The process by which securities are traded is very different from the idealized picture of a frictionless and self-equilibrating market offered by the typical finance textbook. This book offers a more accurate and authoritative take on this process. The book starts from the assumption that not everyone is present at all times simultaneously on the market, and that participants have quite diverse information about the security's fundamentals. As a result, the order flow is a complex mix of information and noise, and a consensus price only emerges gradually over time as the trading process evolves and the participants interpret the actions of other traders. Thus, a security's actual transaction price may deviate from its fundamental value, as it would be assessed by a fully informed set of investors. The book takes these deviations seriously, and explains why and how they emerge in the trading process and are eventually eliminated. The authors draw on a vast body of theoretical insights and empirical findings on security price formation that have come to form a well-defined field within financial economics known as "market microstructure." Focusing on liquidity and price discovery, the book analyzes the tension between the two, pointing out that when price-relevant information reaches the market through trading pressure rather than through a public announcement, liquidity may suffer. It also confronts many striking phenomena in securities markets and uses the analytical tools and empirical methods of market microstructure to understand them. These include issues such as why liquidity changes over time and differs across securities, why large trades move prices up or down, and why these price changes are subsequently reversed, and why we observe temporary deviations from asset fair values"--
This book relates the literatures of finance, industrial economics and investment to the theoretical framework of the 'credit view'. Firstly it is assumed that banks' decisions concerning their assets are seen as at least as relevant as their decisions concerning their liabilities. Secondly, securities and bank credit are considered to be highly imperfect substitutes. In this regard it is important to investigate the way industrial and financial sectors interact. In particular, how is the macroeconomy affected by the phenomenon of 'securitization' and by exogenous changes in the industrial structure of the credit market. The interactions between real and financial sectors are also analysed from the point of view of the industrial firm, in a model where the investment and financial decisions of the firm are taken simultaneously.
In the context of heightened climate variability, thinking about ways to redesign our urban areas with more sustainable infrastructure solutions is becoming more and more important. Green infrastructure (GI) is emerging as an alternative approach to traditional (‘grey’) infrastructure in urban planning and development. Its emergence can be understood in terms of the growing demand for infrastructure and services, increased concerns over natural resource constraints and climate change, and the negative impacts associated with traditional approaches to designing and building cities. It has been proposed that GI can provide the same services as traditional infrastructure at a similar capital cost, while also providing a range of additional benefits. However, despite the increasing examples of successful urban GI applications, traditional infrastructure continues to dominate due to the lack of systematic evidence to support GI implementation. As a result, there has been an increase in calls from policy- and decision-makers for a greater evidence base on the benefits of GI, as well as for practical guidelines on its implementation. ‘Towards applying a green infrastructure approach in the Gauteng City-Region’ is the GCRO’s third report in its ongoing research into 'Green assets and infrastructure'. The first two reports in this project series were more theoretically grounded and policy-oriented, whereas this third report is more practical in nature. The first report explored the basic principles around GI, assessed the extent of ecological features in Gauteng and the way governments in the province think about planning and maintenance of green assets. The second report responded to some of the challenges identified in the first report, and in particular the importance of government officials and practitioners in exploring how international green infrastructure plans could be applied in the Gauteng context. This third report builds on the findings of the aforementioned reports and the project’s CityLab series, which highlighted the need to build an evidence base as critical for garnering support for and as well as enhancing investment in the GI approach. Unlike the more theoretically grounded earlier reports, this report comprises four technical sections and practical reflections on how a GI approach could be incorporated into urban planning in the GCR and in other similar urban contexts.
This book seeks to provide an alternative post-Western perspective to the history of contemporary architecture. It puts forward detailed critical analyses of various areas of the world, including Europe, Latin America, Africa, China, Australia, India and Japan, where particular movements of architecture have developed as active ‘political acts’. The authors focus on a broad spectrum of countries, architectures and architects that have developed a design approach closely linked to the building context. The concept of context is broad and includes various economic, social, cultural, political and natural aspects. In all cases, the architects selected in this book have chosen to view context as an opportunity. However, each architect has considered certain specific aspects of context: some have been very attentive to the social context, others to material aspects or typological issues, and still others to aspects related to political visions or economic factors. The analysis critically highlights interesting, creative and respectful design approaches towards local conditions, such as sustainability in Nordic Europe, climate-conscious design in Africa, and the ‘bottom-up’ sensitivity of India. The book’s main aim is to retrace, through both theoretical arguments and case studies, the debate that focuses on politics and the environment. Thanks to its valuable examples, this book strives to make a conscious contribution to establishing a bulwark against the current ‘flattening-out’ processes that architecture is experiencing. This book will be of relevance to researchers, teachers and students interested in the history of architecture, architecture and planning, and postcolonial studies.
