Le Antichità di Bologna di Bartolomeo della Pugliola

For a long time, the work of a Franciscan Friar who had lived in Bologna and in Florence during the 13th and 14th centuries, Bartolomeo Della Pugliola, was thought to have been lost. Recent paleographic research, however, has affirmed that most of Della Pugliola’s work, although mixed into other authors, is contained in two manuscripts (1994 and 3843), currently kept at University Library in Bologna. Pugliola’s chronicle is central to Bolognese medieval literature, not only because it was the privileged source for the important work of Ramponis’ chronicle, but also because Bartolomeo della Pugliola’s sources are several significant works such as Jacopo Bianchetti’s lost writings and Pietro and Floriano Villolas’ chronicle (1163-1372). Ongoing historical studies and recent discoveries enabled me to reconstruct the historical chronology of Pugliola’s work as well as the Bolognese language between the 13th and 14th century The original purpose of my research was to add a linguistic commentary to the edition of the text in order to fill the gaps in medieval Bolognese language studies. In addition to being a reliable source, Pugliola’s chronicle was widely disseminated and became a sort of vulgate. The tradition of chronicle, through collation, allows the study of the language from a diachronic point of view. I therefore described all the linguistics phenomena related to phonetics, morphology and syntax in Pugliola’s text and I compared these results with variants in Villola’s and Ramponis’ chronicles. I also did likewise with another chronicle by a 16th century merchant, Friano Ubaldini, that I edited. This supplement helped to complete the Bolognese language outline from the 13th to the 16th century. In order to analize the data that I collected, I tried to approach them from a sociolinguistic point of view because each author represents a different variant of the language: closer to a scripta and the Florentine the language used by Pugliola, closer to the dialect spoken in Bologna the language used by Ubaldini. Differencies in handwriting especially show the models the authors try to reproduce or imitate. The glossary I added at the end of this study can help to understand these nuances with a number of examples.

Pattern-based segmentation of digital documents: model and implementation

This thesis proposes a new document model, according to which any document can be segmented in some independent components and transformed in a pattern-based projection, that only uses a very small set of objects and composition rules. The point is that such a normalized document expresses the same fundamental information of the original one, in a simple, clear and unambiguous way. The central part of my work consists of discussing that model, investigating how a digital document can be segmented, and how a segmented version can be used to implement advanced tools of conversion. I present seven patterns which are versatile enough to capture the most relevant documents’ structures, and whose minimality and rigour make that implementation possible. The abstract model is then instantiated into an actual markup language, called IML. IML is a general and extensible language, which basically adopts an XHTML syntax, able to capture a posteriori the only content of a digital document. It is compared with other languages and proposals, in order to clarify its role and objectives. Finally, I present some systems built upon these ideas. These applications are evaluated in terms of users’ advantages, workflow improvements and impact over the overall quality of the output. In particular, they cover heterogeneous content management processes: from web editing to collaboration (IsaWiki and WikiFactory), from e-learning (IsaLearning) to professional printing (IsaPress).

