This book shows through historical data, diagrams and drawings, the design system of an Italian historic center, that of Vicenza, Italy. Vicenza is the result of an urban construction process that has as its model the invention of the Palladian design system. The main argument is how the architectural vision of Andrea Palladio shaped Vincenza to the city it is today. Vicenza is an example of a collective dream, an expression of the best Renaissance artistic culture, a classic example that a city can reform itself through intellectual activity.
In 1968, a Muslim bus mechanic reported seeing a clear apparition of the Madonna at the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt. Over the next three years, Protestants, Muslims, Catholics, and people of all faiths reported seeing similar sightings there. According to the Orthodox religion, the site of the Madonna's appearances is one of the locations where the holy family stayed during their flight to Egypt. Did the Madonna really appear? For the most part, non-Catholics believe earthly appearances by the Madonna are Demonic in nature. However, they widely accept that Samuel was brought up from the dead (1 Samuel 28). Given that, it's arguable the Madonna could be sent by Her son as a messenger, which is the premise of this fictional, three-part "trilogy" book. An Italian immigrant named Big Al comes to America at the turn of the twentieth century in pursuit of his dreams. He becomes associated with some of the biggest Mafia gangsters of the day, helps elect a president, and serves as a US envoy between the president and the pope, during which time he hides a shocking and powerful secret (the Third Secret of Fatima) given in 1917 by the Madonna to a future nun. In the late 2000s, reporter John Tate is lured into a search for the still-hidden secret. He is met by opposing Freemasons wanting a new world order. The more he digs, the more questions Tate has: Why has the Vatican kept quiet about the Third Secret of Fatima since 1917? Was Pope John Paul I murdered in 1978, after just thirty-three days in office? Did Pope Benedict XVI resign because he was being blackmailed? Was the current pope validly elected? Has the Prophecy of Popes correctly predicted 112 popes in a row? Is there to be only one more pope after this one? During his investigation, Tate gets help from two unlikely people: Big Al's son Giuseppe--a former American diplomat himself--and a priest who, as a boy, claims to have been visited by the Madonna. The fate of the world hinges on the answers they uncover!
Book of the Marvels of the World or Description of the World , in Italian Il Milione (The Million) or Oriente Poliano and in English commonly called The Travels of Marco Polo, is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, describing Polo's travels through Asia between 1276 and 1291, and his experiences at the court of Kublai Khan. The book was written in Old French by romance writer Rustichello da Pisa, who worked from accounts which he had heard from Marco Polo when they were imprisoned together in Genoa. From the beginning, there has been incredulity over Polo's sometimes fabulous stories, as well as a scholarly debate in recent times. Some have questioned whether Marco had actually traveled to China or was just repeating stories that he had heard from other travelers.
The Venetian adventurer Marco Polo traveled from Europe to Asia in the late thirteenth century, as immortalised in his seminal work of travel literature. It describes Polo’s assorted travels throughout Asia and his experiences in the sumptuous court of Kublai Khan. Composed at a time when very little was known about the Far East, Polo’s account opened new vistas to the European mind, allowing Western horizons to expand. His description of Japan set a definite goal for Christopher Columbus in his journey of 1492, while Polo’s detailed discoveries of spices encouraged Western merchants to seek new sources and break trading monopolies. The wealth of geographic information recorded by Polo was widely used in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, fuelling an era of great European discoveries. Delphi’s Medieval Library provides eReaders with rare and precious works of the Middle Ages, with noted English translations and the original texts. This eBook presents Marco Polo’s complete text, with illustrations, an informative introduction and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Polo's life and adventures * Features the complete extant works of Marco Polo, in both English translation and Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s original Italian text * The complete Yule-Cordier 1903 translation, with hundreds of illustrations and footnotes * Concise introduction to the text * Superior formatting * Easily locate the sections you want to read with individual contents tables * Features four bonus biographies — discover Polo's medieval world CONTENTS: The Translation Brief Introduction to Marco Polo The Travels of Marco Polo (c. 1300) The Original Text The Italian Text The Biographies Marco Polo (1832) by James Augustus St. John Sir Marco Polo, the Venetian, and His Travels in Asia (1893) by W. H. Davenport Adams Marco Polo (1904) by John H. Haaren Marco Polo (1911) by Henry Yule and Charles Raymond Beazley
In March 2017, the IMF published an upgrade of its Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) dataset. This paper documents the new methodology that has been developed to estimate missing observations of bilateral trade statistics on a monthly basis. The new estimation procedure is founded on a benchmarking method that produces monthly estimates based on official trade statistics by partner country reported at different times and frequencies. In this paper we describe the new estimation methodology. Additional data sources have also been incorporated. We also assess the impact of the new estimates on trade measurement in DOTS at global, regional, and country-specific levels. Finally, we suggest some developments of DOTS to strenghten its relevance for IMF bilateral and multilateral surveillance.