Milan, since the period after World War II, has developed its own specific interpretation of modern architecture: a Milanese path to architectural Modernity. In model suburban developments like QT8 (a proving ground for the best solutions formulated by international architectural culture in the 1920s and 1930s), but also in original buildings in the center, like the Torre Velasca and the Pirelli skyscraper, Milan has become a true outdoor museum of modern architecture. The names of the leading figures of this period are Gio Ponti, Piero Bottoni, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Lodovico Belgiojoso, Ignazio Gardella, Luigi Moretti, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Vico Magistretti; as well as Vittorio Gregotti, Aldo Rossi, Guido Canella, Carlo Aymonino, Gino Valle, Gabetti & Isola: architects that over a few decades gave Milan its building-symbols, providing structures suitable for a city aspiring to a role as a leading player on the European stage. The works of these architects have been joined, in the late 20th century and the initial years of the new millennium, in a period of renewed construction activity, by projects bearing the world-famous signatures of Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, Arata Isozaki, Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas, along with those of Italian talents like - among others - Renzo Piano, Cino Zucchi and Stefano Boeri. A significant contribution that has given Milan an important position on the international architecture scene, destined to be reinforced by EXPO 2015. This book takes a critical look at the various aspects of development of Milanese architecture, and in 100 profiles illustrated with photographs made for the occasion it presents the city's most outstanding buildings erected over the course of the last seventy years.
Mental disorders arise from neural and psychological mechanisms that have been built and shaped by natural selection across our evolutionary history. Looking at psychopathology through the lens of evolution is the only way to understand the deeper nature of mental disorders and turn a mass of behavioral, genetic, and neurobiological findings into a coherent, theoretically grounded discipline. The rise of evolutionary psychopathology is part of an exciting scientific movement in psychology and medicine -- a movement that is fundamentally transforming the way we think about health and disease. Evolutionary Psychopathology takes steps toward a unified approach to psychopathology, using the concepts of life history theory -- a biological account of how individual differences in development, physiology and behavior arise from tradeoffs in survival and reproduction -- to build an integrative framework for mental disorders. This book reviews existing evolutionary models of specific conditions and connects them in a broader perspective, with the goal of explaining the large-scale patterns of risk and comorbidity that characterize psychopathology. Using the life history framework allows for a seamless integration of mental disorders with normative individual differences in personality and cognition, and offers new conceptual tools for the analysis of developmental, genetic, and neurobiological data. The concepts presented in Evolutionary Psychopathology are used to derive a new taxonomy of mental disorders, the Fast-Slow-Defense (FSD) model. The FSD model is the first classification system explicitly based on evolutionary concepts, a biologically grounded alternative to transdiagnostic models. The book reviews a wide range of common mental disorders, discusses their classification in the FSD model, and identifies functional subtypes within existing diagnostic categories.
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) is one of the most famous and significant authors in the history of western esotericism. Crowley has been long ignored by scholars of religion whilst the stories of magical and sexual practice which circulate about him continue to attract popular interest. "Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics" looks at the man behind the myth - by setting him firmly within the politics of his time - and the development of his ideas through his extensive and extraordinarily varied writings. Crowley was a rationalist, sympathetic to the values of the Enlightenment, but also a romantic and a reactionary. His search for an alternative way to express his religious feelings led him to elaborate his own vision of social and political change. Crowley's complex politics led to his involvement with many key individuals, organisations and groups of his day - the secret service of various countries, the German Nazi party, Russian political activists, journalists and politicians of various persuasions, as well as other writers - both in Europe and America. "Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics" presents a life of ideas, an examination of a man shaped by and shaping the politics of his times.
