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In this paper, the author analyses the apocryphal text Shouluo biqiu jing, centred around the saviour bodhisattva Yueguang Tongzi (Candraprabhākumāra in Sanskrit). It is possible that this text was written in Silla, with some connection with its royalty and the hwarang group. This paper confronts this hypothesis with other ones that connect it to some Sui-Tang millenarian movements. Chosen methodology is the historical and philological analysis. The conclusion is that the text was likely written in China, bu it possibly circulated in Korean Peninsula. The text is probably the result of composition and manipulation.

Enchi Fumiko’s literature has frequently faced the topic of ageing, especially focused on the bodily decay from the point of view of disease or loss of beauty and femininity and often in reference to the double standard adopted for female and male bodies. In this paper, focusing mainly on the novel Komachi hensō (1965) and the short story “Futaomote” (1959), I analyse how in Enchi’s works the figure of the actress and the one of the onnagata actor perceive the process of ageing vis-à-vis their gender and sexuality. The onnagata and the actress experience a real loss of identity when facing age, since the success they have lived has almost been based on the charm of their figure on the stage. In this paper I analyse how the protagonists cope with the reality of ageing, comparing their reaction with regard to their gender and sexuality. By looking from a peculiar perspective the idea of the ‘female’ decaying body, I aim at giving a further contribution to the already rich scholarship on the vision of ageing in Enchi’s literature. Moreover, I aim to demonstrate that the foundational elements of Enchi’s series of works, known as rōjomono or ‘works on old women’, typically believed to have originated in the 1970s, were in fact established as early as the late 1950s.

This paper analyses the poetic form and language of two poems by Grigoris Ałt‘amarc‘i, a prominent Armenian poet from the early modern period, in the multilingual and multireligious environment of Anatolia and Armenian highlands. Through an analysis of the forms, expressions and symbolism found in the poems Tał Astuacatur Xat‘ayec‘un i Grigoris kat‘ołikosē Ałt‘amarc‘oy and Du es aregak, as well as the linguistic data collected from them, this paper explores the stylistic kinship between early modern Armenian and new Persian poetry. It discusses the ways in which Ałt‘amarc‘i navigates the predominantly Persian and partly Turkish languages in the Islamicised milieu, and composed poems with an Armenian affiliation.

The aim of this paper is two-folded: 1) to discuss Modarres-e Reḍavi’s edition of Anvari’s divān in order to show that this edition, although still very valuable, should be used cautiously: even for non-philological, literary-oriented studies manuscripts should be checked. These should include not only the newly-discovered codices, not used by the editor, but also the manuscripts he used, which must be double-checked; 2) to give a solid starting point to any scholar attempting to investigate Anvari’s divān from a philological perspective, by showing in which areas Modarres-e Reḍavi’s edition is lacking and to what extent.

ʿĀqil Khān ‘Rāzī’ (c. 1026-1108 AH, c. 1617-1696 AD) is a seventeenth-century Indo-Persian poet, historian and statesman who authored a dīvān, some mystical treatises, a historical chronicle and a number of mas̲navīs. This paper focuses on two of his mas̲navīs, Mihr-u māh (1065 AH, 1654/55 AD) and Shamʿ-u parvāna (1064 AH, 1658/59 AD), which are adaptations/translations in Persian of two Neo-Indo-Aryan narrative poems written in Awadhī during the sixteenth century. The aim is to understand how ʿĀqil Khān adapted/translated these two South Asian texts in Persian. In order to achieve this objective, this study concentrates on the imagery of fire in the prologues and in the conclusions of the compositions. The intertextual elements are analysed, unveiling the literary process devised by ʿĀqil Khān ‘Rāzī’ to compose a complex layered text that could be enjoyed by the multilingual readership of seventeenth-century South Asia.

The available reconstruction systems of Old Chinese have proven to be indispensable tools for research in different fields, nevertheless, they remain flawed in many aspects and thus call for continuous refinement. Focusing on Baxter and Sagart’s reconstruction (2014), in this paper I will argue that a more systematic way of incorporating palaeographic data as an integral part of the methodology could enhance the reconstruction outcomes. In particular, the graphic forms preceding the kaishu 楷書 script of many characters and the frequent cases of phonetic borrowing in unearthed texts can provide considerable insightful data. Through some illustrative examples, I will contend that phonetic borrowings in excavated texts can provide insights for a) reconstructing items not included in current reconstructions; b) disentangling rhyme class mergers, and c) questioning and verifying the forms of items included in current reconstructions. A more porous boundary between the fields of palaeography and Chinese historical phonology could thus provide new data for answering many of the still open questions relating to Old Chinese.