The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition : Including the Unabridged Third Edition (1903) of Henry Yule's Annotated Translation, as Revised by Henri Cordier, Together with Cordier's Later Volume of Notes and Addenda (1920).
The Complete Yule-Cordier Edition : Including the Unabridged Third Edition (1903) of Henry Yule's Annotated Translation, as Revised by Henri Cordier, Together with Cordier's Later Volume of Notes and Addenda (1920).
Volume 1 of 2-volume set. One of the greatest books of all time — a vast treasury of invaluable observations on the peoples and geography of the Near East and Asia in the 13th century. Detailed descriptions of cities, customs, laws, crops, animals, political systems, much more. 200 illustrations, 32 maps and site plans.
This book explores the relationship between the sciences of representation and the strategy of landscape valorisation. The topic is connected to the theme of the image of the city, which is extended to the territory scale and applied to case studies in Italy’s Umbria region, where the goal is to strike a dynamic balance between cultural heritage and nature. The studies demonstrate how landscape represents an interpretive process of finding meaning, a product of the relationships between mankind and the places in which it lives. The work proceeds from the assumption that it is possible to describe these connections between environment, territory and landscape by applying the Vitruvian triad, composed of Firmitas (solidity), Utilitas (utility) and Venustas(beauty). The environment, the sum of the conditions that influence all life, represents the place’s solidity, because it guarantees its survival. In turn, territory is connected to utility, and through its etymological meaning is linked to possession, to a domain; while landscape, as an “area perceived by people”, expresses the search for beauty in a given place, the process of critically interpreting a vision.
The principle of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of states is one of the most venerable principles of international law. Although not expressly mentioned in the Charter of the United Nations, at least as an inter-state prohibition, the principle currently appears in a plethora of treaties and UN General Assembly resolutions and has been invoked like a mantra by states of all geographical and political denominations. Despite this, the determination of its exact content has remained an enigma. International Law and the Principle of Non-Intervention: History, Theory, and Interactions with Other Principles solves this enigma by exploring what constitutes an 'intervention' in international law and when interventions are unlawful. These questions are approached from three different perspectives, which are reflected in the book's structure: historical, theoretical, and systematic. Through a comprehensive survey of primary documents and of over 200 cases of intervention from the mid-18th century to the present day, as well as an extensive literature search, this work provides an in-depth analysis of the principle of non-intervention which links it to fundamental notions of international law, including sovereignty, use of force, self-determination, and human rights protection.
Opera is the only guide to the research writings on all aspects of opera. This second edition presents 2,833 titles--over 2,000 more than the first edition--of books, parts of books, articles and dissertations with full bibliographic descriptions and critical annotations. Users will find the core literature on the operas of 320 individual composers and details of operatic life in 43 countries. All relevant works through to November 1999 have been considered, covering more than fifteen years of literature since the first edition was published.
This study reproduces and describes, for the first time, all the maps of China printed in Europe between 1584 and 1735, unravelling the origin of each individual map, their different printing, issues and publication dates.