The finite element method (FEM) is a computational tool widely used to design and analyse complex structures. Currently, there are a number of different approaches to analysis using the FEM that vary according to the type of structure being analysed: beams and plates may use 1D or 2D approaches, shells and solids 2D or 3D approaches, and methods that work for one structure are typically not optimized to work for another. Finite Element Analysis of Structures Through Unified Formulation deals with the FEM used for the analysis of the mechanics of structures in the case of linear elasticity. The novelty of this book is that the finite elements (FEs) are formulated on the basis of a class of theories of structures known as the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF). It formulates 1D, 2D and 3D FEs on the basis of the same 'fundamental nucleus' that comes from geometrical relations and Hooke's law, and presents both 1D and 2D refined FEs that only have displacement variables as in 3D elements. It also covers 1D and 2D FEs that make use of 'real' physical surfaces rather than ’artificial’ mathematical surfaces which are difficult to interface in CAD/CAE software. Key features: Covers how the refined formulation can be easily and conveniently used to analyse laminated structures, such as sandwich and composite structures, and to deal with multifield problems Shows the performance of different FE models through the 'best theory diagram' which allows different models to be compared in terms of accuracy and computational cost Introduces an axiomatic/asymptotic approach that reduces the computational cost of the structural analysis without affecting the accuracy Introduces an innovative 'component-wise' approach to deal with complex structures Accompanied by a website hosting the dedicated software package MUL2 (www.mul2.com) Finite Element Analysis of Structures Through Unified Formulation is a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners, and is also a useful source of information for graduate students in civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering.
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
Over the past decade European economic integration has seen considerable institutional success, but the economic performance of the EU has been varied. While macroeconomic stability has improved and an emphasis on cohesion preserved, the EU economic system has not delivered satisfactory growth performance. This book is the report of a high-level group commissioned by the President of the European Commission to review the EU economic system and propose a blueprint for an economic system capable of delivering faster growth along with stability and cohesion. It assesses the EU s economic performance, examines the challenges facing the EU in the coming years, and presents a series of recommendations. The report views Europe's unsatisfactory growth performance during the last decades as a symptom of its failure to transform into an innovation-based economy. It has now become clear that the context in which economic policies have been developed has changed fundamentally over the past thirty years. A system built around the assimilation of existing technologies, mass production generating economics of scale, and an industrial structure dominated by large firms with stable markets and long term employment patterns no longer delivers in the world of today, characterized by economic globalization and strong external competition. What is needed now is more opportunity for new entrants, greater mobility of employees within and across firms, more retraining, greater reliance on market financing, and higher investment in both R&D and higher education. This requires a massive and urgent change in economic policies in Europe.
This title has been authored by professionals working in Europe and uses a unique combination of systematic, methodical and concise easy-access text with superb color clinical photographs to help dental practitioners recognize the signs and symptoms of conditions affecting the soft tissues of the mouth (e.g. ulcers and oral cancer) as well as the oral effects of systemic diseases. Flowcharts also illustrate the processes of diagnosis and treatment and lists differential diagnoses by site and by symptom. Clearly describes and illustrates 76 oral conditions under standardized headings of clinical features, incidence, aetiology, diagnosis and management.Gives therapeutic protocols with associated flowcharts to correspond with the trend towards protocol-driven treatment.Includes diagnostic flowcharts for major symptoms such as ulcers and red lesions, placed beside clinical photos to guide the reader systematically through the diagnostic process.Provides step-by-step instructions on how to carry out biopsies and toluidine blue staining.
The book has many merits, and represents an important contribution to the controversial topic of European fiscal policy. I appreciated in particular the high quality and rigor of the analysis and the fact that the pros and cons of the contending opinions are presented in a fair way. It is a rewarding reading. EAEPE Newsletter Buti and Franco present a series of interesting analytical information which should be read by as broad an audience as possible. . . the book is a good buy. László Csaba, Acta Oeconomica This book explores the origins, rationale, problems and prospects of the European fiscal policy framework. It provides the reader with a roadmap to EMU s budgetary framework by exploring its theoretical and empirical foundations, uncovering its historical roots and emphasising its supranational nature. The authors, who have been at the forefront of the academic and policy debate on economic policy in Europe, argue that fiscal policy has always been at the core of the EMU debate. The Maastricht criteria and the Stability and Growth Pact are the most contentious building blocks of EMU s institutional architecture: they have aroused heated controversies between academics and policymakers ever since their adoption. As EMU s budgetary rules undergo their first severe shock, Europe is still searching for its fiscal soul. The book s basic premise is that one cannot fully understand EMU s fiscal framework and the recent debate on its reform without placing them in a historical and institutional perspective and abstracting from the uniqueness of EMU, where sovereign countries retain a large degree of fiscal independence, and monetary policy is entrusted to an independent central bank with the overriding mission of maintaining price stability. Analysing all aspects of EMU s fiscal rules and institutions, this book will strongly appeal to students, academics and researchers of macroeconomic policy and European integration. Policymakers and fiscal policy experts at both national and international levels will also find the book to be of great interest.