This paper focuses on oft-overlooked vegan and vegetarian practices among contemporary Buddhist communities in Asia and Europe. It synthesises findings from a range of Buddhism-related contexts with an emphasis on transnational and Internet-based communities. Exploring multifaceted food imaginaries, foodways and placemaking practices, it argues that communities of engaged Buddhists, at different scales, deliberately resist mainstream food markets.

This paper offers a comparative overview of the expression of directed motion constructions in Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean, and explores the acquisition of these constructions by L1 Korean and L1 Chinese learners of Vietnamese, with a focus on the role of typological factors and language-specific morpho-syntactic properties in the acquisition process. This investigation not only provides valuable insights into the challenges faced by learners of L2 Vietnamese from diverse linguistic backgrounds but also enriches our understanding of the typology of motion events.

To what extent does the narrative of Japan’s prehistorical origins matter to Italy? In the second half of the twentieth century, Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome hosted two significant exhibitions dedicated to Japanese archaeology and ancient art: Tesori dell’Arte Giapponese in 1958 and Il Giappone prima dell’Occidente in 1995. Both displays provided Italian visitors with an unparalleled framework to engage with early artistic manifestations of the archipelago known today as Japan. Built on a critical analysis of the prehistoric and protohistoric artefacts from the Jōmon to Kofun periods selected for the Italian audience, this paper examines the active application of narrative discourse on Japan’s identity by the Japanese government in Italy. Still, it also sheds light on the presence of Japanese archaeology and art in Italian public and private collections throughout the twentieth century. The analysis delves into the textual and visual presentation of exhibits, examining both the venue and catalogues. These sources offer insights into potential instances of orientalism or self-orientalism, revealing a narrative closely tied to stereotypical views. The investigation unravels aspects of Japan’s past emphasised in diplomatic shows, evolving alongside ground-breaking archaeological discoveries in post-war Japan.

The paper examines the text of the scholia, mostly non yet edited, on Euripides’ Hecuba in the manuscript Vat. gr. 1135 and its apographon, with the aim of placing it within the textual tradition. The analysis of some scholia allows ascribing the most part of this material to the scholarly exegesis of the twelfth century, shedding light on the state of the Euripidean scholia after the eleventh century, which is the period to which the veteres manuscripts date back, but before the Palaeologan age.

This paper aims to analyse the speech of the lawgiver in Book 4 of Plato’s Laws, the only one directly addressed to the citizens of the Cretan colony to outline their behaviour rules. This speech is examined not only for its ethical content but also for its argumentative structure. In particular, references to archaic gnomic poetry, which give the discourse great solemnity, are reviewed. In addition, the lawgiver’s mastery of rhetorical tools aimed at persuading citizens is emphasized. The lawgiver’s use of persuasion, further applied in all the preambles prefixed to the laws, seems to be an implementation of rhetoric as psychagogy outlined in the Phaedrus.

In this paper I analyse some different mythical narratives about the trial of Orestes after the matricide. Aeschylus’ Eumenides (458 B.C.E.) have canonised a single version of the myth, based on the judgement at the Areopagus Council and on the hero’s acquittal through Athena’s vote. As a matter of fact, other versions exist in and outside of Athens about the hero on trial (i.e. Eur. Or., El.; Theodectes Phas. fr. 5 Snell; Dem. 23.74), which reveal alternative assessments of Orestes’ vengeance act.

This paper offers a new interpretation of a passage from Theon’s progymnasmatic manual (120.13‑20 Sp.), which is traditionally included among Hermagoras of Temnos’ ‘fragments’ (T 17 W.). Based on the text preserved by Theon’s Armenian tradition and on the comparison with the parallel sources, the following conclusions can be drawn: (a) the ‘fragment’ consists of two sections, which must be considered separately; (b) while the first part can be prudently linked to Hermagoras of Temnos only, the second one is certainly attributable to him and – if correctly contextualised – may reveal some interesting details about his theory of argumentation.