User interaction widgets for interactive theorem proving

Matita (that means pencil in Italian) is a new interactive theorem prover under development at the University of Bologna. When compared with state-of-the-art proof assistants, Matita presents both traditional and innovative aspects. The underlying calculus of the system, namely the Calculus of (Co)Inductive Constructions (CIC for short), is well-known and is used as the basis of another mainstream proof assistant—Coq—with which Matita is to some extent compatible. In the same spirit of several other systems, proof authoring is conducted by the user as a goal directed proof search, using a script for storing textual commands for the system. In the tradition of LCF, the proof language of Matita is procedural and relies on tactic and tacticals to proceed toward proof completion. The interaction paradigm offered to the user is based on the script management technique at the basis of the popularity of the Proof General generic interface for interactive theorem provers: while editing a script the user can move forth the execution point to deliver commands to the system, or back to retract (or “undo”) past commands. Matita has been developed from scratch in the past 8 years by several members of the Helm research group, this thesis author is one of such members. Matita is now a full-fledged proof assistant with a library of about 1.000 concepts. Several innovative solutions spun-off from this development effort. This thesis is about the design and implementation of some of those solutions, in particular those relevant for the topic of user interaction with theorem provers, and of which this thesis author was a major contributor. Joint work with other members of the research group is pointed out where needed. The main topics discussed in this thesis are briefly summarized below. Disambiguation. Most activities connected with interactive proving require the user to input mathematical formulae. Being mathematical notation ambiguous, parsing formulae typeset as mathematicians like to write down on paper is a challenging task; a challenge neglected by several theorem provers which usually prefer to fix an unambiguous input syntax. Exploiting features of the underlying calculus, Matita offers an efficient disambiguation engine which permit to type formulae in the familiar mathematical notation. Step-by-step tacticals. Tacticals are higher-order constructs used in proof scripts to combine tactics together. With tacticals scripts can be made shorter, readable, and more resilient to changes. Unfortunately they are de facto incompatible with state-of-the-art user interfaces based on script management. Such interfaces indeed do not permit to position the execution point inside complex tacticals, thus introducing a trade-off between the usefulness of structuring scripts and a tedious big step execution behavior during script replaying. In Matita we break this trade-off with tinycals: an alternative to a subset of LCF tacticals which can be evaluated in a more fine-grained manner. Extensible yet meaningful notation. Proof assistant users often face the need of creating new mathematical notation in order to ease the use of new concepts. The framework used in Matita for dealing with extensible notation both accounts for high quality bidimensional rendering of formulae (with the expressivity of MathMLPresentation) and provides meaningful notation, where presentational fragments are kept synchronized with semantic representation of terms. Using our approach interoperability with other systems can be achieved at the content level, and direct manipulation of formulae acting on their rendered forms is possible too. Publish/subscribe hints. Automation plays an important role in interactive proving as users like to delegate tedious proving sub-tasks to decision procedures or external reasoners. Exploiting the Web-friendliness of Matita we experimented with a broker and a network of web services (called tutors) which can try independently to complete open sub-goals of a proof, currently being authored in Matita. The user receives hints from the tutors on how to complete sub-goals and can interactively or automatically apply them to the current proof. Another innovative aspect of Matita, only marginally touched by this thesis, is the embedded content-based search engine Whelp which is exploited to various ends, from automatic theorem proving to avoiding duplicate work for the user. We also discuss the (potential) reusability in other systems of the widgets presented in this thesis and how we envisage the evolution of user interfaces for interactive theorem provers in the Web 2.0 era.

Minori rumeni tra percorsi migratori e rappresentazioni. Nè soli, nè accompagnati a Bologna

