Padanian-American League

"Masters of Venice" at the de Young Museum

2011-11-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

October 29, 2011 - February 12, 2012

Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power is a worldwide exclusive presentation of 50 paintings by Venetian painters Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto, Mantegna, and more, primarily from the sixteenth century, all on loan from the Gemäldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Featured are outstanding examples of the work of these artists that were collected by the archdukes and emperors of the Habsburg family, which are among the most celebrated holdings in the collections of the Gemäldegalerie.

Key works include Titian’s sumptuous Danáe (1560s), Mantegna’s tortured Saint Sebastian (1457–1459) and four rare paintings by Giorgione, including The Three Philosophers (ca. 1508–1509) and Portrait of a Young Woman (Laura) (1506). The exhibition also includes works by Palma, Bordone, Bassano, and more. Together, these examples represent the range of Venetian accomplishment in Renaissance-era painting.

Educational Resources (link for further study)
This exhibition, featuring works that were once part of the collection of the Habsburg family, offers you and your students a unique opportunity study works from the Renaissance. Highlighting artists such as Titian, Giorgione, Tintoretto and Veronese, the exhibition traces the Renaissance, High Renaissance and Venetian Mannerism through these artist’s paintings—many never before seen in San Francisco. The exhibition also provides a rich opportunity for Bay Area teachers to expand their curriculum by utilizing the show to look at literary, aesthetic, social and economic differences and similarities when comparing 16th-century Venice and its artistic output with San Francisco and the FAMSF collections.

The resources assembled here may provide you and your students with ideas for viewing the exhibition and for conducting follow-up activities to expand the experience.

Ticket Information

Admission prices: adults $20, seniors 65+ $17, students with current ID $16, youths 6–17 $10, members and children 5 and under free.

Groups of 10 or more have access to priority booking and discounted rates. For additional information please contact the group sales office at groupsales@famsf.org or by calling 415.750.3620.

Reserve your tickets now

Member tickets

Catalogue
Exhibition catalogue available

Related Lectures & Events

Tuesday December 6, 2011

Docent Lecture: "Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power from the Kunsthistorisches, Vienna," Rita Dunlay

1:00 pm

Today's Docent Tours

11:00 am

1:00 pm

Press Release
Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power From the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Credit Line
This exhibition is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in collaboration with the Gemäldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Major Patron
Penny and James George Coulter
San Francisco Auxiliary of the Fine Arts Museums

Patrons
Athena and Timothy Blackburn
William G. Irwin Charity Foundation

Sponsors
T. Robert and Katherine Burke
Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Mrs. James K. McWilliams
Greta R. Pofcher

Education programs presented in conjunction with the exhibition are sponsored by Wells Fargo and the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Pasta Is Not Originally from Italy

2011-10-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

Pasta Is Not Originally from Italy

By Julia - MisconceptionJunction.com - June 3, 2011

Myth: Pasta originally comes from Italy.

Worldwide, pasta has become synonymous with Italian cuisine. Italian immigrants themselves brought pasta everywhere they went. While it is true that the most famous varieties and recipes of cooking pasta really do come from Italy, surprisingly, the actual origin of pasta lies elsewhere!

So how did pasta make its way to Italy? One of the more popular theories was published in the ‘Macaroni Journal’ by the Association of Food Industries. It states that pasta was brought to Italy by Marco Polo via China. Polo ventured to China in the time of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and the Chinese had been consuming noodles as early as 3000 B.C. in the Qinghai province. There is even some evidence there of 4,000-year-old noodles made from foxtail and broomcorn millet.

Unfortunately, there are problems with this theory, least of which is that the noodles they were making in China aren’t technically considered pasta. Polo also described Chinese noodles as being like “lagana”, which implies he was possibly already familiar with a pasta-like food before going to China. Further, in 1279, there was a Genoese soldier that listed in the inventory of his estate a basket of dried pasta. Polo didn’t come back from China until 1295. For those who don’t know, Genoa is a sea port in Italy. Further, the modern pasta like we know it was first described in 1154 by an Arab geographer, Idrisi, as being common in Sicily. So Marco Polo could not have brought pasta to Italy via China. It was already in Italy at that time.

So how did it get there? Most food historians believe that Arabs (specifically from Libya) are to be credited for bringing pasta, along with spinach, eggplant and sugar cane, to the Mediterranean basin. In the Talmud, written in Aramaic in the 5th century AD, there is a reference to pasta being cooked by boiling. It is thought, then, that pasta was introduced to Italy during the Arab conquests of Sicily in the 9th century AD, which had the interesting side effect of drastically influencing the region’s cuisine. It also known that by the 12th century, the Italians had learned from the Arabs methods for drying pasta to preserve it while traveling. Further support for this theory can be found by the fact that, in many old Sicilian pasta recipes, there are Arab gastronomic introductions.

Bonus Factoids:

An alternative theory that has fallen out of favor is that pasta came to Italy via Greece, given that the origins of the name “pasta” seems to be Greek. The word ‘pasta’ itself comes from the Latin ‘pasta’ meaning ‘dough, pastry cake’ which probably came from the Greek word ‘pastos’ – ‘sprinkled with salt’, ‘salted’. Also, in ancient Greek mythology, there is a tale about the god Vulcan pushing dough through a device that converts it into thin, edible threads.

The first documented case of a ‘macaroni’ machine being brought to the U.S. is believed to have been brought by Thomas Jefferson in 1789 when he came back to the U.S. after serving as an ambassador to France. Later, Jefferson also invented his own pasta machine.

Dried pasta is shaped in a variety of ways to fit various types of sauces. Thin and long pasta suits oily, more liquid sauces, and more complicated shapes are better for thicker, chunkier sauces.

The modern word ‘macaroni’ derives from the Sicilian term for making dough forcefully. At that time, pasta dough was often kneaded with the feet for a significant amount of time.

Italian pasta enthusiasts organized a World Pasta Conference in 1995, they celebrate Word Pasta Day every year in October, since 1998. There is also an Italian Pasta Association and a Pasta Museum in Rome.

Pasta is a term for foods made from an unleavened dough of wheat or buckwheat flour and water. There are two main groups of pasta – fresh and dried. Dry pasta is typically made from durum wheat flour or durum wheat semolina which has high levels of gluten, which gives it the yellow color and also makes the dough easier to work with.

The first industrial pasta factory in the US was built in Brooklyn in 1848 by a Frenchman.

Sources:

History of pasta

Pasta recipes

National Pasta Association

Did Marco Polo bring pasta from China?

History and Origin of Pasta

'Don Giovanni' - San Francisco Opera

2011-10-11T10:36:00.000-07:00

DON GIOVANNI

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte

NEW PRODUCTION

Mozart’s bold, beguiling blend of comedy and drama tells the tale of a proud, predatory nobleman and the women who are drawn to him. Music Director Nicola Luisotti conducts a cast of exciting young singers led by Lucas Meachem, whose baritone is “sweet, dark-grained and supple, and insinuating enough to make any woman give at the knees” (Santa Fe New Mexican). The enticing cast also features Ellie Dehn, who mixes “a stunning voice” with “real dramatic authority” (Opera News); Serena Farnocchia, who is “nothing short of spectacular” (Toronto Star); Kate Lindsey, "a powerhouse Zerlina" (Dallas Morning News) and Topi Lehtipuu, “one of the most elegant and musical young lyric tenors to have emerged in a decade” (London Daily Telegraph). Noted Italian film and theater director Gabriele Lavia makes his San Francisco Opera directorial debut.

Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes including one intermission

Pre-Opera Talks are free to ticketholders and take place in the main theater in the Orchestra section, 55 minutes prior to curtain.

San Francisco Opera production

Cast

Don Giovanni: Lucas Meachem

Donna Anna: Ellie Dehn

Donna Elvira: Serena Farnocchia *

Leporello: Marco Vinco *

Don Ottavio: Topi Lehtipuu *

Zerlina: Kate Lindsey *

Masetto: Ryan Kuster

The Commendatore: Morris Robinson *

Production Credits

Conductor: Nicola Luisotti

Director: Gabriele Lavia *

Set Designer: Alessandro Camera *

Costume Designer: Andrea Viotti *

Lighting Designer: Christopher Maravich

Chorus Director: Ian Robertson

* San Francisco Opera Debut

Synopsis

The action, which spans twenty-four hours, takes place in Seville

ACT I

Late at night, Leporello, the servant of Don Giovanni, is keeping watch while his master attempts to rape the daughter of the Commendatore, Donna Anna. She escapes and gives chase, trying to discover the identity of the intruder. The Commendatore rushes to her defense as Don Giovanni slays the old man and flees. Anna returns with Don Ottavio, her fiancé, and the two swear revenge. In the early morning, Donna Elvira, a young woman from Burgos, searches for Don Giovanni; she is one of his jilted lovers. Servant and master spy on her and when they all meet, Don Giovanni talks his way out of trouble and escapes, leaving Leporello to explain his master’s philandering ways. He shows her Don Giovanni’s “little black book.” Around midday, Don Giovanni and Leporello happen upon the rustic nuptial celebration of Masetto and Zerlina. The latter excites Giovanni’s fancy, and he invites everyone to his villa—the better to snare the young girl. The seduction is interrupted by Elvira, who denounces him and sweeps Zerlina away. Anna and Ottavio arrive, not yet recognizing Don Giovanni as the murderer. When Elvira interrupts again, Giovanni attempts to pass off her hysterics as madness, but the suspicion is planted. After he leaves to “help” Elvira in her distress, Anna realizes the truth, recounts the events preceding her father’s death, and concludes with a call for vengeance. Ottavio is then left alone to contemplate his love for Anna. Meanwhile, not in the least deterred, Don Giovanni orders Leporello to prepare a lavish party for all the neighbors. He is reminded to add more names to his famous list—Zerlina’s among them. The guests begin to arrive as daylight wanes. Zerlina vainly tries to soothe a worried, jealous Masetto. Don Giovanni renews his wooing of Zerlina, but her sharp-eyed fiancé intervenes. As Giovanni leads the young couple into the villa, Anna, Ottavio, and Elvira enter wearing masks. They are quickly invited by the master to join the festivities. With the party in full swing, Don Giovanni leads Zerlina into an adjoining room. Her cries, however, bring everyone to her assistance. Don Giovanni tries to make Leporello seem like the offending villain, but no one is taken in. The three guests unmask, and the tone of the party suddenly turns accusatory. Surrounded and condemned, Don Giovanni’s adventures seem at an end, but by a sudden intervention he once again escapes his accusers.

ACT II

Later that evening Don Giovanni, after soothing a disgruntled Leporello with some coins, hatches his latest plot, this one aimed at Elvira’s maid; it requires master and servant to exchange clothes. Elvira is lured away by the man she thinks is her beloved and the real Giovanni is left to serenade the maid. Just then an armed Masetto and his followers arrive in search of the fugitive. The supposed Leporello sends them off in all directions, personally disarms Masetto, and beats him. Zerlina finds Masetto crestfallen and aching, and she tries to comfort him by offering her own personal remedy. Leporello, still disguised as Don Giovanni, is trying to escape the deceived of Elvira when Anna and Ottavio and, a few moments later, Masetto and Zerlina converge upon him. Believing they have found Don Giovanni, they threaten him with a speedy death. Leporello reveals his identity and everyone is dumbfounded; Anna retires. With profuse apologies, Leporello manages to escape. Ottavio asks that Anna be informed of his determination to punish Don Giovanni. Elvira finds that in spite of her outrage, she still feels pity for Don Giovanni.

Later that night Don Giovanni and Leporello have sought refuge in a cemetery. The raucous conversation is interrupted by a ghostly voice from the statue over the Commendatore’s grave. In response to a doomful warning, Don Giovanni invites the statue, through Leporello’s terrified mediation, to come to Don Giovanni’s villa for a pre-dawn supper. To the servant’s horror, the invitation is accepted. The two return to the villa to prepare. Ottavio seeks to console Anna, suggesting marriage. Temporarily rejected, he charges Anna with cruelty. Anna protests her love and begs for patience. Don Giovanni eats supper while a wind band serenades him with popular operatic tunes of the day (including a snippet from Figaro). Elvira rushes in resolved to forgive Don Giovanni and tries to persuade him to change his ways. He cruelly taunts her, and she leaves in despair. Moments later, her terrified scream is heard and Leporello rushes out to see what is wrong. He too screams in terror and returns shaken, announcing the arrival of the statue of the Commendatore. In deadly jest, the Commendatore asks if Don Giovanni will dine with him according to the rules of hospitality. Arrogant to the end, Giovanni accepts. Pressing further, the Commendatore demands repeatedly that Don Giovanni repent his sins, but he is refused again and again. Finally, Don Giovanni meets his death.

EPILOGUE

The other characters return searching for Giovanni, and Leporello tells them what has happened. They all point out the moral of the opera:

This is the evil-doer’s end.

And sinners will die just as they have lived.

Performances

October 15, 2011 to November 10, 2011

[See San Francisco Opera link for exact schedule and to purchase tickets]

Federico Faggin

2011-10-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

Designer Behind the World's First Microprocessor

Intel YouTube Channel - September 27, 2011

Federico Faggin visited Intel headquarters in late summer of 2011 to share memories from 40 years ago, when teamed up with Ted Hoff and Stan Mazur to create Intel's 4004 chip, which became the world's first single chip microprocessor.

Faggin talks about the day in January 1971, when he first tested the chip and it worked flawlessly. That was the day the microprocessor was born, he says, and today it is at the heart of the Internet revolution. He says the microprocessor has become the tiny speck of intelligence that converges communication, computing and control capabilities, connecting all of our devices from computers to small smartphones.

He has his eye on quantum computing as the next frontier of computing because of potential is beyond what capable with today's mechanical microprocessors. Yet he believes computing will never rival the complexity and capabilities on human intelligence.

Excerpt from Federico Faggin Wikipedia page:

Born in Vicenza, Federico Faggin received a Laurea Degree in physics, summa cum laude, at the University of Padua, Italy. At age 19, after his graduation from technical high school A. Rossi (Vicenza), he took a job at Olivetti, in Italy, where he co-designed and led the implementation of a small computer. After obtaining his university degree he worked at SGS Fairchild in Italy, where he developed SGS's first MOS process technology and designed its first integrated circuits. In 1968 he moved to Palo Alto and worked at Fairchild Semiconductor, where he created the MOS Silicon Gate technology with self-aligned gate, the basis of all modern CMOS computer chips. At Fairchild he produced the world's first commercial integrated circuit using Silicon Gate Technology with self aligned MOS transistors: the Fairchild 3708.

In 1970 he joined Intel where Marcian (Ted) Hoff, with Stanley Mazor and Intel's customer Masatoshi Shima, had formulated a new architecture for a family of Busicom calculators in 1969. Federico Faggin was hired as project leader to implement such architecture, which had been idling for many months. He created a new methodology for random logic chip design using silicon gate technology, and several design innovations that made it possible to fit the microprocessor in one chip. He developed the chip and logic design together with the layout of all the chips of the 4004 family (MCS-4). He built the tester to prove that the 4004 could be used for applications different from calculators, and successfully transferred the first microprocessor to production (1970–1971). During the project development he was assisted only by Masatoshi Shima, who had come from Japan to check on the progress and stayed-on to help, and a couple of technicians. Faggin also convinced Bob Noyce to negotiate the exclusivity clause, in order to open the marketing of the 4004 which originally was a custom design for Busicom.

The design methodology created by Faggin was utilized for the implementation of all Intel’s early microprocessors and later also for Zilog's Z80. The 8008 development was originally assigned to Hal Feeney in March 1970 but was suspended until the 4004 was completed. It was resumed in January 1971 and Hal Feeney did the detailed design under Faggin’s direction and following his new methodology. Faggin developed the architectures and led the development of the 8080 and the 4040 microprocessors. When Faggin left Intel at the end of 1974 to found Zilog with Ralph Ungermann, he was department manager for MOS Research and Development with almost 80 engineers reporting to him and more than a dozen products under development.

Zilog was the first company entirely dedicated to microprocessors while Intel was principally dedicated to memories. At Zilog, Faggin conceived the architecture of the Z80 microprocessor and helped Shima, who had joined the new company, in its design. He was Zilog's President and CEO until the end of 1980. In 1982, he co-founded Cygnet Technologies, Inc., maker of the Cygnet CoSystem personal telecommunications device, and was President and CEO of the company until 1986. In 1986 he co-founded and was CEO of Synaptics a company which produces the most widely used touchpad in the industry. He is presently CEO of Foveon Inc., a company making image sensors with a novel technology.

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Apple: Company Co-founder Steve Jobs Has Died

Apple says the company's co-founder Steve Jobs has died. He was 56. In a brief statement the company said Jobs died Wednesday. He had been battling pancreatic cancer.

Associated Press YouTube channel - October 5, 2011

Actually, I thought the ABC News report was much better, but they don't allow embedding.

Apple Fans Mourn Steve Jobs's Death, Hold IPhone-Lit Vigils

San Francisco Chronicle - October 6, 2011

Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. fans worldwide mourned the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, paying tribute to the man who changed the way they listen to music, use their mobile phones and play on their computers.

At Apple's headquarters -- located at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California -- flags flew at half-staff and bagpipes sounded to the tune of "Amazing Grace" as people placed flowers around a white iPad with a picture of Jobs, who died yesterday at 56, after a battle with cancer. Mourners flocked to Apple stores from New York to Hong Kong, while a crowd gathered in San Francisco's Mission Dolores Park for an iPhone-lit vigil.

"Part of the narrative that made Apple what it is today goes out with Steve Jobs," said Christopher Smith, 40, a former business development manager in San Francisco who joined the vigil. "I came out to honor the fact that one man with vision, courage and unwavering dedication can still change the world. The way that I communicate and the way that I interact with the world is through things that Steve jobs has created."

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer were among business leaders who expressed admiration for the man who built the world's most valuable technology company. President Barack Obama also issued statements of sympathy and remembrance.

"Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs," Obama said in a statement. "Steve was among the greatest of American innovators -- brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it."

Jobs's Home

Teary-eyed mourners left flowers in front of Jobs's modest home at the corner of Waverly Street and Santa Rita Avenue in Palo Alto, California. Neighborhood children drew hearts with markers and left them on the ground for others to leave messages. Policemen stood watch, barricading the street.

"Here's a guy who's a billionaire and lives in a regular neighborhood, not behind a gated estate with all the security guards," said Bruce Gee, a former Apple employee who drove up to the house from his home a couple miles away. "On Halloween, people go trick or treating there like everyone else."

At the San Francisco Apple store near Union Square, Steve Streza, 24, stood holding an iPad displaying Apple's homepage image of Jobs and the words "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011."

'Regular Guy'

"Macs were the reason I got into product development," said Streza, a developer at readitlater.com who grew up with Mac computers. "If it weren't for Steve Jobs and Macs, my life would probably be in a completely different place right now."

Steve Somerstein, who says he met Jobs several times since 1986, recalled the time when he bumped into Jobs while apartment hunting in Palo Alto.

"He was just a regular guy," said Somerstein, who was at the Palo Alto store. "I congratulated him on the company and hoped it was going to do well. I didn't even own an Apple at that point. He was about 10 years younger than me and just a nice kid."

Ron Kent, a food-truck owner who was at the Palo Alto store, likened Jobs to Michelangelo, the renaissance-era artist who painted the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

"He's the visionary of our time," Kent said.

'RIP Steve Jobs'

Some mourned via social media sites. More than 20 "RIP Steve Jobs" pages sprung up on Facebook within hours of the announced passing of Jobs. News of Jobs's death slowed the mobile websites of CNN and the Washington Post, according to Keynote Systems Inc., which tracks website performance.

"Steve Jobs," the biography written by former Time magazine editor Walter Isaacson, scheduled for release Nov. 21, was the best seller on Amazon.com Inc.'s website.

In New York, Jared and Alexi Roth, 33 and 31, left two red apples by the wall outside the Apple store on Broadway in the Upper West Side.

"We were literally walking by a market on Broadway when Jared got a text saying Steve Jobs died," Alexi said. "We saw the apples and just thought it would be appropriate."

Across the ocean, Charanis Chiu, walked in front of the Apple store in Hong Kong to place a sunflower, the logo of the photo-viewing application on the iPhone.

The Mussolini/Fascist issue

2011-10-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

Our folk have been historically known for political extremism. Fascism, Communism, Anarchism, etc. These concerns have been successful because they are correct on a handful of issues. I usually don't like the term "extremism," because anyone can use the word to belittle anyone they wish; even while supporting types of extremism themselves. However, Fascism was basically a dictatorship in which the state oversaw and largely controlled industry. It is the opposite, or "opposame," of Fabianism in which transnational financial and economic concerns largely control, or at least have undo influence upon, the governmental apparatus of nations; sort've like "International Socialism."

Benito Mussolini was of Emilian descent, which means that he was a member of our folk. However, he was an "Italian nationalist" who cared very little about common people. For example, he, in an apparent attempt to show off his power to the National Socialists, got his country involved in wars of which they were ill-prepared for. This was done in the name of a modern type of "Roman Imperialism." Although the Italian Fascists had limited success, conquering Libya and Ethiopia, the plan was brutal and disastrous even for their own country and people.

The plan was for neo-Rome to conquer the Balkans, North Africa, and other places; and set up a Roman-style imperialist system. In the Balkans, they actually tried to change people's family surnames. For example, a family with the name "Bradovich" would be forced to take a name like "Columbo," even though they didn't not speak Italian at all. They wanted to colonize most of the Mediterranean region with people from Italy, and it was mostly people from the north who colonized North Africa. Italians in general would have some type of high racial status in these colonies. For example, I recall reading once that in colonial Libya, where was a law, with a penalty of eight years in prison, for "touching a white woman." Of course, I don't believe that they should have been in Libya at all. It was almost like Mussolini was showing off for Hitler. At least that's the impression that I always had. Small populations of Jews and Black Africans in Libya were more-or-less forced to go away, and the common Libyans were to be given some type of status as long as they went along with the Fascist dictatorship.

[Left: Libyan resistors being taken to a concentration camp; on the left of the image, two Libyan colonial soldiers, traitors to their people; unfortunately, treason is part of the human character]

Ethnic and linguistic differences, within the Italian peninsula, were even more repressed then before. The Italian Fascists force-migrated people from Southern Italy into the ethnic-German South Tyrol. Also, they were trying to force the Tyroleans to speak standard Italian and change their names. Mussolini, though his own statements, believed that the Langobards were everywhere in the peninsula and that it somehow meant that every Italian was an Aryan-Italian. No regionalism. All were to take the identity of Fascist Lombardo-Romans. From any type of Padanian/Cisalpine folkish way of thinking, Mussolini was a traitor to his own people.

Like the Communists and Fabianists, theirs was a dark world view. Although they defeated the Italian Communists, the results were just as bad as what may have occurred otherwise. Both denied our people freedom, or even a self-identity, as does the Fabianist EU Plutocracy today. We need to finally break away from this right-left Hegelian dialectic, and make our own way. I call this paradigm "the grinder." Throw in a legitimate issue or concern, and out it comes, stripped of all truth or worth. Neatly packaged under a false right or left label; to be put back up on the shelf with all of the other dead issues that the Fabianist power structure doesn't want to trouble itself with.

The fact that we are forced to the right, is a direct consequence of the rise of Fabian Socialist Plutocracy and it's Monopoly Capitalist and Social Marxist minions who today have almost the entire globe in a political straitjacket. I can't see how anyone of our concern could really consider Mussolini or the Fascists as any type of political ideal or icon. The Romans destroyed the Etruscans and Gauls, and the process keeps being recycled over and over again. Remember that bully in the sixth grade? He just absolutely would not stop... until someone literally, physically STOPPED him. We are all still subject to the "law of the jungle."

A very important point to remember. "All wars" were not fought over nationalism or religion; "All wars" were started by bankers, industrialists, and dictators who merely USED nationalism or religion as effective propaganda tools.

Brennus of the 4th century BC

2011-09-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

Brennus (4th century BC)

Brennus (or Brennos) was a chieftain of the Senones, a Gallic tribe originating from the modern areas of France known as Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, and Yonne, but which had expanded to occupy northern Italy.

More important historically was a branch of the above (called Senones, by Polybius), who about 400 B.C. made their way over the Alps and, having driven out the Umbrians, settled on the east coast of Italy from Ariminum to Ancona, in the so-called ager Gallicus, and founded the town of Sena Gallica (Sinigaglia), which became their capital.

In 391 they invaded Etruria and besieged Clusium. The Clusines appealed to Rome, whose intervention, accompanied by a violation of the law of nations, led to war, the defeat of the Romans at the Allia (18 July 390) and the capture of Rome. In 387 BC he led an army of Cisalpine Gauls in their attack on Rome. It has been theorized that Brennus is actually a title rather than a name. This is because "Brennus" also appears as the name of a Gallic leader 100 years later. It is also possible that Brennus refers to a god, his name taken by the leader before battle in order to invoke the god's favor and powers.