The present paper focuses on three passages of Eugraphius’ commentary on Terence (Eugraph. Ter. Andr. 55; Ter. Eun. 81; Ter. Phorm. 231), of which it attempts to provide a more correct reading than that offered in the last edition of the work, published by Paul Wessner in 1908.

The paper aims to explore the practical aspects of the Safavid envoys’ travels to Venice in the sixteenth and the first part of the seventeenth centuries. In particular, it will reconstruct the itineraries of the journeys of the Safavid delegates to Venice, analyse the challenges and difficulties of long-distance travel experienced by them and the impact of the Ottoman factor on both the Safavid and Venetian envoys’ travel planning and trajectories. The paper reveals that the first Safavid trade mission to Venice was sent in 1597 and not in 1600, as previously known in the historiography. We will shed light on the social status of the Safavid envoys and clarify the role and duties of the garak-yaraqs (purveyors) of the Safavid Royal Household among them. We will examine the impact of the overall character of the Safavid-Ottoman relations both on the size of the missions and the intensity of the diplomatic and trade contacts between the Republic of Venice and the Safavid Empire.

The aim of this paper is to shed light on locally constructed sculptural representations of donors and devotees from Butkara I in Swat valley – one of the earliest Buddhist sites in the Greater Gandhara region. The discovery of several sculptures and architectural elements depicting elaborately adorned male and female figures with distinctly individualizing facial features, and bearing varied Buddhist offerings, not only throws into relief the artistic phenomenon of portraiture in early Gandharan Buddhist art but also exemplifies the visual and material enactment of donative ritual and practice. The appropriation of a transcultural and widely legible visual vocabulary for constructing these essentially Buddhist figures underscores the complex cross-cultural interactions and encounters underpinning Gandharan art and Buddhist practice in the early centuries of the Common Era. The paper argues that, in addition to relic establishment and donative inscriptions, the ruling aristocrats used donor portraits for the material and metaphorical embodiment of their presence and piety within the Buddhist monastic space. Moreover, these images likely served as public performances for effectively navigating the broader political and socio-cultural currents. Speaking to diverse communities in the multicultural matrix of Gandhara, these donor portraits highlight the participation of visual imagery in constructing new forms of ritual and practice predicated upon the intertwined notions of power, patronage, and religiosity.

This paper aims to examine the life, experiences, and limitation of Ch’oe Yŏngsuk, a notable New Woman figure subjected to colonial restrictions in Korea during the early 20th century, with empirical resources, including newly discovered archives from the Swedish National Archive and the Sigtunastiftelsen archive. While Korean women were able to receive a modern education from the late 19th century, Ch’oe studied in Shanghai and then went to Sweden in 1926 to study sociology, becoming the first Korean woman to receive a bachelor’s degree in Economics. After her studies, she traveled extensively and met influential people. Despite her notable achievements, Ch’oe could not find a proper job and died in poverty a few months after her return. This paper seeks to shed light on her life during her stay in Sweden and her activities in the independence and feminist movements there. The relationship between her ‘failure’ after returning home and the constraints of the time, given spatially/periodically and gender-wise, will also be examined. It is also worth noting that her case is a symbolic example of the social constraints that elite women had to face at the time. Her contrasting activities and evaluations in Sweden and Korea show how constrained and suppressed a woman’s life is by the time and space in which it positions.

The aim of this paper is to analyse morphosyntactic structures in the language of kyōgen – a traditional form of Japanese comic theatre developed in the fourteenth century – from a sociolinguistic perspective, i.e. by highlighting differences in usage across various categories of characters, using the Corpus of Historical Japanese (CHJ). This paper will focus on the use of the particles ga and no with nominative and attributive functions and on the decline of kakari-musubi with koso in Toraakirabon (1642). The analysis will reveal that linguistic characterization is rendered not only through the lexicon, but also, as in the case of female characters, through a particular use of morphosyntactic structures, which appears less influenced by linguistic innovations.

