Engineers From Italy

"The relevant topics are varied, but in particular, a professor of Mechanical and Thermal Measurements offers his expertise in the field of measurement science applied to physical systems, especially in the mechanical and thermal fields. Consequently, mechanical measurements on the Shroud are particularly suited to a university professor specialising in this subject, not to mention the thermal measurements that have been very important both for studying the effects of the Chambéry fire of 1532, which severely damaged Christianity's most important relic, and for studying the thermal effects linked to the probable explosion of energy that produced the double body image. [...]"

"Thirty-six hours after the deposition, there was a bright explosion in the tomb that imprinted the image of Jesus on the sheet. Perhaps similar to the source that feeds the Holy Fire of Jerusalem: a flame that does not burn."

"This image can only be the result of the Resurrection. To obtain an image of this type, it is necessary to have an extremely intense source of energy, comparable to the “flash” of the Resurrection. A clue to this comes from the results of the 1988 radiocarbon test. While previous mechanical and chemical tests had dated the linen to the first century AD (when Jesus of Nazareth actually lived and died in Palestine), this test, on the other hand, places the dating in the Middle Ages."

"Interviewer: The Shroud, the large linen sheet bearing marks consistent with the torture and crucifixion of Christ, now preserved in Turin Cathedral, is the subject of heated controversy regarding its dating. You coordinated a study that sets the date between 33 AD and 250 AD. What methods did you use? Are there any new elements? Professor Fanti: First of all, it should be remembered that the Shroud of Turin (ST) was dated using the carbon-14 method in 1988, resulting in an age of 1325 AD with an uncertainty of ±65 years at a 95% confidence level. However, recent studies, including those conducted by the team of Prof. Marco Riani, professor of statistics at the University of Parma, have shown how unreliable these data are. In fact, in 1988, a probable contamination of the linen was not considered, which distorted the results, in addition to other procedural errors."

"Come abitante temporanea di un avamposto umano nello spazio, condividerò la prospettiva orbitale e condurrò virtualmente nello spazio tutti quelli che vorranno prendere parte a questo viaggio. translation: As a temporary inhabitant of a human outpost in space, I will share the orbital perspective and virtually lead into space all those who want to take part in this journey."

"Decidere di fare l'astronauta non è come decidere di fare l'avvocato o l'architetto. Si devono verificare una serie di condizioni e ci vuole anche una buona dose di fortuna. translation: Deciding to be an astronaut is not like deciding to be a lawyer or an architect. A series of conditions must be met and a good dose of luck is also needed."

"I would like to show you one of my favourite meals up here, which is a chicken with s, , and s. And I would like to try and put the ingredients together for you. See how it works in space."

"... I believe that space exploration is part of building the future ..."

"La Stazione spaziale è un esempio davvero luminoso di come le differenze internazionali passino assolutamente in secondo piano quando si ha un obiettivo grande, una passione comune. translation: The is a truly shining example of how international differences are completely secondary when you have a big goal, a common passion."

"A dream seems like a dream until you start working on it. And then it can become something infinitely greater. (Italian: Un sogno sembra un sogno fino a quando non si comincia a lavorarci. E allora può diventare qualcosa di infinitamente più grande.)"

"Often, the word utopia is the most convenient way to justify what one has not the will, ability, or courage to do. A dream seems like a dream until one begins to work on it. Only then does it become something infinitely bigger. (Italian: Spesso il termine utopia è la maniera più comoda per liquidare quello che non si ha voglia, capacità o coraggio di fare. Un sogno sembra un sogno fino a quando non si comincia a lavorarci. E allora può diventare qualcosa di infinitamente più grande.)"

"[...] if the decorations of the candlesticks and the capitals and moldings are due to Tuscan stonecutters, the architectural ensemble of the [del Podestà] palace appears to be the creation of a local craftsman who, in designing the model, had guided by the technical needs of the construction, the new renaissance forms and especially the design of the pilasters imported from Pagno di Lapo and finally some purely local uses, such as that of placing small circular windows in the frieze to illuminate the large and traditional flat ceiling rich in carved wood and paintings. (p. 83)"

"Towards C.E.1199, Bologna saw the two most singular and famous towers rise simultaneously: slender and vibrant, like a sword pointed towards the sky, the one built by the Asinelli and thrown upwards for more than ninety-seven meters above a square base of approximately eight meters on each side; slightly less wide, still resting on a base covered with selenite blocks, but inclined towards the east and unfinished due to the subsidence of the land, that of the Garisendi, who in the new competition of noble emulation had to stop the construction of the symbol of their strength. (pp. 28-30)"

"As the towers thickened, the great bell tower of San Pietro was added to the marvelous group of two hundred dark brick piers, built by Alberto, inzigniero of the Municipality and the Chapter in pure Romanesque style: at his feet the bishop Enrico della Fratta raised his episcopal seat by adorning it with a very high portico with round columns and circular arches. (pp. 38-39)"

