Academic literature on the topic 'S. Pietro (Church : Otranto, Italy)'

We report the hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant activities, as well as the total phenol, flavonoid, tocochromanol (tocopherol and tocotrienol), and carotenoid contents in the edible portion of wild and cultivated varieties of chicory (Cichorium intybusL.) and in the basal rosette leaves of the wild species of poppy (Papaver rhoeasL.), known by natives as “paparina,” collected in the countryside of Salento (South Apulia, Italy). We analyzed (1) two cultivars of chicory, the “Catalogna” harvested in the area between S. Pietro Vernotico and Tuturano (Brindisi) and the “Otrantina” harvested in Otranto (Lecce); (2) two wild chicory ecotypes harvested in S. Pietro Vernotico (Brindisi) and Statte (Taranto), respectively; (3) the basal leaves of wild poppy harvested in Sternatia (Lecce). In all samples, our results showed that the hydrophilic antioxidant activity is, generally, higher than the lipophilic activity. Poppy leaves exhibited the highest hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidant activities and the highest concentration of total phenols and flavonoids. Tocopherols were detected only as traces. Among the extracted carotenoids, lutein andβ-carotene were the most abundant in all analyzed samples. Total carotenoid content was greater in wild than in cultivated plants.

Medieval Dubrovnik was rich in Romanesque figural and decorative sculpture but only a small group of fragmentary carvings has been preserved to date due to the fact that the town suffered a devastating earthquake in 1667. The earthquake completely destroyed the monumental Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin which had been considered “la piu bella in Illyrico” on the basis of its sculptural abundance. Archaeological excavations undertaken beneath the present-day Baroque Cathedral, consecrated in 1713, unearthed several thousand fragments of high-quality sculptures. Their analysis has confirmed the close connections between Dubrovnik and artistic centres in Apulia, which are well known from archival records. This article re-assesses the results of the excavations and the information from the primary sources in a new light and deepens our knowledge about the date, authorship and reconstruction of the thireenth-century pieces under consideration.The article opens with a discussion about the archival record informing us that Eustasius of Trani came to Dubrovnik in 1199 to work as a protomagister of Dubrovnik Cathedral. The document in question was the reason why art historians attributed to him a number of rather damaged, narrative reliefs which replicate the models and forms that can be seen on the portal of Trani Cathedral. Since the sculptor responsible for that portal was not known and given that the contract preserved in Dubrovnik referred to Eustasius as a son of “Belnardi, protomagistri civitati Trani”, the two artists came to be considered as the builders of the Cathedral of S. Nicola Pellegrino at Trani and of several other churches in the Terra di Bari. The sculptures produced by Eustasius and his father were convincingly deemed to display the artistic influence of southern and central France and the same can be observed in Dubrovnik. The article assigns the figure of Christ the Judge from a portal lunette depicting the Last Judgement, which has no parallels in Apulia, to the same group of sculptures and interprets the subject matter as being inspired by the iconography of numerous pilgrimage churches to which Dubrovnik Cathedral also belonged. The assessment of the formal qualities evident in all the carvings demonstrates that they are less refined than those on the portal of Trani Cathedral. Furthermore, the article separates the works of the father from those of the son and suggests that Bolnardus introduced the aforementioned French-style carving method, which had already taken root in Palestine, and that Eustasius followed it. The starting point in the proposed chronology was the Fall of Jerusalem in 1187 and the associated withdrawal of western master carvers alongside the Crusaders. During their stopover at Trani, around 1190, Boltranius was in charge of the carving of the portal of Trani Cathedral where he was helped by his son who left for Dubrovnik in 1199. Based on the visual characteristics of the fragments of architectural decoration, Eustasius is identified as being responsible for the building of Dubrovnik Cathedral according to Apulian taste which appealed to the local patrons as a consequence of their constant exposure to it through numerous trade links and the overall cultural milieu. In fact, Apulian taste was a symbiosis of Byzantine traditions and Romanesque novelties introduced by the Normans, and its allure was grounded in the fact that both the Terra di Bari and Dubrovnik acknowledged the supreme power of these two political forces albeit not at the same time and in unequal measure.The vernacular current in the Romanesque sculpture of Dubrovnik during the second quarter of the thirteenth century can be noted in a small number of works which influenced the decoration of Gothic and Renaissance public buildings. The source of this diffusion can be identified in the decoration of the Cathedral which epitomized the strong artistic connections with southern Italy from where typological and morphological models were borrowed. The redecoration of the Cathedral’s interior, especially the pulpit – recorded for the first time in 1262 – the archaeological remains of which reveal a polygonal structure resting on twelve columns, drew on those very models. Together with the ciborium above the altar in the main apse, the pulpit was praised by local chroniclers and foreign travel writers during the fifteenth century but also by the earliest church visitation records of the mid-seventeenth century. These two monuments belonged to a group of standard Apulian-Dalmatian ciboria and pulpits which also included those that can today be seen in the cathedrals of Trogir and Split but also in many south Italian churches. Some scholars have argued that the source model for this group can be found in Jerusalem but this article suggests that the ciborium from the church of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura in Rome, dated to 1148, presents a more likely option. Particular attention is given to the naturalistic workmanship of a polygonal capital from Dubrovnik Cathedral, which is assigned to the aforementioned pulpit. It is argued that the style of the capital inspired a series of capitals carved à jour on both sides of the Adriatic and that they display characteristics consistent with the manner of carving of Pietro di Facitolo seen at Bisceglie. The exceptional workmanship of the eagle from the same pulpit is attributed to Pasquo di Pietro who was recorded as a protomagister of the Cathedral from 1255 to 1282 and who well regarded as a master carver. His good reputation earned him the citizenship and an estate; he and his son were mentioned in the local documents as “de Ragusio”. The author of the article hypothesizes that Pasquo may have been Pietro di Facitolo’s son, with which he concludes the outline of the sculptural development of the Apulian Romanesque in Dubrovnik and Dalmatia in general.The final part of the article focuses on the only known work of Simeonus Ragusinus who signed himself as “incola tranensis” on the portal of the church of S. Andrea, that is, S. Salvatore at Barletta. The hybrid artistic expression of this eclectic sculptor with a limited gift, who gathered his knowledge from a variety of sources, reveals that he may have borrowed some iconographic motifs from Eustasius’ portal of Dubrovnik Cathedral or from the other two portals. Overall, the article corroborates several hypotheses that were previously expressed in the scholarship while dismissing and rerouting others. At the same time, it emphasizes the scarcity of solid evidence because of the fragmentary nature of the material. The main goal of the article is to present new research findings and widen our perspective on the issue. The article is a revised version of a brief paper presented at the international conference “Master Buvina and his Time” which was held at Split in 2014 and which will be published in a foreign language. I hope that with the addition of new comments and the scholarly apparatus the article will be a useful point of reference to Croatian researchers of similar topics and that it will contribute towards the creation of syntheses about the medieval art in the Adriatic.