Graffiti are an often neglected but crucial witness to everyday life of ancient civilizations. The Aramaic graffiti from Hatra (North Iraq) can make an invaluable contribution in this sense, distributed as they were in various buildings throughout this city which flourished between the 1st and the 3rd century AD. Thanks to an effective interaction between epigraphy and archaeology, Marco Moriggi and Ilaria Bucci offer a thorough analysis of the Aramaic graffiti from Hatra as documented by the Archive of the Missione Archeologica Italiana (Turin). In addition to the edition of 48 published and 37 unpublished graffiti, this study further includes the concordances of numbers of all Hatran texts published so far and full archaeological information about the graffiti.
Modern Control of DC-Based Power Systems: A Problem-Based Approach addresses the future challenges of DC Grids in a problem-based context for practicing power engineers who are challenged with integrating DC grids in their existing architecture. This reference uses control theory to address the main concerns affecting these systems, things like generation capacity, limited maximum load demands and low installed inertia which are all set to increase as we move towards a full renewable model. Offering a new approach for a problem-based, practical approach, the book provides a coordinated view of the topic with MATLAB®, Simulink® files and additional ancillary material provided. - Includes Simulink® Files (of examples and for lab training classes) and MATLAB® files - Presents video slides to support the problem-based approach to understanding DC Power System control and application - Provides stability analysis of DC networks and examples of common stability problems
Come si struttura l’attuale Unione europea? Quali sono le sue caratteristiche e come deve modificarle se vuole compiere davvero un salto di qualità per portare a compimento il disegno originario di una terra che sia culla di nazioni diverse ma vicine, per diventare una Europa unita e rappresentativa degli Stati e dei cittadini, in una parola, Federale? L’Europa di oggi è una grande porta con tante serrature, ma per trovare l’Europa del futuro e guardare oltre bisogna aprirle tutte e di tutte trovare le chiavi. Ecco il perché di questo libro che fotografa alcuni dei principali aspetti che caratterizzano la nostra Europa attuale, ognuno dei quali è una serratura da aprire e quelle che proponiamo sono per noi le chiavi giuste. Le chiavi di una Federazione europea. How is the European Union structured? What are its features and how should it change to take that qualitative step and achieve the original idea of a land that is the cradle of different, but close nations, and turn itself into a united Europe which represents the States but also the citizens. In one word, a Federation? Today’s Europe is a great door with many locks; to discover the Europe of the future and look ahead of us, we need to find all the keys and open all these doors. This is why we wrote this book, which takes a picture of some of the main features of today’s Europe, each one of which is a lock that needs to be opened, and for which we try to suggest the right keys. The keys of our European federation.
The backbone of the Roman army was the infantry, armed with a javelin, or pilum, and sword, or gladius. This study investigates not just the weapon itself, and its design and manufacture, but how the sword was originally conceived and how it was employed on the battlefield as an expression of the Roman state. The authors start examining the early swords employed across the Italian Peninsula during the Bronze Age and how these evolved into the gladius, which itself changed in the period of Monarchy with the introduction of the cross-hilt. During Rome’s Consular period, the gladius changed again, and, over time, both the length of the blade and its width were altered. Relying exclusively on historical and archaeological evidence, The Roman Gladius and the Ancient Fighting Techniques shows how the Roman army developed into a highly disciplined body and how fundamental the gladius was to its method of fighting. It also shows how the combat techniques of the Romans evolved as did those of their enemies. The training methods and tactics of the Roman infantry are fully explored and its performance at some of the great battles of the monarchical and consular periods are examined as the area under Roman rule fluctuated with victory or defeat. For the Roman people, the gladius was the object that better than any other showed their identity, since it was a weapon that accompanied the history of the Roman people from its earliest days, changing in shape and design as it was adapted to the varying social, political and military needs. The Roman Gladius and the Ancient Fighting Techniques is the most comprehensive study of this hugely important weapon, which also provides the reader with a complete overview of Roman society, which in this first volume is treated until the end of the Consular period. The book is richly illustrated throughout with drawings and photographs of original weapons and equipment.