The thesis deals with the heterogenous category of the “unaccompanied minors”, concentrating the scientific work on those who migrate from Romania to the Italian city of Bologna. Between different migratory routes that include Romanian minors, I chose to explore the ones linked with the underground and illegal contexts. In order to analyse the reasons and the morphology of their migratory career, I used the multisituated field research which allowed me to consider the social policies in both the Romanian and the Italian environment. The main debate on the situation of the “unaccompanied children” refers to the extent to which these minors leave their country of origin “accompanied” by different adult figures and it also involves the role played by these adults. The first chapter is dedicated to a brief theoretical and methodological introduction to the main arguments of the thesis such as Romanian migration to Italy, trafficking in human beings, transnationality of migrant’s migration and decentered cooperation as a means of contrasting illegal migration and trafficking. Each field of research is characterized by a specific methodological approach, but they are all linked by the anthropological perspective I adopted throughout the entire work. The Romanian context, analized from a diachronic and a synchronic perspective represents the object of the second chapter. Some aspects of the Regime policies and other characteristics of the Romanian poscomunist period of “transition” are useful frameworks that become a background of the migration flows outside the country. The third chapter focuses on the Romanian patterns of migration. The reconstruction of some past attitudes that Romanians adopted towards migration are relevant in order to reveal the continuity with the present migratory practices. A consistent part is dedicated to a concrete example based on a field research in Bologna on a group of Romanian roma migrating from the south of Romania. The contact with these persons opened a debate on the limits between legal and illegal migration practices among the Romanians. The conclusion is that minors’ migration to Italy follows the adult patterns and flows. The nucleus of the field researches is included in the fourth and the fifth chapter. Before presenting the settings and the itineraries of the field researches, some deconstructive reflections are made on the representations that common sense and social sciences create on concepts as “child”, “minor” and “childhood”. A first perspective on the Romanian migrant minors emerges from a research concentrated on a group of roma teenagers engaged in Bologna in activities like windscreen washing, pocket-picking, begging and street prostitution. The aim of the research was to gain access to their daily life, to observe their relationship with the adults who “accompany” them and the strategies they activate in order to take some material profit out of their migratory experience. A parallel field research focuses on the Romanian minors who are part of the roma group coming from the south of Romania. Most of them are reunited with their family in Bologna, but according to the Italian law, they are all living as illegal migrants. Others are only temporary sheltered by these families and they meanwhile dedicate to illegal survviving practices. An interesting point of my participant observation was to reveal the motivations that these minors give when asked about the refusal to start a legal career inside the local Centres dedicated to the “non accompanied minors”. Their autoreflexivity brings some light on the controversy regarding the adequacy of the local and national care system and the migratory projects the minors have. In this respect, a small part of the research is dedicated to the phenomena of minors’ street prostitution in Bologna, as a useful contribution to the fragmented vision researchers have on the “unaccompanied” or “separated” children. The last chapter focuses on a decentered cooperation project that emerged as an alternative response the local administration from Bologna had chosen for facing the presence of numerous migrants coming from the south of Romania. The group of Romanian roma who was also the object of my field research became the starting point for the cooperation proposals between the city of Bologna and the city of Craiova. Although there are three projects involving the two administrations, throughout a period of stage in the Romanian city of Craiova I chose to analyse, only the one dedicated to the “urgent measures” requested in order to contrast the illegal migration and the trafficking in minors. This final part of the thesis highlightens the possible contribution that such a project might bring to the study of a complex and in some parts contradictory phenomena as that of the “unaccompanied” migrant minors.

Constraint handling rules. Compositional semantics and program transformation

This thesis intends to investigate two aspects of Constraint Handling Rules (CHR). It proposes a compositional semantics and a technique for program transformation. CHR is a concurrent committed-choice constraint logic programming language consisting of guarded rules, which transform multi-sets of atomic formulas (constraints) into simpler ones until exhaustion [Frü06] and it belongs to the declarative languages family. It was initially designed for writing constraint solvers but it has recently also proven to be a general purpose language, being as it is Turing equivalent [SSD05a]. Compositionality is the first CHR aspect to be considered. A trace based compositional semantics for CHR was previously defined in [DGM05]. The reference operational semantics for such a compositional model was the original operational semantics for CHR which, due to the propagation rule, admits trivial non-termination. In this thesis we extend the work of [DGM05] by introducing a more refined trace based compositional semantics which also includes the history. The use of history is a well-known technique in CHR which permits us to trace the application of propagation rules and consequently it permits trivial non-termination avoidance [Abd97, DSGdlBH04]. Naturally, the reference operational semantics, of our new compositional one, uses history to avoid trivial non-termination too. Program transformation is the second CHR aspect to be considered, with particular regard to the unfolding technique. Said technique is an appealing approach which allows us to optimize a given program and in more detail to improve run-time efficiency or spaceconsumption. Essentially it consists of a sequence of syntactic program manipulations which preserve a kind of semantic equivalence called qualified answer [Frü98], between the original program and the transformed ones. The unfolding technique is one of the basic operations which is used by most program transformation systems. It consists in the replacement of a procedure-call by its definition. In CHR every conjunction of constraints can be considered as a procedure-call, every CHR rule can be considered as a procedure and the body of said rule represents the definition of the call. While there is a large body of literature on transformation and unfolding of sequential programs, very few papers have addressed this issue for concurrent languages. We define an unfolding rule, show its correctness and discuss some conditions in which it can be used to delete an unfolded rule while preserving the meaning of the original program. Finally, confluence and termination maintenance between the original and transformed programs are shown. This thesis is organized in the following manner. Chapter 1 gives some general notion about CHR. Section 1.1 outlines the history of programming languages with particular attention to CHR and related languages. Then, Section 1.2 introduces CHR using examples. Section 1.3 gives some preliminaries which will be used during the thesis. Subsequentely, Section 1.4 introduces the syntax and the operational and declarative semantics for the first CHR language proposed. Finally, the methodologies to solve the problem of trivial non-termination related to propagation rules are discussed in Section 1.5. Chapter 2 introduces a compositional semantics for CHR where the propagation rules are considered. In particular, Section 2.1 contains the definition of the semantics. Hence, Section 2.2 presents the compositionality results. Afterwards Section 2.3 expounds upon the correctness results. Chapter 3 presents a particular program transformation known as unfolding. This transformation needs a particular syntax called annotated which is introduced in Section 3.1 and its related modified operational semantics !0t is presented in Section 3.2. Subsequently, Section 3.3 defines the unfolding rule and prove its correctness. Then, in Section 3.4 the problems related to the replacement of a rule by its unfolded version are discussed and this in turn gives a correctness condition which holds for a specific class of rules. Section 3.5 proves that confluence and termination are preserved by the program modifications introduced. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes by discussing related works and directions for future work.