In the Battle of the Allia, Brennus defeated the Romans, and entered the city itself. The Senones captured the entire city of Rome except for the Capitoline Hill, which was successfully held against them. However, seeing their city devastated, the Romans attempted to buy their salvation from Brennus. The Romans agreed to pay one thousand pounds weight of gold. According to Livy, during a dispute over the weights used to measure the gold (the Gauls had brought their own, heavier-than-standard) Brennus threw his sword onto the scales and uttered the famous words "Vae victis!", which translates to "Woe to the vanquished!"

The argument about the weights had so delayed matters that the exiled dictator Marcus Furius Camillus had extra time to muster an army, return to Rome and expel the Gauls, saving both the city and the treasury. Following initial combat through Rome's streets, the Gauls were first ejected from the city, then utterly annihilated in a regular engagement eight miles outside of town on the road to Gabbi. Camillus was hailed by his troops as another Romulus, father of his country 'Pater Patriae' and second founder of Rome.

Some historical accounts say that the Senones besieging the Capitoline Hill were afflicted with an illness and thus were in a weakened state when they took the ransom for Rome. This is plausible as dysentery and other sanitation issues have incapacitated and killed large numbers of combat soldiers up until and including modern times.

It has been theorized that Brennus was working in concert with Dionysius of Syracuse, who sought to control all of Sicily. Rome had strong allegiances with Messana, a small city state in north east Sicily, which Dionysius wanted to control. With Rome's army pinned down by Brennus' efforts Dionysius led a campaign which ultimately failed. Brennus may have been paid twice to sack Rome.

However, the more accepted history (usually citing Livy and Plutarch) finds that Senones marched to Rome to exact retribution for three Roman ambassadors breaking the law of nations (oath of neutrality) in hostilities outside of Clusium. According to this history, the Senones marched to Rome, ignoring the surrounding countryside; once there, they sacked the city for 7 months, and then withdrew. For more information, see the Battle of Allia.

A famous depiction is the academic painting Le Brenn et sa part de butin (1893) by Paul Jamin that shows Brennus viewing his share of spoils (predominantly naked captive women) after the looting of Rome.

In popular culture

Brennus was played by Gordon Mitchell in the 1963 film 'Brennus, Enemy of Rome'.

Liguria Region

2011-09-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

Ligury Region - Italy

Liguria borders France to the west, Piedmont to the north, and Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany to the east. It lies on the Ligurian Sea. Liguria is a narrow strip of land, enclosed between the sea and the Alps and the Apennines mountains, it is a winding arched extension from Ventimiglia to La Spezia and is one of the smallest regions in Italy. Its surface area is 5,416.03 square Kilometres, corresponding to 1.18% of the whole national surface area, with the following subdivision: 3524.08 kilometres mountain (65% of the total) and 891.95 square kilometres hill (35% of the total).

Its shape is that of a thin strip of land, from 7 to 35 km (4.35 to 21.75 mi) wide (respectively above Voltri and in the high mountain area around Imperia), on average about 240 km (149.13 mi) long, lying in a semicircle around the Ligurian Sea and with convexity facing north; comprised between the sea and the watershed line of the Maritime Alps and the northern Apennines, which at some points it crosses (for example in the Savona and Genoa mountains). Some mountains rise above 2,000 m (6,561.68 ft); the watershed line runs at an average altitude of about 1,000 metres (3,280.84 ft).

The continental shelf, which is very narrow, is so steep it goes down almost immediately to considerable marine depths. The coastline is 315 km long. Except for the Portovenere and Portofino promontories, it is generally not very jagged, and is often high. At the mouths of the biggest watercourses there are small beaches, but there are no deep bays and natural harbours except for those of Genoa and La Spezia.

The hydrographic system is made up of the short watercourses of a torrential kind. In the coastal part the most important are the Roja (in its lower course), the Nervia, and the Magra. On the inland side we find some tributaries of the Po: the two branches of the Bormida, the Scrivia and the Trebbia; there is not much water in these rivers, though the quantity increases greatly in rainy periods.

The ring of hills, lying immediately beyond the coast, together with the beneficial influence of the sea, account for the mild climate the whole year round (with average winter temperatures of 7-10° and summer temperatures of 23°-24°) which makes for a pleasant stay even in the heart of winter.

Rainfall can be very abundant at times; mountains very close to the coast create an orographic effect, so Genoa can see up to 2000 mm of rain in a year; other areas instead show the normal values of the Mediterranean area (500--800 mm). Despite the high population density, woods cover half of the total area. Liguria's Natural Reserves cover 12% of the entire Region, i.e. around 60,000 hectares of land, and they are made up of one National Reserve, six large parks, two smaller parks and three nature reserves.

History

Traces of Neanderthal Man were discovered in the region of Loano, whereas in Ventimiglia, in the grotto of "Balzi Rossi", numerous remains were found which recall those of Cro-Magnon Man. According to the written sources we have about the settlements of the Ligurians (Ligures), the presence of this people of Mediterranean origin dates back to the first millennium B.C. on a vast territory including most of north-western Italy. This people, divided into several tribes, numbered less than two hundred thousand.

During the first Punic War, the ancient Ligurians were divided, some of them siding with Carthage and a minority with Rome, whose allies included the future Genoese. After the Roman conquest of the region, the so-called X regio, named Liguria, was created in the reign of Emperor Augustus, when Liguria was expanded from the coast to the banks of Po River. The great Roman roads (Aurelia and Julia Augusta on the coast, Postumia and Aemilia Scauri towards the inland) helped strengthen the territorial unity and increase exchanges and trade. Important towns developed on the coast, of which evidences are left in the ruins of Albenga, Ventimiglia and Luni. Between the 4th and the 10th centuries Liguria was dominated by the Byzantine, the Lombards of King Rothari (about 641) and the Franks (about 774) and it was later invaded by the Saracens and the Normans. In the 10th century, once the danger of pirates decreased, the Ligurian territory was divided into three marches: Obertenga (east), Arduinica (west) and Aleramica (centre). In the 11th and 12th centuries the marches were split into fees, and then with the strengthening of the bishops' power, the feudal structure began to partially weaken. The main Ligurian towns, especially on the coast, became city-states, over which Genoa soon extended its rule. Inland, however, fees belonging to noble families survived for a very long time.

Matrimonio Etrusco Celtico

2011-09-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Etruscan-Celtic Marriage

Reconstruction of a marriage between a Celtic nobleman and an Etruscan princess, in ancient Etruria or Cisalpine Gaul.

Dan Pastorini

2011-09-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

Dan Pastorini

Dante "Dan" Anthony Pastorini (born May 26, 1949 in Sonora, California) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Houston Oilers, Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, and the Philadelphia Eagles.

NFL career

Pastorini was drafted by the Houston Oilers in the first round (third overall) of the 1971 NFL Draft out of Santa Clara University. The draft was dubbed "The Year of the Quarterback" with Pastorini taken third behind Jim Plunkett (first) and Archie Manning (second).

Pastorini was known as a tough quarterback throughout his career.[citation needed] From 1971 through 1979, Pastorini missed only five regular season games, playing through the pain of broken ribs and even a punctured lung at times. He was the first player to wear the now ubiquitous "flack jacket" under his uniform to protect broken ribs. He did not play behind what would be considered a quality offensive line until 1977 when the Oilers hired Joe Bugel as offensive line coach and brought in players like Greg Sampson and, later Leon Gray. By 1978, the Oilers had a running game with the drafting of future Hall-of-Famer Earl Campbell.

Pastorini was also named to the 1975 AFC Pro Bowl Team.

Pastorini's best season came in 1978 when he threw for a career high 2,473 yards and 16 touchdowns. In the 1978 playoffs, Pastorini fared very well, helping lead the Oilers to wins over the Miami Dolphins and AFC East division champion New England Patriots.

Pastorini's last game as a Houston Oiler was the 1979 AFC championship game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a game which many Oilers fans contended was decided when, in their opinion, the officials blew a call on a Mike Renfro TD reception. Instant replay rules, in any form, were not in effect at the time, so the play could not be reviewed, as it would be in the present day. The best replay angles NBC could provide of the play show Renfro clearly catching the ball and getting both feet in the endzone with no juggling. It was not clear to the referees but was very clear to all viewers of the game that Renfro had complete control of the ball when he hit the ground. His feet according to the replays were both inbounds when he had possession of the ball. The play was a major turning point in the momentum of the game, which resulted in a Steeler triumph.

Later in 1980, Oilers owner, Bud Adams, traded Pastorini to the Oakland Raiders, in exchange for an aging Ken Stabler, who was 3 years Pastorini's senior.

Five weeks into the 1980 season with Oakland, after posting a 2-2 record, Pastorini broke his leg against the Kansas City Chiefs. The fans, who had been unhappy with his performance and wanted to see backup Jim Plunkett, cheered when they realized he was hurt. Plunkett, a Heisman Trophy winner out of Stanford, and former starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, had been with the Raiders as a backup quarterback since 1978. He took over and led the Raiders to a Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in January 1981.

Outside of football

Pastorini raced hydroplanes, drag-raced cars, judged wet T-shirt contests, and starred in a 1974 B-movie called Weed: The Florida Connection and then co-starred in a 1979 Lee Majors movie called Killer Fish. He married glamour model June Wilkinson, who appeared in Playboy Magazine. She is British and 9 years older. They had one child, a daughter, and later divorced.

Dan Pastorini drove a Top Fuel Dragster as part of the NHRA Full Throttle (Winston) Drag Racing Series in the mid 1980s. He collected several national event victories. His first came in Atlanta at the NHRA Southern Nationals in 1986.

Pastorini currently lives and works in Houston. His highly anticipated autobiography -- Taking Flak: My life in the fast lane -- is scheduled for release in November of 2011. He currently is launching a new line of food products.

No. 7
Quarterback

Personal information
Date of birth: May 26, 1949 (age 62)
Place of birth: Sonora, California
High School: Bellarmine College Prep
Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight: 208 lb (94 kg)

Career information
College: Santa Clara
NFL Draft: 1971 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3
Debuted in 1971 for the Houston Oilers
Last played in 1983 for the Philadelphia Eagles

Career history
Houston Oilers (1971-1979)
Oakland Raiders (1980)
Los Angeles Rams (1981)
Philadelphia Eagles (1982-1983)

Career highlights and awards
1× Pro Bowl selection (1975)
1× Super Bowl champion (XV)

Career NFL statistics as of 1981
Pass attempts: 3,055
Pass completions: 1,556
Percentage: 50.9
TD-INT: 103-161
Passing Yards: 18,515
QB Rating: 59.1

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Friulan Bilingual Signs

2011-09-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

Friulan Bilingual Signs
See also: http://www.squidoo.com/padaneis - Some bilingual road signs in Italian & Friulian. Derivatives of images from wikimedia Commons (authors listed in the last frame of the video).

Licence: CC BY-SA 2.5; accordingly, we explicitely state that the authors of the original photos do not necessarily endorse the use we have done of them.

Some images have been driven beyond their natural resolution limits so they are now of low quality; however the primary goal of this video is documentary and educational. No audio.

To get constantly updated info, please subscribe, free of charge, "The Padanian newsletter":
https://groups.google.com/group/the-padanian-newsletter?hl=en

Benrïeda al Chanel Padaneis! (YouTube channel)

Padaneis website

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Titan May Have Water Ocean Under The Surface

2011-09-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Titan May Have Water Ocean Under The Surface

By Jesse Emspak - International Business Times - May 6, 2011

NASA's Cassini probe, in orbit around Saturn, may have discovered evidence for a liquid ocean under the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

The data comes from radar observations of the surface that measure Titan's rotation and tell how it is oriented relative to the plane of its orbit - its axial tilt. According to a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the new data showed that the many of the planet's surface features were in the wrong place, sometimes off by as much as 30 kilometers (19 miles).

Titan always presents the same face toward Saturn, just like the Moon does to Earth. But in those situations one expects that the moon will be in the "Cassini state," which means that the axial tilt will have a certain value. In Titan's case, the axial tilt was measured at 0.3 degrees. That seemed too high if one assumed Titan was a solid body.

A team at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, led by Rose-Marie Baland, proposed that the tilt matches what one would see if Titan had a liquid ocean just under the surface. Given the measured mass of Titan and its density it looks like the ocean is made of water.

The researchers proposed a four-layer model for Titan, involving an icy shell, followed by the ocean, with a mantle of ice underneath that followed by core of rock and ice.

Most small worlds are solid all the way through because they cool fast enough that the insides don't stay molten. Titan is bigger than Mercury but still a good deal smaller than the Earth, which led many to believe it was probably a solid mass of ice and rock on the inside.

The presence of an ocean on Titan has important implications for the search for alien life. As far as anyone on Earth knows, liquid water is essential for life as we know it. If Baland and her team are correct there will be another place to look for it. Currently many scientists see Mars and Europa as two possible abodes for aliens (even if they are only bacteria) because both worlds have had liquid water in the past (Mars) or have it now (Europa, under the surface ice layer).

Baland and her co-authors say that there are some other possibilities besides a liquid ocean. One is the outer layers being denser than the interior. But that seems unlikely because one would ordinarily expect denser material to end up in the core. Another is that Titan was hit by something in the recent past. More observations will be needed to test those hypotheses.

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We have followed the Cassini-Huygens Mission for some years now. The mission is now over seven years, and the projected termination date is sometime in 2017. The project is a joint effort of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and the ASI (Italian Space Agency). The ASI is a government-led effort, but the allied space agencies are all from the Cisalpine homeland. Most of the components of the spacecraft were constructed at these locations.

The problems with definition in our folk-family: Part 2

2011-09-20T12:01:00.001-07:00

WHO IS A CISALPINE?

It should be clarified that there are many layers of "identity," from the individual, family, clan, close associations, district, province, nation, and so forth. Naturally this is in reference to our "folk family." Apart from the individual or family, pride of your heritage is partly based on living up to the best of what your ancestors accomplished or stood for, and it should evolve within the individual over time.

When thinking about our Cisalpine folk identity, from an American point of view, we should see that we are very much a small "numerical minority," especially for being descended from a people who dramatically affected the world in so many ways over time. When looking at the book 'Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 BC to 1950' (Murray; 2003), it's quite evident what the Cisalpine people are one of the greatest, if not THE greatest people in world history. Certain peoples were great for one period of time, but our people have been at the very top in every area of human endeavor for about six hundred years. I remember once as a child, I saw a coffee mug which had the words "Italian Mug" on it, in which the handle was on the inside. I know, big joke. "Can't you take a joke?" Yes, but it's only funny if there is at least one single ounce of realism attached to it. The mug joke simply wouldn't apply to the Cisalpines. Being able to laugh at oneself is a good thing individually, or in a group-concept, but it must be PURE.

Getting back to the Charlie Sheen roast, which was very funny, I was reminded of another more minor problem area as far as "definition" goes for our people. I wasn't really familiar with Kate Walsh. I was momentarily mesmerized by her combination of beauty, manner, wit, and humor. By today's standards as far as entertainment personalities go, she is a pretty upstanding women. Upon viewing her Wikipedia page, she is from San Jose, California, and she is of part "Italian" ancestry. In other words, she is very likely partly descended from Cisalpines. There are many examples of famous people who we are not certain of this fact.

I had originally wanted to place some entry on this blog, based on articles over many years, about what is usually referred to as "famous Italian baseball players from San Francisco." Of course today, there isn't a whole lot that is "Italian" in San Francisco anymore, but it is a part of our heritage. I'm guessing that many of those players were Sicilian or Southern Italian. For example, Joe DiMaggio was of Sicilian ancestry. I recall, not too long ago, seeing a mural in the Crocker-Amazon Park in San Francisco, of a baseball player from that era named Marino Pieretti. I have no idea of his family genealogy. He could be Genoese, Lucchesi, or Calabrian. I gave the example on the other blog of how common Italian suffixes had been added to local surnames, over the centuries, in regions in the north; and, of course, with so many common Italian first names, can make at least make many names sound so ambiguous.

Another individual, who fits this issue for us, is Mike Colalilo. He received the Medal of Honor in World War II, and seems to be very well-known even as far as the recipients of the medal are concerned, based on his bravery in battle. He is from Duluth, an area which had many immigrants from Lombardy, and is very likely a Cisalpine, but we're not 100% certain of that. Jon Volpe was a big star running back in the Canadian Football League. I can recall that he went to college at Stanford. Originally from Upper Michigan, and having a Lombardian/Tri-Veneto surname, is almost certainly a Cisalpine, but we really are not positive. Author and researcher Michael Cremo is someone whom I am familiar with. He co-authored the book 'Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race' (Cremo & Thompson; 1994). The surname "Cremo" is very rare, but seems to have origins in Piedmont, but again, we are not certain. Unless an individual is actually from "the homeland," we can only guess. Sometimes it's just obvious, sometimes not. These are just a few of the individual examples.

Now, again, as far as the history of famous Italian baseball players from San Francisco, there are articles which can be easily found online, including a new book on the larger subject of famous Italian-American baseball players. However, these resources are ripe with socialogical references which simply do not apply to our people. We are, comparatively, a very distinct people with very distinct inherent ways. We are certainly not some "transitional group" between Southern Italy and central Europe. Culturally yes, there is an element, from the era of Romanization, of being somewhat "culturally transitional." However, we are not "ethnically transitional." There is no basis for that. Even hard science can prove that now.

This paradigm just is what it is. From our standpoint, it has to be dealt with. I have a cousin, and a few years ago she learned standard Italian. She was likely the first member in the history of my family to speak Italian, which is distinctly the Tuscan language. They were from rural Alpine villages and spoke the Lombard language. This language is part of the Romance family of languages, but it is not a dialect of Italian. There is really no "Italian." That language is intrinsically Tuscan! It did gain a certain status in the Middle Ages, almost like Latin; and did migrate, among the better educated segment of society, into cities in places like Lombardy. To be Cisalpine is to have a genuine connection to the related cultures of the "northern nations" as they existed. There is little negative about the Cisalpines. There was some bad politics for a time, the Venetians had pushed a few people around, the traffic certainly isn't great. What else?

Many Italian-American organizations have complained about the MTV program 'Jersey Shore'. It's a fair enough grievance, but from our point of view, nobody from that program even looks or acts like a Cisalpine anyway. It's not our fight. However, I say that with acknowledgement that there are people whom we would consider "Padanian-Americans" who are partly Southern Italian or Sicilian. There is a point where you have to examine where your heart lies.

The problems with definition in our folk-family: Part 1

2011-09-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

GUILT BY PERCEIVED ASSOCIATION

Last evening, I was viewing the Comedy Central roast of Charlie Sheen. It's what I would consider an acceptable swim in the waters of modern America's "trash culture." Certainly a roast is no place for thin skin; and the "thin-skin issue" is one of debate. My general definition of acceptable disagreement is when someone says something that is either entirely out of proportion, or is simply not true. It's somewhat rare that a stereotype simply IS NOT TRUE, but it does happen.

One of the roasters was Anthony Jeselnik. His surname, although sort've Polish-sounding, might be of Prussian/Silesian (north German) origin. His appearance and demeanor were somewhat of what some would occasionally perceive as a negative German stereotype: tall, lean, muscular, strong blue eyes, a touch of seriousness or self-importance, short brown/blonde hair not quite short enough to call a crew cut; all of which mixed with the playful "chop-busting" attack-mode of the roast, only added to this concept. Of course, sometimes a comedian cultivates a certain persona for their act, and this could be misinterpreted. Later, Amy Schumer, who seemed to be a German-American, playfully poked fun at Jeselnik, saying that he looked like "Hitler Youth," and he responded with a Roman salute. All in good fun, no one or nothing got a break, etc., etc. However, it occurred to me that, although funny, the lines of a politic and the general character of a "folk-group" were certainly blurred.

For whatever it's worth, there were as could be expected, certain jokes of Charlie Sheen's real name of "Carlos Estevez"; and while funny, if really looked at, were based on the fact that he had a grandfather from Spain. He was even called "a Mexican." Too thin skinned? Well, if one was of literal Spanish heritage, would endless false-perceptions and misidentifications with people of a different racial and/or ethnic background always be such a laughing matter? I mean it's almost to the point, in some areas, where a people are denied an identity as a people. In a world where these false-perceptions didn't exist, and someone lets say made fun of me for "being a Fascist" or "being a Anarchist," or even if they disliked me personally and stated it in a more negative way; well, at least it would be based on some fact, as opposed to "organized crime," which would be entirely based on falsehood. I suppose, since I'm a "white person," then "my people were slave owners." I mean, it can just get wilder and wilder. There's a lot of this type of thing around. I remember a certain fast-food restaurant that I frequented at one time. Working there was a very young women with a Spanish accent. Much more of a authentic Spanish accent. She was beautiful, maybe 5'4", somewhat slight of build, somewhat long dark hair, basic brown eyes, a straight nose, ivory skin, with a certain energy and charm, like a Barcelonian! What I'm driving at is that if someone considered her a "non-white" based on her accent, that would be almost.... evil. I would venture to guess that she was probably from the cone of South America. I recall a young woman that I took a college course with who was from Argentina. She might not have even been a Spaniard, but maybe German or French, with blonde hair and blue eyes, but she had the thickest accent of anyone of any language that I ever met I think. Yet, despite that, she was part of our Western family of people.

Although German-Americans are very rarely discriminated against, specifically, there exists at least subtle prejudice against them. I recall working for a company which was owned by two Jewish guys who were very easy to get along with. However, I remember a young guy, the same age as myself at that time, who was hired out've a temp agency. He was a hard worker, and a positive addition to the company. He said that he was a rugby player, although I never got to know him very well. He, I suppose, had a very distinct "north German look"; somewhat tall, lean, muscular, short light blonde hair, and just generally a very north German face (distinctly not Anglo or Scandinavian), although he said that he was "German-Irish." The point is that he was "let go" for no apparent reason. I know, the sword cuts both ways, we all have our problems in life, subtle unfair treatment, blah, blah, blah. I honestly believe that he "looked too German" for them. They did have a guy with a very German-sounding name in a high position, a tall blonde fellow, but he somehow didn't exemplify that stereotype.

"German heritage" pays a certain price today for the past existence of "National Socialism"; while, for example, "Italian heritage" today pays no price whatsoever for "Fascism." Fascism, in its original form, was not invented by Southern Italians, it was invented by some our Cisalpine people. Mussolini was an Emilian. Also, "Jewish heritage" only very marginally pays a price for Communism, which was the invention, originally, of "some Jewish people," although they seemed to have been atheists. Communism murdered, very literally, tens times as many people as National Socialism. Okay, I don't want to got off too much on all that now, but the "subtle prejudice" against "us"---the Cisalpines---in America, is the same basic idea at what might be aimed at Germans. That being: we are tied to a negative concept of organized crime. However, unlike the Germans, who largely (at that time in Germany) went along with National Socialism, we have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do whatsoever with organized crime as it has existed in communities of Southern Italians, Irish, Jews, Russians, or Albanians in the European world.

Black market activity exists in all societies. Always has, always will, but what I am referring to is gangland on a massive scale; and which could never possibly be merely chalked up to "a few bad guys." The fact that these crime figures represent only a very small percentage of those communities doesn't quite always erase the PR damage. There is a subtle overlap between the negative and the positive. So, as with the negative political milieus, there exists this overlap. If anything, some of the bad politics could be somewhat of a blight on our heritage (Fascism, Communism, Anarchism). These negatives, as always, overlap some positive areas... I'm aware of that. It should also be noted that there were regions of Europe where the poverty was more extreme than what existed in Southern Italy, Ireland, Albania, etc. Poverty was as bad, or worse, in Andalucia or Greece, than it was in Sicily or Ireland; yet, there has never been any gangland problem on those places, and many other areas of Europe or elsewhere.

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The Ghost of Cortina d'Ampezzo

2011-08-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

The Ghost of Cortina d'Ampezzo

Cortina d'Ampezzo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortina_D%27Ampezzo

Cortina d'Ampezzo (Ladin: Anpëz, German: Hayden) is a town and comune in the southern (Dolomitic) Alps and the province of Belluno, Veneto, northern Italy. Located in the heart of the Dolomites in an alpine valley, it is a popular winter sport resort known for its ski-ranges, scenery, accommodations, shops and après-ski scene. After the scheduled 1944 Olympics had been cancelled because of WWII, it hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics as well as various world cup events and motion pictures. Much of 1963 classic The Pink Panther, the progenitor of the series, was filmed in Cortina. One of the memorable James Bond stunt sequences in 1981's For Your Eyes Only, gunners on spike-wheeled motorcycles chasing Roger Moore on skis, was filmed on its slopes, as were several scenes in the film Cliffhanger.

