Kategoria BISAC: History >> Europe - Italy

Italian astronomer and Dominican friar Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), found guilty of heresy by the Roman Inquisition and burned at the stake, has long been an enigma of early modern European philosophy. His central 1586 work On the Heroic Frenzies has shown a particular need for a fresh examination. This vibrant bilingual edition, annotated by celebrated Bruno scholar Ingrid D. Rowland, features the text in its original Italian alongside an elegant, accurate English translation.

On the Heroic Frenzies is at once a philosophical dialogue, an anthology of love poetry,...

Confined by behavioural norms and professional restrictions, women in Renaissance Italy found a welcome escape in an alternative world of play. This book examines the role of games of wit in the social and cultural experience of patrician women from the early sixteenth to the early eighteenth century.

Beneath the frivolous exterior of such games as occasions for idle banter, flirtation, and seduction, there often lay a lively contest for power and agency, and the opportunity for conventional women to demonstrate their intellect, to achieve a public identity, and even to model new...

The Mancini Sisters, Marie and Hortense, were born in Rome, brought to the court of Louis XIV of France, and strategically married off by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, to secure his political power base. Such was the life of many young women of the age: they had no independent status under the law and were entirely a part of their husband's property once married.

Operation Husky, the Anglo-American amphibious landings on Sicily in July 1943 were the proving ground for all subsequent Allied amphibious operations including Salerno, Anzio, and D-Day in Normandy. Husky's strategic objective was to knock Italy out of the war, a mission that ultimately proved successful. But it also demonstrated the growing ability of Britain and the United States to conduct extremely complex combined-arms attacks involving not only amphibious landings, but also airborne assaults. It was in many ways the precursor of all modern joint operations through the recent wars in...

Though steeped in a rich and ancient past, Calabria had been lost from view when Norman Douglas visited in the early 1900s. Within Douglas's vibrant account of his adventures is woven the rich history--from Greek settlers and Roman conquerors to the powerful Ndrangheta organized crime family--that has shaped the land, language, culture, and people of a place that Douglas grew to adore. Witty, erudite, and elegant, Old Calabria is a literary classic, acclaimed as much for its sparkling prose as for its exquisite portrait of Italy's most unpredictable and colorful province.

Several factors delayed and greatly hampered the development of an Italian medium and heavy tank during Rommel's Desert War in World War II. The first was the strategic stance of the country, focussed on a war against neighbouring countries such as France and Yugoslavia, and ill-prepared for a war in the Western Desert. Since these European countries bordered with Italy in mountainous areas, light tanks were preferred as these were deemed much more suitable for the narrow roads and bridges of the Alps. The failure to develop an effective operational plan for North Africa was another factor...

This volume assesses the formidable special forces fielded by Italy's navy and air force in World War II, both before and after Italy's surrender in September 1943. The Italian Navy special forces were particularly active and respected in the Mediterranean, where 10th Motor-Torpedo Boat Flotilla (Xa MAS) used frogmen, 'two-man torpedoes' and explosive ram-boats; Italian midget submarines were also deployed against the Soviet Navy in the Black Sea. After September 1943 the Germans allowed the expansion of Count Borghese's Xa MAS, which continued fighting on their side at sea and on land,...

The debate on Italian regionalism has received renewed impetus from the disintegration of the First Republic and the emergence of the Northern League. In this important study, leading scholars of Italian history, politics, sociology and linguistics examine the nature of Italian regionalism since the formation of the modern Italian nation state. This is the first English-language book to explore the Italian concept of regionalism in all its ramifications.

Topics include: the nature and problems of Italian regionalism in context; the historical background of the period up to 1945;...