On a Rare Cutaneous Metastasis from a Sacrococcygeal Chordoma

Chordomas are rare malignant tumors of notochordal origin and are rare locally aggressive ones with a metastatic potential. The skin rarely is seen as metastatic site. We describe a case of an adult woman with cutaneous metastasis of a primary sacral chordoma excised ten years before, which appeared as a painless cutaneous mass located in the dorsal region. Once removed, the surgical specimen was formalin fixed and in paraffin embedded. Sections were stained with haematoxylin-eosin, and histochemical and immunohistochemical investigations were performed. Histologically, the neoplasia was characterized by cords or single tumor cells with an abundant myxoid stroma, conspicuous pale vacuolated cytoplasm (the classic "physaliphorous cells"), and mild nuclear atypia. Mitotic activity was scanty. At immunohistochemistry, the tumor cells were diffusely positive for S-100 protein, pan-keratins, EMA, and vimentin. A diagnosis of cutaneous metastasis of chordoma was performed. This case illustrates a diagnostic challenge because of the unusual presentation of an already rare tumor

On a Rare Cutaneous Metastasis from a Sacrococcygeal Chordoma

Chordomas are rare malignant tumors of notochordal origin and are rare locally aggressive ones with a metastatic potential. The skin rarely is seen as metastatic site. We describe a case of an adult woman with cutaneous metastasis of a primary sacral chordoma excised ten years before, which appeared as a painless cutaneous mass located in the dorsal region. Once removed, the surgical specimen was formalin fixed and in paraffin embedded. Sections were stained with haematoxylin-eosin, and histochemical and immunohistochemical investigations were performed. Histologically, the neoplasia was characterized by cords or single tumor cells with an abundant myxoid stroma, conspicuous pale vacuolated cytoplasm (the classic “physaliphorous cells”), and mild nuclear atypia. Mitotic activity was scanty. At immunohistochemistry, the tumor cells were diffusely positive for S-100 protein, pan-keratins, EMA, and vimentin. A diagnosis of cutaneous metastasis of chordoma was performed. This case illustrates a diagnostic challenge because of the unusual presentation of an already rare tumor

Alcune considerazioni sulla più antica presenza dell'olivo in Italia, con particolare attenzione alla Puglia e al Salento

ItIl saggio si propone come un primo contributo allo studio della storia dell'olivo in Puglia, e segnatamente nel Salento, in arco cronologico compreso fra l'età del Bronzo e il I sec a.C. Si ricostruiscono dapprima, sinteticamente, i più recenti orientamenti sulla più antica diffusione della pianta nel bacino del Mediterraneo: dalla sua prima domesticazione nel vicino Oriente alla propagazione alle coste elladiche, fino all'affermazione di una coltura italica dell'olivo, a partire dall'età del Bronzo, con i suoi significativi esempi pugliesi, messi in luce dalla ricerca archeologica degli ultimi decenni (Leuca, Roca Vecchia, Coppa Nevigata). La centralità della Puglia – del Salento in particolare con la sua olea Sallentina o Calabrica, ma anche della Daunia – nella produzione dell'olio emerge in maniera inequivocabile nella tarda età romanorepubblicana quando sia il dato archeologico che le fonti narrative indicano la regione come la principale esportatrice del prodotto nel bacino del Mediterraneo, in particolar modo in Egitto ma anche in Grecia e in Gallia, soprattutto grazie alla produzione anforaria brindisina dei secoli tardo II e I a.C.EnThe essay is proposed as an initial contribution to the historical study of the olive tree in Puglia, specifically in Salento, in a chronological span between the Bronze Age and the Ith century B.C. The most recent orientations concerning the most ancient diffusion of the plant in the Mediterranean basin are reconstructed first, from its first domestication in the Near East to the propagation on the Helladic coasts, up to the affirmation of an Italic olive cultivation starting from Bronze Age, with its significant Apulian examples, highlighted by archaeological research of the last decades (Leuca, Roca Vecchia, Coppa Nevigata). The centrality of Puglia – particularly Salento with its olea Sallentina or Calabrica but also Daunia – in the production of oil emerges unequivocally during the late Roman-Republican age when both the archaeological data and the narrative sources indicate the region as the main exporter of the product in the Mediterranean basin, especially to Egypt but also Greece and Gaul, primarily as a result of the Brindisi amphora production of the late IInd and Ith centuries B.C

Origini altisonanti, genealogie enfatiche e un passato da dimenticare. Ipotesi sulle possibili strategie comunicative della perduta Storia Gotica di Cassiodoro = Highsounding origins, emphatic genealogies and a past to forget. Hypotheses on the possible communicative strategies of the lost Gothic History of Cassiodorus

The essay focuses on the possible communicative intentions of the lost Gothic History by the Roman Cassiodorus, a learned official of the Ostrogothic court of Theodoric and his successors. Proceeding on the basis of conjectures, supported, however, by several clues, the article suggests (in addition to a possible dating of the work to the years around 522-523) that the intentions of Cassiodorus were essentially three: making the history of the Goths compatible with Greek and Latin historiography; enhancing the lineage of Theodoric and his descendants with bold genealogical proposals; concealing the less glorious past of the history of the Gothic people. In the light of these arguments, the article also hypothesizes that Giordane's later Getica (History of the origins and deeds of the Goths), usually considered completely dependent on Cassiodorus, actually contained original parts not derived from the Gothic History of the learned Roman intellectual

Le grandi fiere medievali e l’origine della merce moderna=The great Medieval fairs and the origin of modern wares

The great Medieval fairs and the origin of modern wares. This essay briefly retraces the political, economic, organisational and communicative stages which, from the ancient world and the High Middle Ages, made possible the institution of the great european fairs. They anticipated a complex meeting-point model between wares and merchants at the base of the modern exchange, at the very origin of grand world events as the Great Universal Exhibitions

Merci, signori e mercanti. I caratteri originali delle grandi fiere medievali

Le grandi fiere medievali esaminate come fondamentale snodo economico, sociale e culturale del Medio Evo e come anticipazioni delle grandi Esposizioni Universali della modernità occidentale