Celebrity Ghost Stories DVD available September 20, 2011
http://www.amazon.com/Biography-Celebrity-Ghost-Stories-9dvd/dp/B0054YCDQ6/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1313519644&sr=1-2

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The Ladin People: Part 1

2011-08-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Who are the Ladini people who live in the Dolomites?

from DreamOfItaly channel on YouTube

Kathy McCabe of DreamofItaly.com talks to Karen Pizzolini about the Ladini or Ladins of the Dolomites, an ethnic minority who have their own culture and language and have lived in these valleys for thousands of years. Recorded on September 13, 2009 using a Flip Video camcorder.

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Queen Gambara: Part 1

2011-07-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

Queen Gambara was, as we have covered before, the Winnili Queen who led (with her two sons) the faction which left Scandinavia some sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago due to overpopulation (more attributed to limited resources at that time). I thought that I would attempt to put information about Gambara over time, as it's hard to dig up information on her, and she was an important figure who ultimately gave the command to migrate away from Scandinavia, which of course dramatically affected history and eventually led to the rise of the Langbard Cisalpine Kingdom. She never saw Langbard, but was a founder of it before the fact.

We can put more of a biography later, as it becomes available, but I wanted to just place here a couple of examples of her legacy in terms of surnames and place names. This is remarkable, because she was long gone when the Langobards invaded the Cisalpine territory, which was then under Byzantine Roman control. It should be noted that the female first name of "Gambara" was likely common among Langobard women, which could have contributed to these names as well. However, the legend of the Winnili queen was very much part of the folklore of the Langobards.

"Gàmbara" is a town and comune in the province of Brescia. Brescia is located in Lombardy, which was the hub of the Langobard government. It's not surprising that a location in Lombardy was probably named after Queen Gambara.

The surname Gambara is present today around the region of Lombardy and Emilia. For some reason, offshoots, such as "Gambarini" or "Gambaro," are much more common, and present throughout the north. For centuries, one particular "Gambara family" sat on the Brescian Council, which was the oligarchy who ruled the province. Perhaps that might explain why other families in the region did not take the surname of Gambara.

I have felt a strong connection to Queen Gambara. I almost look to her as one of the Norse gods and goddesses. She was known as a "wise woman" who was trusted by many. They must have held great trust in her after she gave the command to "Go Forth" as the legend has it, and migrate south into the unknown.

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The Death of Gaulish: Part 3

2011-07-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

Language and Identity in the Roman Empire

[from Ancient Web]

The most detailed records we have of ancient Europeans come to us from early Greek historians who describe the various tribes and peoples that lived at the periphery of their known world. A common thread that runs though these narratives is a a distinct sense of otherness, for the peoples being described that were not of Hellenic or Greek stock. These “Barbarians”, a term coined by the later Romans because of the beards they wore, were bereft of any value and systematic forms of civilizations that existed in the Greek world. They were alien to them, useful perhaps as slaves or hired mercenaries, but not a part of the “polis”, the citizen city state that differentiated the perceived noble races form those who still maintained the attributes of the archaic and uncivilized past.

The Romans thoroughly adopted this belief system, and used it as a moral objective to justify their conquest of first the Latin tribes. In the 2nd century BCE , when they quickly expanded from the Italian peninsula , they encountered those same Indo-European peoples as the Greeks had a few centuries earlier. The concept of Roman versus Barbarian become adopted in the social consciousness of every a citizen of the emerging Roman Empire. It was done for political reasons, but also because it had been formulated as a strategic survival myth of origin their earliest tribal history when the Romans were just a confederacy of hill tribes fighting for survival among the various established cultures of Italy. These native inhabitants of the Italian peninsula were part of the earliest migrations to italy, and were predominately made up of Etruscan, Oscan, Samnian, and Umbrian speaking peoples. The Etruscans first controlled the early Latin tribes but were then overthrown by the Romans when they rebelled against their tyrannical kings. Although much of this early history is steeped in legend, one thing is for certain – when the Romans finally overcame their Etruscan overlords, they wanted to establish an identity that was uniquely their own. Those who were seen as not sharing the egalitarian principles of the Romans, and the citizen state republic they had founded, were meant to be conquered and subjugated.

In the first century BCE, the Italian mainland having already been unified under a single banner, the Romans encountered the Celtic tribes of the Po river valley. These Celtic people were the ancestral enemies of the Italians, and started meeting with resistance from Romans as they began encroaching on the northern fringes of Italy. The area south of the Alps was a fertile plain that for centuries had been settled by the Celtic descendants of the first La Tene cultures to inhabit central Europe. These people were not only fundamentally different the the Italic tribes, but were also being pushed upon the Italian borders from the pressure of Germanic tribes moving west. These tribes in turn were being pressured to migrate due to the existence of Slavic tribes that were leaving the steppes of Asia. All these people shared several things in common, in that they represented an earlier warrior centric society that was much different then the "civitas" that the Romans had exemplified. To the Romans, they were all simply "Barbieri", the apotheosis to civilized clean shaven roman centurion. As the Romans conquered and expanded their Empire, they brutally suppressed many of these ancestral cultures of Europe and it is though the Roman conquerors that we have the most detailed narratives of Gauls, Celts, Britains, Germans, Slavs and many other groups of people they conquered. All these depictions have a fundamental flaw that obscures our visibility into the distant reality of theses ancient lives. And although the Roman historians speak of them as heroic warriors worthy of confrontation, they consistently reject them as uncivilized and undeserving of the culture the Romans could share with them.

Later, the Romans carved out provinces out of their lands, and ordered these based on what they perceived to be the cultural and linguistic groupings of these people. These provinces were somewhat artificial as the languages and regional differences of the tribes within each cultural area was tremendous,There was also not a clear distinct division between tribes that formulated the border zones of one cultural sphere to another. In the province of Hispania for example, the hinterland between the Celtic late comers, and the original Iberian inhabitants, was populated by hybrid Celti-Iberian tribes that possessed qualities of both these peoples. In the province of Gaul, the Celts were in fact part of a larger cultural entity primarily based on a the notion that they shared the same Brythonic Celtic language. But pockets of pre-Celtic people still existed in the peripheries, some disappearing from the record completely, while others existing to this day like the Vacones (Basques) and Rheatian speaking peoples of Switzerland. On the borders of the empire things were even more transient with Celto-Germanic tribes mixing with Germanic or Slavic speaking peoples. The Belgae, inhabiting roughly the same region as their namesake today, were actually various tribes with varying degrees of Celtic and Germanic influences. In the 1st century CE as the Romans began conquering lands further east they encountered various mountain tribes and nomadic tribes of the Pannonian plains, whom they simply grouped as Dacians despite the ethno-linguistic differences in their region. Over time the Romanization of these regions created a new ethnic commonality. In a sense, the Romans helped create new and more homogenous groups of people based on provincial boundaries they created. Even Greece itself did not achieve political unity until the Romans declared her a possession. Their conquest hastened the dissolution of the regional dialects of Ionic or Doric peoples, but helped preserve the development of a Greek nation state based on a common language.

But who were these people through their own eyes? Where they the blue painted Celts that had sacked Rome, only to be driven back north to their cold northern forests? Where they the Germanic barbarians that later invaded the crumbling empire destroying all that remained of civilization? Or were they the ancestors of the people that inhabit those regions today?

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This article is very illuminating. For one thing, it shows how the Romans were usurpers in the central peninsula. The Etruscans and Umbrians were extremely advanced, and I believe did not need the Romans and/or an imperial superpower to influence the less technologically advanced regions. If Etruria was like the United States, then the Romans were like today's Globalists.

The first part of the third paragraph (italicized in red) absolutely hits the nail right on the head as far as the Cisalpine Gauls were concerned, and how they were perceived by the central Italic tribes in a historical, cultural, and ethnic context. "These Celtic people were the ancestral enemies of the Italians...." Okay, the wording of that is in an ancient context, but it still accurately sums up the situation which existed.

The Roman's carved out borders which changed even the identity of various peoples. It's interesting to note that Greece, like the southern Italian peninsula, was made up of different cultures with different languages and customs; and only later under the Roman provincial administration, did they become unified. Of course, they were probably pretty similar to start with and had a common history.

Lastly, and this is extremely interesting, there were pre-Celtic tribes existing in Gaul itself. Perhaps very ancient Alpine tribes, just like existed in Cisalpine Gaul. Also in Hispania, with Alpine tribes like the Vacones (Basques) living side-by-side with Celtiberian tribes. I don't believe that these tribes were of Mediterranean stock, but were the descendants of some of the very first Europeans.

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The Death of Gaulish: Part 2

2011-07-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Gaulish language (Wikipedia)

The Gaulish (also Gallic) language is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken by the Gauls, a people who inhabited the region known as Gaul (Cisalpine and Transalpine) from the Iron Age through the Roman period. It was historically spoken through what are now mainly France, northern Italy, Switzerland, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and western Germany before being supplanted by Vulgar Latin and various Germanic languages from around the 4th century onwards. Gaulish is paraphyletically grouped with Celtiberian as Continental Celtic. Lepontic is considered to be either a dialect of or a language closely related to Gaulish. Galatian is the form of Gaulish spoken in in Asia Minor after 281 BC.

Gaulish is a P-Celtic language, though some inscriptions (e.g. the Coligny Calendar) potentially show Q-Celtic characteristics (however, this is a matter of debate among Celticists). Gaulish has a very close relationship to Insular Celtic (Goidelic and Brythonic), and many forms are identical in the two. Epigraphical remains have been uncovered across all of what used to be Roman Gaul, which covered modern France, as well as parts of Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Belgium.

History

The earliest Continental Celtic inscriptions, dating to as early as the 6th century BC, are in Lepontic, found in Cisalpine Gaul and were written in a form of the Old Italic alphabet. Inscriptions in the Greek alphabet from the 3rd century BC have been found in the area near the mouths of the Rhône, while later inscriptions dating to Roman Gaul are mostly in the Latin alphabet. According to Julius Caesar, the Gauls (Galli in Latin; Caesar tells us that they called themselves Celtae in their own tongue) were one of three groups who inhabited Gaul, the other two being the Aquitani and the Belgae.

According to his treatise On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis, Saint Irenaeus of Lyon still needed to preach in Gaulish in his diocese during the last quarter of the 2nd century AD. Saint Jerome (ca. 340-425) remarks in a commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians that the Treveri spoke almost the same language as the Galatians. Gregory of Tours wrote in the 6th century that a sanctuary in the Auvergne was "called Vasso Galate in the Gallic tongue", which has been taken to mean that Gaulish was still spoken in the region in his time. However, his remark primarily refers to the linguistic origin of the place name, not necessarily to the survival of the language.

Inscriptions are often difficult to interpret and reveal only fragments of continuous language.

Today, the French language contains approximately 150 (if we exclude the dialectal and the derived words) up to 180 words known to be of Gaulish origin, most of which concern pastoral activity, that is the largest stock of Celtic words in a Romance language, that could contain all together a stock of about 400 words.

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It goes without saying that few people identify the defeat of the Gauls at the hands of the Romans with the initial conquest of Cisalpine Gaul. This defeat was not the usual political defeat, but the absolute defeat of an entire culture, language, and spirituality. The Romans were also good at historical revisionism to suit their political ends. It shouldn't be forgotten that the Etruscans also opposed the Romans, even allying themselves with the Cisalpine Gallic tribes.

The Death of Gaulish: Part 1

2011-07-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

'The Death of Gaulish' - Dr. Nicholas Ostler - Chairman, Foundation for Endangered Languages

The Romans gave Europe a lot, but what did they take away?

The Gauls had a rich and complex culture - including their own belief-system, religion, art and language.

But not three or four centuries after the Julius Caesar's army defeated them, the language was completely lost to Latin and with it soon went all trace of their culture and beliefs. Today we are left only with a few inexplicable artifacts from a people we no longer have any connection to.

Dr Nicholas Ostler here explains this single example of language hegemony across the Roman Empire, pointing out the great loss of culture and identity that came with it: "When people give up their language, they inevitably give up their culture too."

The application of this historical example to the present day should speak for itself.

This is a part of Dr Nick Ostler's 'Why should we protect endangered languages?'

The full talk can be downloaded, along with any of the other four lectures from the conference on Rare and Endangered languages, from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/symposium-rare-and-endangered-languages

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Gaulish was the pre-Roman language of a large European land mass, which included Gaul, much of we today call Germany, and Cisalpine Gaul. Click here to hear an example of what the Gaulish language probably sounded like. It's also important to remember that Celtic-related languages were spoken from Ireland to Spain to the Black Sea and Turkey. There is one YouTuber who has gathered a lot of evidence which apparently shows many similarities in words between Irish Gaelic and Albanian. Maybe we can look at that another time, but we do know that there was a common origin of Gaulish.

Much of the replaced culture centered around the Cernic spiritual tradition, of which we know very little. It seemed to be a very complex religion based around the earth, the seasons, nature, constellations, elements, etc. It took many years for someone to complete their training. Much of it was Druidic, and mostly male-oriented, but in many areas it was very female-oriented. From everything that I have looked at so far, the Cernic tradition was the more female-oriented one. It's still very unclear to me... the connection between the Druidic and the Cernic.

One thing could be said for certain. The Romans dramatically changed things forever. Once I was listening to a folk song, sung in the Lombard language of Lombardy. It sounded almost like French to me. More French than Italian (Tuscan). One reason may be that the French language derived from the linguistic switch from Gaulish to Latin, which also occurred in Lombardy, Piedmont, and perhaps elsewhere.

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Remembering Kevin Restani

2011-06-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

Remembering Kevin Restani

[from RiordanHS.org; see above link for more information]

April 25, 2011 marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of a basketball and San Francisco legend Kevin Restani. Kevin’s unexpected death left a void in the lives of those that knew him, especially his family from Archbishop Riordan High School and the Olympic Club.

Archbishop Riordan High School President, Patrick W. Daly and Olympic Club Foundation Chair, Steve Carnevale came together to develop a partnership to recognize the accomplishments of this extraordinary man.

Kevin was a loving husband and a gifted athlete who enjoyed spending countless hours helping children in need. It was decided in order to recognize Kevin’s life, the gymnasium at Archbishop Riordan would receive a complete overhaul and be named after him. The new facility will be called the Kevin Restani Sports Arena. The Olympic Club Foundation with Archbishop Riordan and its alumni community are excited about making this project a successful partnership.

Phil Galvin, Director of Basketball Operations at the Olympic Club stated “This is the right job for us [the Olympic Club Foundation] to do. Everything Kevin started was in the Riordan gym. If you were to tell him [Kevin] this is what was going to happen, he would say, “Yeah, absolutely!” There is no one more deserving of such an honor for what he did for this school [Archbishop Riordan], the city, and the Olympic Club. He was truly one of a kind.”

Archbishop Riordan High and the Olympic Club Foundation are excited to be embarking upon the initial phase of an athletic renovation campaign at Archbishop Riordan High School. The plan looks to the future of archbishop Riordan while memorializing Kevin, a class of 1970 graduate from Archbishop Riordan High School and an integral member of the Olympic Club basketball Program.

This initial phase of the renovation, the Remembering Restani Campaign, charts a clear and focused course to address the capital needs of the current facility. the goal is to modernize the existing gymnasium. The modernized facility will meet the needs of archbishop Riordan student/athletes and youth athletics.

The Remembering Restani Campaign encompasses the replacement of the gym floor, lights, baskets and lower bowl seating, as well as renovations and upgrades to the main locker room, team rooms, and offices. The modernization of the Restani sports arena is the first step of a three phase athletic facilities campaign. With a state-of-the-art gymnasium and projected new facilities, Archbishop Riordan will provide modern athletic facilities to meet the needs of its diverse student body and the youth of San Francisco.

The renovation of the Restani Sports Arena will introduce a new grand lobby. The lobby’s focus will be the Kevin Restani Memorial Wall.

The current estimated cost of the gymnasium renovation is $3.2 million. Raising funds to begin construction by spring 2012 is the goal of the school and the Olympic Club Foundation.

Lunardi's Market: Wine Tastina in San Bruno

2011-05-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Lunardi's Supermarket
2801 San Bruno Avenue West
San Bruno, CA 94066

San Bruno Only - June Schedule:

* Friday, June 3 - J Winery, 4-7 PM

* Saturday, June 4 - Belle Glos, Mersoleil, 1-4 PM

* Friday, June 10 - Wines of Argentina, 4-7 PM

* Saturday, June 11 - Chateau Ste Michelle, 1-4 PM

* Friday, June 24 - Bear Ridge Wines, 4-7 PM

* Saturday, June 25 - Lou's Selections, 1-4 PM

The Lunardi family of San Francisco and San Mateo County, and proprietors of Lunardi's Markets, are originally from Lucca, Tuscany. This looks like a good combination of local and international wines. Also, the promotion of Argentine wines ties very much into our Cisalpine heritage as well.

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The Etruscan Roots of The Twilight Saga

2011-04-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

The Etruscan Roots of The Twilight Saga

Bija Knowles - November 20, 2009

Were there vampires in Volterra? Probably not, but the Etruscans had their own brigade of gods and demons representing night, death and resurrection.

'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' release fuels vampire mania around the world. While teenagers go completely nuts over the film's hunky vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) – one wrote 'bite me' on her face as she queued with 5,000 others to see him in London last week – other die-hard fans of the Twilight books, written by Stephenie Meyers, are also descending on the small hill-top town of Volterra, in Tuscany, where some of the action of the film is set (even though filming actually took place in Montepulciano, 70 miles away). As a result, hoards of teenagers have been visiting Volterra – a town with Etruscan roots and its own heritage of Etruscan demons, gods and goddesses associated with death, resurrection and the night.

The Twilight Saga isn't the only vampire story to grace our screens lately. The popular US series True Blood – about a young woman in Louisiana who also falls in love with a vampire – based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, also gathered cult status, adding to the growing body of vampire fiction on our bookshelves and on our screens. The nineties saw the likes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Interview with a Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula as well as From Dusk Till Dawn. The 21st century has seen vampire fever take over with Van Helsing, more Buffy and now Twilight and True Blood.

In fact, Dracula is the most often-portrayed fictional character in film. So what is it about vampires? There must be something about the blood-sucking, garlic-fearing, sun-dodging demons that strikes a chord with modern audiences – and indeed audiences since the early 18th century, when, following a vampire craze in the 1720s and 1730s, a poem called The Vampire, by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, was published in 1748. Vampires soon became a stock part of gothic fiction but they also had a romantic and erotic side to their personae, seducing women at night with their vampire's kiss of death.

To this day vampires are often portrayed as being quite sexy – think Robert Pattinson or True Blood's Stephen Moyer. However, the modern romantic vampire hero has more in common with figures from ancient mythology, rather than the vampire of Eastern European folklore (an altogether more corpse-like and unappetising kind of creature). The Incubus and the Succubus, dating back to the Sumerian kings of Mesopotamia (under the name of Lilu and Lilitu), were demons that appeared at night and seduced dreamers, often into erotic acts against their will.

Other figures from ancient mythology share some of the vampire's traits. In ancient Egypt, Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess of Upper Egypt, was associated with blood-lust and with drinking blood (mythology has it that she drank a liquid resembling blood to quench her thirst for violence). The ancient Greeks and Romans also had their share of supernatural figures and demi-gods, including Hecate the witch-like figure and her daughter Empusa, who sucked the blood of the men she seduced while they slept. The Lamia was another demon in female form, renowned for sucking the blood of children and young men, while the Strixes were nocturnal bird-like creatures of Greek and Roman mythology, who ate human flesh and blood.

Closely connected with Greek and Roman mythology was the Etruscan pantheon, which also had its dark side. The Etruscans had several gods, goddesses and demons associated with death, the underworld, the night and resurrection. Some of the gods and goddesses included Artume, Vetis, Mania and Tvath. Etruscan demons of death include the Charontes, Tuchulcha (a grotesque demon from the underworld with donkey's ears and snakes for hair and hands) and Vanth (a herald of death with eyes on her wings).

Given the rich Etruscan mythology with many figures associated with death and the underworld, it's fitting that Volterra – an important Etruscan centre, known as Velathri to the Etruscans – is the setting for the new Twilight film. Volterra was a settlement since neolithic times and was then colonised by the Etruscan Velathri during the 8th century BC, while the city wall was built in the fourth century BC. It became one of the 12 important Etruscan city states but in the third century BC came under Roman control. An impressive Augustan-era amphitheatre, some fourth century AD baths as well as an Etruscan acropolis, are some of the important heritage sites in Volterra.

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Queen Theodelinda: The Cisalpine St. Patrick, and "most glorious queen"

2011-03-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

We have covered Queen Theodelinda many times on this blog, and will continue to do so. A simple search will bring up past writings on her, so there is no need to repeat everything. Theodelinda was a Frankish princess from Bavaria, of partly royal Langobard ancestry, who married the Langobard King Authari. The Langobards and Franks had much intermarriage within their ruling classes.

It should be noted that Theodelinda was the granddaughter of the Langobard King Waccho; and that she was the ninth Winilli/Langobard queen (the first being Queen Gambara).

The ruling classes of Germanic society, prior to a millennium ago, are not to be confused with the royals of more recent centuries. For example, the Langobard king used to lead the army in battle, sometimes leading the charge.

Some of the Catholic institutions artistically portrayed her as much less than beautiful despite clear evidence to the contrary. It's a well-known fact that she was very beautiful. King Authari, before agreeing to marry her, sent emissaries to Bavaria to see her. According to Paul the Deacon, simply to see that she was physically adequate. Upon seeing that she was a tall beautiful blonde, they quickly returned to Langbard to inform King Authari. She seems to have worn her hair long prior to becoming queen.

Not to confuse "looks" with deeds, but some of the drab portrayals of her is a type of historical slander. I would like to see some new revisionist artwork on her. Some revisionists believe that she was a vastly underrated historical figure. Like St. Patrick did in Ireland, she brought Catholicism to the Langobards and Cisalpines. She seemingly could very well have been declared a Catholic saint.

The queen had the Cathedral of Monza constructed, which has since housed the famous Iron Crown of Lombardy. The crown is said to have been fashioned with one of the nails used in the crucifixion of Christ. King Authari died after two years of the marriage, and she was loved so much by the people that they wanted her to remain their ruler. I know sometimes we're fed lines like that regarding historical figures, but in this case it seems to be very true from everything that I've read. A year later she chose a new husband, Agilulf. The Wikipedia page on her, not to mention mainstream history itself, has left a lot to be desired!

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From the Medieval History Journal:

Theodelinda, 'Most Glorious Queen': Gender and Power in Lombard Italy

Ross Balzaretti

School of History and Art History, Nottingham University, Nottingham NG72RD, UK

Abstract

Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards (590-628), has been known for long to historians through the portrait depicted by Paul the Deacon in his Historia Langobardorum. However, as this was written some 150 years after the queen's death, its evidence needs to be treated with great caution. In this essay, the earliest contemporary evidence of Theodelinda's life is examined and compared to Paul's account. The latter turns out to be a highly-gendered representation, made up largely by Paul. Nevertheless, the early evidence (Gregory the Great's letters and various short historical texts) does show that she was a 'most glorious queen'.

[Right: A depiction of Queen Theodelinda from one of the frescoes in the Theodelinda Chapel in Monza, Lombardy, painted by people who actually saw the queen and knew what she looked like.]

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Theodelinda (Wikipedia page):

Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, (c. 570-628) was the daughter of duke Garibald I of Bavaria.

She was married first in 588 to Authari, king of the Lombards, son of king Cleph. Authari died in 590. Theodelinda was allowed to pick Agilulf as her next husband and Authari's successor in 591. She thereafter exerted much influence in restoring Nicene Christianity (the mainstream, in 1054 split by the East-West Schism in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) to a position of primacy in Italy against its rival, Arian Christianity.

After the conversion of Agilulf to the Catholic faith, she started building churches in Lombardy and Tuscany, among them the cathedral of Monza and the first Baptistery of Florence. They were all dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.

The famous treasure of Monza contains the Iron Crown of Lombardy and the theca persica, enclosing a text from the Gospel of John, sent by Pope Gregory I (590-604) to her for her son Adaloald. Another of the gifts of this pope to the Lombard queen was a cruciform encolpion (reliquary) containing a portion of the True Cross.

Arts

The history of the queen and her connection with the famous Iron Crown of Lombardy are narrated in the frescoes painted in the Theodelinda Chapel in the Cathedral of Monza, work by Ambrogio and Gregorio Zavattari (1444).