Come tradurre il metadiscorso letterario. Esempi di scrittura femminile nell'Ottocento austriaco

L’argomento affrontato nel presente lavoro di tesi dal titolo “Come tradurre il metadiscorso letterario. Esempi di scrittura femminile nell’Ottocento austriaco” è la versione interlinguistica di testi saggistici afferenti all’ambito del metadiscorso letterario. Nello specifico, non vengono analizzati testi di critica e/o metodologia ma scritti funzionali, di forte carattere pragmatico, che pur tuttavia rientrano tra le testimonianze di alta caratura letteraria, perché dovuti ad autrici che hanno fatto dell’espressione estetica la propria finalità primaria. I materiali scelti per l’analisi linguistico-testuale, compresi in un arco temporale tra la fine del Settecento e la metà dell’Ottocento, sono realizzati da donne che hanno operato in ambito teatrale facendo dell’attività di scrittura lo strumento della propria emancipazione intellettuale ed economica. La necessità di trovare una via alla pubblicazione le ha indotte a strategie di scrittura connotate da particolari stilemi e artifici retorici atti a favorire l’accettazione e la diffusione delle proposte editoriali di cui questi “paratesti” costituivano il momento giustificante. Il “lavoro di penna” è un’esperienza che viene ad assumere molteplici contorni, non privi di ricadute al momento della scelta delle strategie traduttive. Dal punto di vista formale, le testimonianze si collocano in una zona di modalità espressiva contigua alla testimonianza autobiografica. Il periodo storico e l’area di provenienza delle autrici hanno reso necessario un approccio capace di incrociare il piano diacronico con la dimensione diatopica, rendendo conto delle componenti diamesiche di una scrittura che nasce dal teatro per il teatro e ad esso e ai suoi frequentatori deve rapportarsi. Il modello traduttologico applicato ricava le sue linee fondamentali dalle riflessioni della linguistica testuale e dall’approccio integrato/multidisciplinare della “prototipologia dinamica”.

Studio di ausili tecnologici compensativi di supporto all'iter di apprendimento matematico secondario e universitario degli studenti con dislessia

