This volume reports the findings of a Canadian archaeological team under the direction of the authors at San Giovanni di Ruoti in the highlands of southern Italy. The excavations, which took place over a seven-year period, have revealed a series of three Roman villas which span the period from the beginning of the first century AD to the middle of the sixth century. Of these villas, the third is particularly important since it provides the best evidence to date for the development of a villa in the transitional period between the end of the Roman Empire in the West and the beginning of the...

In every society proverbs provide a lively and colourful point of access to the language and the culture, Caterina Cicogna takes the images associated with Italian proverbs and idiomatic phrases and breaks them up into their constituent semantic categories, so that the learner can come to grasp and acquire the structure of figuration in Italian progressively and methodically. The exercise material is based both on receptive/perceptual skills and productive ones. Well-chosen Italian proverbs and idiomatic expressions are accompanied by a wide range of written and oral exercises. For...

Brightly coloured tiles, often decorated with enchanting scenes or designs, are among the most common and fascinating survivals from the medieval period. When decorated floor tiles were first introduced, tilers were specially commissioned to create elaborate pavements for wealthy, royal, and ecclesiastical patrons. Before long, individual tilers branched out to manufacture decorated tiles and market them commercially. Soon, manor houses, merchant's houses, and parish churches were enlivened with thses colourful decorated floors.

Drawing partly on the material from her previous book,...