Academics From Italy

"Ranha after Hapta Hendu and Varuna, belongs in all likelihood to the same Indian, or Indo-Iranian frontier area... refers to peoples who had settled along the banks of a river near the country of Hapta Hendu. The geographical picture , reconstructed in this way, would agree with the Indian evidence on the river Rasa, the Vedic equivalent of Ranha, to the extent that we could deduce a real identity between the two rivers."

"[the Avesta reflects] “an historical situation in which Iranian elements exist side by side with … Aryan or Proto-Indoaryan (elements)”. ..."

"The main obstacle to a reconstruction that closely links the western Aryas to the Avestan Airyas is, in my opinion, the one arising from the theories that the Medes and the Persians emigrated from the North rather than from the East, that is to say, for instance, from south-east Russia (some scholars connect them with the so-called Andronovo culture) to the region lying North or North-West of the Caspian and across the Caucasus to the Urmia Lake region and, lastly, in an easterly and southeasterly direction towards the Zagros mountains."

"An hypothesis based on the comparison of Avestan and Vedic evidence appears to be much more convincing. ... There can be no doubt that in some cases the places or rivers are in effect the same."

"In the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, groups of states were present on the western and southern margins of this territory, while Chorasmia was inhabited by populations living mainly by subsistence economy."

"The Hilmand region and the Hamun-i Hilmand are beyond all doubt the most minutely described countries in Avestan geography. ..."

"Having done away with the obstacle provided by the theory of the trans-Caucasian migration..., we can see both these peoples as western branches of those same Airyas that in the Younger Avesta are described as being settled in such a large part of the eastern Iranian world...."

"This suggests to us a conclusion which, in my view, is historically important: the northern steppes, the Aral region, the lands beyond the Syr Darya and probably also those beyond the Amu Darya, remain outside the reconstructed horizon... This means that Zoroastrianism... was born in an area of the Iranian or Iranianized world where, for centuries, cultural, social, and economic processes developed..."

"The discoveries made by Soviet archaeologists in Margiana and Bactria uncovered settlements and constructions of such complexity that they leave us little doubt about the special importance of these regions in the cultural geography of Central Asia and eastern Iran until the threshold of the 1st millennium BCE... one can conjecture, in the pre-Achaemenid period, the existence of an extensive geopolitical entity: research conducted on the ground would suggest attributing it either to Bactria alone or to a larger geopolitical entity that also included Margiana and Sogdiana, a parallel technique, even prior to the rise of the Achaemenids, but in which neither the Persians nor the Medes seem to have been much involved."

"This is one of the regions in our geographical horizon that probably witnessed the origins of Zoroastrianism: Sistan, and more precisely, the basin of the Hamun-i Helmand."

"“the importance of cattle in various aspects of the Gathic doctrine can be taken as certain. This importance can be explained as a reflection in religious practice and myth of a socioeconomic set-up in which cattle-raising was a basic factor.” ..."

"In the Evening of every Fryday of Lent there is a Sermon upon the Passion in the Church of Giesu; and so likewise in other Churches, but upon other dayes and hours. At the end of these Sermons certain Tabernacles are open’d, and divers figures, representing some passages of the Passion (according to the subject of the Sermon), are with lighted Tapers shewn to the People; as one day that of the ‘Ecce Homo;’ another day Our Lord with the Cross upon his shoulders; and the last day the Crucifix; and so every day one thing suitable to the purpose. Oftentimes they make these figures move and turn, as they made the Robe fall off from the Ecce Homo and discover the wounded Body; at which sight the devout People utter prodigious Cryes, and the Women force themselves to shriek out; and the Signore, or Gentlewomen, are so zealous that they not onely cry out themselves, but make their Maids do so too and beat them even in the Church if they do not and that very loudly, whether they have a will to it, or no. Strange devotion indeed!"

