The reception of Italian neo-Latin poetry in English manuscript sources, c. 1550-1720: literature, morality, and anti-Popery

This essay presents a preliminary overview of the presence of, and engagement with, Italian neo-Latin poetry in a large corpus of English manuscript sources dating from between c.1550 and c.1720 and currently conserved in English libraries and archives. Italian neo-Latin verse circulated widely in these manuscripts, where it was, however, subject to a process of selective cultural appropriation. The moralising intent of several manuscript miscellanies, and of commonplace books in particular, especially encouraged the quotation of brief poetic extracts, selected because of their edifying potential. Moreover, the availability of printed anthologies, school texts, and editions enabled different levels of familiarity with individual Italian poets: Mantuan and Palingenius, for example, are well-represented in early modern manuscripts as they were in the contemporary English school curriculum. Overall, the manuscript collectors’ selective redeployment of the Italian neo-Latin tradition particularly emphasises its anti-Papal potential, in line with the collectors’ generally Protestant views

Lucan and Virgil: from Dante to Petrarch (and Boccaccio)

Questioning recent accounts of Dante's Lucan, this article argues that Dante does not view Lucan as an "anti-Virgil", but rather regards and redeploys the "Bellum Civile" and the "Aeneid" as fundamentally consonant with each other. In the "Divine Comedy", Dante interweaves Lucan's and Virgil's works as expressions of the same moral, poetic, and historical universe: this literary strategy finds significant parallels in medieval Latin commentaries on Lucan's poem. In the "Monarchia" and "Epistles", Dante combines Lucan's and Virgil's texts to underpin his pro-monarchist agenda, effacing the contrast between Roman Republican and Imperial ideals. Far from regarding Lucan as a "nihilistic" author, Dante references him as a moral-philosophical "auctoritas"; in the "Convivio", he applies to the "Bellum Civile" the same allegorizing reading he adopts for the "Aeneid". The article demonstrates the difference between Dante's and late-fourteenth-century views of Lucan in relation to Virgil. Unlike Dante, the early humanists Petrarch and Boccaccio emphasize Lucan's controversial biography and the idea of his poetic rivalry with Virgil. However, the concept of Lucan's anti-Virgilianism, which underlies twentieth-century interpretations of the "Bellum Civile", is much more nuanced in fourteenth-century receptions of the poem, where it emerges only gradually and in a very limited, mostly biographical, sense

La Fisica nel parco giochi fa bene anche al curriculum

Viene descritto un percorso didattico di fisica attraverso le attrazioni del parco di divertimenti di Mirabilandia (Ravenna). Viene in particolare illustrata un’esperienza di integrazione del percorso nel curriculum scolastico di fisica, condotta in una classe III di liceo scientifico, che ha avuto risultati positivi sull’apprendimento

Lucan and Virgil: From Dante to Petrarch (and Boccaccio)

Many recent works on ‘Dante’s Lucan’ emphasize the opposition between Lucan and Virgil in the Divine Comedy. To different extents, these studies appear informed by 20th-century views of the Bellum Civile as an anti-Aeneid, meant as a parodic subversion of Virgil’s poem and characterized by a turn from mythology to history, an anti-imperial agenda and an anti-providential, ‘nihilistic’ stance. Building on an argument put forth by Ettore Paratore, this article contends that rather than reading Virgil and Lucan in conflict with one another, Dante regards and reuses the figures and works of the two Latin poets as fundamentally consonant with each other. In keeping with high-medieval Latin commentaries on Lucan, Dante interweaves Lucan’s and Virgil’s texts in his Comedy to evoke the same world of ancient history and magic. In the Monarchia and Epistles, Dante combines the Bellum Civile and the Aeneid to support his philo-monarchic agenda, effacing the contrast between Roman Republican and Imperial values. Furthermore, Dante cites Lucan as a reliable moral–philosophical authority: in the Convivio he appropriates Lucan’s voice and applies to the Bellum Civile the same allegorizing reading he adopts for the Aeneid. The article demonstrates the difference between Dante’s and slightly later, early-humanist views of Lucan in relation to Virgil. Unlike Dante, Petrarch sponsors a strongly biographical conception of the ancient epic canon: following Suetonius, he highlights the most controversial aspects of Lucan’s life and the concept of his poetic rivalry with Virgil, which are absent in Dante’s works. The elements are also recalled by Boccaccio, who moreover underlines Lucan’s anti-Neronian stance. Therefore, Petrarch and Boccaccio play a historically crucial role in marking the contrast between Lucan’s and Virgil’s poetic personae. However, the concept of Lucan’s anti-Virgilianism, which underlies 20th-century interpretations of the Bellum Civile, is much more nuanced in 14th-century receptions of the poem, where it emerges only gradually and in a very limited, mostly biographical, sense