"The freedom conquered [by the Bolognese] against the Viscontis, the desire to seal the new republican regime with a grandiose construction, dedicated to a local saint, perhaps emulation, which pushed them to surpass the cathedral of Milan and that of Florence, were the causes of the erection of San Petronio. (p. 54)"

"The forty-two years, in which Giovanni II Bentivoglio with the name of gonfaloniere for life, granted to him by the conventions of Paul II (C.E.1465), he was a true lord, mark an era of splendor never reached again in the history of the city [of Bologna]. Giovanni's prudent and shrewd lordship led to immediate benefits and a notable degree of prosperity and independence. (p. 79)"

"Giovanni II Bentivoglio He did not neglect to make friends of the people with lavish celebrations and tournaments and splendid banquets and courtships, to considerably improve the city by favoring and procuring embellishments to the streets, houses, temples, to call to his small court of writers and artists and to show how, like the other lords, he too could aspire to the title of father of the country. (p. 80)"

"The mark left by Bentivoglio in the field of the arts was truly great: he was responsible for much of the current layout of the main streets and squares of Bologna and his desire to offer the foreigners who gathered here illustrious weddings and for splendid tournaments the view of a renewed city proud of its importance. The fortresses of the countryside and the walls and gates of the city were reinforced according to what the new science of war and the new obsidian methods required: his palace it was finished and enriched with a large tower and gardens, and rooms painted and decorated with gold ceilings (Gigli) and vast stables: the buildings of the Municipality and the Podestà at his behest they were restored and covered with new architecture: private individuals competed to erect houses and palaces so that in a short time the majority of the city was renovated and every man tried to build to the pleasure of Signor Messer Joane (Gaspare Nadi). Architects and bricklayers came from Lombardy and Veneto, sculptors from Tuscany, painters and illuminators from Ferrara and Modena; new and rich decorations in brightly colored terracotta, elegant candlesticks and boulder decorations came to adorn the facades of the houses, new paintings and frescoes enriched the churches, and Bologna was soon «bold, fantastic, shapely» (G. Carducci). (p. 81)"

"Aristotele Fioravanti [...] architect and engineer of the Municipality of Bologna, very skilled in regulating water and designing new hydraulic works, in straightening towers, in moving tenement buildings, good ' 'machine maker, as Filarete called him, and 'good expert in measurements. (pp. 82-83)"

"To him Aristotele Fioravanti we owe in all probability the model of the Palazzo del Podestà ordered by the Regiment in C.E.1472, since it was necessary to repair the façade towards the main square that the Burselli said it was ruinous for its antiquity. And the Municipality must have done well to entrust the study of the new works to , then the height of his fame, sought after and envied by the courts of Italy and abroad, wandering in those years between Rome, Naples (C.E.1471) and Bologna. It was better for no one than him to solve the problem of redoing the large portico and the Romanesque façade without completely demolishing either one or the other, but only covering them with new forms. (p. 83)"

"The internal peace in the city of Bologna is matched by a new development of the arts, especially of architecture: so that the destruction of the Palazzo Bentivoglio [in C.E.1507] really seems to mark the death of the elegance and minute and hackneyed decorations of the fifteenth century and the beginning of a new rebirth by classical examples. (p. 116)"

"The formation of the Italian kingdom favored the development of an eclectic architecture and the renewed consciousness of our people soon led to grandiose building renovations and the applications of recent hygienic and sanitary conquests: but perhaps one day the regret will be great in thinking about which the master plans of Italian cities were entrusted to inexperienced hands. The sudden desire for demolitions and the sudden love for large spaces and large streets mathematically straight and intersecting at right angles prevented the coordination of the needs of traffic and hygiene with those of history and art and of preserving together with the fruits of new arts, the witnesses of the past and the picturesque aspects and the reasons for these aspects. (p. 164)"

"Bologna is not as well known as it deserves: its severe beauties, the gloomy appearance of the streets and houses, the escapes of endless porticoes, the play of shadows and lights of its winding streets and its bright squares , the solemn atriums and the sumptuous staircases, the decorative details of its terracottas, the calmness of the C.E.17th-century decorations do not allow the hasty traveler immediate enjoyment and do not elicit cries of admiration. The city, which first of all had an ancient civilization, which radiated so much light through the Studio allied to the flourishing of the highly democratic and humanitarian Municipality, which produced painters to support Baroque art with a magnificent brush, must be loved patiently, must be discovered step by step, corner by corner, act by act, intention by intention. (pp. 170-171)"

"Guido Zucchini, Bologna, Italian Institute of Graphic Arts, Bergamo, C.E.1905."

"He was most likely responsible for the model of the Palazzo del Podestà ordered by the Regiment in C.E.1472, since it was necessary to repair the façade facing the main square which Burselli said was ruinous due to its antiquity. And the Municipality must have done well to entrust the study of the new works to , then at the height of his fame, sought after and envied by the courts of Italy and abroad, traveling in those years between Rome and Naples (C.E.1471) and Bologna. It was better for no one than him to solve the problem of redoing the large portico and the Romanesque façade without completely demolishing either one or the other, but only covering them with new forms. (Guido Zucchini (historian))"

"Architect and engineer of the Municipality of Bologna, very skilled in regulating water and designing new hydraulic works, in straightening towers, in moving tenement buildings, a good machine maker, as Filarete called him, and well versed in measurements. (Guido Zucchini (historian))"

"What do you despise? By this you are truly known."