This paper seeks to analyse the role of technology and memory in Kawakami Hiromi’s novel Ōkina torini sarawarenaiyō. Set thousands of years in the future, in a world that has been subjected to several catastrophes, the novel highlights the interconnections between humanity and technology in order to defamiliarize ideas of human centrality and exceptionalism. Kawakami’s characters are forced to face the cyclical possibility of human extinction, which turns into a recurring threat rather than an abstract and discrete event. In this narrative time chronically affected by crises, the definition of what it means to be human is constantly challenged and renegotiated, allowing for the development of non-anthropocentric forms of existence. This paper will demonstrate how, in a world in which the human species is chronically experiencing the threat of extinction, technologies – such as AI entities, clones and factories – allow the renegotiation of ideas of human centrality and singularity, effectively suggesting possibilities for survival outside of a humanist and anthropocentric framework.

John Paul II’s World Youth Days (hereafter WYDs) were mega-events that happened eight times between 1987 and 2002. They took place in Europe, Asia, North America and South America. Observing the role women played in these global gatherings of young Catholics provides essential insights into gender issues within Catholicism during John Paul II’s pontificate. First, this paper shows that, within the organization chart of the WYDs, women faced a “stained glass ceiling”, but a few did manage to obtain a position of responsibility. Secondly, the paper studies how Catholic feminist culture found a place in WYDs, even though theologically conservative prelates, who did not back the idea of an inclusive Church, often organized them. This second part is focused on the Denver WYD (1993), marked by several feminist performances, which led to strong disputes between liberal and conservative Catholics. The way in which women became involved in this debate and the reaction of the Catholic hierarchy is studied in the third part.

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the attitude of the Holy See towards the international ecumenical movement during the pontificate of Pius XII, analysing in particular the debates triggered by the question of the participation of Catholic observers in the various international conferences and assemblies of the Faith and Order movement and the constituent Ecumenical Council of Churches. This analysis will be carried out through the study of Vatican documents, in particular from the archives of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Secretariat of State and the nunciatures, in order to trace the choices and strategies adopted by the Holy See in the face of the challenges posed by the growing importance of the World Council of Churches on the international scene.

This paper proposes some considerations through a cross-reading of the articles published in this issue. The new research reveals several protagonists of the curial environment in the elaboration of Pius XII’s magisterial documents: the consultors at the Holy Office Franz Hürth, Sebastiaan Tromp, the better-known Augustin Bea; the secretary of Briefs to Princes Antonio Bacci. The role of the Society of Jesus is also relevant: it is able to mitigate or deflect curial proceedings initiated against its members. The articles add important contributions to our knowledge of Pius XII’s modus operandi at the head of the Catholic Church, with the support of his main collaborators (Montini, Dell’Acqua) and in the context of the internal dialectics within the Holy See. At the doctrinal level, the question of modernism and its new expressions appeared central throughout Pacelli’s pontificate. The text also offers some methodological considerations regarding contemporary research in the field of the history of Christianity and the Churches.

This paper examines the use of Middle Armenian in the medieval kafas (short monorhymed poems) associated with the legendary history of Alexander III of Macedon in its Armenian translation. These poems, composed in Armenian in the 13th-16th centuries, contain classical and vernacular language. Examining the interplay between the poetic requirements of meter and rhyme and the linguistic features of Middle Armenian, this paper points to cases in the kafas where the choice between words and grammatical forms is dictated by poetry. This includes the use of both classical nominative plural ending -ք and the medieval (and modern) -(ն)եր, and the concurrent comprehensibility of the present and imperfect indicative both with and without the particle կու.

This paper explores the use of deixis in the Armenian translation of the Greek New Testament, with a focus on the medial deictic forms in the gospel of Matthew. Against the two-way deictic distinction in New Testament Greek with proximal οὗτος and distal ἐκεῖνος, the three-way system in Armenian based on the proximal -s-, medial -d- and distal -n- raises questions of how and why the Armenian medial forms are used. Through comparison with Latin, which also has a three-way system (proximal hic, medial iste, and distal ille), and close analysis of key passages, this paper highlights both the semantic values of the Armenian medial forms and the issues of translation that arise as a result of their employment.

This paper studies the formal distinction of the indefinite article from the quantifier ‘one’ in Early and pre-Modern Armenian texts by three 18‑19th century authors as well as in a colloquial Modern Eastern Armenian dialogue. The key question is whether these sources use the same forms for both functions. The paper gives typological, diachronic, and areal perspectives to the analysis of non-standard data rarely included in discussions of the historical grammar of Armenian. It also touches upon some general issues of grammaticalization of the forms of ‘one’ as an indefinite article and the use of numeral classifiers in colloquial Eastern Armenian.