AbstractIn this paper, we analysed the efflorescences present in the frescos of a monumental complex named S. Pietro a Corte situated in the historic centre of Salerno (Campania, Italy). The groundwater of the historic centre is fed by two important streams (the Rafastia and the Fusandola) that can be the sources of water penetration. The aims of this work are to (i) identify the stream that reaches the ancient frigidarium of S. Pietro a Corte and (ii) characterize the efflorescences on damaged frescos in terms of chemical nature and sources. In order to accomplish the first aim, the water of the Rafastia river (7 samples) and the water of the Fusandola river (7 samples) were analysed and compared with the water of a well of the Church (7 samples). The ionic chromatography measurements on the water samples allowed us to identify the Rafastia as the river that feeds the ancient frigidarium of S. Pietro a Corte. To investigate the nature and the origin of the efflorescences (our second aim), anionic chromatography analyses, X-ray diffraction measurements, and the isotopic determination of nitrogen were performed on the efflorescences (9 samples) and the salts recovered from the well (6 samples). Results of these analyses show that efflorescences are mainly made of potassium nitrate with a δ15N value of + 9.3 ± 0.2‰. Consequently, a plausible explanation for their formation could be the permeation of sewage water on the walls of the monumental complex.

AbstractThe paper deals with the results of an archaeo-geophysical approach adopted for the study and the reconstruction of the architectural plan of the medieval monastery of San Pietro a Cellaria in Calvello (Basilicata, Southern Italy). The monastery is a remarkable witness to Benedectine architecture of the 12-13th century in Basilicata, built by monks of the Congregation of S. Maria di Pulsano, who were active mainly in southern Italy. The historical data and the diachronic architectural study, based on the analysis of building techniques, provide evidence for a long and intense history, during which the monastery underwent several architectural changes, including the demolition of buildings and the superposition of other constructional elements. The only preserved medieval remains are a church with a nave; the adjacent structures are more recent. This preliminary data prompted a research project to shed new light on the as yet unknown history of the medieval monastery. Specifically, a remote sensing approach around the monastery including aerial survey by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and geomagnetic survey in gradiometric configuration (MAG), was adopted in order to verify the possible existence of buried masonry structures and other possible features of archaeological interest, including channels and aqueducts. The GPR time slices were constructed from closely spaced parallel profiles. The time slices, computed by averaging radar reflections over vertical time windows several nanoseconds thick, are used to map subsoil features associated with the structures, probably of anthropogenic origin. To facilitate the interpretation of the results, a threedimensional image was constructed using closely spaced parallel profiles, which are linearly interpolated. The MAG survey was carried in gradiometer configuration, in order to study magnetic properties of the shallow subsoil. Ground-penetrating radar gives details about archaeological structures in a limited area where survey was possible, while gradiometer survey confirms GPR results and improves archaeological knowledge in the areas where GPR survey was impossible. This multi-sensor remote sensing program revealed a wide variety of archaeological features of interest, which may be targeted accurately with excavations in the future.