Data coming out from various researches carried out over the last years in Italy on the problem of school dispersion in secondary school show that difficulty in studying mathematics is one of the most frequent reasons of discomfort reported by students. Nevertheless, it is definitely unrealistic to think we can do without such knowledge in today society: mathematics is largely taught in secondary school and it is not confined within technical-scientific courses only. It is reasonable to say that, although students may choose academic courses that are, apparently, far away from mathematics, all students will have to come to terms, sooner or later in their life, with this subject. Among the reasons of discomfort given by the study of mathematics, some mention the very nature of this subject and in particular the complex symbolic language through which it is expressed. In fact, mathematics is a multimodal system composed by oral and written verbal texts, symbol expressions, such as formulae and equations, figures and graphs. For this, the study of mathematics represents a real challenge to those who suffer from dyslexia: this is a constitutional condition limiting people performances in relation to the activities of reading and writing and, in particular, to the study of mathematical contents. Here the difficulties in working with verbal and symbolic codes entail, in turn, difficulties in the comprehension of texts from which to deduce operations that, once combined together, would lead to the problem final solution. Information technologies may support this learning disorder effectively. However, these tools have some implementation limits, restricting their use in the study of scientific subjects. Vocal synthesis word processors are currently used to compensate difficulties in reading within the area of classical studies, but they are not used within the area of mathematics. This is because the vocal synthesis (or we should say the screen reader supporting it) is not able to interpret all that is not textual, such as symbols, images and graphs. The DISMATH software, which is the subject of this project, would allow dyslexic users to read technical-scientific documents with the help of a vocal synthesis, to understand the spatial structure of formulae and matrixes, to write documents with a technical-scientific content in a format that is compatible with main scientific editors. The system uses LaTex, a text mathematic language, as mediation system. It is set up as LaTex editor, whose graphic interface, in line with main commercial products, offers some additional specific functions with the capability to support the needs of users who are not able to manage verbal and symbolic codes on their own. LaTex is translated in real time into a standard symbolic language and it is read by vocal synthesis in natural language, in order to increase, through the bimodal representation, the ability to process information. The understanding of the mathematic formula through its reading is made possible by the deconstruction of the formula itself and its “tree” representation, so allowing to identify the logical elements composing it. Users, even without knowing LaTex language, are able to write whatever scientific document they need: in fact the symbolic elements are recalled by proper menus and automatically translated by the software managing the correct syntax. The final aim of the project, therefore, is to implement an editor enabling dyslexic people (but not only them) to manage mathematic formulae effectively, through the integration of different software tools, so allowing a better teacher/learner interaction too.

Semantic coordination through programmable Tuple spaces

Two of the main features of today complex software systems like pervasive computing systems and Internet-based applications are distribution and openness. Distribution revolves around three orthogonal dimensions: (i) distribution of control|systems are characterised by several independent computational entities and devices, each representing an autonomous and proactive locus of control; (ii) spatial distribution|entities and devices are physically distributed and connected in a global (such as the Internet) or local network; and (iii) temporal distribution|interacting system components come and go over time, and are not required to be available for interaction at the same time. Openness deals with the heterogeneity and dynamism of system components: complex computational systems are open to the integration of diverse components, heterogeneous in terms of architecture and technology, and are dynamic since they allow components to be updated, added, or removed while the system is running. The engineering of open and distributed computational systems mandates for the adoption of a software infrastructure whose underlying model and technology could provide the required level of uncoupling among system components. This is the main motivation behind current research trends in the area of coordination middleware to exploit tuple-based coordination models in the engineering of complex software systems, since they intrinsically provide coordinated components with communication uncoupling and further details in the references therein. An additional daunting challenge for tuple-based models comes from knowledge-intensive application scenarios, namely, scenarios where most of the activities are based on knowledge in some form|and where knowledge becomes the prominent means by which systems get coordinated. Handling knowledge in tuple-based systems induces problems in terms of syntax - e.g., two tuples containing the same data may not match due to differences in the tuple structure - and (mostly) of semantics|e.g., two tuples representing the same information may not match based on a dierent syntax adopted. Till now, the problem has been faced by exploiting tuple-based coordination within a middleware for knowledge intensive environments: e.g., experiments with tuple-based coordination within a Semantic Web middleware (surveys analogous approaches). However, they appear to be designed to tackle the design of coordination for specic application contexts like Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services, and they result in a rather involved extension of the tuple space model. The main goal of this thesis was to conceive a more general approach to semantic coordination. In particular, it was developed the model and technology of semantic tuple centres. It is adopted the tuple centre model as main coordination abstraction to manage system interactions. A tuple centre can be seen as a programmable tuple space, i.e. an extension of a Linda tuple space, where the behaviour of the tuple space can be programmed so as to react to interaction events. By encapsulating coordination laws within coordination media, tuple centres promote coordination uncoupling among coordinated components. Then, the tuple centre model was semantically enriched: a main design choice in this work was to try not to completely redesign the existing syntactic tuple space model, but rather provide a smooth extension that { although supporting semantic reasoning { keep the simplicity of tuple and tuple matching as easier as possible. By encapsulating the semantic representation of the domain of discourse within coordination media, semantic tuple centres promote semantic uncoupling among coordinated components. The main contributions of the thesis are: (i) the design of the semantic tuple centre model; (ii) the implementation and evaluation of the model based on an existent coordination infrastructure; (iii) a view of the application scenarios in which semantic tuple centres seem to be suitable as coordination media.