Schopenhauer is most recognizable as "the philosopher of pessimism," the author of a system that teaches how art and morality can help human beings navigate life in "the worst of all possible worlds." This dominant image of Schopenhauer neglects a vital branch of his philosophy--the metaphysics of nature and its dialogue with contemporary science. The evolving relationship of Schopenhauer's philosophy to science provides a powerful interpretive tool, which A Convex Mirror uses to reflect the complexity of his philosophical system and shed light on its core concepts.
This paper reviews the empirical relationships between credit growth, economic recovery, and bank profitability in Europe after the global financial crisis (GFC). We find that the post-GFC recoveries in Europe have been weaker than previous recoveries, with the “double-dip” recessions in 2011–12 in many countries and the worldwide reach of the GFC explaining the underperformance. Bank lending has been subdued as well, but this appears to have only held back the recovery relatively moderately. A 10 percent increase in bank credit to the private sector is associated with a rise of 0.6–1 percent in real GDP and 2–21⁄2 percent in real private investment. These relationships have not changed significantly during and after the GFC. Loan quality, customer deposits, bank equity price index, and bank capital appear to be closely linked to bank lending. As expected, bank profitability is positively and significantly influenced by credit growth, but this relationship has weakened after the GFC.
After centuries of denigration, Shakespeare's romances, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, came to be seen by many critics as among Shakespeare's most profound works - as extensions of his tragic vision, as experiments in dramatic form, as deeply significant statements about art, about nature, about life. Marco Mincoff's Things Supernatural and Causeless - a work published in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1987, just before his death, but clearly written in the mid-1970s - sets out to show why this evaluation of the romances is wrong and to propose another way of looking at and evaluating Pericles and the plays that followed it." "For Mincoff, romance is "an inherently inferior genre" that, no matter what dramatic skills Shakespeare lavished on it, could never yield great drama. He argues that none of the romances has a profound message: whatever meaning one finds in Pericles, for instance, can be found just as readily in Apollonius of Tyre. Thus to look to these plays for greatness or for profound themes or ideas is to be inevitably disappointed or self-deluded." "What one does find in the romances, though, are plays that diverge sharply from their sources and analogues, and from other drama of the period, in the attention given to the creation of a sense of wonder. Mincoff finds, in the systematic control of language, crafting of scenes, and altering of sources in the plays, the suggestion of supernatural influence upon the play's action that exploits the "wonderful" inherent in Heliodorian romance. Mincoff suspects that "this sense of wonder really was important to Shakespeare," and finds Lafew's words (in All's Well That Ends Well) both a rather bitter commentary on Jacobean society and a clue to our better understanding of the romances:" ""They say miracles are past, and we have our philosophical persons to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless. Hence it is that we make trifles of terrors, ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear."" "Mincoff can spot that which is truly unusual in the romances because of his extensive knowledge of the other drama and other literature of the period and because of his ability to place the plays within the context of their own time. He places the above quotation, for example, within contemporary responses to skepticism; he discusses such dramaturgical devices as Presenters and expository supernumeraries in the context of other plays that Shakespeare's audiences would have been seeing; he is alert to the differences between our present-day understanding of life and language and that of Shakespeare's age, showing how words like art and nature are today understood in postromantic terms that make them far different words, representing far different concepts, from those used by Shakespeare in his romances."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This volume examines the legal dimension of the ILO's action in the field of Child Labour. The authors investigate the implementation of the relevant legal instruments and assess the effectiveness of the ILO supervisory system. All relevant instruments are considered while particular attention is given to Convention 182 on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour. Child Labour in a Globalized World describes the ILO's activities concerning the eradication of child labour whilst assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of the relevant legal framework and functioning of the supervisory system. This book contextualizes the issue of the eradication of the worst forms of child labour in the recent doctrinal debate on the nature of labour standards and the transformation of the ILO. This important work will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers with an interest in labour law, international law, and children's rights.
