Indigenous peoples cancelled by a burgeoning empire. Devastating earthquakes level ancient monuments. Marauding invaders loot and pillage art treasures. And yet, verdant hillsides ripple with vineyards and olive groves. The dramatic blue Sibillini Mountains shelter shepherds, freedom fighters, and necromancers. Lined with palms and orange trees, the luxurious Adriatic coast is monitored by medieval towers and pagan temples. This is the Land of Piceno--Le Marche, Italy--whose founding symbol, Picus, sacred woodpecker of Mars, guides us through the vicissitudes of time.

"Legends of the Sibilline Mountains" is a small book about an obscure corner of Italy and an equally obscure backwater of world literature. And yet the subjects it touches upon--amongst them, the roots of literature in popular consciousness, the intimations of Christian existentialism, the absorption of pagan traditions into Christianity--reach far and wide. Goddess worship, necromantic rites, the death of Pontius Pilate, Benevenuto Cellini, Goethe's "Faust," Wagner's "Tannhauser"...they all connect here in a real place of strange geological formations and magical beauty. The Sibilline Mountains, dividing Le Marche from Umbria, were "celebrated in the 14th and 15th centuries throughout all Europe for magical fairy tales and necromantic initiations," according to the author, Giuseppe Santarelli. In the most famous of these tales a mysterious Sibyl inhabits a grotto devoted to the pleasures of the flesh, luring knights to eternal damnation. Another legend concerns the Lago di Pilato, a mountaintop lake where Pontius Pilate's body had been cast that later became a destination for demonic rituals. In a witty and personal tone Santarelli, director of the Sanctuary of Loreto, discusses the origins of the myths in folklore, their literary transformations through the centuries, and the archeological traces they left behind.

Travel through the Italian countryside with Joseph Bastianich in search of the country’s eighty-nine finest wines. Joseph Bastianich is steeped in Italian wines like no one else. Not only is he the co-owner, with Mario Batali, of some of America’s premier Italian restaurants, but he also produces wine on four separate estates—three in Italy—and is responsible for bringing Eataly, the groundbreaking artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace, to New York. His thoughtfully honed list of favorite wines makes for a fascinating journey that brings Italian wines to life. Grandi Vini introduces readers to the greatest wines in Italy by bringing them to the vineyards and introducing the winemakers behind the bottles. More than simply appealing to the palate, the wines on Joe’s list have made an impact on the industry. In Central Italy, he recommends a stunning Sangiovese in Emilia Romagna, produced at San Patrignano, the largest drug rehabilitation center in Europe. The island of Sicily is typically known for bulk commercial wine; but now, in the unique terroir of Mount Etna, wine lovers can discover the perfectly fresh, dry white Pietramarina, produced by the forward-thinking Benati family. And we can’t forget the great Barolos. Bastianich selects a specific list of wines from this legendary production region—some of which come from family outfits, like Barolo Rocche dell’Annunziata Riserva of Paolo Scavino, by the son of the winery’s founder; and others that have emerged only recently, like the Barolo Cannubi Boschis made by Luciano Sandrone, a winemaker who only started producing great wine in the 1990s. Grandi Vini also includes a wine list in the back of the book that shares vinification, production, and website information for every wine. With lovely hand-illustrated maps locating the wineries in their various regions, Grandi Vini is a rich exploration of eighty-nine Italian wines that rank among the world’s best—a wonderful read for any wine enthusiast.

Flavio, humanist and historian, was a pioneering figure in the Renaissance recovery of classical antiquity. His Italia Illustrata, here for the first time in English, is a topographical work describing Italy region by region. A quintessential work of Renaissance antiquarianism, its aim is to explore the Roman roots of the Renaissance world.

The story of the exhibition of hunger, emaciated bodies and their enormous impact in the public sphere around 1900.

The book explores the patronage, formation, and symbolism of the Renaissance Torah ark in Polish synagogues.

The study of ancient Roman land surveyors and the Roman system of property boundaries was carried out in the nineteenth century mainly by German scholars. One of them was Karl Lachmann who published Gromatici Veteres (The Ancient Land Surveyors) [Lachmann 1848], a compilation of texts that address aspects of ancient surveying which are fundamental to Civil Engineering as we know it today. Most of the original texts, as published by Lachmann and with some corrections proposed by Thulin [Thulin 1913], was published together with the English translation by Campbell [Campbell 2000]. A complete re-proposal of Lachmann’s text with the Italian translation was recently proposed by Giacinto Libertini [Libertini 2018]. An important part of this collection of texts, the Liber Coloniarum (The Book of the Colonies), together with a rich cartography illustrating the modern persistences of the ancient agrarian boundaries, was subsequently published by the same author [G. Libertini, Liber Coloniarum - Libro delle Colonie, Istituto di Studi Atellani, Frattamaggiore (Italy), 2018]. In order to allow an understanding of this text for a wider audience, it was necessary to have an English translation, which is offered in this work. The Introduction provides a fascinating description of the ancient Roman surveying and setting of boundary signals. The author has also applied Google Earth® and a special software to many of the Roman settlements in the Lazio and Campania regions to define the property grids (centuriationes and strigationes) that are in Italy from Rome to Nocera Superiore (near Salerno). As with the title of this book, many of the technical descriptions presented here are left in the original Latin. The reader is directed to the Glossary for the meaning of the Latin terms used. Wayne Lorenz, P.E. Wright Paleohydrological Institute Wright Water Engineers, Inc.

Disscusses ethnic identity in contemporary subjects

In this thoroughly revised fourth edition, with ten new chapters, the editors provide thought-provoking discussions on the importance of ethnicity in different cultural and social contexts. The authors focus especially on changing ethnic and national identities, on migration and ethnic minorities, on ethnic ascription versus self-definitions, and on shifting ethnic identities and political control. The international group of scholars examines ethnic identities, conflicts and accommodations around the globe, in Africa (including Zaire and South Africa), Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, the United States, Thailand, and the former Yugoslavia. It will serve as an excellent text for courses in race & ethnic relations, and anthropology and ethnic studies.