Genetic characterization, population history and evolutionary medicine perspective in two native south american populations: Yanesha and Wichi

Two Amerindian populations from the Peruvian Amazon (Yanesha) and from rural lowlands of the Argentinean Gran Chaco (Wichi) were analyzed. They represent two case study of the South American genetic variability. The Yanesha represent a model of population isolated for long-time in the Amazon rainforest, characterized by environmental and altitudinal stratifications. The Wichi represent a model of population living in an area recently colonized by European populations (the Criollos are the population of the admixed descendents), whose aim is to depict the native ancestral gene pool and the degree of admixture, in relation to the very high prevalence of Chagas disease. The methods used for the genotyping are common, concerning the Y chromosome markers (male lineage) and the mitochondrial markers (maternal lineage). The determination of the phylogeographic diagnostic polymorphisms was carried out by the classical techniques of PCR, restriction enzymes, sequencing and specific mini-sequencing. New method for the detection of the protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi was developed by means of the nested PCR. The main results show patterns of genetic stratification in Yanesha forest communities, referable to different migrations at different times, estimated by Bayesian analyses. In particular Yanesha were considered as a population of transition between the Amazon basin and the Andean Cordillera, evaluating the potential migration routes and the separation of clusters of community in relation to different genetic bio-ancestry. As the Wichi, the gene pool analyzed appears clearly differentiated by the admixed sympatric Criollos, due to strict social practices (deeply analyzed with the support of cultural anthropological tools) that have preserved the native identity at a diachronic level. A pattern of distribution of the seropositivity in relation to the different phylogenetic lineages (the adaptation in evolutionary terms) does not appear, neither Amerindian nor European, but in relation to environmental and living conditions of the two distinct subpopulations.

Studio dell’evoluzione dei segni del paesaggio rurale tradizionale: una proposta di metodo parametrico ed applicazione alla scala dell’azienda agricola

Il presupposto della ricerca consiste nel riconosciuto valore storico-testimoniale e identitario e in un significativo potenziale d’indicazione pianificatoria e progettuale che detengono in sé i segni del paesaggio rurale tradizionale. Allo stato attuale, sebbene tali valori vengano ampiamente affermati sia nell’ambiente normativo-amministrativo che in quello scientifico, è tuttora riscontrabile una carenza di appropriati metodi e tecniche idonei a creare opportuni quadri conoscitivi per il riconoscimento, la catalogazione e il monitoraggio dei paesaggi rurali tradizionali a supporto di politiche, di piani e di progetti che interessano il territorio extraurbano. La ricerca si prefigge l’obiettivo generale della messa a punto di un set articolato ed originale di strumenti analitici e interpretativi di carattere quantitativo idonei per lo studio delle trasformazioni fisiche dei segni del paesaggio rurale tradizionale e per la valutazione del loro grado di integrità e rilevanza alla scala dell’azienda agricola. Tale obiettivo primario si è tradotto in obiettivi specifici, il cui conseguimento implica il ricorso ad un caso studio territoriale. A tal proposito è stato individuato un campione di 11 aziende agricole assunte quali aree studio, per una superficie complessiva pari all’incirca 200 ha, localizzate nel territorio dell’alta pianura imolese (Emilia-Romagna). L’analisi e l’interpretazione quantitativa delle trasformazioni fisiche avvenute a carico dei sopraccitati segni sono state condotte a decorrere da prima dell’industrializzazione all’attualità e per numerosi istanti temporali. Lo studio si presenta sia come contributo di metodo concernente la lettura diacronica dei caratteri tradizionali spaziali e compositivi del territorio rurale, sia come contributo conoscitivo relativo alle dinamiche evolutive dei paesaggi tradizionali rurali dell’area indagata.