This paper presents the experience of the design of a didactic activity for the translation of a Japanese video game in Italian, carried out in 2020 during the first year of the Japanese language course of the Master’s Degree Programme in Language and Civilisation of Asia and Mediterranean Africa at Ca’ Foscari University. The described protocol allows the design of video game translation sessions as a teaching activity, overcoming some typical technical and organisational problems. One important issue this paper addresses involves the possibility of reviewing the translation within the game, which is fundamental to understanding how to translate texts for this medium. The paper will also give an overview of the translation issues that students encountered during the activity and of how they solved them. Finally, the results of a survey will show whether the implemented protocol and classroom activity were satisfactory for the students and how they can be improved.

This paper aims to present the first preliminary results of The Changing Body and the Care Experience in Visual Arts in a Comparative and Cross-cultural Perspective Between Western and Mediterranean Art, a research project focused on the perception and representation of care in the MENA region (i.e. the Middle East and North Africa). In modern and contemporary artistic productions from the area, a reflection on the perception and visual representation of care must necessarily set out from the depiction of the body and illness, which plays a crucial role in any discourse on caring. The purpose of this paper is therefore to offer an initial overview of the visual representation of caring, and of the way in which it is understood in North Africa and Middle East, through the comparative analysis of some case studies.

This paper presents a text-based comparison between some elements of Indian Buddhism that are extant in Pāli, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources with some Tàijíquán 太極拳 principles drawn from the Tàijíquán jīng 太極拳經 ‘Classics of Tàijíquán’ in addition to some similar textual materials from both Tàijíquán 太極拳 and Qìgōng 氣功 traditions. Buddhist accounts in which body and mind’s interactions generate a perception of lightness (Pāli: lahu; Sanskrit: laghu/raghu; Chinese: qīng 輕) will be compared with descriptive and prescriptive Tàijíquán 太極拳 accounts in which the movement of the energy (qì 氣) in the body similarly produces a state of lightness (qīng 輕). The paper will also discuss some theoretical presuppositions to the act of comparison, starting with the reflections expressed by Jonathan Z. Smith.

The article sheds light on Chinese as a Second Language Learner Corpus Research, emphasising advances and lacks in this field. First, the paper describes the potential of learner corpora in the investigation of learner language. Second, it provides an overview of Chinese learner corpus-based research and reviews existing L2 Chinese learner corpora. The paper highlights the lack of L2 Chinese learner corpora collecting data from Italian learners. Therefore, it emphasises the importance of compiling corpora to conduct studies on the acquisition of L2 Chinese by learners whose L1s are other than English or Asian languages.

Fujiwara no Teika was a pivotal figure in classical Japanese poetry not only because of the many high-level poems he wrote or of the imperial anthologies he edited, but also because of his poetic treatises. In this paper, I will examine two of them: Kindai shūka (Superior Poems of Recent Times, 1209) and Eiga taigai (Fundamentals of Poetic Composition, after 1221). They both present a theoretical introduction followed by a selection of outstanding poems to be taken as examples by those who want to learn how to compose waka. The key feature of the anthology parts is to be found in the organisation of the poems, since they follow an order that respects the principles of association and of progression typical of the anthologies and of the sequences of the time. In this paper, I will compare these two treatises, with a focus on their similarities and differences. I will also try to understand, in the absence of explanatory notes by the author himself, what motivations might have induced the poet to modify what was stated in the introductory part and to reorganise the selection of the poems.

This paper proposes an analysis of in-verse reworking of vernacular Legenda aurea by Cristofano Guidini. In his cantari for the festivities of the liturgical year, we can find a rich interlacing of textual sources, historical records, oral or written testimonies. Here we want to demonstrate how the translating rewriting by Guidini works, starting from its performed destination and from didactic usefulness of legendary narrations.

