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This book aims to offer a new interpretation of the settlement movement initiated by the city of Megara in archaic times. It shows the role of conflict between the aristocratic families for the departure of the Megarians and reveals the role of the heritage of the metropolis in the creation of institutions of colonial cities.

nomima --- propontis --- greek colonization --- judiciaries --- civil subdivisions --- megara --- sicily --- pontus

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The Milites Baroli censused in the Catalogus Baronum constitute the beginning of this study on the formation, characteristics and evolution about lordship powers in the Ofanto Valley and particularly in the city of Barletta between the Norman and early Angevin age. Through a focused and complex rereading of the existing documents, the volume analyzes the structure of the Barletta society with particular attention to its military and political élite and to the relationship with central power. Structured during the XII century consequently the intervention of the Norman crown, for the southern sovereigns the milites of Barletta organized and controlled the Ofanto Valley, favoring the unification of the Apulian center with civitas and the bishopric of Canne. Strongly put to the test in the secular relationship with the crown, the élite of the Apulian city is here probed through the study of prosopographic profiles and the pervasiveness of the power used by main local military families.In this point of view, is analyzed both the relationship established from time to time with the ecclesiastical foundations of Outremer and with the Holy Land, and the quality of the intervention in the main places of political and religious power and the characteristics of supremacy. In that sense, particular attention is focused on the dynamics of the conflict, hidden in the city society, as a basic element for understanding the inner workings of power in the local and supralocal context. In this way, the volume is part of the debate on the social and political structure of the cities in the south of Italy and on the aristocratic powers in the Kingdom of Sicily, of which Barletta is a complex and very interesting case.

Milites, Militia, Norman AGe, Swabian Age, Angevine Age, Kingdom of Sicily, Aristocratic powers

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Through the correspondence between Michele Amari (1806-1889) and Raffaele Starrabba (1834-1906), the volume provides a glimpse of the historiographical panorama of the Italian nineteenth century in the crucial period that followed the birth of the Nation. The correspondence also illuminates the figure of Baron Starrabba, who played a fundamental role in the local archival administration and was the founder, with Isidoro Carini, of the Sicilian Society for the History and of its periodical, the "Archivio Storico Siciliano".

Erudition --- Nineteenth Century --- Michele Amari --- Raffaele Starrabba --- Sicily --- Historiography --- Medieval History --- Archivistic --- Archives --- Palermo --- History --- Letters --- Arabistic --- Correspondance

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Following Percy Ernst Schramm’s studies on Staatssymbolik, historians have in general considered medieval royal portraits as images mirroring medieval notions of power and political ideology that can legitimate power and strengthen admiration of the king. This interpretation has also had a crucial impact on the analysis of monarchic ideologies and sacral kingship during the Middle Ages. However, the research prompted in Germany on the social praxis of Memoria has opened up new perspectives, by creating an active historiographical debate about the social function and meaning of royal portraits in the liturgical context during the Middle Ages (political/propagandistic vs religious/devotional).This book aims to foster this debate by analysing the functions and meanings of monarchic pictures characterized by sacral figures and symbols and religious and liturgical contexts in the Norman kingdom of Sicily (1130-1189). In the specific, it investigates three royal portraits: St. Nikolas blesses Roger II in the Basilica of St. Nikolas in Bari; Christ crows Roger II in the Church of St. Mary of the Admiral in Palermo; and Christ crowns William II in the Cathedral of Monreale. By going beyond traditional methodological tactics, its exegesis avoids a ‘one-way’ approach in which artwork is analysed in an ‘autonomous’ manner that extrapolates it from its historical, political and functional context. Moreover, it studies royal portraiture as part of a wider communicative strategy to create a mise-en-scène around the monarchic figure by comparing the iconographic sources and the information provided by written evidence regarding the monarch’s official kingship.This new analysis of the Norman royal portraits in the religious and liturgical context leads to original perspectives and uses new cues to reformulate the traditional ideas held by historiography in this regard and on political ideologies and royal sacrality.

Royal Portrait --- Royal Iconography --- Representation of Power --- Kingodom of Sicily --- Normans --- Roger II --- William II --- Basilica of St.Nicholas in Bari --- Church of St. Mary of the Admiral in Palermo --- Cathedral of Monreale

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The principle of sustainability should be strictly connected with safety, since both aim to conserve resources: in the case of sustainability, the resources are typically thought of as environmental, while in the case of safety, the resources are basically human. In spite of this common ground, discussions on sustainability usually give insufficient attention to safety. In the last years the EU has made large investments to increase the energy efficiency of the existing building stock, paving the way for a low-carbon future; however, less effort has been made to enhance its seismic resilience. Therefore, the safety and, consequently, the sustainability of towns situated in earthquake-prone countries remain inadequate. In such countries, energy renovation actions should be combined with seismic retrofitting. However, a number of barriers considerably limit the real possibility of extensively undertaking combined retrofit actions, especially for multi-owner housing and high-rise buildings. These barriers are of different kinds: technical (e.g., unfeasibility and/or ineffectiveness of conventional retrofit solutions), financial (e.g., high renovation costs, insufficient incentives/subsidies), organizational (e.g., occupants’ disruption and relocation, renovation consensus by condominium ownerships), and cultural/social (insufficient information and skills, lack of adequate policy measures for promoting renovation actions). This book aims to overcome these barriers and to bridge the gap between sustainability and safety, so to conserve both human and environmental resources.

seismic retrofit --- energy retrofit --- sustainability --- safety --- policy measures --- apartment blocks --- building envelope --- energy efficiency --- seismic improvement --- sustainability --- energy retrofit --- seismic analysis --- nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB) --- Annex 56 --- cost-effective --- optimization --- historical building --- seismic and energy retrofit --- combined interventions --- U-value --- historical masonry --- seismic retrofit --- energy retrofit --- historic urban fabric --- building rehabilitation --- energy efficiency --- seismic reinforcement --- historic massive envelope --- cultural value --- energy performances --- damage mechanisms --- pre-diagnostic process --- seismic improvement --- energy savings --- Eastern Sicily --- green infrastructure --- seismic retrofitting --- energy retrofitting --- ecosystem services --- urban planning --- technological design --- energy performance --- seismic vulnerability assessment --- risk analysis --- masonry building aggregates --- building envelope --- innovative product --- translucent panel --- multifunctional component --- energy efficiency --- BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaic) --- dry-assembly system --- mechanical resistance --- high-rise building --- façade --- sustainability and aesthetics --- architectural image --- parametric design --- exoskeleton --- seismic renovation --- apartment blocks