Per una storia della cerealicoltura in Italia settentrionale dal Neolitico all’Età del Ferro: strategie adattive e condizionamenti ambientali.

Il presente elaborato si occupa della storia della cerealicoltura in un percorso diacronico dal Neolitico all’Età del Ferro. Sono presentate le analisi carpologiche di 14 siti archeologici dell’Italia settentrionale, esaminati secondo le più moderne tecniche di indagine archeobotanica.

Dalle feste di nozze alle orchestre di stato: Maria Lătărețu e l'invenzione della muzică populară

Le musiche “popolaresche” urbane, in genere trascurate nella letteratura etnomusicologica, sono state quasi completamente ignorate nel caso della Romania. Il presente studio si propone di colmare almeno in parte questa lacuna, indagando questo fenomeno musicale nella Bucarest degli anni Trenta e Quaranta del Novecento. Le musiche esaminate sono tuttavia inserite entro una cornice storica più ampia, che data a partire dalla fine del XVIII secolo, e messe in relazione con alcune produzioni di origine rurale che con queste hanno uno stretto rapporto. Il caso di Maria Lătărețu (1911-1972) si è rivelato particolarmente fecondo in questo senso, dal momento che la cantante apparteneva ad entrambi i versanti musicali, rurale e urbano, e nepadroneggiava con disinvoltura i rispettivi repertori. Dopo il suo trasferimento nella capitale, negli anni Trenta, è diventata una delle figure di maggior spicco di quel fenomeno noto come muzică populară (creazione musicale eminentemente urbana e borghese con radici però nel mondo delle musiche rurali). L’analisi del repertorio (o, per meglio dire, dei due repertori) della Lătărețu, anche nel confronto con repertori limitrofi, ha permesso di comprendere più da vicino alcuni dei meccanismi musicali alla base di questa creazione. Un genere musicale che non nasce dal nulla nel dopo-guerra, ma piuttosto continua una tradizione di musica urbana, caratterizzata in senso locale, ma influenzata dal modello della canzone europea occidentale, che data almeno dagli inizi del Novecento. Attraverso procedimenti in parte già collaudati da compositori colti che sin dal XIX secolo, in Romania come altrove, si erano cimentati con la creazione di melodie in stile popolare o nell’armonizzazione di musiche di provenienza contadina, le melodie rurali nel bagaglio della cantante venivano trasformate in qualcosa di inedito. Una trasformazione che, come viene dimostrato efficacemente nell’ultimo capitolo, non investe solo il livello superficiale, ma coinvolge in modo profondo la sintassi musicale.

Forme di appartenenza, forme di resistenza: orizzonti e società della provincia turca di Iğdır

La ricerca nasce da un lavoro di campo condotto nella provincia turca di Iğdır, un altopiano al confine con l'Armenia e il Nakhichevan, vicino alla Georgia e all'Iran, ma morfologicamente isolato dal resto della Turchia. Dopo due secoli alquanto turbolenti, la società locale è oggi caratterizzata dalla presenza di un’ampia componente turco-azera (sciita) e di un’altrettanto ampia componente turco-curda (sunnita shafiita). Inizialmente, la ricerca propone un’analisi diacronica di alcune rappresentazioni europee dell’altopiano, con particolare attenzione alle migrazioni (James Clifford, 1997, Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century), ai confini, ai limiti e alle frontiere, quest’ultime intese come orizzonti dell’immaginario (Vincent Crapanzano, 2003, Imaginative Horizons: An Essay in Literary-Philosophical Anthropology). Quindi, prendendo spunto dall’inserimento nella società di Iğdır di un insegnante originario della Turchia centrale, analizzo la pratica dello spazio pubblico come fenomenologia delle forme di appartenenza e di resistenza ai gruppi locali. In questa sezione, dopo un capitolo di disamina dell’etnia azera, lo studio affronta i modi di abitare il territorio, con una prospettiva che unisce il centro urbano di Iğdır e, attraverso una fitta rete stradale e sociale, il paese di Ortaköy — alla cui analisi dell'organizzazione sociale dello spazio, delle forme di appartenenza e di resistenza, dedico l’ultima riflessione.