Large-Eddy Simulation of a Turbulent Spray Flame Using the Flamelet Generated Manifold Approach

Abstract In order to meet the increasingly stringent regulations in terms of pollutant emissions adopted by ICAO-CAEP in last years, a redesign of aero-engine combustors has been required and, today, lean combustion technology can be considered as the most effective solution. In this context, common design tools and standard RANS predictive techniques are often not capable of properly characterizing combustors performances. Thus, computational techniques have been rapidly evolving towards an extensive use of Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) or hybrid RANS methods. This paper presents the numerical analysis of an experimental partially premixed flame fed by a dilute spray of acetone [1] , exploiting a two-phase Eulerian-Lagrangian approach combined with the Flamelet Generated Manifold (FGM) combustion model in the context of LES techniques. All simulations have been performed with thecode Ansys Fluent 15.0. A comparison both in non-reactive and reactive conditions of the obtained results with experimental data and conventional RANS solution has been realized in order to highlight the LES capabilities to give a new insight into the physics of reactive two-phase flows, particularly on the unsteady evolution of turbulent spray flames involving particles dispersion, evaporation and combustion

A new clinical tool for assessing numerical abilities in neurological diseases: numerical activities of daily living

The aim of this study was to build an instrument, the numerical activities of daily living (NADL), designed to identify the specific impairments in numerical functions that may cause problems in everyday life. These impairments go beyond what can be inferred from the available scales evaluating activities of daily living in general, and are not adequately captured by measures of the general deterioration of cognitive functions as assessed by standard clinical instruments like the MMSE and MoCA. We assessed a control group (n = 148) and a patient group affected by a wide variety of neurological conditions (n = 175), with NADL along with IADL, MMSE, and MoCA. The NADL battery was found to have satisfactory construct validity and reliability, across a wide age range. This enabled us to calculate appropriate criteria for impairment that took into account age and education. It was found that neurological patients tended to overestimate their abilities as compared to the judgment made by their caregivers, assessed with objective tests of numerical abilities

Glutathione-loaded solid lipid microparticles as innovative delivery system for oral antioxidant therapy

The present study aimed to develop a novel formulation containing glutathione (GSH) as an oral antioxidant therapy for the treatment of oxidative stress-related intestinal diseases. To this purpose, solid lipid microparticles (SLMs) with Dynasan 114 and a mixture of Dynasan 114 and Dynasan 118 were produced by spray congealing technology. The obtained SLMs had main particle sizes ranging from 250 to 355 µm, suitable for oral administration. GSH was efficiently loaded into the SLMs at 5% or 20% w/w and the encapsulation process did not modify its chemico-physical properties, as demonstrated by FT-IR, DSC and HSM analysis. Moreover, in vitro release studies using biorelevant media showed that Dynasan 114-based SLMs could efficiently release GSH in various intestinal fluids, while 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay demonstrated the good radical scavenging activity of this formulation. Dynasan 114-based SLMs exhibited an excellent biocompatibility on intestinal HT-29 cells at concentrations up to 2000 µg/mL. SLMs containing GSH alone or together with another antioxidant agent (catalase) were effective in reducing intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. Overall, this study indicated that spray congealed SLMs are a promising oral drug delivery system for the encapsulation of one or more biological antioxidant agents for local intestinal treatment