"If you knew how much work went into it, you would not call it genius."

"If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all."

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."

"Your lordship, only worldly light in this age of ours, you can never be pleased with another man's work for there is no man who resembles you, nor one to equal you … It grieves me greatly that I cannot recapture my past, so as to longer be at your service. As it is, I can only offer you my future, which is short, for I am too old … That is all I have to say. Read my heart for "the quill cannot express good will.""

"Recollect that trifles make perfection, and that perfection is no trifle."

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

"A quel pietoso fonte, onde siam tutti, S'assembra ogni beltà che qua si vede, Più c'altra cosa alle persone accorte;"

"Italians have such illustrious people they can celebrate, that everyone celebrates — Michelangelo, Vivaldi and, of course, for us on the left, Sacco and Vanzetti."

"Do we not say that the judicious discovering of a most lovely Statua in a piece of Marble, hath sublimated the wit of Buonarruotti far above the vulgar wits of other men? And yet this work is onely the imitation of a meer aptitude and disposition of exteriour and superficial mem­bers of an immoveable man; but what is it in comparison of a man made by nature, composed of as many exteriour and inte­riour members, of so many muscles, tendons, nerves, bones, which serve to so many and sundry motions? but what shall we say of the senses, and of the powers of the soul, and lastly, of the understanding? May we not say, and that with reason, that the structure of a Statue falls far short of the formation of a living man, yea more of a contemptible worm?"

"Interviewer: The examination of two emotional journeys, namely those concerning the artist's relationships with Tommaso de' Cavalieri and Vittoria Colonna, proved to be very interesting. Graziella Magherini: Buonarroti dedicated some very beautiful sonnets to Tommaso, written in the Neoplatonic style, with a refined sensitivity that was an integral part of Florentine Humanism. However, psychoanalytic observation reveals clear homoerotic feelings, albeit disguised. The comparison with the drawings that the artist gave to the young man is extraordinary. I am referring to The Rape of Ganymede, The Punishment of Titus and The Bacchanalia of the Putti. These are truly eloquent works. There are two versions of ‘Ganymede’: in the first, Ganymede resists Zeus in an ambivalent mix of desire and fear, while in the second he offers himself in sweet abandon, in an attitude pervaded by ecstasy and bliss. In The Punishment of Titus, the protagonist, struck by the eagle, becomes a metaphor for Michelangelo's sense of guilt. But even more extraordinary is the drawing with the Bacchanalia of the Putti. Here we are faced with an expression of regressed levels. Naked children linger in bacchanalia, dragging a dead deer here, carrying a pig there; a child urinates in a wine jug; young people are lost, without dignity... In the lower part of the work, the contrast is striking. There is a naked man sleeping uncovered, in an atmosphere of profound sadness, in a pose that closely resembles, for example, the Drunken Moses in the istine Chapel; and there is a hideous female satyr with flaccid breasts. What emerges clearly is a depressed paternal role on the one hand, and a sense of emptied motherhood on the other, in an almost phallic mother figure that combines the male and female roles. In short, the drawings are direct, sensorial: unlike the sonnets, which, as I mentioned, also contain an underlying materiality of the flesh."

"No one who has not seen the Sistine Chapel can have a clear idea of what a human being can achieve. ... The master's inner security and strength, his greatness is beyond all description. ... At the moment I am so engrossed by Michelangelo that even Nature makes no appeal to me, for my vision is so small compared with his. If there were only some means of fixing such pictures in one's soul!"

"...he was a good man, but he did not know how to paint."

"To make something is to invent or discover it. Michelangelo cuts away the extra marble that hides the statue, right?"

"Who can measure the worth of a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo or Beethoven in dollars and cents?"

"Thus to the plain man there may be no metaphor in Aristotle's "substance", Descartes' "machine of nature," Newtonian "force" and "attraction," Thomas Young's "kinetic energy" and Michelangelo's figure of Leda. Placed in their customary contexts these present nothing to him but the face of literal truth. To the initiated, however, who are aware of the "gross original" senses as well as the now literal senses , they may become metaphors. There are no metaphors per se...."

"Enough, enough, enough! Say no more! Lump the whole thing! say the Creator made Italy from designs by Michael Angelo!"

"If one day, reasoning absurdly, Michelangelo's belonging to Freemasonry were to emerge, then should that wonder of the Last Judgment be hidden inside the Sistine Chapel? Or, in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, the Last Supper in Santa Maria delle Grazie?"

"As when, O lady mine, With chiseled touch The stone unhewn and cold Becomes a living mold, The more the marble wastes, The more the statue grows."

"I was never the kind of painter or sculptor who kept a shop."

"Beauty is the purgation of superfluities."

"Ancora Imparo."