"On the twenty-ninth of the same month, being the day of S. Pietro Martire, who, they say, was the Founder of the Inquisition against Hereticks, the Inquisitors of Goa made a Festival before their House of the Inquisition which is in the Piazza of the Cathedral and was sometimes the Palace of Sabaio, Prince of Goa, when the Portugals took it, whence it is still call’d la Piazza di Sabaio. After solemn Mass had been sung in the Church of San Dominico, as Vespers had been the day before, in presence of the Inquisitors, who, coming to fetch the Fryers in Procession, repair’d thereunto in Pontificalibus, in the evening, many carreers were run on horse-back by the Portugal Gentry, invited purposely by the Inquisitors; and a day or two after (for this Evening was not sufficient for so many things) there was in the same Piazza a Hunting, or Baiting, of Bulls after the Spanish fashion; but the Beasts, being tame and spiritless, afforded little sport; so that I had not the curiosity to be present at it. This is a new Festival lately instituted by the present Inquisitors, who, I believe, will continue it yearly hereafter."

"On March the first there was also another Procession in Goa of the Disciplinanti, which I went not to see; the like is made every Fryday during all Lent, and therefore I shall not stay to describe it. I believe there is no City in the world where there are more Processions than in Goa all the year long; and the reason is because the Religious Orders are numerous, and much more than the City needs; they are also of great authority and very rich, and the People, being naturally idle and addicted to Shews, neglecting other Cares of more weight and perhaps more profitable to the Publick, readily employ themselves in these matters; which, however good as sacred ceremonies and parts of divine worship, yet in such a City as this which borders upon Enemies and is the Metropolis of a Kingdom lying in the midst of Barbarians and so alwayes at Warr, and where nothing else should be minded but Arms and Fleets, seem according to worldly Policy unprofitable and too frequent, as also so great a number of Religious and Ecclesiastical persons is burdensome to the State and prejudicial to the Militia."

"On February the tenth, as a beginning of the solemnities for the Canonisation, the Jesuits sung Vespers in the Church of the Professed-house of Giesu. The night following they caused a numerous Maskerade of young Students, not Collegians, but Outliers, to pass through the streets on horse-back, clothed in several rich habits and following a Standard whereon were pourtrayed the Effigies of the Saints. The next day there was a solemn Mass in the same Church, and a Sermon made by the Visitor, F. Andren Palmuro, at which the Vice-Roy was present. In the Evening upon a very great Theatre, erected without the Church in the Piazza, for representing many dayes together the Life of San Francesco Sciavier, they caused a Squadron of young men mask’d in the habits of Peasants to dance many gallant Ballets with Musick. On the twelfth of February, in the presence of the Vice-Roy and of all the Nobility and People of the City, (for whose conveniency scaffolds and seats were erected in the Piazza round about the Theatre, both for Men and Women) the first Act of the above-said Comedy, or Tragedy, (as they said) of the Life of Santo Sciavier was represented. Of which Tragedy, which was a composition represented by about thirty persons, all very richly clothed and decked with Jewels, no less extravagant than grand, whereunto they entered to act the rare Musick, gallant dances, and various contrivances of Charriots, Ships, Galleys, Pageants, Heavens, Hells, Mountains and Clouds, I forbear to speak, because I have the printed Relations by me. On the eighteenth of February, the Vice-Roy being indispos’d, the proceedings were suspended and nothing was done. But on the three following dayes, by two Acts a day, the whole Tragedy was rehearsed. It comprehended not only the whole Life, but also the Death of San Francesco Sciavier, the transportation of his Body to Goa, his ascension into Heaven, and, lastly, his Canonisation. On the seventh of the same moneth Mass was sung in the College of San Paolo Nouvo, and a predication made by F. Flaminio Calo, an Italian, upon the Beatification of the Blessed Luigi Gonsaga, who was also a Father of the Society. In the Evening the Portugals of quality passed about the streets in a Maskerade, accompanyed with Chariots and Musick; about twelve of us went out of the House of Sig: Antonio Baraccio, all clothed in the same Livery, which I took care to get made according to my Phansie… On February the eighteenth, in the Morning, solemn Mass was sung and a Sermon made upon the Canonisation of Saints in San Paolo Vecchio…"

"On February the nineteenth a very solemn Procession was made from San Paolo Vecchio to Giesu, through the principal streets of the City: which Procession exceeded all the rest in number of Pageants, Chariots, and Ships, and other Erections, filled with people who represented several things, and good Musick, accompanyed with several Dances on Foot, and many other brave devices: of all which things I speak not, because I have a printed Relation thereof by me. In the rear of the Procession was carried by many of the Fathers, dressed in their Copes, the Body of San Francesco Sciavier, inclos’d in a fair and rich Silver Coffin, with a Silver Canopie over it, made very gallant, and the Effigy of the Saint behind. Then came, a great Standard with the pourtraytures of the Saints, carry’d likewise by some of the Fathers; and after that, all the Crosses of their Parishes of Salsette, and onely one Company of the Fryers of Saint Francis. Of the other Religious Orders in Goa none appeared here; because they said they would not go in the Processions of the Jesuits, since the Jesuits went not in those of others. With this Procession, which ended about noon, ended also the solemnities for the above said Canonisation."

