Relics and Society in Late Medieval and Renaissance Venice

This article analyzes two miracles, which a fragment of the True Cross performed for the Venetian confraternity of San Giovanni Evangelista in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Unlike most such feats bearing a strong spiritual message, the miracles at the bridges of San Lorenzo and San Lio had a marked social context. The breaking of the supernatural into everyday life inserted the numinous agent onto a stage where three major dimensions of late medieval and Renaissance Venetian society –personal, confraternal, and civic– intersected and arranged their relationships in a continuously shifting social and political environment. The scrutiny of the miracles and their renditions in text and image allows us a glimpse into the meanings with which individuals (in the persons of Andrea Vendramin, Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Mansueti), the group (the confraternity of San Giovanni Evangelista and the Vendramin family), and society (represented by the civic authorities) imbued the supernatural action to position themselves in their social landscape.Cet article offre une analyse de deux miracles accomplis par un fragment de la Vraie Croix pour la confraternité de San Giovanni Evangelista de Venise à la fin du XIVe et au début du XVe siècle. À la différence de ce qui se produit en général lors de ces événements porteurs d’un message spirituel fort, les miracles accomplis aux ponts de San Lorenzo et de San Lio s’inscrivent dans un contexte social. L’irruption du surnaturel dans la vie de tous les jours a introduit un agent divin sur une scène où trois aspects majeurs de la société vénitienne du Moyen Âge tardif et de la Renaissance – l’aspect personnel, confraternel, et civique – se superposent et s’agencent dans un environnement social et politique en changement constant. L’examen de ces miracles et de leur traduction en textes et images nous permet d’entrevoir les significations données à ces événements surnaturels par des individus (Andrea Vendramin, Gentile Bellini et Giovanni Mansueti), par le groupe (la confraternité de San Giovanni Evangelista et la famille Vendramin) et par la société (les autorités civiques) afin de définir leur place dans les structures sociales de leur ville

Photo- and Thermo-Induced Changes in Optical Constants and Structure of Thin Films from GeSe2-GeTe-ZnTe System

AbstractWe examined the condition of preparation of thin films from GeSe2-GeTe-ZnTe system by thermal evaporation and changes in their optical properties after exposure to light and thermal annealing. The results for composition analysis of thin films showed absence of Zn independently of the composition of the bulk glass. By X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis it was found that a reduction of ZnTe in ZnSe in bulk materials takes of place during the film deposition. A residual from ZnSe was observed in the boat after thin film deposition. Optical constants (refractive index, n and absorption coefficient, α) and thickness, d as well as the optical band gap, Eg, depending of the content of Te in ternary Ge-Se-Te system are determined from specrophotometric measurements in the spectral range 400-2500nm applying the Swanepoel's envelope method and Tauc's procedure. With the increase of Te content in the layers the absorption edge is shifted to the longer wavelengths, refractive index increases while the optical band gap decreases from 2.02eV for GeSe2 to 1.26eV for Ge34Se42Te24. The values of the refractive index decrease after annealing of all composition and Eg increase, respectively. Thin films with composition of Ge27Se47Te9Zn17 and Ge28Se49Te10Zn13 were prepared by co-evaporation of (GeSe2)78(GeTe)22 and Zn from a boat and a crucible and their optical properties, surface morphology and structure were investigated. The existence of a correlation between the optical band gap and the copostion of thin films from the system studied was demonstrated

Gluing semiclassical resolvent estimates via propagation of singularities

We use semiclassical propagation of singularities to give a general method for gluing together resolvent estimates. As an application we prove estimates for the analytic continuation of the resolvent of a Schr\"odinger operator for certain asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds in the presence of trapping which is sufficiently mild in one of several senses. As a corollary we obtain local exponential decay for the wave propagator and local smoothing for the Schr\"odinger propagator.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figur

De-personifying Collaert's Four Continents: European descriptions of continental diversity, 1585–1625

Adriaen Collaert's personifications of the four continents are typical examples of how continents and their respective cultures were represented in the art and literature of Europe in the early-modern period. For example, Asia is the exotic double to Europe, possessing an ‘otherness’ upon which European identity has been juxtaposed. Such personifications of continents and broader tropes of ‘the other’ and ‘the exotic’ have greatly influenced the historiography of the idea of Europe. However, the creation of art and literature characterised by these tropes reflects only part of the European understanding of the wider world. This article will explore how travellers – such as missionaries, merchants and ambassadors – in Europe's encounters with non-European societies presented a complex picture of the world sought to offer practical guidance and knowledge. How travellers’ accounts and personifications interacted is important for understanding the European experience of other continents. In considering how travellers presented their knowledge of continents, it is possible to analyse both how early-modern Europeans viewed other continents and question how useful artistic representation of ‘other’ continents are for understanding how they viewed their own

Relics and Society in Late Medieval and Renaissance Venice

This article analyzes two miracles, which a fragment of the True Cross performed for the Venetian confraternity of San Giovanni Evangelista in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Unlike most such feats bearing a strong spiritual message, the miracles at the bridges of San Lorenzo and San Lio had a marked social context. The breaking of the supernatural into everyday life inserted the numinous agent onto a stage where three major dimensions of late medieval and Renaissance Venetian society –personal, confraternal, and civic– intersected and arranged their relationships in a continuously shifting social and political environment. The scrutiny of the miracles and their renditions in text and image allows us a glimpse into the meanings with which individuals (in the persons of Andrea Vendramin, Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Mansueti), the group (the confraternity of San Giovanni Evangelista and the Vendramin family), and society (represented by the civic authorities) imbued the supernatural action to position themselves in their social landscape.Cet article offre une analyse de deux miracles accomplis par un fragment de la Vraie Croix pour la confraternité de San Giovanni Evangelista de Venise à la fin du XIVe et au début du XVe siècle. À la différence de ce qui se produit en général lors de ces événements porteurs d’un message spirituel fort, les miracles accomplis aux ponts de San Lorenzo et de San Lio s’inscrivent dans un contexte social. L’irruption du surnaturel dans la vie de tous les jours a introduit un agent divin sur une scène où trois aspects majeurs de la société vénitienne du Moyen Âge tardif et de la Renaissance – l’aspect personnel, confraternel, et civique – se superposent et s’agencent dans un environnement social et politique en changement constant. L’examen de ces miracles et de leur traduction en textes et images nous permet d’entrevoir les significations données à ces événements surnaturels par des individus (Andrea Vendramin, Gentile Bellini et Giovanni Mansueti), par le groupe (la confraternité de San Giovanni Evangelista et la famille Vendramin) et par la société (les autorités civiques) afin de définir leur place dans les structures sociales de leur ville