Plane quartics: the universal matrix of bitangents

Aronhold's classical result states that a plane quartic can be recovered by the configuration of any Aronhold systems of bitangents, i.e. special $7$-tuples of bitangents such that the six points at which any sub-triple of bitangents touches the quartic do not lie on the same conic in the projective plane. Lehavi (cf. \cite{lh}) proved that a smooth plane quartic can be explicitly reconstructed from its $28$ bitangents; this result improved Aronhold's method of recovering the curve. In a 2011 paper \cite{PSV} Plaumann, Sturmfels and Vinzant introduced an $8 \times 8$ symmetric matrix that parametrizes the bitangents of a nonsingular plane quartic. The starting point of their construction is Hesse's result for which every smooth quartic curve has exactly $36$ equivalence classes of linear symmetric determinantal representations. In this paper we tackle the inverse problem, i.e. the construction of the bitangent matrix starting from the 28 bitangents of the plane quartic, and we provide a Sage script intended for computing the bitangent matrix of a given curve

Raoul of Presles. A Fourteenth-Century Translation of De civitate Dei

The dominance of Augustine of Hippo in philosophy during the second quarter of the fourteenth century is testified to by three evidences: (1) the wide use of quotations from his works, (2) the flourishing of commentaries on them, especially at Oxford, as reconstructed by William J. Courtenay; (3) the historical-critical treatment of the writings of the Fathers, of the theological and philosophical auctoritates, and of contemporary Scholastic authors at Paris by the Augustinians, as reconstructed by Onorato Grassi. In this article, I focus on the second kind of evidence, taking into account some commentaries on Augustine’s De civitate Dei, namely those of Nicholas Trevet and Thomas Waleys in the English area, and that Francis of Meyronnes in the French area. These commentaries became the basis for Raoul de Presles’s translation of Augustine’s work into Middle French. Moreover, I analyze books 1–5 of Raoul’s translation, showing that it was by no means accidental to his intellectual endeavors and that Raoul employed innovative, Humanist techniques of translation, and shedding light on the comparison of Charles V of France to Charlemagne in the rediscovery of the Augustinian corpus

Adolphe entre morale et sentiment

Un lecteur peut d’abord être frappé par l’abondance du paratexte qui accompagne Adolphe : deux préfaces, un avis de l’éditeur, et à la fin du roman une lettre de l’éditeur et une réponse. Cinq écrits donnent des éclaircissements sur la prétendue transmission du manuscrit et des renseignements qui complètent l’histoire racontée par Adolphe. Mais surtout, ils semblent offrir des interprétations sur « la morale » de cette histoire en attribuant la responsabilité de son échec et à la société, et ..

Il servo coadiuvante nel teatro di Molière. Mascarille e Scapin

In 17th century French theatre two different figures of servants can be identified: the first one shows ability and fantasy at the service of his young master; the second one is not only awkward, but above all he is not able to hold his lower instincts. By breaking the rules of the high-society gallant code, does the odd servant challenge the high values? The article tries to give an answer to this question by analyzing two servants of Molière’s theatre: Mascarille and Scapin. Mascarille performs both roles: the first one in L’Étourdi, the second one in Les Précieuses Ridicules, in either of them modifying the sources of the respective comedies. In Les Précieuses Ridicules the final punishment of the servants, despite its cruelty, does not imply an identification with their reasons. This identification, indeed, is prevented by the stylistic distinction that in the classical doctrine definitely separates the high and the low register, the comic and the serious. On the contrary, Scapin in Les Fourberies changes the dramatic type of the valet: he reverses the hierarchy of values because of his sense of honour and his consequent actions. His victory is the triumph of Drama itself and of its rules, which overcome those governing society

Charles-Nicolas Cochin, Scritti sull’arte (1754-56)

Negli ultimi anni Franco Fanizza si è dedicato allo studio del passaggio capitale nell’estetica del Settecento dal rococò al neoclassicismo, dal rocaille al ritorno al grand goût. Ricordo le tappe fondamentali di questa ricerca che, articolata in un insieme di saggi, presenta un carattere rigorosamente sistematico. Dall’edizione della Perfezione della pittura di Fréart de Chambrey del 1990 a Consumo d’arte nella Francia del ‘700 del 2000 all’edizione dei Salons di La Font de Saint-Yenne del 2..

In memoria di Francesco Orlando

Francesco Orlando è nato a Palermo nel 1934 da una famiglia di antica borghesia che poteva vantare fra i suoi membri avvocati illustri e il Presidente del Consiglio della vittoria del 1918, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando. La sua vocazione letteraria fu precocissima. Lettore infaticabile dalla memoria prodigiosa, già da bambino, a tredici anni, si era cimentato nella traduzione del teatro di Victor Hugo. Neppure gli studi di Giurisprudenza, intrapresi in ossequio alla tradizione familiare, ebbero i..

Conversation avec Paolo Tortonese

F.F. À l’origine de la notion de vraisemblance, trouve-t-on Aristote ou une sorte de pseudo-Aristote ? Une lecture partielle de la Poétique aurait conduit à une conception moraliste de la vraisemblance qui ne correspond pas à sa pensée. P.T. Il n’est certes pas original d’affirmer que la pensée occidentale commence avec la fondation de la métaphysique par Platon et Aristote, et que tous les aspects de cette pensée (les branches de la philosophie, les disciplines, les religions) sont visibleme..

Adorno, Brecht e la politica dell’arte

The paper proposes a critical interpretation of the Adorno’s and Brecht’s conceptions of engagement and politics of literature. The two notions are in contrast with each other but both could be considered representative of the two predominant polarized positions within the aesthetics debate of the last century. Adorno founds the political nature of literature on autonomy and liberation of the form. According to him the political nature of art springs from the refusal of the discourse, from the aggressive removal of meaning, from the exhibition of the negative. His conception of engagement in the arts is elitist and it subordinates the artistic to the philosophical discourse.Brecht founded the politics of literature on the awareness that experience is filtered by the media. It can be revolutionary only the author who reflects on the media bias of artistic production and creates works that are not expression of a subjective perspective but tools for transforming the function of the devices and of the institutions in which they act.Il saggio propone una ricostruzione critica della concezione di impegno e di politicità della letteratura formulate da Brecht e da Adorno. Concezioni opposte che possono essere considerate le formulazioni più efficaci delle due posizioni predominanti nel dibattito estetico del Novecento.Adorno fonda la politicità della letteratura sulla sua autonomia e sulla liberazione della forma. La politicità dell’arte scaturisce per lui dal rifiuto della discorsività, dalla aggressiva sottrazione del senso, dalla esposizione del negativo. La sua è una concezione dell’impegno elitaria che subordina il discorso artistico a quello filosofico. Brecht fonda la possibilità politiche della letteratura sulla consapevolezza della medialità dell’esperienza. Può essere rivoluzionario solo l’autore che ha riflettuto sulle mediali condizioni della propria produzione e produce opere che non sono espressione di una soggettività ma lavoro alla trasformazione e al cambiamento di funzione dei dispositivi mediali e delle istituzioni in cui agisce