"This Island of Salsette is full of very fair Towns and abundance of Houses. Above all the Jesuits have the goodliest places, and ’tis counted that perhaps a third part of the Island is theirs; for, besides three good Towns which belong wholly to them, they have also dominion and government in all the other Towns too which are not theirs; they have Churches everywhere, Lands and store of goods, and, I believe, all the Parishes are govern’d by them in Spirituals with Supreme Authority; whence this people acknowledge more Vassallage to the Jesuits than to the King himself. The case is the, same in another Island call’d Bardeos, adjacent also to that of Goa, but more Northward, which is under the government of the Franciscans. Nor is it otherwise in almost all the other Territories of the Portugals; so that it may justly be said that the best, and perhaps too the greatest part of this State is in the hands of Religious Orders."

"Have you ever stopped to see seagulls suspended in the wind? If all beings on earth disappeared and only the seagulls remained, and maybe the little fish for their food, perhaps you think that from the seagulls, with the passing of millions of years, the animals that inhabit the earth and also man and perhaps even the frogs, butterflies and minnows? And even if the seagulls disappeared, can you imagine that the little fish of the sea, through gradual transformations, would give rise, at the end of time, to new seagulls or in any case to some new kind of sea bird capable of hovering in the air?"

"No form (including man) is [...] a form derived or improved with respect to some "primitive" progenitor. Man does not derive from primates (in the same way that birds do not derive from reptiles) except in the deceptive sense in which any form can be considered derived "from" the larger group to which it belongs. […] We have given names to the pre-human forms. We called them man-apes, subhumans, or brutes. But did they ever exist, or rather don't they belong to a mythology that has now disappeared?"

"Exhilarated by his 'discovery', Darwin jotted down these sentences: 'Origin of man now proven. Metaphysics must flourish. Anyone who understood the baboon would do more for metaphysics than Locke did." Darwinian metaphysics placed all wickedness, all cruelty, all evil at its origins, in the bestial. Carrying this thought to extreme consequences which are certainly not Christian, Darwin placed the Devil at the origin, he made man a redeemed demon. "The origin of our kind," he wrote, "is the cause of our evil passions! The Devil in the form of a Baboon is our grandfather." This doctrine was cultivated and developed by Darwin's cousin, the great statistician Francis Galton. [...] «The sense of original sin» he wrote in 1865 «would not demonstrate, according to my theory, that man has fallen from a superior condition, but rather that he is rapidly recovering from an inferior one»."

"I wanted to obey my Director, I subjected myself to all the trials; I wanted to help the spirit with mortification of the body, I led an intense life of thought, but I wasn't well; I was always in anguish, after an act of true submission, always the period of rebellion. [...] I was pining, his word weighed on me like the sword of Damocles, for how many years I fought between the idea of ​​submitting or looking for another confessor!"

"But approaching the thought, not feeling that every initial act should always have come from the authority of the Church, impersonating the authority of the Pope, was a sin . Who knows how much energy I wasted in this intimate fight! [...] I rebelled: I broke away violently, not without deep pain, great anguish. Yet then I obeyed . What is, my God, obedience to the Director?"

"The first condition, however, is this, to find the director who is a faithful friend. DC [Don Carlo Grugni] I would have obeyed, obeyed with all my soul. Because? Before I spoke, I felt heard by him, the expression of his soul in what lived most generously, they were the desires of my [sic]. We felt united in spirit, in thought of action. What was obedience in me then? If not my greatest and most intimate joy!"

"But why does St. Francis de Sales want obedience to the guide who is a faithful friend? Isn't it enough that I alone try to place myself in the eternal law? Alone?… My nature seeks help, it seeks it every day in brothers with whom it believes it feels in communion of ideas and affections. And I would be happy – how many times, my God, have I wished to find myself with such a spirit – if I could find in one of the priests I approach, the guiding friend."