Volume One of the thirteenth-century Venetian explorer’s famous travelogue, recounting his historic journeys through Asia and his encounters with Kublai Khan. In 1271, Marco Polo embarked from Venice on a voyage to China. Together with his father and uncle, he came upon the court of the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan. After twenty years in the service of the Great Khan, the Polos returned home—only for Marco to be taken prisoner during a conflict between Venice and Genoa. While detained, Marco recounted the incredible stories of his many travels—through China, Burma, Sumatra, India, and Siam, across the Gobi Desert and the mountains of Tibet, encountering strange customs, religions, fabrics, and spices—to his fellow prisoner, the scribe Rustichello da Pisa. Marco Polo’s epic travelogue brought vivid depictions of the Far East to medieval Europe, offering a fascinating glimpse into lands and cultures previously unknown to Western scholars. The first book of this two-volume edition encompasses Polo’s journeys through the Middle East and Central Asia, and his introduction to Kublai Khan.
FRONT SIGHT by Marco Masetti Synopsis FRONT SIGHT is a collection of my notes as a high level Target Shooting Coach, who managed to achieve training an Athlete who won a Silver medal at the London Olympics. Mainly I speak of the training methodology in the field of Olympic target shooting, explaining in detail a method that was innovative in the period 2009-2012. More generally I speak of technical things, however, interspersed with actual episodes that occurred during competitions and training sessions. I recount what were the guidelines for me as an International Coach, my beliefs, my points of view and also my personal sports education. I believe it is a useful guide for the entire Shooting world seeing as I write specifically not only about what was carried out during the National Training Camps, but also about the work carried out during individual training sessions. I illustrate a training period of 21 weeks with a high-level athlete (but I do not publish all the 21 weekly work plans) and also a work plan developed for a club coach who had contacted me because he needed to train one of his athletes. These two chapters can undoubtedly set a good example for those learning to design work plans for themselves or for their Athletes. I provide insights into two scientific studies (with experiments) aimed at obtaining a better and improved level of performance, and also a series of "Shooting Games" to make training more interesting. At the end, I produce an extensive bibliography of the material cited in this book, but which was also useful for me throughout my sports education.
Brain Renaissance: From Vesalius to Modern Neuroscience is published on the 500th anniversary of the birth and the 450th anniversary of the death of Vesalius. The authors translated those Latin chapters of the Fabrica dedicated to the brain, a milestone in the history of neuroscience. Many chapters are accompanied by a commentary tracking the discoveries that paved the way to our modern understanding of the brain - from the pineal gland that regulates sleep, the fornix and mammillary bodies for memory, the colliculi for auditory and visual perception, and the cerebellum for motor control, to the corpus callosum for interhemispheric cross-talk, the neural correlates of senses, and the methods for dissections. The chapters constitute a primer for those interested in the brain and history of neuroscience. The translation, written with modern anatomical terminology in mind, provides direct access to Vesalius' original work on the brain. Those interested in reading the words of the Renaissance master will find the book an invaluable addition to their Vesalian collection. Brain Renaissance pays a tribute to the work of the pioneers of neuroscience and to the lives of those with brain disorders, through whose suffering most discoveries are made. It's an unforgettable journey inspired by the work of the great anatomist, whose words still resonate today.
This departmental paper marks the 10th anniversary of the IMF Financial Access Survey (FAS). It offers a retrospective of the FAS database, along with some reflections as to its future directions. Since its 2009 launch, the FAS has provided granular data on access to and use of financial services. It is a supply-side database with annual global coverage based on data sourced directly from financial service providers—aimed at supporting policymakers to target and evaluate financial inclusion policies. Its data collection has kept pace with financial innovation, such as the rise of mobile money and growing demand for gender-disaggregated data—and the FAS must continue to evolve.
