Efficiency of frost-cracking processes through space and time: An example from the eastern Italian Alps

It is widely accepted that climate has a strong impact and exerts important feedbacks on erosional processes and sediment transport mechanisms. However, the extent at which climate influences erosion is still a matter of debate. In this paper we test whether frost-cracking processes and related temperature variations can influence the sediment production and surface erosion in a small catchment situated in the eastern Italian Alps. To this extent, we first present a geomorphic map of the region that we complement with published 10Be-based denudation rates. We then apply a preexisting heat-flow model in order to analyze the variations of the frost-cracking intensity (FCI) in the study area, which could have controlled the sediment production in the basin. Finally, we compare the model results with the pattern of denudation rates and Quaternary deposits in the geomorphic map. The model results, combined with field observations, mapping, and quantitative geomorphic analyses, reveal that frost-cracking processes have had a primary role in the production of sediment where the intensity of sediment supply has been dictated and limited by the combined effect of temperature variations and conditions of bedrock preservation. These results highlight the importance of a yet poorly understood process for the production of sediment in mountain areas.

Geological map of the Scalaro Valley – Sesia Zone (Italian Western Alps)

In the Sesia Zone (Italian Western Alps), slivers of continental crust characterised by an Alpine high-pressure imprint are intermingled with abundant mafic rocks and Mesozoic metasediments. An extensive study of the central Sesia Zone was undertaken to identify and reconstruct the lithological setting of the mono-cyclic sediments of the Scalaro Unit. A new geological map (1:5000) and schematic cross sections across the Scalaro Unit and the adjoining Eclogitic Micaschist Complex are presented here. In order to delimit the size and shape of the mono-metamorphic unit and understand its internal geometry with respect to the poly-metamorphic basement, an integrated approach was used. Linking observations and data across a range of scales, from kilometres in the field down to petrological and chronological data obtained at micrometre scale, we define for the first time the real size and internal geometry of the Scalaro Unit, as well as its large-scale structural context.

Otium et negotium. Reading processes and their cultural backgrounds in early Italian and German humanism

Reading and reading habits have radically changed in the digital age. Readers are no longer physically bound to textual objects and libraries, they deal with texts by copying, altering, and annotating them, and they mix established textual forms with other semiotic systems such as pictograms, icons and images. These circumstances also provoke a renewed research interest in the history of reading. In this talk, I will concentrate on reading processes as to how they were enacted and practised in early Italian and German humanism. I will start with some paradigmatic scenes described in Petrarch’s letters (among others the famous visit of the Mont Ventoux, where Petrarch, after having enjoyed a spectacular panorama, withdraws into the contemplative reading of St-Augustine). The transmission of Petrarch’s writings in humanist circles of Southern Germany (e.g. with the Schedel and Gossembrot families in Nurnberg, Augsburg and Strasburg) will then lead to specific reading practices documented in manuscripts that once belonged to coherent libraries and are nowadays spread all over Europe. In the case of the former tradesman and mayor Sigismund Gossembrot, complex habits of textual annotating and cross-referencing can be observed. The dichotomy of the Latin terms otium (‘rest’ and ‘leisure’) and negotium (‘activity’, but also ‘practice’, ‘negotiation’, ‘circulation of social energy’ in the sense of New Historicism) will be used as an ideal-type outline to describe the occurring processes of reading.

Otium et negotium. Reading processes and their cultural backgrounds in early Italian and German humanism

Reading and reading habits have radically changed in the digital age. Readers are no longer physically bound to textual objects and libraries, they deal with texts by copying, altering, and annotating them, and they mix established textual forms with other semiotic systems such as pictograms, icons and images. These circumstances also provoke a renewed research interest in the history of reading. In this talk, I will concentrate on reading processes as to how they were enacted and practised in early Italian and German humanism. I will start with some paradigmatic scenes described in Petrarch’s letters (among others the famous visit of the Mont Ventoux, where Petrarch, after having enjoyed a spectacular panorama, withdraws into the contemplative reading of St-Augustine). The transmission of Petrarch’s writings in humanist circles of Southern Germany (e.g. with the Schedel and Gossembrot families in Nurnberg, Augsburg and Strasburg) will then lead to specific reading practices documented in manuscripts that once belonged to coherent libraries and are nowadays spread all over Europe. In the case of the former tradesman and mayor Sigismund Gossembrot, complex habits of textual annotating and cross-referencing can be observed. The dichotomy of the Latin terms otium (‘rest’ and ‘leisure’) and negotium (‘activity’, but also ‘practice’, ‘negotiation’, ‘circulation of social energy’ in the sense of New Historicism) will be used as an ideal-type outline to describe the occurring processes of reading.