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Grana Padano

2011-03-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

Recently I was shopping at Trader's Joe's and I saw a product called "Grana Padano Parmesan." One of the things that I thought was important is the use of the word "Padano" ("Padanian" or "Padan" in English), which can be loosely translated to "of the Po River Valley." There are those who would even deny that much as far as the legitimacy of the word. On top of that, this cheese product is tied into our culture. It should be noted that the product name "Grana Padano Parmesan" was used to sell a product, and is not really accurate. Grana Padano is a little different than Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano), although both are similar.

[Right: A Grana Padano wheel]

From Grana Padano Wikipedia page

Grana Padano is one of the most popular Denominazione di Origine Controllata cheeses of Italy. The name comes from the noun grana (‘grain’), which refers to the distinctively grainy texture of the cheese, and the adjective Padano, which refers to the valley Pianura Padana.

Grana Padano is one of the world's first hard cheeses, created nearly 1,000 years ago by the Cistercian monks of Chiaravalle Abbey, founded in 1135 near Milan, who used ripened cheese as a way of preserving surplus milk. By the year 1477, it was regarded as one of the most famous cheeses of Italy. It can last a long time without spoiling, sometimes aging up to two years. It is made in a similar way to the Parmigiano Reggiano of Emilia-Romagna but over a much wider area and with different regulations and controls. Other Grana cheeses are also made in Lombardy, Piedmont, Trentino, and Veneto.

Like Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano is a semi-fat hard cheese which is cooked and ripened slowly (for at least 9 months, then, if it passes the quality tests, it will be fire-branded with the Grana padano trademark). The cows are milked twice a day, the milk is left to stand, and then partially creamed. Milk produced in the evening is skimmed to remove the surface layer of cream and mixed with fresh milk produced in the morning. The partly skimmed milk is transferred into copper kettles and coagulated; the resulting curd is cut to produce granules with the size of rice grains, which gives the cheese its characteristic texture, and then cooked to 53-56°C. It is produced year-round and the quality can vary seasonally as well as by year. Though similar to Parmiggiano Reggiano cheese, the younger Grana Padano cheeses are less crumbly, milder and less complex in flavor than their more famous longer-aged relative. Grana Padano is widely considered inferior in quality than Parmigiano-Reggiano. Nevertheless many Italians prefer Grana Padano over Parmigiano-Reggiano mainly for the lower price.

A wheel of Grana Padano is cylindrical, with slightly convex or almost straight sides and flat faces. It measures 35 to 45 cm in diameter, and 15 to 18 cm in height. It weighs 24 to 40 kg (53 to 88 lbs) per wheel. The rind, which is thin, is white or straw yellow.

Grana Padano is sold in three different ripening stages:

* "Grana Padano" (9 to 16 months): texture still creamy, only slightly grainy.
* "Grana Padano oltre 16 mesi" (over 16 months): crumblier texture, more pronounced taste.
* "Grana Padano Riserva" (over 20 months): grainy, crumbly and full flavoured.
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Ernest Borgnine: Padan descendant

2011-02-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

[Above: Ernest Borgnine is honored with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award on January 30, 2011]

Borgnine, who is Piedmontese and Emilian descent, has a long biography that we won't post here (see the below link). It's remarkable that he won an Academy Award for best actor in 1955 (for his portrayal of Marty Piletti in the film Marty), and he is still so active today at age 94 (four movies in 2010). It's just by chance that we became aware of his Padan ancestry. Please send any information regarding other famous Cisalpine-descended people in the world.

Ernest Borgnine (from his Wikipedia page):

Ernest Borgnine (born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917) is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty. On television, he played Quinton McHale in the 1962-66 series McHale's Navy and costarred in the mid-1980s action series Airwolf in adition to a wide variety of other roles. Borgnine earned an Emmy nomination at age 92 for his work on the series ER.

Galileo Galilei: The Father of Science

2011-02-25T13:14:00.000-08:00

Once I overheard an unemotional person of extremely high intelligence--not of Cisalpine descent--state enthusiastically that a genius like Galileo comes around only once a century! That got my attention, and it stuck in my memory.

One frequent mention on this blog has to do with not being able to do some of the subjects justice like they may deserve. In this case, I won't even try! I was perhaps waiting for that, but it won't happen here. To say the least, Galileo was one of the most important figures in world history. In the top ten.

"Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science." --Stephen Hawking

From the intro of Wikipedia's Galileo Galilei page:

Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly known as Galileo, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations, and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the Father of Modern Science". Stephen Hawking says, "Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science."

The motion of uniformly accelerated objects, taught in nearly all high school and introductory college physics courses, was studied by Galileo as the subject of kinematics. His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honour), and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.

Galileo's championing of Copernicanism was controversial within his lifetime, when a large majority of philosophers and astronomers still subscribed to the geocentric view that the Earth is at the centre of the universe. After 1610, when he began publicly supporting the heliocentric view, which placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, he met with bitter opposition from some philosophers and clerics, and two of the latter eventually denounced him to the Roman Inquisition early in 1615. In February 1616, although he had been cleared of any offence, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as "false and contrary to Scripture", and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it—which he promised to do. When he later defended his views in his most famous work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, he was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy", forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest.

The Atmospheres of Padanian Alps

2011-02-24T20:31:00.000-08:00

The Atmospheres of Padanian Alps

From YouTube channel Bogoljubskij

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What is very interesting about this video is the unique architecture of the Padan Alps. It's so unique, and different than Switzerland and the Alpine German regions.

"Gallo" as a surname

2011-02-23T18:11:00.000-08:00

The surname "Gallo" is found throughout the Italian peninsula. It means "Gallic" or "Gaulish," which goes back to Cisalpine Gaul, or even to Gaul itself. It is the Celtic equivalent to the Langobard originated "Lombardi."

Both surnames, and their variations, are common in the north and south, but not the central. In the north, they're common for obvious reasons. In the south, probably due to the fact that a Langobard or Gaul was unusual, hence making it a surname. In the central Italian peninsula, perhaps they were thought of as somewhat of a nuisance due to close proximity, making a surname less likely. However, that is only speculation.

Only recently did I really look at Gallo as a strong heritage name. Its origin may have come from Roman times, if someone was either from Gaul or was a governor, military figure, or businessman who had many dealings with the Roman province of Gaul.

If "Gallo" is used as the first portion of a hyphenated name, then it could mean various things. It might actually mean Gallic, usually if it was in reference to something from ancient or Roman times, or in an anthropological manner. It may also refer to a family, like the Gallo wine family of northern California. It's possible that it might refer to certain regions of the Italian peninsula as well.

It should be pointed out that the surname is particularly common to Piemonte, Liguria, west Lombardy, and the Veneto; and also in Campania and Calabria. Oddly, it's extremely common in west Lombardy, but not very common in east Lombardy. It's also not very common in any area of the north or central outside of the above mentioned areas.

Friulan language

2011-02-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia's Friulan language page:

Friulan (furlan or affectionately marilenghe in Friulan, friulano in Italian), is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family, spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy. Friulan has around 800,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian. It is sometimes called Eastern Ladin, since it shares the same roots as Ladin, although over the centuries it has diverged under the influence of surrounding languages, including German, Italian, Venetian, and Slovene. Documents in Friulan are attested from the 11th century, and poetry and literature dating as far back as 1300. By the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in the language, which has continued to this day.

Native speakers refer to anything of Friulan culture, including themselves, as "Friûl." One great way to really get into the spirit of any culture is to find those online translators, like Friulan, and look up various words. In time, you will find aspects of history within those words, even just on your own by seeing similar spelling in other related languages. Friuli is, of course, in the northeast corner of our ancestral homeland, at high Alpine elevation. It was a crossroads between the Cisalpine world, the German world, and the Slavic world. It borders the Tri-Veneto area, Austria, and Slovenia.

When the Romans invaded the region in 181 BC, the natives were called the "Carni" and spoke a Celtic language. Since then many influences have completely altered the language. Roman, Ladin (a similar neighboring people), Langobard, Slavic, Venetian, French, and probably others, have left their linguistic imprint on the Friulan language.

There is so much to say about Friuli, that it's hard to focus only on the native language. The linguistic influences do say a lot about the Friulan people within a historical context. They're a facinating element of the Padan circle of native peoples.

Even within Friuli, there are variants of the language. How is that for confusion? Also, the regionally overlapping Ladin people, with a similar language, adds even more to the confusion. Just to give a few examples of Fruilan words with a clear origin in another historical language:

bussâ, to kiss (German)

zigâ, to shout (old Alpine Slavic)

cudiç devil (Slovene)

sbregâ, to tear (Langobardic)

bragons, trousers (Carnic/Celtic)

canucje, straw (Venetian)

pardabon, really (French)

Do take a look at the above link, as I just can't do this subject justice. This may be the most facinating Padan language of them all. Also, try some of the online translators like Logos; as well as some of the Italian-Friulan translators (you may need to go from English to Italian to Friulan). See also Friulan literature.

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World Padanian Nation II: World Cisalpine Kindred

2011-02-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

World Padanian Nation II: World Cisalpine Kindred

World Padanian Nation: World Cisalpine Kindred

Mondo Nazione Padana: Mondo Affine Cisalpina

Mundo Nación Padano: Mundo Parientes Cisalpina

Monde Nation Padanien: Monde Apparenté Cisalpine

Mundo Nação Padano: Mundo Afim Cisalpina

Wereld Padaniaans Natie: Wereld Cisalpine Verwanten

[Music: 'Slow It Down' by Phantom Blue]
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Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and Cisalpine Heritage

2011-02-14T12:08:00.000-08:00

[Above: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]

I actually had intended on this entry being posted prior to last weeks Super Bowl game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. Both cities have a long history with our Cisalpine people. Green Bay, which is a port city in the Great Lakes, ties in with our century-plus history in that region. Pittsburgh ties in more with our history in some of the bigger cities of the northeast.

Green Bay's Cisalpine history seems to tie in more with the north Cisalpines, while Pittsburgh simply counts a sizable number of Tuscans in it's "Italian-American" population. Pittsburgh, of course, is a bigger city. Green Bay, interestingly, also has a Tuscan population. All of this should be thought of in a historical sense, as well as a modern one.

In Pittsburgh, the Tuscan heritage is largely from the Lucca province. There is a seemingly large Lucchesi nel Mondo group there. Also interesting, and maybe someone can clue us in more on this subject, is evidence of chain-migration over many decades from Lucca. Green Bay also has some ties to Tuscany. There is a group there called the Green Bay Italo-Americano Club, which was founded by a native of Lucca.

[Right: Green Bay, Wisconsin]

Like so much of our history on this side of the Atlantic, we always have to fill in the blanks. There is not a lot written about people from specific areas and their shared experiences. We do know that the port cities of the Great Lakes, and the surrounding area, were areas of settlement for Cisalpine people; and western Pennsylvania was also an area of sizable Cisalpine settlement.

The "Italy runestones"

2011-01-30T10:52:00.000-08:00

Although, on the runestones, the location of the death of the warriors was linguistically translated as "Lombardy," it appears that they actually died fighting in one of the two southern Italian regions of Spoleto and Benevento under Byzantine service. Those two former southern duchies of the Langobards did continue on after Charlemagne destroyed the Langbard Kingdom. This would completely change the historical context of these runestones.

From Wikipedia's "Italy runestones" page:

"The Italy Runestones are three or four Varangian Runestones from 11th century Sweden that talk of warriors who died in Langbarðaland ("Land of the Lombards"), the Old Norse name for Italy. On these rune stones it is southern Italy that is referred to (Langobardia), but the Rundata project renders it rather anachronistically as Lombardy.

"The rune stones are engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark, and two of them are found in Uppland and one or two in Södermanland.

"The memorials are probably raised in memory of members of the Varangian Guard, the elite guard of the Byzantine Emperor, and they probably died while fighting in southern Italy against Normans or Muslims. Many of their brothers-in-arms are remembered on the 28 Greece Runestones most of which are found in the same part of Sweden.

"The young men who applied for a position in the Varangian guard were not uncouth roughnecks, as in the traditional stereotype, but instead, it appears that they were usually fit and well-raised young warriors who were skilled in weapons. They were the kind of warriors who were welcome as the elite troops of the Byzantine Emperor, and who the rulers of Kievan Rus' requested from Scandinavia when they were under threat."

From Wikipedia's "Varangians" page:

"Varangian Guard

"Basil II's distrust of the native Byzantine guardsmen, whose loyalties often shifted with fatal consequences, as well as the proven loyalty of the Varangians, led him to employ them as his personal bodyguards. This new force became known as the Varangian Guard. Over the years, new recruits from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway kept a predominantly Scandinavian cast to the organization until the late 11th century. So many Scandinavians left to enlist in the guard that a medieval Swedish law from Västergötland stated that no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire.

"In the eleventh century, there were also two other European courts that recruited Scandinavians: Kievan Rus' c. 980–1060 and London 1018–1066. Steven Runciman, in The History of the Crusades, noted that by the time of the Emperor Alexios Komnenos, the Byzantine Varangian Guard was largely recruited from Anglo-Saxons and "others who had suffered at the hands of the Vikings and their cousins the Normans". The Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples shared with the Vikings a tradition of faithful (to death if necessary) oath-bound service, and after the Norman Conquest of England there were many fighting men who had lost their lands and former masters and looked for a living elsewhere."

Quintessential experience when in Italy: The opera

2011-01-29T09:52:00.000-08:00

Quintessential experience when in Italy: The opera

By Giovanna Dell'orto - Associated Press - June 24, 2011

MILAN, Italy – Opera is as fundamental to Italy's soul as the Colosseum, Michelangelo or pasta. To attend an opera performance here in the summer is a quintessential Italian experience — especially if you're willing to brave the often-byzantine process for getting last-minute but astonishingly cheap tickets.

"I don't understand a word of Italian, but I had to be here for the experience," Dr. Ravindran Kanesvaran, a young oncologist from Singapore, confessed in a whisper as we waited in La Scala, Italy's most famous opera house, for the crimson curtain to open on "Aida."

Top tickets for the season-opener at La Scala in Milan go for about $2,400 (2,000 euros), but the last-minute seats Kanesvaran and I got for a midseason sold-out performance cost just $15 (12 euros).

The basic concept of opera — putting dramatic presentations to music — is universal, but the modern version was created at the end of the 16th century for Italian aristocracy. Largely thanks to late tenor and native son Luciano Pavarotti, it has become part of pop culture here.

Teatro alla Scala, the theater's official full name, was one of three iconic venues I hit last summer. It's the must-do for acoustics and prestige. The other two are notable in part for their settings: Arena di Verona, an almost-intact Roman amphitheater in Verona; and Torre del Lago Puccini, where another open-air theater sits on the bank of a marshy lake in Tuscany. It's next to the place where Giacomo Puccini composed many of his most famous operas.

From champagne flutes in gilded halls to a panini picnic on 1,900-year-old steps, the three evenings couldn't have been more different. Here are some details, along with a word of caution: Some shows have been canceled this year due to wildcat strikes over new government regulations.

TEATRO ALLA SCALA: Never mind that I was perched high above the swirls of gilded flowers and red velvet draperies, above four tiers of regal boxes and nearly up against the rosette-covered ivory ceiling. The firefighter on duty at the top gallery row inside this fantastically opulent 1770s theater approved of my choice of seat.

Top critics, he said, like to be in the gallery so no abundance of visual flourish could distract them from the sublime listening. No serious opera connoisseur myself, I found it hard not to be absorbed by Franco Zeffirelli's lavish staging of Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida."

Premiered in 1871 in Cairo, and next year at La Scala, the opera tells a tragic tale of love and pharaonic intrigue in ancient Egypt. The grandest of grand operas, its staging that July night was a profusion of massive choruses against gigantic hieroglyphs.

Then Radames, the hero captain of the Egyptian guards who spurns his king's daughter to love her slave, Aida, with devastating consequences for all, sang out the most celebrated solo aria, "Celeste Aida."

And I realized the firefighter was right. Eyes shut, I let myself be transported by this most poignantly lyrical political tirade masquerading as love song. After all, the paeans for lost motherlands sung by Radames and other Verdi characters are but thinly veiled, urgent calls to arms.

That was clear to Italians as well as to their foreign occupiers 150 years ago. In the 19th century, revolts rocked Italy until unification. Verdi, composing operas filled with appeals to freedom and cries against tyrants, literally became the voice of the patriotic Risorgimento movement.

He was so revered as a founding father of modern Italy that when he lay dying in his suite, steps from La Scala, the streets were covered in straw so no noise would disturb the maestro.

Listening to Verdi's music at La Scala is an immersion not only in art but history, and well worth the day I spent getting a rush ticket.

But the procedure was tortuous: Around 11:30 a.m., I got in line outside the theater so that my name would be among the 140 taken down by volunteers at the roll-call beginning at 1 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., I got in line again to be given a number, with which I queued one last time to get the ticket that would finally grant me entry that evening. But it only cost a fraction of the front-row $300 tickets.

ARENA DI VERONA: If "Aida" is the grandest of Italian operas, its most stunning staging is at Verona's Arena, a first-century Roman amphitheater that has hosted theater performances since the early 1700s.

In the warm July dusk, I sat on the top row of giant limestone steps, as the sunset cast a salmon-pink glow over the city's medieval bell-towers and vine-covered hills, while strings opened the first notes.

In the 19,000-seat open-air arena, it's hard to distinctly make out the lyrics, but no setting can better display Verdi's dramatic monumentality. And Verdi's popular appeal is nowhere more apparent than in the contrast between the informal feel of the audience sharing jugs of wine and sandwiches on the steps and the over-the-top staging.

The first massive, full-orchestra chorus invoking war against Egypt's Ethiopian invaders was so thrillingly powerful that even the director jumped up and down. In "Celeste Aida," the tenor's lone voice miraculously filled the entire arena as the city disappeared in the darkness.

But the Arena experience is truly unsurpassable in "Aida'"s most famous moment, the triumphal march celebrating Radames' victorious return.

As trumpeters rang out deceptively simple notes, guards carrying torches filed down and lined up along one-third of the arena.

Four white horses pranced on the obelisk-fringed stage and knelt before the pharaoh while a ballet troupe swirled among the palms and sphinxes. The two toddlers sprawled between me and their German-speaking parents seemed as utterly enthralled as I was.

When "Aida" inaugurated the first summer opera season at the Arena in 1913, the audience included Puccini, whose operas are as renowned as Verdi's, though at the other end of the emotional spectrum.

Where Verdi's music excites fury and glory, Puccini's aims straight at the heart with sensuous, tear-jerking melodies.

PUCCINI FESTIVAL: Puccini penned some of his most famous arias in his Tuscan house by the marshy Lake Massaciuccoli in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Every summer, a Puccini festival is held next-door in an open-air theater. Ducklings scurry away as you enter via a lakeside wooden bridge.

Years ago, lantern-laden rowboats were sprinkled on the lake behind the stage for a performance of "Madama Butterfly." For last summer's performance of "Turandot," I thought the orchestra was going all out with gongs and cymbals until I realized a strong thunderstorm was exploding in the mountains behind our seats.

"Turandot" is Puccini's last, unfinished opera from 1924. It is the story of a namesake Chinese princess who resolves to marry only the suitor who can solve three riddles (she kills all the others). Finally a prince gets the three answers right, and tells Turandot she can only get out of marrying him by guessing his name.

One of the world's most recognizable arias is "Nessun Dorma," which the prince sings anticipating love's final victory as the dawn deadline approaches and Turandot remains clueless.

I grew up listening to Luciano Pavarotti's signature rendition of this powerful hymn to hope, so no other tenor, however good, will ever be quite as meltingly emotional for me.

But to experience this aria not in a theater, but among fragrant linden trees on a balmy night, is incomparable. No stage setting could so precisely replicate the fairy tale's first glimpse of a happy ending.

Most poignantly, it is the same lakeside evening Puccini enjoyed, when this aria was still playing only in the mind of one of Italy's greatest musicians.

If You Go...

LA SCALA: Located in Milan. The opera season is year-round, with no performances in August; http://www.teatroallascala.org. Guidelines for rush tickets (about $15): http://bit.ly/92I2IC

ARENA DI VERONA: Located in Verona, about halfway between Milan and Venice. The 2010 season is June 18-Aug. 29; http://www.arena.it

PUCCINI FESTIVAL: Located in Torre del Lago, in Tuscany, about 20 miles from Pisa. The 2010 edition is July 16-Aug. 22; http://www.puccinifestival.it

STRIKES: Some performances in the 2010 season have been canceled last minute due to wildcat strikes.

Erickson good... Columbus bad?

2011-01-28T10:08:00.000-08:00

The Viking Leif Erickson landed in the Americas sometime about the year 1,000 AD, before Columbus did under the Spanish flag. In fact, Erickson landed on the North American mainland, whereas Columbus landed in the Bahamas. Somehow, via "political correctness," Columbus is in question, while Erickson is not. Why?

Even President Obama, himself a revisionist regarding European colonization, gave the following presidential proclamation regarding "Leif Erickson Day" in 2009. As you can clearly see in this proclamation, Obama continually praises Erickson. I don't think anyone would be going too far out on a limb to state that he absolutely would NOT say a single word of praise for Columbus. Why?

The annual "Leif Erickson Day" is held each and every year without protesters or controversy, while any Columbus Day celebration is marked with much unrest. Often, it's centered around racial unrest. Certainly the Vikings did as much raiding and plundering as the Conquistadors later did, but the Vikings almost always raided other Europeans, while the Conquistadors conquered the Amerindians. Also, the Vikings did not usually occupy conquered lands, while the Spanish did.

That last point brings up another series of questions. The overwhelming percentage of Columbus Day protesters seem to be of Mexican and Anglo-Saxon descent, the very descendants or partial-descendants of the supposed horrible oppressors themselves! Of course, European-Hispanics were the ones who conquered most of the land in the Americas, killed most of the Amerindians, imported most of the slaves from West Africa, and took most of the gold and resources. Okay, that could be a reason, since Columbus sailed under the flag of Spain, while the Vikings simply stayed for awhile and left. However, the protesters don't seem to be interested in acknowledging these facts at all... ?

To digress, although Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Columbo) was specifically of our folk, we should also share in on Leif Erickson's voyage to North America. The Winnili (later the "Langobards") were originally from Scandinavia, although they had left six or seven hundred years before Erickson's landing in North America. It should also be mentioned that other ancient civilizations east of the Atlantic Ocean had reached the Americas, but the evidence has either been suppressed or is not entirely adequate.

I wish that there was a good way to end this posting, but there is not. Columbus is denigrated because his discovery led to the colonization of the Americas by Europeans, and to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The fact that those "Europeans" were mostly from Spain and Portugal (Hispanic) doesn't interest the Columbus Day protesters in the slightest. In other words, to be very blunt, a self-loathing Anglo-Saxon protester would never dream of criticizing Hispanic colonization and slavery; while Mexican protesters don't seem very interested in any "Hispanic-guilt" concept either. They appear to only motivated by a dislike for anything European or White. Even if that were not entirely true for many of them, then why the dismissal of the important underlying facts?? The mistreatment of the Amerindians, and the establishment of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, was predominantly a Hispanic-phenomenon, more-so than a European one.

Choosing an identifying name

2011-01-27T11:54:00.000-08:00

Many times it's hard to find a proper word to use in casually identifying people, places, and things which are "northern nations." "Northern Italian" isn't necessarily all that accurate because that term suggests that there is a definite "Italian." The Italian Peninsula should be a regional term, like the British Isles or the Balkans. Try explaining to someone in Ireland that he's not Irish, but a "British Islander," or to people in the Balkans that they're all the same... "Balkonians!" Yet we are expected to accept the Italian-arrangement without question, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Even the Austrians didn't outlaw our language and culture.

Other terms tended to be too regional or focus on only one aspect of our history. "Subalpine" is a term, while interesting, refers more to a particular climate around the world. "Gallo-Tuscan" is okay, but is still too regionally specific for us. Of course, "Padanian," while in various forms, is a term that goes back centuries, is still identified as a very modern political term. Although we like "northern nations," it would be entirely lost upon people not of our ancestry, and it's not an adjective.

What it really boils down to is that "Padania" or "northern nations" are, to us, fine descriptive terms for a shared ancestry or a federation of former nations which are very similar; but it would still would draw criticism to throw around the Padanian name in everyday language. The best term for that, I believe, is "Cisalpine." The Romans called the land of our Gallic ancestors "Gallia Cisalpina" (Cisalpine Gaul), which meant "Gaul on this side of the Alps." Cisalpine, by itself, literally means "south of the Alps." Also, there were Celts in Tuscany and Umbria.

For our unique heritage--which is different than the much more historically unified cultures of countries like Germany, Spain, France, Poland, etc.--we require acceptable terminology. Therefore "Padania" is a good term for the modern-day Cisalpine Gaul, Etruria, or Langbard Kingdom. It should be a federation of very similar cultures from past nations, and a reference to a common heritage. However for everyday language, a less political and more regional term for description is needed: Cisalpine or Cisalpines.