We review the impact of the global financial crisis, and its spillovers into the sovereign sector of the euro area, on the international “rules of the game” for dealing with sovereign debt crises. These rules rest on two main pillars. The most important is the IMF’s lending framework (policies, financing facilities, and financial resources), which is designed to support macroeconomic adjustment packages based on the key notion of public debt sustainability. The complementary pillar is represented by such contractual provisions as Collective Action Clauses (CACs) in sovereign bonds, which aim to facilitate coordination among private creditors in order to contain the costs of a debt default or restructuring. We analyze the most significant changes (and their consequences) prompted by the recent crises to the Fund’s lending framework, not only in terms of additional financial resources, new financing facilities (including precautionary ones), and cooperation with euro-area institutions, but also as regards the criteria governing exceptional access to the Fund’s financial resources. We highlight a crucial innovation to these criteria, namely that, for the first time, they now explicitly take account of the risk of international systemic spillovers. Finally, we discuss how the recent crises have provided new political support for a broader dissemination of CACs in euro-area sovereign bonds. Importantly, in the first case involving an advanced economy, CACs were activated in the debt exchange undertaken by Greece in Spring 2012.
“Of all that I have named, Ptolemy, as the latest, possessed the greatest extent of knowledge. Thus, towards the North, his knowledge carries him beyond the Caspian, and he is aware of its being shut in all round like a lake,—a fact which was unknown in the days of Strabo and Pliny, though the Romans were already lords of the world. But though his knowledge extends so far, a tract of 15 degrees beyond that sea he can describe only as Terra Incognita; and towards the South he is fain to apply the same character to all beyond the Equinoxial. In these unknown regions, as regards the South, the first to make discoveries have been the Portuguese captains of our own age; but as regards the North and North-East the discoverer was the Magnifico Messer Marco Polo, an honoured nobleman of Venice, nearly 300 years since, as may be read more fully in his own Book. And in truth it makes one marvel to consider the immense extent of the journeys made, first by the Father and Uncle of the said Messer Marco, when they proceeded continually towards the East-North-East, all the way to the Court of the Great Can and the Emperor of the Tartars; and afterwards again by the three of them when, on their return homeward, they traversed the Eastern and Indian Seas. Nor is that all, for one marvels also how the aforesaid gentleman was able to give such an orderly description of all that he had seen; seeing that such an accomplishment was possessed by very few in his day, and he had had a large part of his nurture among those uncultivated Tartars, without any regular training in the art of composition. His Book indeed, owing to the endless errors and inaccuracies that had crept into it, had come for many years to be regarded as fabulous; and the opinion prevailed that the names of cities and provinces contained therein were all fictitious and imaginary, without any ground in fact, or were (I might rather say) mere dreams. “Howbeit, during the last hundred years, persons acquainted with Persia have begun to recognise the existence of Cathay. Ramusio vindicates Polo’s Geography.The voyages of the Portuguese also towards the North-East, beyond the Golden Chersonese, have brought to knowledge many cities and provinces of India, and many islands likewise, with those very names which our Author applies to them; and again, on reaching the Land of China, they have ascertained from the people of that region (as we are told by Sign. John de Barros, a Portuguese gentleman, in his Geography) that Canton, one of the chief cities of that kingdom, is in 30⅔° of latitude, with the coast running N.E. and S.W.; that after a distance of 275 leagues the said coast turns towards the N.W.; and that there are three provinces along the sea-board, Mangi, Zanton, and Quinzai, the last of which is the principal city and the King’s Residence, standing in 46° of latitude. And proceeding yet further the coast attains to 50°. Seeing then how many particulars are in our day becoming known of that part of the world concerning which Messer Marco has written, I have deemed it reasonable to publish his book, with the aid of several copies written (as I judge) more than 200 years ago, in a perfectly accurate form, and one vastly more faithful than that in which it has been heretofore read. And thus the world shall not lose the fruit that may be gathered from so much diligence and industry expended upon so honourable a branch of knowledge.”
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