Focusing on Vivian Qu’s Angels Wear White (2017), this paper uses Judith Butler’s discussion of vulnerability, resistance, and performativity as a theoretical framework to analyse the film’s narrative and directing choices when addressing issues of sexual assault on minors and genders norms in contemporary China. The film’s depiction of social inequalities, economic precariousness, corruption, and the construction and performance of femininity demonstrates the way Chinese women are vulnerable to violence – sexual or not – and to gender norms they are expected to conform to, without falling into the trap of paternalism and victimisation.

This paper aims to redefine and negotiate the boundaries of Taiwan’s identity through an examination of historical films, delving into its complexity and fragility. It begins by providing a contextualisation of Taiwanese historical films. It then proceeds to compare narrative styles between the 1980s Taiwan New Cinema and 2010s films, tracing the transition from one historical interpretation to another. Lastly, it argues for a distinct narrative style in the 2010s, citing examples from feature films and documentaries. This study contributes to the understanding of Taiwan’s multifaceted national identity and the role of cinema in shaping it.

The paper aims to highlight the centrality of a late process of metamorphosis, which has unequivocally conditioned the image of the basilisk, radically transforming its appearance from a simple snake to a monster with the body of a rooster and a snake’s tail. The basilisk described in the classical sources corresponded to a small snake but was characterized by an extraordinary poisonous power. With the passage to the Middle Ages and the influence of Christianity, the basilisk took on new monstrous meanings, transforming its iconography into a rooster-snake hybrid, based on theories that believed it was generated from a rooster’s egg. The Renaissance and Early Modern Age inherited the medieval basilisk, which continued to be prominently depicted in emblematic literature; in parallel, however, the new scientific literature began to exclude excessively legendary meanings, preferring to return to descriptions of the classical era and thus depict the basilisk as a snake.

The paper discusses early modern reconstructions of a first-century Roman arch preserved in the eastern Adriatic town of Zadar, at the time part of Venetian Dalmatia. Its reconstructions of the 1430s and the 1570s are contextualized within complex cultural and historical references. The Quattrocento renovation is associated with the reinterpretation of civic imagery through authentication of its classical roots, while that of the late Cinquecento is inscribed within the broader political and cultural context of contemporary Venetian promotion of Romanitas.

In Euripides’ fragmentary Hypsipyle (frag. 752‑69 K.) the seer Amphiaraus plays many and crucial roles: he first unwittingly causes Hypsipyle’s troubles, then becomes her saviour and prevents her execution; he also acts as a messenger of Opheltes’ death; finally, he is responsible for the recognition between Hypsipyle and her two sons. In Greek tragedy there is not another character who plays so many and so important roles in the same drama: Hypsipyle’s Amphiaraus is absolutely one of a kind, a product of Euripides’ late and experimental period of activity as a dramatist. This paper aims to analyse each of the roles played by the seer in this tragedy to evaluate the uniqueness and complexity of his dramaturgical function.

The paper offers textual notes, including new conjectures, on the scholia on the Alcestis of Euripides (Hyp. Alc. (a), schol. Alc. 1, 54, 55, 56, 59, 65‑7, 70‑1, 75‑6) and presents the first edition of an unpublished note on Eur. Alc. 65.

The drawings preserved in the collection of the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe di Palazzo Rosso in Genoa include three sketches concerning the involvement of Francesco Gandolfi (1824‑73) in the pictorial decoration of Genoa’s first railway station between 1859 and 1860. Except for the medallion under the entrance porch, these frescoes have been considered lost since the early 20th century. This research is grounded in the stylistic and cultural homogeneity that these drawings express, as well as in the remarkable evidence they provide about an iconographic scheme intended for a novel public space in the 19th-century city. The aim of this paper is also to outline the artistic and social environment of Genoa at the time when it became the first commercial centre of the Kingdom.

This paper investigates for the first time the restoration work carried out on the refectory of the monastery of San Michele in Bosco in Bologna, which was supervised by Alfonso Rubbiani between 1892 and 1895. In spite of the vast literature on the ‘restorer’, this work has so far been scarcely considered both because of the chronology of the building (mid-16th century) as well as because it did not entail radical changes. Indeed, the limited size of the room and the numerous documentary traces – carefully tracked by Rubbiani and his patron, the lawyer Giuseppe Bacchelli – were addressing the operation philologically. The discovery of unpublished archival evidence contributed to a more appropriate understanding of the overall work; in particular, it is possible to note how the initial intentions of the architect and the commissioner, which were based on erudite investigations that involved intellectuals and politicians of the time, did not, unfortunately, come to fruition.