Ancient Celts in the Tarim Basin (in modern day China)

2011-01-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

CELTS
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.

PROTO-CELTIC LANGUAGE
The Proto-Celtic language, also called Common Celtic, is the reconstructed ancestor language of all the known Celtic languages.

HALLSTADTT CULTURE
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC (European Early Iron Age), developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC (Late Bronze Age) and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.

TARIM MUMMIES
The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BCE to 200 CE. Some of the mummies are frequently associated with the presence of the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin, although the evidence is not totally conclusive.

TARIM BASIN
The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of about 906,500 km2 (350,000 sq mi). It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west.

CELTIC MYTHOLOGY
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure. Among Celts in close contact with Ancient Rome, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, their mythology did not survive the Roman empire, their subsequent conversion to Christianity, and the loss of their Celtic languages.

BRONZE AGE
The Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) in that culture used bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere.

Rugby: Golden Gate, Argentina, Italy

2011-01-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I attended a rugby match between the local team, the San Francisco Golden Gate Rugby Club, and a team from Victoria, British Columbia, James Bay Athletic Association. Golden Gate won the match by an overwhelming margin, although I don't recall the exact score. Golden Gate had won the American Rugby Super League championship in 2009. The hub of local rugby is Rocca Field, located on Treasure Island in San Francisco. Actually, it's on an island on the bay, between San Francisco and Oakland (via the Bay Bridge).

Northern California has been America's chief rugby milieu for decades. The United States national team is called the Eagles, and draws players from different American club teams. All amateur. Rugby is the old English sport that American football developed out of. Local rugby here is particularly popular among Irish-Americans, and Polynesians who once lived under English rule, therefore have long been familiar with the sport. The University of California-Berkeley Golden Bears are long known to have one of the best collegiate teams in rugby, as well.

Although the best teams internationally have been from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom; Italy and Argentina, both made up of mainly Padan-descended players, are two up-and-coming teams on the world scene. On top of international competition, including the Rugby World Cup every four years, there are many club teams which tour around the world, which is a way to gauge the level of play.

The growth of American rugby has been slow and steady over many years, but only fairly recently has gotten well organized with the Super League. One of the very best rugby players of all time was David Campese, an Australian of half Padan descent. He wasn't merely "good," but was possibly the single best player of all time.

Ancient Celto-Alpine settlers in Tarim Basin (modern China)

2011-01-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

DNA evidence has so far placed the Tarim mummies' origin to central Europe, and more specifically to the Alpine region and north, which was prime Celtic territory 4,000 years ago. The overwhelmingly best guess is that they were ancient Hallstatt Celts who had traveled eastward, probably on horses and wagons, all the way into the Tarim Basin (present-day Xinjiang, China). As to why they settled in a mostly deserty region is not clear. It's possible that the region may have been greener at that time. Also, they had traveled so far, and over mountainous terrain, that when they reached this valley, they decided to make a go of it. They seemed to have lived there for about one thousand years.

This was a world in which the population levels weren't nearly as high as today. For a good long time, they may have been the principal racial stock of the region, which was not Chinese or Turkic at that time it appears. A thousand years is a long time, and things changed. Today's root stock population is of Turko-Mongolian origin, of which these Celts were absorbed into. Blue eyes and brown hair seem to be somewhat common, with mostly far eastern features.

Upon arriving there, it's likely that they sent out scouts. They must have figured out northward was the mountainous Asian steppe which was even less hospitable, southward were the Himalayas, eastward were seemingly endless deserts and mountains, and turning back thousands of miles to Europe was not an especially attractive option either.

I think that China deserves some credit, as they are fiercely protective of their history. However, since this region is not ethnic Chinese anyway, I think that it makes little difference. It should be noted that these ancient settlers had knowledge of bronze metalworking, which was not present in China at that time, and it was thought that the Chinese developed bronze on their own. They may well have, as this area was still a long distance from China proper.

The earliest pioneers to the Tarim Basin were likely of the same ethnic stock as most of our ancestors in Cisalpine Gaul. For all we know, some of them could have been Cisalpine.

part 1 National Geographic Ancient Caucasian Mummies Found In China

part 2 National Geographic Ancient Caucasian Mummies Found In China

part 3 National Geographic Ancient Caucasian Mummies Found In China

part 4 National Geographic Ancient Caucasian Mummies Found In China

part 5 National Geographic Ancient Caucasian Mummies Found In China

part 6 National Geographic Ancient Caucasian Mummies Found In China

The Tocharian culture existed in the same Tarim Basin over a thousand years after "the mummy people" had disappeared, and it's not known if there was a connection. The Tocharian language was a branch of the Indo-European languages, now extinct. After viewing some of the depictions of them, they appear to be much more Nordic-like than Celtic.

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Dreaming of the Tuscan Coast

2011-01-13T08:36:00.000-08:00

One dream, or spiritual concept I think, is the idea of an unspoiled coastline. In fact, the only visually-lucid dream that I ever had was along a coastline. Sometimes when I have visited some of the coastline here in California, especially when looking at the sea cliffs and the rough waves breaking against them, I also imagine similar sea cliffs in Europe. Especially in Spain and France. Sometimes I imagine music that features a clearly-distinguished string guitar, especially in the Spanish style. The song 'Crazy on You' by Heart always brings me back to the place, as it reminds me of the Spanish guitar; and also, easy listening music by musicians such as Acoustic Alchemy.

I usually imagine the shores of the more temperate climates within this concept, but sometimes in the more colder climates. Recently I saw a documentary set along the shores of Kamchatka, a beautifully unspoiled northern coast. Also, there is something to be said for slightly more exotic coastlines like in Baja California. There are so many examples that I don't think that I will give every one, but I think you would know what I mean here.

Our ancestral homeland, of course, has some beautiful coasts; especially in Tuscany. I remember watching the Italian movie 'L' Avventura' (1960), which had many scenes of the rocky cliffs and volcanic islands along the coast of... probably Tuscany. The fact that it was fifty years ago, and the movie was in black and white, added to my fascination with it. The timelessness of the coast.

Introduction to the Tuscan Coast and Archipelago

[borrowed from the website 50hikesintuscany.com]

With cities the size of Florence, Pisa, and Livorno, one might think of Tuscany as one of the more densely populated regions in Italy. With a population of over 3.5 million people in an area about the size of New Hampshire, it does have a relatively high population density. However, if you fly over the region on a flight from Rome to Pisa, most of Tuscany seems empty, except for scattered farms and quaint medieval villages. In fact, looking at a night time light pollution map of Italy, you will see that the Pisa plain to Florence is quite bright and really stands out, while one of the darkest areas on the entire peninsula is found in southern Tuscany.

The coastline and islands of Tuscany represent some of the last bastions of non-mountainous, wild Italy. Here, there are extensive parks covered in forests and macchia vegetation. Wild boars run free, while falcons soar above. Pristine coastline and marine sanctuaries protect the precious marine resources that have sustained the economy and Italian heritage of fishing for centuries. This is a remote land, where towers were built on hilltops to look for Saracen pirates and Estruscan ruins still stand after 3000 years.

From the Promontory of Monte Argentario in the south, through the beautiful forested hills and spectacular cliffs of Maremma and Piombino, the sand dunes and old growth ash woodlands of Sterpaia, to the pine woodlands near the mouth of the Arno River, the Tuscan Coast has much to offer visitors seeking solace from the crowds.

For those who make the extra effort to board a ferry, the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago offers remote and exhilarating experiences, as one climbs the sea cliffs of the island of Capraia, through the arid scrubland of the Pomonte Valley or through lush chestnut forests to the remarkable alpine summit of Monte Capanne on Elba. The Tuscan Archipelago consists of seven major islands and dozens of islets. These islands are arid landscapes, receiving only about 500 mm (19 in) of rain per year. They contain unique species and ecosystems, due to their isolation and aridity. Montecristo, Giglio, and western Elba are granite landscapes formed by magmatic intrusions some 6 million years ago. Capraia was the site of an eruptive volcano that at about the same time, and as such contains pumice and andesite lava columns. Capraia was also the site of a former penal colony, while the tiny island of Gorgona still remains a penal colony today. Not to be outdone, the flat limestone island of Pianosa was a maximum security prison where some of the most notorious mafia leaders were held, until it closed only recently. Of these islands, only Elba, Capraia, and Giglio can be visited without special permits. Thus, the remote, rugged nature of these islands has preserved a wonderful landscape to explore.

As for the Tuscan coast, while millions of tourists flock to the manicured sandy beaches of the Italian Riviera in Versilia, Tirrenia, and San Vincenzo, few venture out to the beautiful remote beaches of Maremma or Sterpaia. While tanned bodies lay on beach chairs baking in the summer sun, virtually no one is to be found exploring the isolated hilltop towers or smelling the sweet scent of rosemary in the macchia. While thousands pack the trains and ferries of the Cinque Terre to see the rugged Ligurian coast, the cliffs of Piombino remain empty. If you want to see Tuscany, as it has been for thousands of years, then get off the beaten trail and head to Tuscan Coast and Archipelago.

Movie-making, not nearly as distant as it once was

2011-01-11T08:41:00.000-08:00

Probably for most of us, outside of being employed in the film industry, the idea of "making a movie" would still seem pretty far-fetched. There is a lot of fascination and glamour in this industry, and even careers in stage setting, wardrobe, sound, etc., are highly sought after. Prior to the late 1970s, and the advent of VCRs, relatively few movies were produced. This began to change rapidly in the mid-eighties, as independent direct-to-video (or direct-to-cable) movies were produced for video stores and new television networks. Investors could then immediately gain entry into the film industry without having to ingratiate themselves to Hollywood or devoting their lives to a film-related career, and make a descent profit. By the late-eighties, relatively inexpensive movies were popping out like hot cakes. The paradigm had been altered.

Today, with the advance and accessibility of technology, along with a wide industry landscape, movie-making is literally within reach of people of modest means. In fact, within a few miles of where I live, there is a company which rents motion-picture equipment. Anyone with Comcast or DirectTV knows that there are many channels, and a good number of them produce their own original films. To cut to the chase, we would like to see some of our history depicted in film, even if this was accomplished via "low-budget." In reality, low-budget is actually expensive in it's own right; but if frugally and creatively done, can achieve the desired result. It should also be noted that entire topographic backgrounds can be created with inexpensive computer graphics, so that an entire ancient Rome or Egypt can be created without much trouble or cost.

A perfect example of this was the 2007 movie 'Marco Polo'. This movie was produced by the Hallmark Channel, a small cable television network. The film turned out pretty well. The environment and props (architecture, dress, wagons, ships, etc.), whether Venice or Asia, was believable. Although it wasn't as dramatic as 'Gladiator' or 'Braveheart' (it could have been with a similar budget), it gave a good account of Polo's life.

Had Marco Polo, or an entire host of historical figures from the history of our people, been of a number of other racial or ethnic backgrounds, a massively-budgeted Hollywood blockbuster would have been made a long time ago, and would have joined 'Sparticus' and similar historical figures dramatically depicted on screen. As the old saying goes, "the squeaky wheel gets the oil."

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A Lost European Culture, Pulled From Obscurity

2010-12-28T08:30:00.001-08:00

A Lost European Culture, Pulled From Obscurity

By John Noble Wilford - New York Times - November 30, 2009 - [see above link for images]

Before the glory that was Greece and Rome, even before the first cities of Mesopotamia or temples along the Nile, there lived in the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan foothills people who were ahead of their time in art, technology and long-distance trade.

For 1,500 years, starting earlier than 5000 B.C., they farmed and built sizable towns, a few with as many as 2,000 dwellings. They mastered large-scale copper smelting, the new technology of the age. Their graves held an impressive array of exquisite headdresses and necklaces and, in one cemetery, the earliest major assemblage of gold artifacts to be found anywhere in the world.

The striking designs of their pottery speak of the refinement of the culture’s visual language. Until recent discoveries, the most intriguing artifacts were the ubiquitous terracotta “goddess” figurines, originally interpreted as evidence of the spiritual and political power of women in society.

New research, archaeologists and historians say, has broadened understanding of this long overlooked culture, which seemed to have approached the threshold of “civilization” status. Writing had yet to be invented, and so no one knows what the people called themselves. To some scholars, the people and the region are simply Old Europe.

The little-known culture is being rescued from obscurity in an exhibition, “The Lost World of Old Europe: the Danube Valley, 5000-3500 B.C.,” which opened last month at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. More than 250 artifacts from museums in Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania are on display for the first time in the United States. The show will run through April 25.

At its peak, around 4500 B.C., said David W. Anthony, the exhibition’s guest curator, “Old Europe was among the most sophisticated and technologically advanced places in the world” and was developing “many of the political, technological and ideological signs of civilization.”

Dr. Anthony is a professor of anthropology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y., and author of “The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World.” Historians suggest that the arrival in southeastern Europe of people from the steppes may have contributed to the collapse of the Old Europe culture by 3500 B.C.

At the exhibition preview, Roger S. Bagnall, director of the institute, confessed that until now “a great many archaeologists had not heard of these Old Europe cultures.” Admiring the colorful ceramics, Dr. Bagnall, a specialist in Egyptian archaeology, remarked that at the time “Egyptians were certainly not making pottery like this.”

A show catalog, published by Princeton University Press, is the first compendium in English of research on Old Europe discoveries. The book, edited by Dr. Anthony, with Jennifer Y. Chi, the institute’s associate director for exhibitions, includes essays by experts from Britain, France, Germany, the United States and the countries where the culture existed.

Dr. Chi said the exhibition reflected the institute’s interest in studying the relationships of well-known cultures and the “underappreciated ones.”

Although excavations over the last century uncovered traces of ancient settlements and the goddess figurines, it was not until local archaeologists in 1972 discovered a large fifth-millennium B.C. cemetery at Varna, Bulgaria, that they began to suspect these were not poor people living in unstructured egalitarian societies. Even then, confined in cold war isolation behind the Iron Curtain, Bulgarians and Romanians were unable to spread their knowledge to the West.

The story now emerging is of pioneer farmers after about 6200 B.C. moving north into Old Europe from Greece and Macedonia, bringing wheat and barley seeds and domesticated cattle and sheep. They established colonies along the Black Sea and in the river plains and hills, and these evolved into related but somewhat distinct cultures, archaeologists have learned. The settlements maintained close contact through networks of trade in copper and gold and also shared patterns of ceramics.

The Spondylus shell from the Aegean Sea was a special item of trade. Perhaps the shells, used in pendants and bracelets, were symbols of their Aegean ancestors. Other scholars view such long-distance acquisitions as being motivated in part by ideology in which goods are not commodities in the modern sense but rather “valuables,” symbols of status and recognition.

Noting the diffusion of these shells at this time, Michel Louis Seferiades, an anthropologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, suspects “the objects were part of a halo of mysteries, an ensemble of beliefs and myths.”

In any event, Dr. Seferiades wrote in the exhibition catalog that the prevalence of the shells suggested the culture had links to “a network of access routes and a social framework of elaborate exchange systems — including bartering, gift exchange and reciprocity.”

Over a wide area of what is now Bulgaria and Romania, the people settled into villages of single- and multiroom houses crowded inside palisades. The houses, some with two stories, were framed in wood with clay-plaster walls and beaten-earth floors. For some reason, the people liked making fired clay models of multilevel dwellings, examples of which are exhibited.

A few towns of the Cucuteni people, a later and apparently robust culture in the north of Old Europe, grew to more than 800 acres, which archaeologists consider larger than any other known human settlements at the time. But excavations have yet to turn up definitive evidence of palaces, temples or large civic buildings. Archaeologists concluded that rituals of belief seemed to be practiced in the homes, where cultic artifacts have been found.

The household pottery decorated in diverse, complex styles suggested the practice of elaborate at-home dining rituals. Huge serving bowls on stands were typical of the culture’s “socializing of food presentation,” Dr. Chi said.

At first, the absence of elite architecture led scholars to assume that Old Europe had little or no hierarchical power structure. This was dispelled by the graves in the Varna cemetery. For two decades after 1972, archaeologists found 310 graves dated to about 4500 B.C. Dr. Anthony said this was “the best evidence for the existence of a clearly distinct upper social and political rank.”

Vladimir Slavchev, a curator at the Varna Regional Museum of History, said the “richness and variety of the Varna grave gifts was a surprise,” even to the Bulgarian archaeologist Ivan Ivanov, who directed the discoveries. “Varna is the oldest cemetery yet found where humans were buried with golden ornaments,” Dr. Slavchev said.

More than 3,000 pieces of gold were found in 62 of the graves, along with copper weapons and tools, and ornaments, necklaces and bracelets of the prized Aegean shells. “The concentration of imported prestige objects in a distinct minority of graves suggest that institutionalized higher ranks did exist,” exhibition curators noted in a text panel accompanying the Varna gold.

Yet it is puzzling that the elite seemed not to indulge in private lives of excess. “The people who donned gold costumes for public events while they were alive,” Dr. Anthony wrote, “went home to fairly ordinary houses.”

Copper, not gold, may have been the main source of Old Europe’s economic success, Dr. Anthony said. As copper smelting developed about 5400 B.C., the Old Europe cultures tapped abundant ores in Bulgaria and what is now Serbia and learned the high-heat technique of extracting pure metallic copper.

Smelted copper, cast as axes, hammered into knife blades and coiled in bracelets, became valuable exports. Old Europe copper pieces have been found in graves along the Volga River, 1,200 miles east of Bulgaria. Archaeologists have recovered more than five tons of pieces from Old Europe sites.

An entire gallery is devoted to the figurines, the more familiar and provocative of the culture’s treasures. They have been found in virtually every Old Europe culture and in several contexts: in graves, house shrines and other possibly “religious spaces.”

One of the best known is the fired clay figure of a seated man, his shoulders bent and hands to his face in apparent contemplation. Called the “Thinker,” the piece and a comparable female figurine were found in a cemetery of the Hamangia culture, in Romania. Were they thinking, or mourning?

Many of the figurines represent women in stylized abstraction, with truncated or elongated bodies and heaping breasts and expansive hips. The explicit sexuality of these figurines invites interpretations relating to earthly and human fertility.

An arresting set of 21 small female figurines, seated in a circle, was found at a pre-Cucuteni village site in northeastern Romania. “It is not difficult to imagine,” said Douglass W. Bailey of San Francisco State University, the Old Europe people “arranging sets of seated figurines into one or several groups of miniature activities, perhaps with the smaller figurines at the feet or even on the laps of the larger, seated ones.”

Others imagined the figurines as the “Council of Goddesses.” In her influential books three decades ago, Marija Gimbutas, an anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, offered these and other so-called Venus figurines as representatives of divinities in cults to a Mother Goddess that reigned in prehistoric Europe.

Although the late Dr. Gimbutas still has an ardent following, many scholars hew to more conservative, nondivine explanations. The power of the objects, Dr. Bailey said, was not in any specific reference to the divine, but in “a shared understanding of group identity.”

As Dr. Bailey wrote in the exhibition catalog, the figurines should perhaps be defined only in terms of their actual appearance: miniature, representational depictions of the human form. He thus “assumed (as is justified by our knowledge of human evolution) that the ability to make, use and understand symbolic objects such as figurines is an ability that is shared by all modern humans and thus is a capability that connects you, me, Neolithic men, women and children, and the Paleolithic painters in caves.”

Or else the “Thinker,” for instance, is the image of you, me, the archaeologists and historians confronted and perplexed by a “lost” culture in southeastern Europe that had quite a go with life back before a single word was written or a wheel turned.

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Chasing the new 2010 Ferrari 458

2010-12-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

Chasing the new 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia! Incredible sound!

From the video description by jorrie2:

Jorrik records the very first Ferrari 458 Italia in the Netherlands!! It just arrived yesterday morning!

We drove on a highway in the Netherlands when a Ferrari 348 past us, so we decided to follow it and we came out at Kroymans (Ferrari/Aston Martin/Maserati) in Hilversum. In the garage we saw this great Ferrari 458 Italia, we waited half an hour and than it came out for a little testride! Please watch the whole vid, at the end can you see how incredible fast this new Ferrari is!
Please rate and leave a comment about the vid or about the car :)

Thanks for watching.

Jorrik.

Giada De Laurentiis

2010-12-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia -- Giada Pamela De Laurentiis: Born August 22, 1970) is an Italian American chef, writer, television personality, and the host of the current Food Network program Giada at Home. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC's Today. De Laurentiis is the founder of the catering business GDL Foods.

You probably have at least seen Giada De Laurentiis, if you have cable tv, probably on the Food Network. Also on many other media and commericial endeavors. Her biography is very interesting, and you can read the rest of it on the above link. She is the granddaughter of the famous Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis, and has other famous people in her family tree. Since we consider most of Latium and the South Tyrol as being sort've "honorary Padanians," we would consider her as our folk. Although she has some Neapolitan roots (De Laurentiis). It's also interesting that she was born in Rome and grew up in Southern California.

She cooks and gives instruction on her program, 'Giada at Home', with such enthusiasm that someone created one of those virtue posters for her. It's not a bubbly enthusiasm as much as it's a manifestation of super-positive energy. She has reached a point where she is a "celebrity," close to famous.

Italian Swiss Colony reopens as Asti Winery

2010-12-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

I had put a lot of the history of the Italian Swiss Colony on an old website, but may have lost it. We'll have to start posting some of that history. Several years ago the winery reopened under the name Asti Winery.

From the video description:

Located on the original property of Asti Winery, located in Northern Sonoma County, Cellar No. 8 pays tribute to the propertys rich history. You might know Asti Winery as the once-famed "Italian Swiss Colony," founded in 1881 by Andrea Sbarboro, who formed an entire community, with other Italian and Swiss immigrants, around the art of winemaking. They focused on using time-honored methods and techniques from the 'Old Country.

In the 1960's, the Italian Swiss Colony was the second largest tourist attraction in California, next to Disneyland. In fact, there are many stories of friends who visited this historic winery as children, whose parents had made Asti Winery a regular vacation destination in Northern California. This was a grand place in its day, which hosted many parties for the California elite, including top government officials.

The Asti Winery has always been a working winery, but only recently reopened its doors to the public as home to Cellar No. 8. Paul Rydquist, Winemaker for Cellar No. 8, prides himself on using traditional winemaking techniques, and handcrafting rich, complex wines from carefully chosen vineyards, making wines in a way that Andrea Sbarboro would approve.

Cellar No. 8 wines are rich in flavor, approachable and affordable. With two different labels and price points, there is something for every palate and pocket. The White Label produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, priced at $10 and is readily available at liquor stores and grocery outlets. The Black Label ranges in price from $15-$25 and can be found at the winery or at Cellar 360 in San Francisco cellar360.com

Cellar No. 8 invites you to visit them at their beautiful historic location and taste a part of California history in their wines. They offer tours daily and encourage you to enjoy a picnic on the beautiful grounds overlooking the scenic palm trees and hills. What better place to escape?

YouTube channel fatbellytraveler

www.cellarno8.com

The origin of the Christmas tree

2010-12-20T10:12:00.000-08:00

Where did the Christmas tree come from? (from Yahoo Answers)

Where did the idea originate?

The origin of the Christmas tree is obscured by uncertainties of oral histories of pre-literate European cultures. For example, according to Christian lore, the Christmas tree is associated with St Boniface and the German town of Geismar. Sometime in St Boniface's lifetime (c. 672-754) he cut down the tree of Thor in order to disprove the legitimacy of the Norse gods to the local German tribe. St. Boniface saw a fir tree growing in the roots of the old oak. Taking this as a sign of the Christian faith, he said "...let Christ be at the center of your households..." using the fir tree as a symbol of Christianity.

The tradition of the Christmas tree as it is today known is fairly young. It was established by Martin Luther as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Nativity scene. Luther established the Christmas tree as a symbol of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.

The custom of erecting a Christmas Tree can be historically traced to 15th century Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia) and 16th century Northern Germany. According to the first documented uses of a Christmas tree in Estonia, in 1441, 1442, and 1514 the Brotherhood of the Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their brotherhood house in Reval (now Tallinn). At the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square where the members of the brotherhood danced around it.

In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square where the young men “went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame”. In that period, the guilds started erecting Christmas trees in front of their guildhalls: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Marburg professor of European ethnology) found a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small tree was decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers" and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.

Christmas tree (Wikipedia)

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Riots erupt after Berlusconi survives no-confidence vote

2010-12-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

Whenever the subject of Italian politics comes up, it's enough to make one want to close their eyes and shake their head. Our only genuine interest is the founding of a Northern Nation. A spiritual pursuit. An Israel for OUR people, no more, no less. Although we're expected to support Berlusconi, what we really need is a nation state, not a right wing party. Left and right politics have been a disaster there for at least a century, and will not provide the outcome that we want. Now with European bankers running the show through the EU, the odds are stacked against us. In other words, behind the scenes bankers like Lord Carrington, or unelected bureaucrats like Javier Solana, can decide the fate of other peoples.