"Serve . Our century does not want us to be servants and truly the concept of fraternity and equality does not admit the servant. […] Serving God consists in doing the will of the “Father who is in heaven”. Doing God's will is following his law, which has a fundamentally unique voice for all individuals"

"In the confessor I asked for a friend, the soul that loved my soul, that shared I would almost say the nature of my feelings, that participated in my vocation. I was asking conformity to feel ; this seemed to me to be an essential sharing so that he could direct the actions of my spirit, he shouldn't have taken me outside my natural center. It's true, I asked to be able in a certain way to influence the soul of the confessor, to sincerely give him my impressions of my conduct. It seemed to me that our action must in some way be reciprocal. Certainly St. Francis and St. Francesca had this communion of feelings over them."

"There is a long story in the soul that I can summarize in these words, friendship had also become love for me. Our souls understood each other, but we perhaps wanted more. DC [Don Carlo] I write before you, you know that you were my great, my friend; God has taken you away and now you remain for me only in Spirit. But I still feel you so close and all permeating my being. You remain for me eternally for what was most priestly in you. You wrote to me that we were too equal I would say for that union that characterizes the relationship between a woman and a man to exist, I wanted to feel strong, generous like you."

"Finally, I had followed the surprising career of Piersanti Mattarella [brother of the Italian President Mattarella]. His career developed in the shadow of his powerful father Bernardo, who was a minister several times and a great collector of votes and friendships, some of which were compromising, in Castellammare del Golfo, in western Sicily, home to the most ruthless mafia. [...] We must not betray our origins if they have brought us privileges and benefits. And Piersanti had unfortunately forgotten that he was the eldest son of Bernardo and his vows."

"The Council of Europe has always had the vocation of being the “common European home” and has been able to develop his vocation in the decades since its creation, as its current broad representation testifies. A home that, if it has been a faithful mirror of the divisions and difficulties between the different national communities, has also been able to be, above all, an expression of Europe’s courage for unity, often foreshadowing what could later be built, in other respects and in other areas, such as the European Union."

"Peace does not impose itself automatically, by itself, but is the result of the will of men."

"War is a voracious monster, never satiated."

"Thank you very much Mr President (Xi Jinping) for such a warm and friendly welcome. I am delighted to meet you again. I have wonderful memories of my first visit to China, seven years ago, and of your visit to Italy five years ago. I am still grateful to you for visiting my Region, Sicily. I considered it a gesture of friendship for which I am grateful to you. When we met in Rome you asked me to return to China in the year we celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations. Unfortunately what happened later with the pandemic, with the suffering we all suffered, prevented us from doing so. But since friendship is also about remembrance, it is about keeping commitments and keeping promises, I am happy to be here again in China to reaffirm our friendship, our desire for growing cooperation."

"(...) aumentare agli opportunisti il costo della non vaccinazione; come glielo aumenti agli opportunisti, qual è la logica, devo dire geniale del green pass? Tu dici "o ti vaccini", no non mi vaccino – benissimo, "o guarisci", e va be' se non lo ha preso... "e allora ti fai i tamponi". I tamponi sono un costo psichico – il fatto di infilare dentro al naso, fino al cervello, i cotton fioc lunghi – è un costo psichico, e un costo monetario - 50 euro, due volte 60 euro - più il costo organizzativo! Tu gli aumenti il costo; aumentandogli il costo, tu lo spingi a ridurre lo zoccolo (...)"

"Il green pass è una patente, è una patente di libertà, che è nelle mani di chi è guarito dal covid o ha fatto i tamponi o, ancor meglio, ha fatto il vaccino. (...) se non hai la patente non puoi, non potrai lavorare, non potrai accedere ai luoghi di socializzazione."

"[...] I think that there is no body in nature that lets entirely and unhinderedly flow the electrical fluid, but we should settle for the materials that lose less of it."

"For Mussolini, syndicalism was the most modern embodiment of the spirit of Marxist doctrine, which he added to the myths of his Nietzschean aristocratic philosophy to reach a socialism of quality rather than quantity."

"It is not possible to fully understand modern world culture without appreciating its connection and its continuity with the heritage of classical culture."

"I did not hesitate at the Congress of Mathematicians at Paris to call the nineteenth century the century of the theory of functions, as the eighteenth century might have been called that of infinitesimal calculus."