Preliminary Material /Angelus A. de Marco -- Part One: Peter's Roman Sojourn and Position /Angelus A. de Marco -- Part Two: San Sebastiano on the Via Appia and the Tomb of the Apostles /Angelus A. de Marco -- Part Three: The Vatican Excavations /Angelus A. de Marco -- Index of Authors /Angelus A. de Marco.
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.
Financial repression (legal restrictions on interest rates, credit allocation, capital movements, and other financial operations) was widely used in the past but was largely abandoned in the liberalization wave of the 1990s, as widespread support for interventionist policies gave way to a renewed conception of government as an impartial referee. Financial repression has come back on the agenda with the surge in public debt in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, and some countries have reintroduced administrative ceilings on interest rates. By distorting market incentives and signals, financial repression induces losses from inefficiency and rent-seeking that are not easily quantified. This study attempts to assess some of these losses by estimating the impact of financial repression on growth using an updated index of interest rate controls covering 90 countries over 45 years. The results suggest that financial repression poses a significant drag on growth, which could amount to 0.4-0.7 percentage points.
This brief offers a novel vision of the city of Florence, tracing the development of chemistry via the biographies of its most illustrious chemists. It documents not only important scientific research that came from the hands of Galileo Galilei and the physicists who followed in his footsteps, but also the growth of new disciplines such as chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, and biochemistry. It recounts how, in the Middle Ages, chemistry began as an applied science that served to bolster the Florentine economy, particularly in the textile dyeing industry. Later, important scientific collections founded by the ruling Medici family served as the basis of renowned museums that now house priceless artifacts and instruments. Also described in this text are the chemists such as Hugo Schiff, Angelo Angeli, and Luigi Rolla, who were active over the course of the following century and a quarter. The authors tell the story of the evolution of the Royal University of Florence, which ultimately became the University of Florence. Of interest to historians and chemists, this tale is told through the lives and work of the principal actors in the university’s department of chemistry.
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist thinker whose radical ideas on how to build an alternative world from below remain vigorously relevant today. Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis critically dissects the institutions of modern liberal democracy to reveal what is perhaps its deepest secret: it is the most successful political system in modernity at preserving an objective condition of domination while transforming it into a subjective conviction of freedom. Based on a careful reading of Gramsci's The Prison Notebooks, Marco Fonseca shows hegemony as more than leadership of elites over subaltern majorities based on "consent". Following Gramsci’s critique of citizenship, civil society and democracy, including the current project of neoliberal "democracy promotion" particularly in the Global South, he discloses a hidden process of hegemony that generates the preconditions for consent and, thus, successful domination. As the struggles from Zapatismo to Chavismo and from the Arab Springs to Spain’s Podemos show, liberation is not possible without counter-hegemony. This book will be of interest to activist scholars engaged in the study of Marxism, Gramsci, political philosophy, and contemporary debates about the renewal of Marxist thought and the relevance of revolution and Communism for the twenty-first century.
Regarded by his contemporaries as the leading madrigal composer of his time, Luca Marenzio was an important figure in sixteenth-century Italian music, and also highly esteemed in England, Flanders and Poland. This English translation of Marco Bizzarini's study of the life and work of Marenzio provides valuable insights into the composer's influence and place in history, and features an extensive, up-to-date bibliography and the first published list of archival sources?containing references to Marenzio. Women play a decisive role as dedicatees of Marenzio's madrigals and in influencing the way in which they were performed. Bizzarini examines in detail the influence of both female and male patrons and performers on Marenzio's music and career, including his connections with the confraternity of SS Trinit?nd other institutions. Dedications were also a political tool, as the book reveals. Many of Marenzio's dedications were made at the request of his employer Cardinal d'Este who wanted to please his French allies. Bizzarini examines these extra-musical dimensions to Marenzio's work and discusses the composer's new musical directions under the more austere administration of Pope Clement VIII.
“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.”
The payment system is one of the mechanisms essential to the working of an exchange economy. Over the last decade, central banks have been determined to improve their payment systems to harmonise and reduce risk, and in Europe to anticipate their future interconnection in the TARGET system. This book provides the analytic framework for an informed policy debate on the implications for monetary policy.