This paper aims to investigate the intriguing phenomenon of costumed parties held in Rome between 1880 and 1900 through the study of photographic material. In particular, the essay focuses on two main iconographic aspects: the carnival masquerades, conceived in most cases by the painter and antiquarian Attilio Simonetti and interpreted by some members of the International Artistic Association; and the tableaux vivants, the so-called living pictures, which were figurative compositions usually set up in the patrician residences, including that of the counts Giuseppe and Luigi Primoli, who were an active part in their creation. A crucial role was also played by Henri Le Lieure, a professional photographer of French origin who was responsible for much of the visual documentation of the time.

This article aims to provide a general overview of settlement patterns in Armenia and neighbouring areas from the Early Bronze Age to Early Hellenistic times. The southern Caucasus presents unique features. For those approaching the subject for the first time, this paper aims to summarise the primary evidence for the development and transformation of the human landscape. Starting from the 4th millennium BC, it is possible to trace the outlines of a general process of sedentarisation of communities on the highlands, which took different forms and characteristics. Mobile villages dominated the Bronze Age settlement structure. By the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the highlands were characterised by a general development of fortified settlements, generally referred to as ‘cyclopean fortresses’, which will also be one of the main features of the later Kingdom of Urartu. Following the two centuries of Achaemenid rule, with its elusive settlement pattern, the last centuries of the 1st millennium saw the spread of Greek culture following the conquests of Alexander the Great and his successors. With the creation of large urban sites based on Hellenistic models, the concept and structure of the Mediterranean city spread across Armenia and adjacent areas.

The phenomenon of Suffixaufnahme refers to a type of morphosyntactic agreement whereby a dependent noun phrase shows case agreement with its head in addition to its functional case marking. The phenomenon is best known from Old Georgian and Hurro-Urartian, but also occurs elsewhere (Caucasus, ancient Mesopotamia, Australia), mainly in agglutinative languages. Classical Armenian shows a very similar type of agreement: dependents of heads in the accusative marked by the direct object proclitic z= may also receive the same proclitic marking regardless of their functional case. This paper explores two dimensions of this agreement phenomenon in Classical Armenian: a classification of its usage in fifth-century texts; and an attempt at explaining its likely origin outside of Armenian.

The aim of this paper is to propose five new emendations to the Armenian translation of George of Pisidia’s Hexaemeron: at v. 172 of the Armenian Mekhitarist edition read բացելով; at v. 584 read նուրբ; at v. 616 read շարադրեալս; at v. 768 read խորացեալ; at vv. 1329‑30 read զայն զարդարէ նոր որպէս. Some remarks on the peculiar rendering of hendiadyses through a single word in the Armenian translation follow. Lastly, two corrections of the editor princeps Tiroyean are reconsidered.

Making use of theoretical insights from ‘history of the bookʼ scholarship, this paper examines the way in which Mxit‘ar of Sebastia made use of paratexts (title pages, frontispieces, dedications, epigraphs, prefaces, illustrations, headings, epilogues, appendices, etc.) in his ‘publishing mission’ (to use Sahak Čemčemean’s appelation) to shape readerly taste and influence the way in which his books were read, received, and interpreted. Through introductory poems, illustrations, and playful word games, he presented himself as a second Maštoc‘ and his own students like the famous fifth-century disciples of that vardapet, who were meant to transmit and create in the same Armenian Christian literary tradition, under the aegis of the Roman Catholic Church.

In the mid-thirteenth century, the Mongol invasion spread fear from China to France. Yet, over subsequent decades, the threat waned, leading to a need for political and economic rebalancing. The Mongols swiftly conquered Asia and even reached Europe, reshaping the continent’s political landscape and fostering an interconnected trade network. This transformation attracted diverse merchants to new ‘intermediate’ settlements like Tana at the Don River’s mouth. Initially established by the Latins with Mongol Khan’s approval, it became a crucial stop on the ‘Mongol route to China’ in the fourteenth century. Genoese, Venetians, Catalans, Central Asian traders, Mongols, and Armenians settled there. The Armenian community, amidst growing political turbulence, demonstrated integration and sustained commercial activity. This paper explores Tana’s Armenian community in the late fourteenth century amid weakening Mongol power.

