately, 25% of colonoscopies have inadequate bowel cleansing. From a patient perspective, bowel preparation is the main obstacle to colonoscopy. Several low-volume bowel preparations have been formulated to provide more tolerable purgative solutions without loss of efficacy. Objectives: Investigate efficacy, safety, and tolerability of Sodium Picosulphate plus Magnesium Citrate (SPMC) vs. Polyethylene Glycol plus Ascorbic Acid (PEG-ASC) solutions in patients undergoing diagnostic colonoscopy. Materials and methods: In this phase 4, randomized, multicenter, twoarm trial, adult outpatients received either SPMC or PEG-ASC for bowel preparation before colonoscopy. The primary aims were quality of bowel cleansing (primary endpoint scored according to Boston Bowel Preparation Scale) and patient acceptance (measured with six visual analogue scales). The study was open for treatment assignment and blinded for primary endpoint assessment. This was done independently with videotaped colonoscopies reviewed by two endoscopists unaware of study arms. A sample size of 525 patients was calculated to recognize a difference of 10% in the proportion of successes between the arms with a two-sided alpha error of 0.05 and 90% statistical power. Results: Overall 550 subjects (279 assigned to PEG-ASC and 271 assigned to SPMC) represented the analysis population. There was no statistically significant difference in success rate according to BBPS: 94.4% with PEG-ASC and 95.7% with SPMC (P = 0.49). Acceptance and willing to repeat colonoscopy were significantly better for SPMC with all the scales. Compliance was less than full in 6.6 and 9.9% of cases with PEG-ASC and SPMC, respectively (P = 0.17). Nausea and meteorism were significantly more bothersome with PEG-ASC than SPMC. There were no serious adverse events in either group. Conclusion: SPMC and PEG-ASC are not different in terms of efficacy, but SPMC is better tolerated than PEG-ASC. SPMC could be an alternative to lowvolume PEG based purgative solutions for bowel preparation