La figura del concessionario di beni e servizi nel demanio marittimo, costiero e portuale

Per la tradizione amministrativa la concessione è lo strumento che consente ai singoli di utilizzare un bene pubblico a titolo particolare. Proprio l’endiadi espressa dai due aggettivi della definizione tradizionale, pubblico e particolare, nasconde la ragione della fortuna dello strumento concessorio, capace di soddisfare, allo stesso tempo, un’esigenza di carattere pubblico ed un bisogno eminentemente privato, sopravvivendo ai più differenti periodi storici ed all’affermarsi delle più radicali correnti di pensiero. A fare da sfondo a questa insanabile tensione, in perenne oscillazione tra i due poli estremi della definizione, la nozione, a sua volta relativa, discussa e costantemente rivisitata, di bene pubblico. Per questa ragione il titolo del lavoro che si presenta è articolato in tre segmenti, che fanno riferimento allo strumento, soltanto formalmente unitario, della concessione negli ambiti del demanio marittimo, del demanio costiero e del demanio portuale. Nel primo capitolo si esamina la disciplina normativa applicabile alle varie tipologie di concessione ipotizzabili sul demanio marittimo, cercando di cogliere, in una prospettiva di analisi diacronica, le linee di evoluzione dell’uso particolare dei beni variamente connessi alle esigenze della navigazione. Il secondo capitolo è, invece, dedicato all’esame dell’elaborazione giurisprudenziale relativa alle vicende del demanio marittimo. Mentre nel terzo capitolo, infine, si è tentato di ricercare e di rappresentare una teoria unitaria della concessione dovuta, in gran parte, all’incedere, apparentemente irresistibile, di un vocabolario comune dei contratti pubblici di matrice comunitaria. In questo contesto appare evidente la crisi, probabilmente irreversibile, della concezione di bene pubblico e quindi di concessione.

La ricostruzione dell'assetto topografico della VI regio augustea di Roma dal periodo repubblicano all'età tardoantica

La VI regio augustea di Roma rappresenta uno dei settori urbani maggiormente investiti dalle modifiche radicali compiute dall’uomo nel processo di urbanizzazione della città che ne hanno modificato profondamente la situazione altimetrica e la conformazione originaria. Questi notevoli cambiamenti ebbero origine sin dall’età antica, ma si intensificarono profondamente soprattutto nel periodo rinascimentale quando a partire da Pio IV e soprattutto con Sisto V, attivo in tante altre zone della città, si svilupparono numerose opere di rinnovamento urbanistico che incisero notevolmente sul volto e sulle caratteristiche della zona in esame. A partire dal Rinascimento fino ad arrivare ai grandi scavi della fine del 1800 tutto il quartiere incominciò a “popolarsi” di numerosi edifici di grande mole che andarono ad intaccare completamente le vestigia del periodo antico: la costruzione del Palazzo del Quirinale e dei vari palazzi nobiliari ma soprattutto la costruzione dei numerosi ministeri e della prima stazione Termini alla fine dell’800 comportarono numerosi sventramenti senza la produzione di una adeguata documentazione delle indagini di scavo. Questa ricerca intende ricostruire, in un’ottica diacronica, la topografia di uno dei quartieri centrali della Roma antica attraverso l’analisi dei principali fenomeni che contraddistinguono l’evoluzione del tessuto urbano sia per quanto riguarda le strutture pubbliche che in particolar modo quelle private. Infatti, il dato principale che emerge da questa ricerca è che questa regio si configura, a partire già dal periodo tardo-repubblicano, come un quartiere a vocazione prevalentemente residenziale, abitato soprattutto dall’alta aristocrazia appartenente alle più alte cariche dello Stato romano; oltre a domus ed insulae, sul Quirinale, vennero costruiti lungo il corso di tutta l’età repubblicana alcuni tra i più antichi templi della città che con la loro mole occuparono parte dello spazio collinare fino all’età tardoantica, rappresentando così una macroscopica e costante presenza nell’ingombro dello spazio edificato.