The politic of the day is fabianism, which in short is far far right economics mixed with far far left socialism. In other words, monopoly capitalism and finance (not free market capitalism) married to social marxism. They make a good pair. The plutocrats at the top, and the sheep at the bottom, forming a symbiotic-globalist status quo. We have the exact same thing in the United States, so it would be highly hypocritical for either side to point the finger at the other.

Throwing Berlusconi out on his ear in favor of someone on the left would be the same as going from Bush to Obama. Just two arms of the same globalist monster, all backed by the same money.

Riots erupt after Berlusconi survives no-confidence vote

Italian premier tarnished by gaffes, sex scandals is left with razor-thin majority

MSNBC.com News Services - December 14, 2010

ROME — Premier Silvio Berlusconi won back-to-back confidence votes Tuesday in the Italian parliament, narrowly surviving one of the toughest fights of his political life. But violent protests greeted his victory, as rioters torched cars, smashed windows and clashed with police.

Riot police fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowds in Rome after earlier trying to cordon off the area around parliament. Clouds of white tear gas and orange flares engulfed some streets, shops full of Christmas goods hurriedly closed down and employees at one bank cowered in fear as waves of stone-throwing youths swept by.

Protesters rampaged in the the area around parliament and Berlusconi's residence, which had been cordoned off by heavy police presence. By sundown, almost 100 people, both protesters and police, were reported injured, including about two dozen hospitalized. About 40 were reportedly taken into police custody.

The chaos followed speculation in recent weeks that the end of the Berlusconi era was near.

Weakened by sex scandals and a bitter breakup with his one-time closest ally, Berlusconi seemed destined to be sent packing. The split with Gianfranco Fini had eroded the premier's once comfortable parliamentary majority and left him vulnerable in the lower house.

But Berlusconi battled back, as he has countless times when his political career seemed to be on the ropes. Tuesday's drama confirmed his status as the ultimate political survivor — but he emerges from the battle severely weakened and one top opposition lawmaker called his success a "Pyrrhic victory."
Newsweek: No-confidence vote will cripple Berlusconi

In the most dramatic and closest of the two tests, Berlusconi survived the no-confidence motion in the lower house by just three votes. Scuffles between lawmakers forced a brief suspension in the voting session.

Earlier in the day, Berlusconi had secured a more comfortable victory in a confidence vote at the Senate.

The vote's slim margin means Berlusconi can no longer count on a secure parliamentary majority for passing legislation. Some experts predict he might resign in upcoming weeks, a move that could lead to early elections, which he hopes to win again.

But Berlusconi has repeatedly defied the skeptics, shrugging off a string of gaffes and scandals to win three elections and transform Italy's political landscape since gaining power for the first time in 1994.

The opposition is too splintered and there are no possible challengers among Berlusconi's allies, according to Richard Bellamy, a political-science professor at University College London.

"He survived many times and I doubt that, even if he loses in the lower house, that will be his end," Bellamy said in a telephone interview. "The challenge is whether there is a credible coalition opposition, as Berlusconi has always benefited from the inability of the center left to win."

Berlusconi triumphed in the upper house, where he has a majority, by 162 to 135, Senate Speaker Renato Schifani said.

An intensive campaign of lobbying and persuasion appears to have won over enough deputies to give Berlusconi a chance of survival; many commentators had estimated the government was likely to have just have the numbers to scrape through.

In speeches to parliament Monday, Berlusconi battled back against his critics and outlined why lawmakers should support his government.

'Continuing with change'

"Today what's at stake isn't the future of the prime minister," Berlusconi said, smiling, as opposition members jeered. "Today, what's in play is the choice between continuing with change or restoring old ways."

He offered to negotiate a new legislative agenda that would allow the government to survive until parliamentary elections are held in 2013. He promised to change the membership of his Cabinet to give government positions to those who support him in the votes.

And he argued that his government had successfully protected Italy from becoming engulfed by the eurozone's debt crisis.

"The last thing Italy needs is a political crisis," Berlusconi said, as his close ally Umberto Bossi, leader of the Northern League, sat next to him.

Berlusconi's government has generally won praise for its reaction to the global financial crisis, steadfastly directed by Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti and including a rigorous austerity package.

Italy has a high public debt level, and recently faced renewed economic threats. But it is still widely viewed as low-risk due to the low level of private debt, a relatively sound banking system, and experience in dealing with high public debt levels.

"If your concern over Italy's difficult situation is honest and real, then the only possible way forward is renewing confidence in my government," Berlusconi said. Such a vote, he said, "will be proof of realism and political wisdom."

Berlusconi also defended his friendship with Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin following revelations that the U.S. diplomats were uneasy about the premier's close relationship with Moscow.

He dismissed suggestions that he had personally benefited from business deals between Italian and Russian companies, saying that "not one dollar ... has been put or will ever be put in my pocket."

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Was there an Etruscan Book of the Dead?

2010-12-16T08:12:00.000-08:00

In the 1998 movie entitled 'The Eighteenth Angel', the fictional plot revolved around something called "The Etruscan Book of the Dead." However, was this based on ancient reality? Certainly we know that there was the Egyptian "Book of the Dead." Google shows 703 results for an exact search for "Etruscan Book of the Dead," but still, the evidence seems to be lacking. We do know that the plot in 'The Eighteenth Angel' was at least partly based on fiction, as it portrayed the book as having something to do with Satan. Satan was a Christian concept, and would not have been present in ancient Etruria.

One possible answer may be hinted at in the book 'Marcus Aurelius: A Life' (McLynn; 2009). According to the book, the former Emperor of Rome enjoyed talking about local wines and the "Etruscan book of the dead" (in lower case). Therefore, this lowercase "book of the dead" possibly could be merely a nickname for the 'Etrusca Disciplina'. To quote Wikipedia's "Etruscan mythology" page: The Etruscan religion was a revealed one. Its scriptures were a corpus of Etruscan texts termed the Etrusca Disciplina.

According to the Romans, who had vanquished the Etruscans long before, "Etruria" was a dead culture. The early Romans had destroyed virtually everything Etruscan, including its spiritual traditions, therefore, the later generations of Romans would have looked back to the pre-Roman period in the region as mysterious. "The dead." Maybe someone out there could give us a little help here, but it appears that this explanation makes sense.

To quote the MysteriousEtruscans.com Etruscan Religion page:

The disciplina etrusca seems to have comprised three categories of books of fate. The first was that of the libri haruspicini, which dealt with divination from the livers of sacrificed animals; the second, the libri fulgurates, on the interpretation of thunder and lightning; the third, the libri rituales, which covered a variety of matters. They contained, as Festus says, "prescriptions concerning the founding of cities, the consecration of altars and temples, the inviolability of ramparts, the laws relating to city gates, the division into tribes, curiae and centuriae, the constitution and organization of armies, and all other things of this nature concerning war and peace.

Among the libri rituales were also three further categories: the libri fatales, on the division of time and the life-span of individuals and peoples; the libri Acherontici, on the world beyond the grave and the rituals for salvation; and finally, the ostentaria, which gave rules for interpreting signs and portents and laid down the propitiatory and expiatory acts needed to obviate disaster and to placate the gods.

The "Etrucan book of the dead" is probably just a nickname for the 'Disciplina Etrusca' and its "books of fate."

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Mario Ghilotti, prominent Marin builder, dies

2010-11-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

Carolyn Jones - San Francisco Chronicle - November 29, 2010

Memorial services will be held this week for Mario Ghilotti, a gregarious icon in the Bay Area construction industry and a stalwart supporter of Marin County sports and military life.

Mr. Ghilotti died Nov. 20 after falling down a flight of stairs at his Kentfield home, while in a rush to get to his office and then his grandson's high school football game. He was 87.

"He was very passionate and excited about everything he did. Even at age 87, people thrived off his energy and enthusiasm," said his son, Michael Ghilotti of San Rafael. "No one outworked him."

Mr. Ghilotti worked seven days a week for more than 60 years at Ghilotti Brothers Inc., the San Rafael construction firm started in 1914 by his father.

Ghilotti Brothers has directed some of the Bay Area's most prominent public works projects, such as the Crissy Field restoration in San Francisco, the Interstate 680 and Highway 24 interchange in Walnut Creek, and the 1996 renovation of the curvy portion of Lombard Street.

The firm won an award for its renovation of Octavia Boulevard in San Francisco and is now working on the rebuilding of Doyle Drive south of the Golden Gate Bridge. Mr. Ghilotti, though, was most proud of a project in his hometown - the $100 million widening of Highway 101 near Larkspur.

The firm was founded by Mr. Ghilotti's father, James Ghilotti, an Italian immigrant and stonemason who came to the Bay Area seeking work after the 1906 earthquake. Born Dec. 4, 1922, Mario Ghilotti spent his youth hauling rocks and cement bags for his family's company.

He was a football star at San Rafael High, which launched his lifelong interest in Marin County youth sports. He donated money to build sports fields across the county and was a founder of the Marin Athletic Foundation. He also gave money to build the bocce courts at Albert Park in San Rafael.

"He always felt athletics were an equal part of education in the development of young people," said another son, Dante Ghilotti of Ross. "He felt that sports helped young people learn about character, team building, discipline."

After high school, Mr. Ghilotti joined the Navy and served in the Pacific during World War II. He was a gunner on a torpedo bomber, surviving the battle of Saipan and a typhoon that killed hundreds of sailors.

Mr. Ghilotti then attended the University of San Francisco, where he played football, but he had to leave school before graduating to help with his family's business.

He and his brothers took over the firm in 1950, when it had roughly 25 employees and annual revenues of less than $5 million. At the company's peak in the late 1980s, it had 525 employees and revenues topping $100 million, his sons said.

As general manager, Mr. Ghilotti oversaw the finances, equipment, assets and property. The firm's success was partly due to Mr. Ghilotti's work ethic and the connections he built with local politicians, community leaders and colleagues in the industry, his family said.

He was a founding member of several construction associations and was a fixture at community gatherings, ranging from water board hearings to his regular meetings with friends at San Rafael Joe's.

"He had an opinion and he gave it," said San Rafael Mayor Al Boro, who knew Mr. Ghilotti for 25 years. "He was really a champion of San Rafael, and helped a lot of people. His mark is on a lot of things here."

Mr. Ghilotti gave money for the Lone Sailor memorial near the Golden Gate Bridge and several veterans' memorials near the Marin Civic Center. Last year, he donated enough to save the ROTC program at Novato High School.

"He wasn't politically correct, but he had a big heart, and was always caring and helping other people," Dante Ghilotti said. "He could make anyone laugh. Everyone just seemed to like him."

In addition to his sons, Mr. Ghilotti is survived by his wife of 50 years, Eva Ghilotti, and eight grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Raphael Church, 1104 Fifth Ave., San Rafael.

.

Surnames from Place Names II

2010-11-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

This in in response to an entry which I had written in 2008 called 'Surnames from Place Names'. I tried to show how many surnames, especially from Southern Italy, had Lombard-inspired names. Recently while reading a book, and somewhat coincidently, I came across two similar type references. One French, and one Spanish.

Because the Langobards transgressed lands which were at least very close to France in ancient times, a French remnant is less surprising. The one example is a well-known street in Paris called "rue des Lombards," which is famous for hosting three of the main French jazz clubs: Le Baiser Salé, Le Duc des Lombards and the Sunset/Sunside. It was originally a banking center in medieval Paris, a trade dominated by Lombard merchants. Those "Lombard merchants" as well as "Lombard bankers" were actually not necessarily from Lombardy, but that name was used whether they were Venetian, Florentine, etc. In this example, the street wasn't specifically named after Langobards.

The Langobards and the Franks has a long history of friendship and intermarriage between the ruling families, long before the Franks moved west and conquered what is now France, the land which now bears it's name. It was similar to the Langobard invasion of the Italian peninsula. After conquering what became "Langbard," some Langobard factions invaded southern France, which began a long gradual process in which the two tribes drifted apart. This culminated with Charlemagne's invasion of Langbard, and the destruction of the kingdom.

In the other example, it's a Spanish surname called "Lomabardero." The origin could either be from "Lombard bankers/merchants" who may have set up shop in one of the larger Spanish cities, probably after 1492, or it could be from contact with the Langobards themselves. After the Moors conquered Spain, or most of it, they prepared to invade the Frankish Kingdom. Word was sent to the Langobard King calling for help. A Langobard army showed up just in time for a coming major Moorish assault. The Langobards had such a fearsome reputation that the Moors called off the invasion, as least temporarily.

Of course, there's always the possibility that an important individual might have been conducting trade with any other region and was given a name to match. Therefore, for example, a Spanish businessman of the Middle Ages might have been conducting overland trade with Lombardy.

Continuum Estate the latest Mondavi family twist

2010-11-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

[Above: Tim Mondavi and daughter Carissa stand in the vineyards of Continuum Estate, which he sees as a way of contributing to the Mondavi family legacy]

Continuum Estate the latest Mondavi family twist

Jon Bonné - San Francisco Chronicle - Oct 31, 2010

Find the exact spot at Continuum Estate, Tim Mondavi's new wine project, and you can glimpse the entirety of the Mondavi family's Napa Valley history.

On a clear day high on Pritchard Hill above the Silverado Trail, it's possible to view the Mondavis' famed Oakville winery across the valley. Next to it lies the To Kalon Vineyard that helped spur their fame. Glancing north past St. Helena, you might spy the Charles Krug property, where the family established its Napa roots in 1943, decades before the infamous brotherly split that propelled Robert Mondavi, Tim's father, to seek his own fortune.

Now Tim is ready to show off his addition to the Mondavi legacy - one built on decades of work in the family business.

"We are betting on the fact that we know a little bit about what we're doing," says Tim, 59.

The Mondavis have been writing their next chapter for nearly six years, and Continuum is a major piece. After selling their winery in 2004 to Constellation Brands, the world's largest wine company, the Mondavis found themselves well compensated but little more than figureheads. As Tim puts it, "Everything went up in smoke."

Suddenly the first family of American wine had no winery to its name. Robert's sons, Tim and Michael, diverged to create their own endeavors.

Michael, always the consummate businessman, created Folio Fine Wine Partners, an effort that includes both his own California wines and a series of imports - a scale model of the diverse Robert Mondavi empire.

Tim, trained at UC Davis, was the winemaker of the two. His was a more constrained notion: to create a single-estate wine that cut none of the winemaking corners he had been forced to trim at his father's winery.

It would provide a continuity of the Mondavi legacy, with his father offering guidance and his kids lending a hand, just as Robert ushered him and Michael into the family business.

Hence the name: Continuum.

"We had not missed a vintage since 1919 as a family, and we wanted to carry that on," Tim says.

That meant something in the Cabernet realm, specifically from To Kalon, long the source of top Mondavi wines.

Soon after the sale, Tim got his sister Marcia Mondavi Borger as a partner, received his dad's blessing and began securing the large oak and concrete fermenters he had wanted at the Mondavi facility, an expense seen by some as an extravagance.

Determined to make wine again in 2005, Tim assumed that he could rely on To Kalon fruit - an informal part of the sale agreement.

Initially, grapes did come from To Kalon. But it became evident its new owners wouldn't make the fruit available to him for much longer. Continuum's 2007 vintage was the last to include a majority of grapes from the site that helped seal the Mondavi reputation.

"The first three vintages are Dad's final ode to To Kalon," says Tim's daughter, Carissa Mondavi.

Splits in family

In the brothers' differing paths, and Tim's choices for Continuum, lie echoes of their sometimes dramatic splits running their family's empire under the careful watch - and active hand - of their father.

"I think the great thing is, this has allowed each of us to focus on something where we get the maximum satisfaction," says Michael Mondavi. "But I think we each excel in our own ways."

Although the brothers briefly served as co-CEOs of the Mondavi winery, Tim's role was clearly in the cellar and vineyards, while Michael's was in the boardroom - a split underscored by Robert's decision to end those co-equal roles in 1994, when the company went public and Robert installed Michael as sole CEO, with Tim as a managing director in charge of winegrowing.

There was also a gap in philosophy. If Michael felt the Mondavi name could bring cachet to lower-priced wines, Tim defended the top end, conducting sometimes costly winemaking trials. His work faced scrutiny in a public company guided by a board accountable to Wall Street.

"What gave focus to Robert Mondavi was my father's singular focus on the wines, from the first day. That clarity dimmed as the company went public," Tim says. "Continuum was born of the continuation of that clarity."

A move east

Though the family's legacy was established on Napa's western valley floor, Tim looked east toward spots like Howell Mountain and Atlas Peak, and their less fertile soils.

Eventually, Pritchard Hill caught his eye. Mondavi knew the area was a tougher prospect than Oakville's richer soils. Yields are scant - Continuum gets just under 2 tons of grapes per acre, perhaps half the valley average - so farming is expensive.

"If you are up here and you don't have that expectation, you're going to be out of business in a hurry," Tim says.

He was taken by a parcel near the Chappellet winery owned by Leighton and Linda Taylor of the Cloud View label. They said no when Tim approached them in 2007, but they changed their minds just in time for Robert, then 94, to see Continuum's eventual home before his death in May 2008. A few months later, on July 16 - the same day, Tim is fond of noting, that his father broke ground on his winery in 1966 - 86 acres of land was in Mondavi hands.

It took a little more than a year to acquire a second parcel from Tim's new next-door neighbor, Dick Martin, a Los Angeles architect who founded the Versant label. The two parcels, ranging from about 1,300 to 1,600 feet elevation, together formed 173 total acres of prime Napa ground - with 63 currently in vineyard, 21 newly planted by the Mondavis, farmed organically but not certified.

It's a site with a track record; the first plantings came in 1991, with more in 1996 and 2004, providing ample fruit for Continuum, which Tim wants to cap at 5,000 cases - meaning a lot of fruit or wine will be sold off or turned into a potential second label.

It is also a precious neighborhood, a sort of Gold Coast for Napa with its high-dollar bottles and closed-door properties. The adjacent Chappellet property is noted for its Pritchard Hill Cabernet. And just as Robert Mondavi welcomed Donn and Molly Chappellet to the valley in the mid '60s, the Chappellets more recently welcomed Tim and his family to their part of Napa.

"We're delighted it is them, because it could have been, who knows, any entity," says Cyril Chappellet of Chappellet Winery, one of Donn and Molly's sons. "It could have been one of the big behemoths that is publicly owned and has no feel for the valley."

Not far away is Bryant Family, one of Napa's most visible 1990s cult projects, and Ovid, one of its most ambitious recent launches. Just downslope lie Dalla Valle's vineyards, source of the lauded Maya blend.

Maya actually serves as a key reference for Continuum; both are based on a mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and a large portion of finicky, aromatic Cabernet Franc, which has found a lukewarm reception in Napa. But Tim was reminded of his experiences at Ornellaia, the Tuscan estate briefly owned by the Mondavi winery, and of his fondness for Bordeaux's Right Bank.

"I personally loved the wines that had the highest percentages of Cabernet Franc. So we reflected that," he says. "It also had to be different from what we'd done before."

Given the neighborhood, and the limited production of just 1,500 cases, Continuum is not cheap. But the 2007 sold out in three weeks at $140 per bottle - about the cost of the Mondavi Reserve Cabernet, and well under the going rate for many neighbors, including Bryant Family, currently about $325.

A different path

Tim, loquacious and displaying the artistic streak he was known for at Robert Mondavi, insists on driving up to the property's high point to show off a favorite parcel of Cabernet Franc. He seems to feel relaxed here, pursuing the sort of winemaking he loves without the financial pressures that caused strife in Oakville.

The forthcoming 2008 vintage marks the Mondavis' true break with To Kalon and the valley floor. It contains 70 percent fruit from Pritchard Hill; that jumps to 90 percent in the 2009.

The wines have been made at outsourced facilities, currently at the Ranch, a St. Helena custom-crush winery. But a home is coming. On a rise near that favored Cab Franc block, a facility designed by architect Howard Backen, built on pillars of rammed earth, is due by 2014.

Though Tim tapped some veteran non-family talent from the Mondavi realm - Greg Brady, Continuum's general manager, was a senior vice president at the Mondavi winery - like most things Mondavi, Continuum is ultimately a family affair. Daughter Carissa does sales and communications. Son Dante has been working as a cellarmaster. Son Carlo, who previously founded a line of skin-care products, is in sales. Daughter Chiara painted the label design, a rendering of a Cabernet Franc vine.

Tim clearly sees that as the path to ensuring that the Mondavi legacy endures beyond his generation.

"I think the fact my family has been in the wine business since 1919 tilts things in our favor. And I think the fact we're serious tilts things in our favor," Tim says.

"It'll be a while before we actually make money, but we know that."

From the notebook

How is Continuum? It is a masterful work in progress - by design, clearly, because the vineyard source has been shifting. But the template remains largely the same: a big dose of Cabernet Sauvignon, a healthy addition of Cabernet Franc and a bit of Petit Verdot for structure and color.

The 2007 Continuum ($140) comes primarily from the To Kalon site, with about 15 percent from the estate. At 60 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 22 percent Cabernet Franc and 18 percent Petit Verdot, it receives 100 percent new oak.

As a young wine, the wood is evident. It's hefty, lavish and packed with graphite, black olive and peppery Franc aromatics, plus deep kirsch and black cherry - a more overt effort that wears the To Kalon signature of rich black fruit. That To Kalon mark often falls prey to a Napa tendency to take a good thing too far. Continuum takes it just far enough; it's a well-executed powerhouse.

By contrast, the 2008 Continuum ($150; to be released in March) is predominantly an estate effort, with 70 percent of the fruit from Pritchard Hill. The proportion of Cabernet Sauvignon rises to 71 percent and there's a touch of Merlot, with a bit less new oak.

The result is far more perfumed and fresh, with smoked tobacco leaf and dried flower scents and bright huckleberry and cassis flavors. There's a much purer fruit signature, with sinewy tannins and a dark-stone mineral presence that already shows tremendous potential to age. As a sign of the project's future, it shows Tim Mondavi's wisdom in moving across the valley and up to the hills.

--Jon Bonné

Jon Bonné is The Chronicle's wine editor. Find him at jbonne@sfchronicle.com or twitter.com/jbonne.

This article appeared on page J - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Another Sopranosim

2010-10-31T08:38:00.000-07:00

Although not a fan of the show, A&E has the current rights to it and the syndicated broadcasts are shown every morning at 6 AM. Occasionally I have it on as I get up. This morning I couldn't help but notice a scene which, without going into much background, portrayed a rape incident. The victim's ex-husband entered the hospital room to see her.

This character, who I believe was supposed to be of Calabrian ancestry, was a somewhat tall gentlemanly man in his fifties. Well spoken and educated, he took great offense at the portrayal of Italian-Americans in the mainstream media, even going so far as to say that it was a roadblock to an "Italian president."

As he entered the hospital room, he tried to keep his composure as health care staff and law enforcement officials conducted their work. After a few moments, a police detective stated that the perpetrator had been arrested. The individual's last name was "Rossi." Suddenly, this man became noticeably uncomfortable. Showing more emotion than he had when he first saw his ex-wife, he blurted out something like "That's an Italian name!? I thought that witnesses described him as a Puerto Rican??"

The basic gist of it was that he has such a chip on his shoulder, that he took it almost personally that the perpetrator of this particular type of hideous crime had the name "Rossi." Of course, all this was fictional, but I couldn't help but think of what this man might think of many everyday face-to-face meetings with people?

To digress, the criminal in this fictional account was, according to the story, Puerto Rican. Some Puerto Ricans have surnames of Irish, Corsican, and Sardinian origin. This due to immigrants to the island, perhaps a century or more ago, and who melded with the local population; hence the name "Rossi." Then it occurred to me, this individual placed a lot of importance on even the intrinsic concept of "an Italian name." I just wanted to pull this issue away from this portrayal of a crime; one that, if genuinely proven, probably should be rewarded with the death penalty.... into just everyday life. Everyday interactions.

I can't help but think of what this man, and there are probably many like him, would think of maybe someone like me? To digress for just a moment, he, being from New York City, would have had almost no contact with anyone whose ancestry was is what we like to call "the northern nations," unless he traveled to "Italy." This is not good or bad in of itself, but just a fact. When studying the villages of eastern Lombardy, where my ancestors came from, it's clear that very few of them had village names (of their original dialect; used prior to 1860) that he would recognize as "Italian-sounding" The local Lombard dialects wouldn't even be recognized as "Italian" either (the Tuscan language was implemented as the official "Italian language") . However, the surnames would be recognizable to him as "Italian."