"On my way home in May 1932, when I stopped in Rome to see Vito Volterra and explained my 92 Andre Weil formula to him, he jumped up out of his chair and ran to the back of the apartment, crying to his wife: "Virginia! Virginia! Il signor Weil ha dimostrato un gran bel teorema!" ("Mr. Weil has proved a very beautiful theorem!")"

"He and Benedetto Croce actively attacked the regime from their seats in the Senate. After 1930 Volterra was dismissed from the University and stripped of his membership in all Italian scientific societies. The same thing later happened to Levi-Civita. To the honor of the Santa Sede, he and Volterra (both of whom were Jews) were soon thereafter appointed by Pope Pius XI to his Pontifical Academy."

"Si vous demandez à tout mathématicien si dans son esprit il fait une distinction les théories de l'élasticité et celles de l'électrodynamique, il vous dira qu'il n'en fait pas, car les types de équations différentielles qu'il rencontre, et les méthodes qu'il doit employer pour résoudre les problèmes qui se présentent, sont tout à les mêmes dans le deux cas. (If you ask any mathematician if in his mind he makes a distinction between the theories of elasticity and those of electrodynamics, he will tell you that he does not, because the types of differential equations he encounters, and the methods which he must employ to solve the problems which arise, are all the same in the two cases.)"

"The study of the geometry of a Galois space Sr,q, i. e. of a projective r-dimensional space over a Galois field of order q = ph. where p, h are positive integers and p is a prime (the characteristic of the field), has recently been pursued and developed along new lines ... In it, both algebraic-geometric and arithmetical methods have been applied, including the use of electronic calculating machines; moreover, some of the problems dealt with are deeply connected with information theory, especially with the construction of q-ary error-correcting codes. It is actually a chapter of arithmetical geometry, which reduces to the investigation of certain questions on congruences mod p in the particular case when h = 1."

"Non vi sarebbe quindi da stupirsi se le geometrie di Galois venissero and avere in futuro applicazioni anche al campo della fisica, da cui attualmente sembrano molto lontane esce anzi tali spazi finiti portassero alla costruzione di schemi a modelli dove i fenomeni fisici trovassero interpretazioni matematiche più semplici di quelle consuete. (It would not be much of a surprise if Galois geometry in the future came to have applications in the field of the physics, from which these finite geometries are currently far removed. These finite geometries might lead to the construction of models in which physical phenomena have simpler mathematical interpretations than the models now used. — modified from the original translation by Tallini)"

"C varieties in four-space were first investigated by Segre, in two memoirs ... which are still classic, and in which he gave a generation of those having more than six nodes, especially the one with ten nodes, while he also considered varieties containing a plane, and gave some of their properties."

"A nonsingular cubic surface F can be rationally represented upon a plane α if and only if F contains a rational point."

"When music speaks, everybody understands."

"I am afraid that I have seen enough of both the governance of science, and the political operations at the European Union. In these three long months, I have indeed met many excellent and committed individuals, at different levels of the organization of the ERC and the EC. However, I have lost faith in the system itself."

"We should have done more (COVID-19) diagnostic tests in Lombardy where there was a big nucleus. There is no sense in trying to go to the supermarket once a week. You have to limit your time out, isolation is the key thing."

"Our debate has themes of great significance: the fight against poverty, quality education as a source of personal and social opportunity, and action for the protection of the environment. These themes are held together by the common thread of inclusion, with a human individual at the center of the political action of this organization and of every member state. An “inclusive humanism”, expression I love to refer to, which recognized the equal dignity of each individual, which is a real achievement of modernity. Italy openly invokes an effective multilateralism, because only collective and coordinated action can help us face the multiple challenges before us. We need a multilateral concept based on cooperation, transparency and the principle of equality between states, aimed at correcting the dysfunctional aspects of globalization. But the inspiring source, the polar star that must guide this multilateralism, is respect for the human person, starting with the recognition of his or her dignity, personal and social. Without this foundation, multilateralism becomes a mere technique, which can be useful but cannot expect to guide solid choice and values."

"Gualtieri is just a mere political enforcer of the will of banks and big finance. Direct expression of the economic powers that supported his appointment, he is the representative of the most hostile elements to the workers, their interests and their aspirations."