Using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage methodology, Gian Marco Farese presents a comprehensive analysis of the most important Italian cultural keywords and cultural scripts that foreign learners and cultural outsiders need to know to become linguistically and culturally proficient in Italian. Farese focuses on the words and speech practices that are used most frequently in Italian discourse and that are uniquely Italian: both untranslatable into other languages and reflective of salient aspects of Italian culture and society. Italian Discourse: A Cultural Semantic Analysis sheds light on ways in which the Italian language is related to Italians’ character, values, and way of thinking, and it does so in contrastive perspective with English. Each chapter focuses on a cultural keyword, tracing the term through novels, plays, poems, and songs. Italian Discourse will be an important resource for anyone interested in Italian studies and Italian linguistics, as well as in semantics, cultural studies, linguistic anthropology, cognitive linguistics, intercultural communication, and translation.
In una Verona letargica per il caldo estivo, Loreta Assensi, giovane ispettore di polizia, indaga su alcuni strani episodi accaduti tra le boscose colline che sovrastano la città scaligera: ragazzate e nulla più secondo i suoi superiori. Nessuno sospetta quanto la sensuale investigatrice sta per scoprire. Un brutale omicidio macchia di sangue i sentieri che corrono tra le ville della Verona bene, un'ombra maligna che serpeggia tra i pini ed i cipressi delle Torricelle. Lassù, dove lo sguardo abbraccia un panorama fatto di campanili, croci e santità, la fede di un'intera comunità parrocchiale vacilla alle lusinghe del peccato e nasconde verità inconfessabili tra le pieghe della devozione. Un'indagine senza respiro che, tra piste internazionali e mitologiche visioni di un oriente biblico, racconta l'eterna lotta tra il bene ed il male.
This book aims to elucidate the current state of surgery for meningiomas of the posterior cranial fossa, seven decades after Professors Castellano and Ruggiero authored their book in 1953. The diagnosis and surgical treatment of these lesions posed an extraordinary challenge 70 years ago. In the words and descriptions of the 71 cases operated on by Olivecrona, each of us can still sense the emotion of someone venturing into unexplored terrain, striving to pave the way for those who would follow. Since 1953, thousands of meningiomas of the posterior cranial fossa have undergone surgery in Europe and around the world. This implies that many have traversed the path forged by Olivecrona in Europe and Cushing in the USA. While the road is now well-defined, our task today is to make this journey increasingly accessible. We must lay more stones on this path, illuminate it with lights, ensuring that no one loses their way. We cannot predict what the little path marked by Olivecrona and Erik Lindgren will become in another 70 years, but we hope for it to transform into a grand thoroughfare. A route that all neurosurgeons can navigate without losing their way, leading effortlessly and joyously to the singular goal we have always pursued: the health of our patients.
This book explores social cohesion in rural settlements in western Europe from 700–1050, asking to what extent settlements, or districts, constituted units of social organisation. It focuses on the interactions, interconnections and networks of people who lived side by side – neighbours. Drawing evidence from most of the current western European countries, the book plots and interrogates the very different practices of this wide range of regions in a systematically comparative framework. It considers the variety of local responses to the supra-local agents of landlords and rulers and the impact, such as it was, of those agents on the small-scale residential group. It also assesses the impact on local societies of the values, instructions and demands of the wider literate world of Christianity, as delivered by local priests.
Entrepreneurial finance brings together the fast-moving world of entrepreneurship with the disciplined world of finance. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial Finance provides an accessible, yet rigorous, framework for understanding how ambitious, high-growth start-ups can successfully obtain funding and interact with investors.
How different was the practice of magic in the Latin West from that of the eastern Mediterranean basin? Was it just derivative from Greek practice, or did it have its own originality? The recent discovery of important new curse-tablets in Mainz and in the Fountain of Anna Perenna at Rome has made the question newly topical. This volume contains the first commented editions in English of most of these new texts as well as major surveys of new prayers for justice. Other sections are devoted to the discourse of magic in the West, to the linguistics and aims of cursing, and to the major field of protective and eudaemonic magic up to and including the Visigothic slates and the Celtic loricae. The essays are by well-known scholars in the field as well as by established and younger Spanish scholars.
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