Some of those surnames would sound different than what he might be used to. Some of them being of Gallic origin. A few names from long gone eras may appear, like "Mitterpergher" in Lombardy, and many surnames in the tri-Veneto region have no vowel ending, but are very native. However, some surnames in say Sicily reflect long past eras as well; like "Martines" or "Mondinier." More often than not, a name like "Cuomo" would sound foreign in non-cosmopolitan areas in the north. I wonder what Mario Cuomo, himself very similar to the character we are looking at here, would assess that fact? In short, there's an honest aspect to this, and a dishonest one.

Maria Laurino took the challenging step of trying to sift through this issue in her 2001 book 'Were You Always an Italian?: Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America'. It took courage to take on this issue. Without going into all of the data, I will merely quote the famous anthropologist Carlton Coon:

"No country in Europe in which one language and one cultural tradition prevail shows a greater diversity of race between its southern and its northern extremities than does Italy. The binding element which is common to all sections is the Alpine, which has reëmerged from obscure beginnings through a superstructure composed of Dinaric, Nordic, and various kinds of Mediterranean accretions. Italy stands on the fence between the Alpine and Mediterranean worlds."

As we have gone over time and time again, even that "common language" is absolute pure fiction; no disrespect on the Tuscan dialect intended. Also, Catholicism is a very culturally ambiguous concept. Many people of entirely different cultures are "Catholic."

I recall some years ago, some high ranking political figure in Greece, I don't recall offhand his name or position, stated that "Italians" have spread the mafia all around the world. On one level, he was correct that there is no "Greek mafia." There is a present black market anywhere in the world, but nothing comparable to the mafia of Sicily, Calabria, or Campania, in, for example, Greece, Spain, or Germany. On the other hand, it was a moronic statement in that there are about five million people of "Italian" ancestry in the Brazilian province of Sao Paulo, and no mafia; many millions more in Argentina, with no mafia. Part of this is that most of those people are of "northern nations" descent.

Getting back to our Sopranos character. IF he was of Calabrian descent, and IF he took such matters so personally, then he might well have an achy heart today. The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta is possibly the world's most powerful organized crime group. They make literally billions per year in drug profits. Their GNP is higher than that of small countries like Estonia. In reality, he shouldn't take that personally; although it is quite a curiosity subject! Why Calabria? There are many areas in Europe which are historically poorer and have been subjected to much greater oppression than Calabria or Sicily. On the other hand, I don't think that I have ever heard of a "bad Italian neighborhood" (in a Southern Italian/American sense).

Lets cut to the chase. As a people, US northerners, the Gallo-Tuscan types, have taken it worse than the traditional Italian-Americans. WE are not responsible for any of the negative stereotypes, real or imagined. The image of "Italians" around the world contains some of the lowest stereotypes, with sarcasm sprinkled on top for good measure ('Analize This'); along with the highest forms of culture and ingenuity. Whether anyone likes it or not, the term "Italian" many times arouses negativity or emotion from non-Italians; just subtle enough to make someone NOT want to touch the subject, yet annoying enough to cause despair, especially if one is Gallo-Tuscan in ethnic origin.

Whether it be a quote like from the Greek politician, Camorra wars in Naples, or Robert DeNiro movies, this shouldn't have anything to do with us anyway! I had written about his subject on a few occasions, and minced my words a little. I probably injected a few awkward sentences when I backtracked a little bit to soften it up. This, again, is due to the subtle nature of the subject. One stereotype that I get a lot is "the Italian workplace bully." Okay, we can go into the "good and bad in every group" thing. From the description and names, it seemed pretty clear to me that the bullies of these stories were Southern Italian. Ironically, I can only think of one place that I ever worked where there were some vicious bullies. A lot of ex-cons and social undesirables who made life miserable, who were of various backgrounds. Everything BUT Italian. In fact, the few Italians (almost all Southern Italian) were probably the nicest guys there. I guess it's like an "opposite character" of a national and/or ethnic group. For example, many or most Germans are gregarious, back-slapping, drinking beer on Octoberfest, etc., then the opposite negative stereotype of cool, calculating, and emotionless. Well, maybe it's the same thing here. A warm, gregarious people, and the opposite character: temper, bully, bad attitude, etc.

We should coin a term to describe all the times that someone rags on "Italians" and we have to decide on whether to go along with it, laugh, try to say that we're not really the same type of Italian, or take offense as though we were all one big Italian family that should stick up for one-another no matter what. One thing is for sure, it's not "self-loathing" in the Mario Cuomo/"Were you always an Italian" idea of the term. I guess it's all relative. I guess someone could say that as a white person, I should feel guilty for slavery in America. As a human being, maybe someone could say that I should feel bad for how we pollute the environment.

I remember one time working for a company, it was graveyard shift, and the large heavy man who was the operations manager got angry with one of the other managers. The other man was "demographically Russian," even though his ethnic heritage was from one of those "stan" countries near Afghanistan. The OPS manager called him by an ethnic slur with "Russian" attached to the end of it. Then they went at it. My point is that, beyond this interaction between these two, the one individual was actually not even an ethnic Russian at all. There are many examples of this, which I won't go into, but one would hope that someone, if they had to make this type of remark... would AT LEAST GET THE STEREOTYPE CORRECT!!! Russians, in RUSSIA PROPER, visually are beautiful people, largely ancestors of Vikings! And here, some big slob can defame their name, and the person isn't even really Russian anyway. It's sort've like insulting a person, and then tacking on this added THING that I can't even coin a term for.

.

The Etruscans and Arthur Kemp

2010-10-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is in response to an entry on the Arthur Kemp blog entitled 'Etruscans: DNA Evidence Proves March of the Titans Correct Once Again'.

The article is based on a 2006 DNA study on native Tuscans. The conclusion was that modern Tuscans are not related to the ancient Etruscans, as had long been thought.

One of the problems with "geographical categorizations" is that racial stocks in certain regions of the world change over time. Therefore a DNA test might show, for example, that a person of Indo-European descent has genetic links to Iran. In reality, it would much more likely be to ancient Persia, and perhaps even thousands of years ago when the demographics were different. The same could be said for many other regions.

When members of the British National Party voluntarily underwent DNA tests, most showed a somewhat significant genetic link to the Middle East. In reality, that link was to the ancient Mediterraneans of that region, long before massive numbers of people of a different racial stock migrated out of the Saudi Peninsula and spread the Islamic faith there. All it meant was that the English and the Middle Easterners shared some common ancestry, despite the fact that those ancestors went in entirely different genetic directions. The ancient Middle Easterners largely became, for all intents and purposes, Saudis. The ancient Mediterranean Britons became basically Germans. Therefore, for someone to state that Englishmen and Iraqis of today, are genetic cousins, would not be intellectually honest.

The article goes on to the hypothesis that the Langobards displaced the mixed-race Roman population. In reality, at least throughout most of the northern half of the Italian peninsula, the population was made up of culturally "Romanized" Gauls as the historical record is absolutely crystal clear on. In Tuscany, Kemp's hypothesis is closer to the truth, and down onto the southern Langobard duchies of Benovento and Spoleto. Still, the wild sweeping generalization seems to show his lack of historical understanding of at least most of the north.

Now, as far the Tuscan DNA study, the article accurately summed up the results:

"DNA testing on Etruscan bones recovered from graves showed that they were completely unrelated to modern Tuscan people.

"DNA testing on the modern Tuscan people showed that their genetic origin was in Anatolia, which is located in modern Turkey, bounded by the Black Sea to the north and the Caucasus to the northeast — smack bang where it should be."

The only problem is that Arthur Kemp wants his cake and eat it too. Up to, and during the Roman period, there was no "Turkey," and there were no "Turks." Using his logic, one could conclude that the Iroquois built New York City, that Aborigines constructed Sydney, or that England was originally settled by immigrants from Iraq.

The region that is now Turkey was the hub of the Eastern Roman Empire. Before that, much of it was part of Greece. A good portion of it was settled early on by Celtic tribes. According to the 'History of Turkey' Wikipedia page:

"The history of Turkey refers to the history of the country now called Turkey. Although the lands have an ancient history, Turkic migration to the country is relatively new. The Turks, a society whose language belongs to the Turkic language family started moving from their original homelands to the modern Turkey in the 11th century. After the Turkic Seljuq Empire defeated forces of the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert, the process was accelerated and the country was referred to as 'Turchia' in the Europe as early as the 12th century.[1] The Seljuq dynasty controlled Turkey until the country was invaded by the Mongols following the Battle of Kosedag. During the years when the country was under Mongol rule, some small Turkish states were born. One of these states was the Ottoman beylik which quickly controlled Western Anatolia..." [Source: 'Turkey'; James Bainbridge].

Arthur Kemp can't have it both ways. If Tuscans are really Turks, then Iraqi immigrants were the original settlers of England. In reality, both of those Mediterranean peoples had no genuine link to modern Turks or Iraqis outside of the very "limited shared ancestry" concept, by which entirely different racial stocks could easily have "some common ancestors." It can't be "heads I win, tails you lose." YOU CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS.

Modern Tuscans, which we consider OUR folk, are not culturally or genetically similar to modern Turks. Although the study showed some strong evidence to support Kemp's politics, his final conclusion was intellectually dishonest. Some years back, someone was poking around a Roman graveyard and found some surnames consistent with Byzantine origins, and Kemp concluded that this meant that the native inhabitants were actually Turks. That was junk science. First of all, the Byzantines were not "Turkish." Even then, how do we know that the graveyard wasn't specifically a Byzantine cemetery? Were other cemeteries from that period studied? How do we know that the twenty seven ancient Etruscans, from which the DNA was obtained, were not atypical individuals; perhaps from elsewhere?

In the British Isles, remains of Roman legionnaires have been discovered. Some of those soldiers had identification documents showing that they were natives of Syria, Carthage, and elsewhere. Although they probably were basically Phoenician or ancient Mediterranean, which would for all intents and purposes would still place them within the range of "Indo-European," one could easily slant the evidence to the contrary. One BNP official, whose DNA was tested, showed 8% historically recent Sub-Saharan African mtDNA markers; likely originating from the importation of West African slaves. Again, someone could very easily slant that evidence. In reality, one would probably need to take a dozen tests to get an accurate reading of various genetic stocks. A single DNA ancestry test will occasionally blow up the admixture of any particular genetic stock, so 2% could read as perhaps 10% of whatever racial stock was being analyzed.

It's probably safe to say that England is probably more purely "Indo-European" than, say, Spain or Sicily. However, when studying data, an intellectually honest researcher can't decide for themselves, depending on their own ideology, that "heads I win, tails you lose." In other words, you can't use one set of rules to come to a conclusion in one area; and an entirely different set of rules to come to a conclusion in another area.

Cernic Rite

2010-09-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Cernic tradition was an ancient religion native to mainly ancient Gaul, Alpine Germany, and Cisalpine Gaul; and which also seemed to exist in Iberia, some parts of Scandinavia, and perhaps elsewhere.

CERNUNNOS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cernunnos

Cernunnos (also Cernenus and Cern) is a Celtic god whose representations were widespread in the ancient Celtic lands of western Europe. Cernunnos is associated with horned male animals, especially stags and the ram-horned snake; this and other attributes associate him with produce and fertility.

Everything known about this deity comes from two inscriptions from France and one from Germany.

Evidence

A rock carving of Cernunnos in the National park of Naquane, Italy.[4]
Cernunnos was proposed to have been identified as the illustration on the Snake-witch picture stone, which shows a possibly horned figure holding snakes in his/her hands, from Gotland, Sweden.[citation needed]

Archaeological sources such as inscriptions and depictions from Gaul and Northern Italy (Gallia Cisalpina) have been used to define Cernunnos.

[Music: 'Lacrimae Lugus' by Crystalmoors

"Celtic/Pagan Black Metal band from Cantabria, Spain" (YouTube user BlackDeath)

http://www.myspace.com/crystalmoors
http://www.fotolog.com/crystalmoors ]

"Wine tasting in Genoa" ..... Nevada

2010-09-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Last year, while visiting South Lake Tahoo, I picked up a brochure entitled 'Wine Tasting in Genoa'. It was subtitled 'Nevada's First Settlement', and was referencing Tahoe Ridge Winery in Genoa, Nevada. The winery is fairly new, having been founded in 1990. The brochure shows that the town and winery are located twenty miles east of South Lake Tahoe. From the brochure: "Nestled in the picturesque town of Genoa, on the eastern slope of the great Sierra Nevada mountain range, lies the home of Tahoe Ridge Winery & Marketplace. Tahoe Ridge sources grapes from high quality growers who farm vineyards throughout Nevada and California."

The winery seems to have everything a large wine operation usually has, including entertainment events. Their events schedule shows that on September 5th, Victoria Vox performed there live; on September 18th, they will host an Annual Grape Stomp at their marketplace and bistro; and on October 17th, Beppe Gambetta, a musical artist from Genova, will perform there as well. From the website: "From Genova, Italy comes this smiling troubadour for his fourth appearance in the Carson Valley. Beppe’s diverse blend of styles range from romantic Italian ballads to traditional Americana and Bluegrass. His sense of humor accentuates his performances while his blazingly quick flatpicking style weaves multi-layered melodies that mesmerize the house."

From Wikipedia's Genoa, Nevada webpage:

"Genoa is an unincorporated township in Douglas County, Nevada, United States. Founded in in 1850, it was the first settlement in what became the Nevada Territory. It is situated within Carson Valley and is about 42 miles (68 km) south of Reno.

"Located within Utah Territory before the Nevada Territory was created in 1861, Genoa was first settled by Mormon pioneers. The settlement originated as a trading post called Mormon Station, which served as a respite for travelers on the California trail. Orson Hyde changed the name of the community to Genoa, after Genoa, Italy. The original Mormon settlers withdrew in 1857 when they were recalled by Brigham Young due to the Utah War.

"The community was the home to Nevada's first hotel, newspaper and court. Nevada's first newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise was founded in Genoa in 1858, but moved to Virginia City, Nevada in 1860. Another first for the state, the Genoa Bar, billed "Nevada's oldest thirst parlor," was patronized by Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and Johnny Cash and was used in John Wayne and Clint Eastwood films. The village was also the set for the movie Misery, starring Kathy Bates. The village doubled in size with buildings added and then removed after the filming.

"Much of Genoa, including the original fort, station and hotel was destroyed in a fire in 1910, but replica of the fort was built in 1947. Every year since 1919 Genoa has held a festival called The Candy Dance, where candy, food and crafts are sold to support its town government. The Candy Dance is usually held during the final weekend of September. Many pioneers rest in the Genoa graveyard including Snowshoe Thompson, his wife and his son.

"A mile south of Genoa is David Walley's Resort, a famous natural hot springs and spa, now a mediocre resort. It was first built in 1862 and known as Walley's Hot Springs.

"Unlike the city of Genoa in Italy, the Nevada community's name is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable: juh-NO-uh.

"Genoa Historic District

"In 1975, the community was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places."

The town's website states about their town "Nevada's First Recorded Permanent Settlement." It was founded in 1851.

From the website's "Visit Genoa" page:

"Historic charm attracts visitors year-round

"Historic Genoa, Nevada, is nestled at the base of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Range, just 25 minutes east of beautiful Lake Tahoe, and one hour south of Reno.

"It is home to Mormon Station Memorial State Park which commemorates the settlement of Nevada in 1851, when the first permanent trading post was established by a group of Mormon traders from Salt Lake City.

"Genoa’s natural beauty and historic charm still beckon travelers and local wildlife. It is not unusual to spot mule deer as they come down from the forested area on the west side of Genoa and cross local roads to graze on vegetation or fields along the Carson River Valley to the east of Genoa.

"The small town of approximately 250 residents and many local amenities and shops, welcomes visitors for a day trip or longer restful stay. Plan to learn about Genoa’s past with a visit to Mormon Station State Park Museum, Genoa Courthouse Museum, the Genoa Cemetery and the Hanging Tree. Stroll through a variety of shops, and be sure to make time for a leisurely lunch or dinner. Click HERE to download the Greater Genoa Business Association Walking Tour Map of town attractions, including shops, dining, drinking and lodging accommodations.

"Considering a stay in Genoa? There is much to do in the surrounding area including hiking, biking, golfing, flying, fishing and shopping, just to name a few. Click here to link to the Carson Valley Visitors Authority for more information about Genoa and the surrounding Carson Valley.

"Be sure to mark your calendar for the last weekend in September to visit the town’s annual Candy Dance Arts and Crafts Faire. Since 1919, the residents of Genoa have made the wonderful homemade candy sold during the weekend and complimented by a Saturday night dinner-dance. Over the years the event has evolved, and today the Genoa Candy Dance is well-known as one of the greatest craft fairs in Northern Nevada drawing artisans from all over the west who come to sell their wares."

There are more tourist links on this page for Carson County, but I think that I'll just leave it at that. The whole Tahoe area is a great place to explore.

Langbard Kingdom: A Catholic Nation

2010-09-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

Langbard Kingdom: A Catholic Nation

Soon after the establishment of the Langbard Kingdom, the Langobard Nation officially adopts Catholicism. Prior to that, they had been roughly half Arian Christian and half pagan (Ásatrú).

Langbard Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Lombards

[Music: 'Angelic Salutation', 'Hail Mary', or 'Ave Maria' by Barbara Bonney; sung in German]

Villa Toscano Winery in Amador County

2010-08-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

The Villa Toscano Winery was featured on this weeks In Wine Country, which airs on Sunday evening on local NBC affiliates. In fact, you may watch the program on their website InWineCountry.com throughout the week. Actually, the "wine country" is not just Napa County, but a much larger region of Northern California. Also, the above image is not the Villa Tuscany. The winery is located in Plymouth, California, which has a population of less than one thousand. The program showed the winery as a very pleasant place to visit. Beyond a place to wine taste, purchase wine, or take a tour; it's a place to have lunch at their bistro, enjoy a massage, or walk off on your own along the vinyards. They seem to even have some rooms for rent.
.

New findings from ancient tomb in Italy

2010-08-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

New findings from ancient tomb in Italy

UPI - August 5, 2010

ROME, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- A royal tomb in an Etruscan necropolis in central Italy has yielded fresh archaeological finds during a summer dig, researchers say.

Tarquinia, one of the richest Etruscan sites in the Lazio region of Italy, is home to dozens of tombs, but researchers were only recently given permission to excavate the "Queen's Tomb" in detail, ANSA reported.

Dating to the mid-seventh century B.C., the crypt is thought to have been a royal burial site although no remains have ever been found.

Researchers uncovering the crypt say they are finding images and decorations found in other contemporary cultures, suggesting the ancient city had much wider links with the outside world than previously thought.

Archaeologists believe the royal tomb was created by a team of foreign architects and craftsmen, strong evidence of a solid network of ties and trade with other civilizations, they said.

The necropolis of Tarquinia contains 6,000 graves cut into the rock but has won worldwide fame for its painted tombs.

Nearly 200 crypts at the site are decorated with frescos in the early Etruscan and Greek style.

Considered one of the most important galleries of ancient art, the Tarquinia necropolis has been on UNESCO's world heritage list since 2004.

Scritobini: Dawn of Europe

2010-08-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

The Scritobini were a particularly barbaric tribe in ancient Scandinavia. "Scritobini" was the name which the Romans called them. Here "Scritobini" is used in part, to represent the first inhabitants of the region, or at least going back to the last Ice Age.

HISTORY OF THE LOMBARDS

Book I, Chaper V

The Scritobini, for thus that nation is called, are neighbors to this place. They are not without snow even in the summer time, and since they do not differ in nature from wild beasts themselves, they feed only upon the raw flesh of wild animals from whose shaggy skins also they fit garments for themselves. [1] They deduce the etymology of their name [2] according to their barbarous language from jumping.

For by making use of leaps and bounds they pursue wild beasts very skillfully with a piece of wood bent in the likeness of a bow. Among them there is an animal not very unlike a stag, [3] from whose hide, while it was rough with hairs, I saw a coat fitted in the manner of a tunic down to the knees, such as the aforesaid Scritobini use, as has been related.

In these places about the summer solstice, a very bright light is seen for some days, even in the night time, and the days are much longer there than elsewhere, just as, on the other hand, about the winter solstice, although the light of day is present, yet the sun is not seen there and the days are shorter than anywhere else and the nights too are longer, and this is because the further we turn from the sun the nearer the sun itself appears to the earth and the longer the shadows grow.

[1] What is said about the Scritobini (or Scridefinni) can be traced to one and the same source as the account of Thule given in Procopius' Gothic War, II, 13, or of Scandza in Jordanes' Gothic History, 3; see Zeuss, 684.
[2] Perhaps from schreitcii, " to stride," or some kindred word.
[3] A reindeer (Waitz).

[Music: 'House of 1000 Corpses' by Rob Zombie]

Ancient Etruria II: Civilization without empire

2010-08-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

ETRURIA

"In the eight century BC, time of westward expansion, Phoenicians going west, Greeks going west, founding colonies. When the Greeks sailed into Italy, they found something they didn't expect. An advanced civilization already there." --Professor Richard E. Prior, Ancient Historian, Furman University, South Carolina, from the documentary 'Rome: Power & Glory'

As has been stated here before, the perception is that Rome more-or-less came from the Greeks. The truth is a lot different. As the above quote reflects, the Etruscans were trendsetters on thier own. That doesn't mean that, in many ways, the Greeks weren't the forerunners of what later became Western civilization. However, in most areas of human endeavor, the Etruscans were the equal to the Greeks. They apparently were not looking to expand, as they already were in a virtual Garden of Eden. They were not sea faring people. They conducted a lot of land trading, with the north mostly, it appears.

After the Romans shattered the Etruscans, as the victors always do, they rewrote the history. Until fairly recently, the Etruscans didn't even exist in the history books. Now we know that the Romans took Etruscan technology and began to form their plan for an empire. They leveled the vast majority of what had been Etruscan.

[Music: 'Hazelwood' by Silver On The Tree]

The Twilight Saga and the Benandanti: Part 6

2010-08-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Bendandanti werewolves

One of the strangest incidences involving werewolves was that of "Benandanti" (a term roughly translated into 'good walkers,' 'those who go well' or 'good-doers') in northern Italy. In this case the werewolves were men who left their bodies and assumed the shape of wolves. After becoming wolves they descended to the underworld to battle witches.

This case was tried in 1692 in Jurgenburg, Livonia, situated in an area east of the Baltic Sea, steeped in werewolf folklore. It involved an 80-year-old man named Thiess.
Thiess confessed to being a werewolf, saying his nose had been broken by a man named Skeistan, a witch who was dead at the time he had struck Thiess. According to Thiess' testimony Skeistan and other witches was preventing the crops of the area from growing. Their purpose for doing this was so they could carry the grain into hell. To help the crop to continue to grow Thiess with a band of other werewolves descended into hell to fight the witches to recover the grain.

The warring of the werewolves and the witches occurred on three nights of the year: Saint Lucia, Pentecost and Saint John (the seasonal changes). If the werewolves were slow in their descent the witches would bar the gates of hell, and the crops, livestock, and even the fish catch would suffer. As weapons the werewolves carried iron bars while the witches used broom handles. Skeistan broke Theiss' nose with a broom handle wrapped in a horse's tail.

The judges were astounded by such testimony, for they had naturally supposed the werewolves were agents of the Devil. But now they were hearing the werewolves were fighting the Devil. When asked what became of the souls of the werewolves, Thiess said they went to heaven. He insisted werewolves were the "hounds of Gods" who helped mankind by preventing the Devil from carrying off the abundance of the earth. If it were not for them all would suffer. He said there were werewolves in Germany and Russia also fighting witches in their own hells.

Thiess was determined in his confession, denying he had ever signed a pact with the Devil. He refused to see the parish priest who was sent for to chastise him, saying that he was a better man than any priest. He claimed he was neither the first nor the last man to become a werewolf in order to fight witches.
Finally the judges, probably out of desperation, sentenced Thiess to ten lashes for acts of idolatry and superstitious beliefs. A.G.H.

In the Friuli region of Italy, Slavic, Germanic, and Italian traditions combined to form the Benandanti cult. Many Benandanti were followers of Diana.

Carlo Ginzburg, in 'Night Battles' wrote:

'The present research now establishes...the positive existence at a relatively late date (from c. 1570) of a fertility cult whose participants, the Benandanti, represented themsleves as defenders of harvests and the fertility of fields...This belief is tied to a larger complex of traditions (connected, in turn, with the myth of nocturnal gatherings over which female deities...presided)...In the span of a century, as we shall see, the Benandanti were transformed into witches and their nocturnal gatherings, intended to induce fertility, became the devil's sabbat, with the resulting storms and destruction.'

Four times a year, on holidays associated with the planting and harvesting of crops, the Benandanti were called to Gatherings. It was at these Gatherings that the major battles with 'Malandanti '(loosely translates to 'evil-doers) or 'Strigoni' were fought. The Benandanti fought with fennel stalks, the Malandanti with sorghum. It was believed that on certain particular nights the soul of the Benandanti gets out of the body to participate in meetings with other Benandanti .

But perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Benandanti was the method by which they were chosen. One did not decide to be Benandanti, the calling was forced on certain people as an accident of birth. Women and men born with a 'caul' (inner fetal membrane still covering the body, especially the head) were believed to have mysterious healing powers and the ability to see witches. Cauls were sometimes saved by these Benandanti and worn about their necks as amulets.

Much like the shamen of other cultures, the Benandanti testified they left their bodies at night, (what we call astral projection) sometimes shape shifting into animal form , sometimes riding animals or household tools. While 'out' they performed work which, we now know from modern research, was typical of shamans around the world. They healed and protected people of the village, they kept the paths of the dead from this world to the next secure, and they fought to protect the village from 'Malandanti'.

The 'doers of good' retained their anti-witchcraft stance until around the year 1610. Shortly afterward, they came under persecution by the Inquisition, and were identified as witches. They maintained that they were an army for Christ in the war against evil. As a result the local beliefs underwent a profound transformation, and by 1640 the Benandanti themselves were acknowledging that they were in fact 'witches'.

[from monstrous.com]

The Twilight Saga and the Benandanti: Part 5

2010-08-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Night Battles: How the Benandanti Fought Witches During the Sabbath

Daniil Leiderman - deliriumsrealm.com - September 10, 2007

We have learned to dismiss the Inquisition, to view its cases, its hundreds of years of history as a self-fulfilling prophesy gone terribly wrong. People driven by faith or greed or a bit of both, sought witches and found them. Scores and scores of women and men were imprisoned, tortured and in some cases killed, apparently for their own good. History has rejected the Inquisition's legacy, it values and self-validations.

We dismiss the Inquisition's trials and evidence and are quite right to do so-confession obtained under torture is hardly dependable. And yet it is certain that not every case began and ended with torture, and at times even the inquisitors were at odds about a certain potential heretic. Such is the case of the benandanti of the Friuli (north-eastern) region of Italy. Anthropologist Carlo Ginzberg's book Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries presents the benandanti through the inquisitor's records and trial data, just as the inquisitors met them.

Who are the Benandanti?

The benandanti were of peasant stock, poor and largely illiterate, they spoke almost exclusively the friuli dialect, and at times had trouble communicating with their judges. However several statements reappear throughout the entire length of Ginzberg's study. All benandanti insist they were chosen by being born with a caul.

Superstition ascribed an unusual destiny for children born with a caul, a piece of the amniotic sac on their head. This was true throughout Europe and even the Middle East, however the specifics of the superstition; whether it was a good or bad omen, tended to vary from region to region. For several defendants in Ginzberg's study, the caul was a lifetime protective talisman worn in a pouch around the neck. It was the caul that identified a potential benandante to his or her recruiters.

After the age of approximately twenty each benandanti said another benandanti came to them during the night and led them out, riding cocks or goats beyond the village and into the woods. On the way the benandanti would drink wine from their neighbor's casks, invisible and flying. All benandanti insisted their bodies were left behind on their journeys.

Battles Between Benandanti and Witches

In the woods the spirits of the benandanti would meet the witches in the throes of their Sabbath. The witches would dance, fornicate and defile Christian images. Sometimes the devil lead them, at times a warlock, the witches would serve either. The benandanti would wait, lead by a captain (several separate trials record benandanti from different villages describing the same leader), or a glowing angel, and then they would meet the witches in battle and beat them with flannel stalks.

If the witches won, evil triumphed - crops withered, children and animals died. If the benandanti won, good triumphed for a season - fields were fertile, storms rare, children healthy. Such rites happened four times a year, once before every season.

Each benandanti insisted to his inquisitor that they served Jesus Christ and the Church. One can see the trouble such statements would have given the inquisitor.

The Church's Reactions to Benandanti

The benandanti are by definition acting beyond the Church yet claim to be for the Church, they witness the Devil's Sabbath but do not partake, they know the witches in their region by sight but do not reveal them-they act beyond the paradigm. As such the inquisitors did not immediately reach for the rack and the fire.

Initially the benandanti were released, and the same was true of the next batch of benandanti arrested later in the 16th century. Each new generation of inquisitor seemed to inevitably run up against the benandanti, interrogate, try and give up, handing out, at best, a sentence of mild heresy punishable by paying penance and temporary banishment from the town or region. However, the attention the cult received lead to its decline. The public became aware of the benandanti's claim of their supposed power over the spells of witches.

According to their testimony the benandanti can cajole and threaten witches into reversing their spells or hexes, particularly the ones that cause disease to children. Inevitably some unethical people, who may or may not have been benandanti began to charge the parents of sick children for the lifting of the witches' curse on their child. On the one hand this made the benandanti seem opportunistic and devaluated their "goodness" in the eyes of the populace leading to a more direct association between them and the witches they claimed to oppose. Furthermore, the benandanti's "cure" would more often that not involve the denunciation of the "culprit" usually a family member, as the witch causing the trouble.

At times the benandante would name a couple, or even a dozen of local women as witches, and ascribe to them the most vile of acts. The local inquisitors would be forced to investigate if only to stop a lynch mob. Clearly such provocations made the benandanti seem like fanatics bent on disrupting the social order to both the populace and the church hierarchy.

In the end the problem of how to condemn the benandanti as heretics became academic. Changing popular beliefs tainted by two centuries of prosecution, and inquisitors more willing to use torture produced a crop of benandanti whose beliefs had clearly eroded. These benandanti might recall some part of the night battles, but no longer insisted on their separation from the witches, instead admitting under pressure to also cavorting with Satan and spitting on the cross.

Ginzberg traces the decline of the benandanti's beliefs into the 17th century where the cult appears to disappear altogether after several leaders are convicted of misleading the populace and thievery rather than religious reasons. However, the benandanti are not interesting because they challenged the understanding of the inquisitor, but because they challenge ours just as much.

Explanations for the Benandanti's Abilities

Any rational person would be at a loss to explain the sense of community the benandanti convey-for instance benandanti in different villages describe the same meeting place, or even name their leader-and the fact that this community claims to meet in spirit only, given that the Inquisition's own investigation all but rules out actual cult gatherings.

Ginzberg puts forward several theories-epilepsy, hallucinogens, and others, but it is obvious to him and to us that they are insufficient. Indeed who has heard of epileptics who suffer a fit only on certain days of the year, at midnight, with accompanying visions? Or hallucinogens that change your consciousness so as you experience a particular ritual event again and again, to the complete exclusion of your actual sight and hearing? Moreover, even the most outlandish drug cannot account for multiple benandanti who have never met in person claiming that their captain is red-headed, or being able to name the witches in other villages in the region.

One story reveals the gap between the benandanti and our own limits of understanding tells of a benandante woman accused of practicing necromancy. When the inquisitors asks her if it is true that on a certain date she taught a certain local woman how to see the spirits of the dead, the accused tearfully replies that she did not teach the local woman anything, but that the woman came to her looking for help, because she saw ghosts but wanted to stop seeing them. The accused witch told the local woman that she had no choice in the matter, since these things were up to God, and she should simply learn to live with it, as the accused had. We see here the earnest conviction of a peasant woman, who for lack of education, or for fear of the church tells what she believes to be the truth.

Indeed when the benandanti lie, it is fairly obvious-after giving detailed descriptions of the gathering at one interrogation, the accused would suddenly claim to have forgotten, or never heard of the benandanti at the next, one accused simply agreed with anything said by the inquisitors including contradictory statements-he was released when this was noticed. In the necromancer's case the inquisitors decided the woman wasn't a witch, but was guilty of mild heresy and banished her for three years. We would have put both her and the local woman that asked for her help in the mental hospital for schizophrenia. It is arguable which is the better "cure".

But therein lies the significance of Ginzberg's work-we cannot simply discount the rather simple confessions of these people, there is a tradition and a stable set of images, but they are at odds with all rational explanations. Furthermore Ginzberg sites a number of similar European cults, whose believers run the gamut from nearly identical to the benandante, to werewolves that battle the hounds of Satan, and even stranger groups.

Indeed, faced with so many cults we find ourselves in the position of the inquisitors, doing our best to conform these people to our paradigm, to our reason, and find them slipping away into the irrational night.

About the Author

Daniil Leiderman is completing his studies in the fields of art history and comparative literature at New York University. He is a Russian emigre and a practicing pagan.

Reference

Carlo Ginzburg's "Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries", Penguin Books 1985

Alberto da Giussano and Barbarossa - Part VIII: Company of Death

2010-08-12T22:02:00.001-07:00

This is a part eight of the Barbarossa series from last fall, during the release of the Italian movie 'Barbarossa'. This movie may be available for download at a few pay movie downloading sites, but it would probably be better to just wait probably two more months for the DVD. Let us know if you find a good source in the meantime.

Company of Death (Wikipedia)

The Company of Death is the name used in the historical literature of English language for two related chosen tactical corps, two selected bands of warriors, entrusted to guarantee the cohesiveness and efficiency in battle of both the Milanese and Lombard League's militias through their bound by oath to the defence of the Milanese Carroccio, the wagon on which the standard of the Lombard allies stood.

They fought in the Battle of Legnano (29 May 1176) against the imperial army of Frederick I Barbarossa Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, in his 5th Italian Campaign, and were determinant in his decisive defeat.

The two corps who formed the Company of Death were the Company of the Carroccio, an infantry unit of 300 men, and the real and effective Company of Death, a cavalry unit of 900 men, commanded according to tradition by Alberto da Giussano.

The Company of the Carroccio

The Company of the Carroccio, was an infantry unit of 300 men, all of them young volunteers (forming a societas) and Milanese, sworn by oath to die in defence of the Milanese Carroccio. They fought as phalanx in a Sheltron formation around their "Sacred wagon", armed with a large shield and a lanzalonga.

The Knights of Death

The Company of Death, also known in some sources till the late 19th century as the Knights of Death, is the name of a temporary military association of medieval knights (a temporary societas), not historically well documented, which according to tradition was organized and equipped by a leader known as Alberto da Giussano. It had a great importance during the Battle of Legnano (29 May 1176) where it defended the Carroccio of the Lombard League against the imperial army of Frederick I Barbarossa.

The company was assembled in haste, depriving the Lombard infantry of the valuable support of enough heavy cavalry, "horse" were recruited by Alberto da Giussano around Brescia, and in other eastern areas of Lombardy that had contributed less in infantry and trails to the League. The knights would not be understood in the medieval and romantic sense, but as mere "mounted on horseback" or also "light cavalry." They were very probably particularly cruel and fierce "professional, or semi-professional, fighters," apt at wreaking havoc in the enemy ranks.

According to Milanese chronicler Galvano Fiamma it was composed of 900 men at arms but other sources and modern scholars reduce that number to 300 or, more probably, 500.

According to tradition they wore a sort of dark suit (black and gray, cut vertically) connected at the sides, to cover the armour, with probably the symbol of the skull on the traditional small pointed wooden shields.

Their motto or battle cry could have been, accordingly to poorly documented but reliable sources, "Ambroeus!" (Which is however in stark contrast with the origin of many of them, allegedly Brescia).

As a demonstation of the Company's rapid formation and specific use and role during the Battle of Legnano, after the battle there is no further information about its continued existence.

Children of Godan IV: Life along the Danube

2010-08-10T23:14:00.000-07:00

Children of Godan IV: Life along the Danube

After peace is made with the Romans and Avars, the Langobard tribe experiences a brief period peace as they reside along the Danube River.

Danube River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube
The Danube (pronounced DAN-ewb in English) is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.

The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through four Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.

Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through—or forms a part of the borders of—ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia (10.3%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Moldova (0.017%), Ukraine (3.8%) and Romania (28.9%).

[Music: 'The Night Visits' by Dutch Ramblers; from 'Folk Spirit' CD which is distributed by Odinic Rite Media:

From the OR website:
http://www.odinic-rite.org/ormedia/2009/10/folk-spirit-a-compilation-of-odinist-music/

Also available from Amazon.com, either the CD or individual songs:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00373IOJ6/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1281296501&sr=8-1

Sample music from the CD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D9E-db0JAs

Gairethinx

2010-07-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

In the book 'The Lombard Laws' (Fischer Drew; 1973), footnote 43, on page 245; it states regarding the "thinx":

"The thinx was, properly speaking, the public assembly, ding, of the Lombards. After the settlement in Italy, however, the wide scattering of the Lombard people would have made such a general assembly impossible.

Hence the witnessing of contracts--an important function of the assembly--was transferred to a smaller group of witnesses. "The gairethinx ("spear assembly") name remained, however, and from this word the shorter form thinx was often used to refer to the formal contractual procedure of gairethinx, or even to the gift, the object of the transfer, itself."

Gairethinx (from Wikipedia):

The gairethinx was a Lombard ceremony in which edicts and laws were affirmed by the army. It may have involved the entire army banging their spears on their shields. It may have been a much quieter event.

It is etymologically related to the Thing of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons and the Althing of Iceland.

Gallia Cisalpina VI: Gaulish Bread Harvest

2010-07-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

Gallia Cisalpina VI: Gaulish Bread Harvest (click here for link; YouTube did not allow our video to be imbedded due to the fact that the footage is copyrighted)

Lammas is a Neo-Pagan holiday, often called Lughnasadh, celebrating the first harvest and the reaping of grain. It is a cross-quarter holiday halfway between the Summer Solstice (Litha) and the Autumnal Equinox (Mabon). In the northern hemisphere, Lammas takes place around August 1 with the Sun near the midpoint of Leo in the tropical zodiac, while in the southern hemisphere Lammas is celebrated around February 1 with the Sun near the midpoint of Aquarius. On the Wheel of the Year, it is opposite Imbolc, which is celebrated on February 2nd in the northern hemisphere, and late July / early August in the southern hemisphere.

Lammas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammas

Lughnasadh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lughnasadh

Harvest Festival
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_festival

Celtic calendar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_calendar

Wheel of the Year
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_year

*The footage shown is from the 2006 American remake of 'The Wicker Man' :

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wicker_Man_(2006_film)

Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450345/

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Wicker-Man-Widescreen-Unrated-Rated/dp/B000JYW5DW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1279558795&sr=1-2

[Music: Unknown]

Catholicism and Paganism in Latter Langobard Society

2010-07-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

When one looks at the spirituality of the Winnili/Langobards in a historical sense, it's obvious that they ultimately traveled the full distance from Paganism (Wotanism) to Christianity (Catholicism). However, there were many grey areas in between.

Looking quickly through those fazes, we can probably guess that the Winnili very likely practiced some form of Wotanism. During their stay along the borderland with the Gauls, it's possible that there could have been some Cernic (Cernunnos worship) influence, as there was some crossover between Gaulic spirituality and Teutonic spirituality. By the time the Langobards had become Roman allies along the Danube River, they were possibly roughly half Wotanist and half Arian Christian. Arian Christianity was apparently a crude form of Christianity.

In the Langbard Kingdom, Queen Theodelinda officially turned the Langobards into a Catholic nation sometime during the 590s it appears. The native Romanized Gaulic population had already been Romanized and Catholicized for a long period of time. This appears to have been the first step to actually faze out Wotanism altogether. The Langobard nation, although linking themselves with the early Catholic Church, always seemed to have had a hot-and-cold relationship with the Papal institution. There were times where they seemed to float into the Eastern Orthodox camp.

Just a side note, but it's interesting that the Catholics always portrayed Queen Theodelinda as being "less than attractive," seemingly to de-sexualize her, when in reality, it was widely noted that the Queen was very beautiful. Early pictures of her, especially in the Monza Cathedral, portray her in this manner as well. For better or worse, Queen Theodelinda was the St. Patrick of Cisalpine Gaul/Langbard/northern nations, or whatever name one wants to give the land of our ancestors. From every account, and considering that this was a time of political and religious upheaval, she was a great Langobard leader. Strong, widely loved, a woman to remember. She did what she had to do.

Some of the laws of the Langobards give clues as to where they stood on the religious issue after the establishment of the Langbard Kingdom.

From the Wikipedia page Witch trials in Early Modern Europe and North America, under "Protests" (to witch trials and torture):

"There have been contemporary protesters against witch trials and against use of torture in the examination of those suspected or accused of witchcraft.

"643: The Edictum Rothari, the law code for Lombardy in Italy (‘Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female slave as a witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds')"

Obviously, at least under the rule of King Rothari, there was still some sympathy for the pagans. This seemed to vary from one ruler to the next, but ultimately going in the direction of Christianity. Although, the end came when they turned against the Church at a time of great inner turmoil in Langbard, and the Kingdom itself was destroyed by Charlemagne's Catholic Frankish army. Ironically the Langobards had long been strong allies with the Franks, and they shared a similar history, conquering and establishing Kingdoms on the lands of formerly Gallic nations.

From the Wikipedia page Val Camonica witch trials, under "Background" (regarding the Valle Camonica region):

"Christianity is not considered to have been strong in the area, though it was formally christened in the 400s. In 724, King Liutprando of Lombardy feared a rebellion after he had issued a ban against Paganism. In the laws of 1498, stern laws are issued against all "Devilish heresy". In 1499, it was accused of having participated in a "Black mass", and it was reported to be common with such "depravity" in the area."

From the book 'The Lombard Laws' (Fischer Drew; 1973), section III 'The Laws of King Liutprand', "From The Fifteenth Year (A.D. 727)," pages 180-181:

"[Concerning him who seeks the advice of a sorcerer]

"84.I. He who, unmindful of the wrath of God, goes to sorcerers or witches for the purpose of receiving divinations or answers of any kind whatsoever from them, shall pay to the royal fisc as composition half of the price at which he would have been valued if someone had killed him, and in addition, shall do penance according to the established canon. In like manner, he who, like a rustic, prays to a tree as sacred, or adores springs, or who makes any sacrilegious incantation, shall also pay as composition a half of his price to the royal fisc. And he who knows of sorcerers or witches and does not reveal them, or conceals those who go to them and does not reveal it, shall be subjected to the above punishment. Moreover, he who sends his man or woman slave to such sorcerers or witches for the purpose of seeking responses from them, and it is proved, shall pay composition as abovementioned. If indeed the man or woman slave goes to the soothsayer or witch without the consent of is or her lord and so without his authority, likewise for the purpose of seeking responses, then his or her lord ought to sell him or her outside the province. And if his or her lord neglects to do this, he (the lord) shall be subjected to the punishment noted above."

Needless to say, this is a sharp contrast from the earlier attitudes towards paganism. Actually, most of the Lombard Laws were very fair and humane, usually requiring simple fines of varying degrees, depending on the nature of the crime. However here, the fine for breaking a law that could stem from simply praying to a tree, resulted in a fine of half that person's total wealth! Further oppressive was the move to outlaw the act of merely not reporting "acts of paganism" to the authorities.

Therefore, the Langobards went from allowing a large amount of personal freedom, albeit in a caste system, to moving to a system in which victimless crimes in this one area was punishable by rather extreme means. Practically "thought crimes." The very next law of Liutprand was labeled "What is to be done if the judge or other public officials of a place fail to seek out sorcerers or witches." I will not type out this law, which had much text, because I think that the earlier law presented the basic gist of where they were coming from. However, here we see that the law officials were not nearly as powerful as the religious institution. Only the king held power over the major Catholic regional theocrats, the representatives of the Papacy itself.

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8-4-10 Addition: From the book 'The Lombard Laws' (Drew; 1973), page 247; footnote 55, we find another interesting clue to this subject. It states: "A belief in witchcraft must, at one time, have been widespread among the Lombards or among the naive population of the Italian peninsula. The Lombard kings approached the subject in an enlightened manner, practically denying the existence of this occult science and providing protection against random accusations of witchcraft or sorcery which might bring death or outlawry to the person accused. Such would seem to be the intent of the present law. On the other hand, there are laws in the code (Liutprand 84, 85) which specifically state that it is the duty of royal officials to seek out sorcerers and such like and apply the penalty of the law--sale outside of the country (Liutprand 85)."

The Twilight Saga and the Benandanti: Part 4

2010-07-03T08:37:00.001-07:00

To tie up a few loose ends here. It's interesting that the Twilight Saga takes place in the state of Washinton, as that state resembles the natural landscape of Germany and the countries to it's east like Rumania, and the greater Alpine region. This is interesting because that is largely where this folklore has it's origins. I wonder of that was intended?

Someone who I know to be very wise, told me one time that if someone with ancestral origins in a particular type of environment feels nothing when they find themselves in a similar natural environment (ex. Alpine region and the Pacific Northwest)... I forget his exact words but the gist of it was that he would be baffled by that, and I agree. This would apply to any individual.

'Waking the Moon' (from Wikipedia)

Waking The Moon is a 1994 novel by Elizabeth Hand. It was the winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award and The 1996 Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature. It is set mainly in The University of Archangel and St. John The Divine, a fictional University inspired by The Catholic University of America, mentioned in a few of Hand's novels. About 100 pages were cut from the US edition.

Plot summary

Sweeney Cassidy starts out as a freshman at University, where she meets the mysterious Angelica and falls in love with the strange and beautiful Oliver. She gets tangled up in sinister, supernatural events involving the awakening of an ancient, malevolent goddess. According to the afterword for the short story The Bacchae, found in the collection Last Summer At Mars Hill, it is another trope on ancient Greek myth that prefigures Waking the Moon. They both involve murderous cults of women. Elizabeth Hand has said that she wanted to show that ancient goddess cultures were not all as peaceful and idyllic as we tend to think.

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This subject ties into what I would call the final period, the Middle Ages, of the stamping out of the pagan traditions of Europe through the various "witch hunts." A lot of people don't tie in the words "infidel" with "heathen," which are one and the same. Even today, every person fits that description in someone's eyes, whether they like it or not.

The Twilight Saga and the Benandanti: Part 3

2010-07-02T08:03:00.000-07:00

The second Carlo Ginzburg book on this subject was entitled 'Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath'. This book seems to delve into the greater issue of "European witchcraft," which is a catch-all term not always accurate.

Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath (Ginzburg; 1991)

Library Journal (book review)

Emerging from testimonies during witchcraft trials in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries are consistent descriptions of the Witches' Sabbath: night flying, ritual cannibalism, etc. Most scholars dismiss these descriptions as torture-induced gibberish. Ginzburg (history, Univ. of California at Los Angeles) proves that these descriptions are bastardized accounts of ecstatic experiences practiced by a shamanic culture. In addition, he links the persecution of the witches with that of other social outcasts (lepers, Jews, and Muslims). Europeans thought that these groups conspired against society, which led to their wholesale slaughter. Very interesting and very convincing. For collections serving upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. --Gail Wood, Montgomery College. Library, Germantown, MD

Shamanism In Europe (review by Amazon.com user Zekeriyah)

Yes, Ginzburg actually contends that the so-called "witches" of old Europe were in fact remanents of the old Shamanic cultures of Europe, and he does make an excellent arguement for it. I will admit, I do agree with him on some points. Shamanism is a universal phenomena, and yet (with the notable exception of the Lapps in Scandinavia and a few scattered myths and legends like Orpheus and Odin) Shamanism seems to have all but been absent in Europe, and this has always puzzled me. Certainly, had Shamanism been widespread in Europe, it probably would have survived well into the Christian era, just as it has in other parts of the world. As such, Ginzburg may be right on the money about the witch hunts and such. Regardless of your thoughts on the subject, this remains an excellent book. And if you like it, he has another book, entitled "Night Battles" about a community of Shaman in northern Italy.

A Post-modern analysis of the Witchcraze of the Middle Ages (review by Amazon.com user Tribe)

Ginzburg is one of the first historians who has come forward with a convincing theory that there may well have been pagan sects during the Middle Ages that were the focus of persecutions and regionalized hunts and crazes. This is a fascinating analysis of the legendary Witchs' Sabbath and its mythical foundations, as well as a convincing theory of what led localities to persecute those suspected of being witches.

Missing Link (review by Amazon.com user Aziliz)

It is easy to be acquainted with the mainstream Greek, Roman, Norse and Egyptian mythologies that are so easily acquired from any mythology shelf in library or bookstore but the mainstream doesn't talk about the deities and their mythologies discussed in Carlo Ginzburg's books although his research shows they were obviously widely worshipped just didn't make it into the 'official' pantheons of Rome.

It is also easy to pick up a book on modern paganism/shamanism or on pagan/shamanic religions of exotic cultures--far harder to find anything on European shamanic roots.

Research in many books also too often divorce the mythology from religion; rituals, customs and practices from their adherents and their geographical locations; and don't quote their original sources. Carlo Ginzburg puts this all together and the depth and breadth of the research in this book is fabulous.

The book is a feast for anyone interested in mythology, folklore, old religions, the history of witchcraft, werewolves, history of shamanism or medieval history.