Theo Padnos published My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun in 2004, when Prison Studies were burgeoning and gaining academic attention globally. Neglected by critics, the book relates the author's experience as literature instructor in an American prison. Engaging methods of pedagogical research and reader-response criticism, the paper investigates the role of literature in the cultural activities of young male inmates in a medium security jail in Vermont. An original amalgam of crime reports, pedagogy of literature, and autobiographical criticism, Padnos' study for the first time confronts young criminals with a literary canon dripping with violence. The experiment sheds light on the reading activities of prisoners, on their and the author's social background, and on the power of American literature to speak to marginal groups.

Linguists argued that the Cockney dialect, in London, is expected to be replaced by Multicultural London English in the years to come. However, this does not imply that Cockney is dead, as recent research revealed that it just moved to Essex. This paper aims at examining whether (l) vocalisation, a common feature of Cockney, is still present in the London district of Bermondsey. Ten working-class English speakers, stratified by age and sex, have been recorded by means of sociolinguistic interviews. The results, discussed both quantitively and qualitatively, show that: (a) (l) vocalisation is present in all age cohorts, with young speakers favouring the non-standard feature; (b) preceding long vowels trigger (l) vocalisation.

The so-called indirect passive, where the subject is not the argument of the underlying verb that bears the Theme/Patient role, is generally understood to be a bi-clausal phenomenon (cf. Kuno 1973; Shibatani 1978; Kuroda 1979). In other words, the passive morpheme rare is merged with a clause, and then the resulting item is combined with the subject. In this paper, however, we argue that the indirect passive is best understood as a mono-clausal phenomenon. We first point out that with some instances of the indirect passive, the passive morpheme rare is not understood as being combined with a verb or clause in syntax. Thus, we are led to assume that the lexicon contains numerous instances of the Vrare form. This implies that even when the passive morpheme rare is combined in syntax, it forms a constituent with the relevant verb; hence, the indirect passive is a mono-clausal phenomenon. We furthermore maintain that when the indirect passive involves the merging of rare with a verb in syntax, the verb must be a volitional verb, and demonstrate that this generalization, as well as the case particle alternation involved in the indirect passive, poses a challenge to the bi-clause analysis but not to the mono-clause analysis. Finally, we review one of the main arguments for analyzing the indirect passive to be a bi-clausal phenomenon, which concerns the antecedent of zibun. We show that it is inconclusive at best.

The goal of this paper is to reconcile the definite marking with the indefinite-like semantics of those superlatives that take a relative/comparative reading. Following Szabolcsi (1986) and Heim (1999), we will assume that the difference between absolute and relative readings of superlatives is represented at the syntactic level of semantic representation, LF (Logical Form). We will however depart from Heim’s hypothesis that what raises at LF is the superlative operator itself (EST). We will instead assume a quantificational-determiner analysis of EST, which involves two raising operations at LF: EST-raising to Spec,DP and raising of the whole superlative DP (Determiner Phrase) to a scope position in the sentence. We will examine the relative readings of quality superlatives. The generalizations and the proposed analysis are not assumed to extend to quantity superlatives.

This paper analyses Angela Carter’s desecrating tendency to taboo-breaking in thematic and formal terms. By referring to her short-fiction production and focusing on “John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore", I intend to show how gender/patriarchal and genre/authorial taboos are similarly broken and transmuted into daringly subversive outcomes. In line with her feminist agenda and postmodern transformism, Carter superbly challenges, sabotages, violates, de- and re-constructs traditionally codified sexual and gender taboos by mimicking such reversals through new narrative solutions. If diversity, multiplicity and change guarantee the continuity of life, incest can easily metaphorise a taboo relationship based on repetition of the identical, sameness, and immobility, to be finally transformed, if not avoided. Consistent with many of her female characters’ incestuous relationships with parents or siblings, Carter also establishes incest-like relationships with previous authors and narrative discourses, which she predatorily appropriates. Carter’s resulting narrative testifies to the fact that taboos must be first experienced to be eventually broken. It is in the dialectic between rule and infraction, taboo and its violation that Carter’s writing is rooted, constantly looking for borders to be crossed.