THE BREAKING OF THE ROUND TABLE, THE END IS NEAR

Today, The Grandma is still ill. She has a terrible cold, and she has continued reading about King Arthur and The Round Table.

The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthur's fabulous retinue. 

The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time; by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the chivalric order associated with Arthur's court, the Knights of the Round Table.

Though the Round Table itself is not mentioned, the concept of Arthur havinga marvelous court made up of many prominent warriors is much older. 

Geoffrey of Monmouth says that after establishing peace throughout Britain, Arthur increased his personal entourage by inviting very distinguished men from far-distant kingdoms to join it. The code of chivalry so important in later romance figures in as well, as Geoffrey says Arthur established such a code of courtliness in his household that he inspired peoples living far away to imitate him.

Long before Geoffrey, Arthur's court was well known to Welsh storytellers; in the romance Culhwch and Olwen, written around 1100, the protagonist Culhwch invokes the names of 225 individuals affiliated with Arthur

More information: King Arthur's Knights

In fact, the fame of Arthur's entourage became so prominent in Welsh tradition that in the later additions to the Welsh Triads, the formula tying named individuals to Arthur's Court in the triad titles began to supersede the older Island of Britain formula.

Though the code of chivalry crucial to later continental romances dealing with the Round Table is mostly absent from the earlier Welsh material, some passages of Culhwch and Olwen seem to prefigure it, for instance when Arthur explains the ethos of his court, saying [w]e are nobles as long as we are sought out: the greater the bounty we may give, the greater our nobility, fame and honour.

Though no Round Table appears in the early Welsh texts, Arthur is associated with various items of household furniture.

The earliest of these is Saint Carannog's mystical floating altar in that saint's 12th century Vita; in the story Arthur has found the altar and attempts unsuccessfully to use it for a table, and returns it to Carannog in exchange for the saint ridding the land of a meddlesome dragon. Arthur's household furniture figures into local topographical folklore throughout Britain as early as the early 12th century, with various landmarks being named Arthur's Seat, Arthur's Oven, and Arthur's Bed-chamber.

A henge at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, Cumbria is known as King Arthur's Round Table. The still-visible Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with the Round Table and has been suggested as a possible source for the legend.

More information: Britannica

Following archaeological discoveries at the Roman ruins in Chester, some writers suggested that the Chester Roman Amphitheatre was the true prototype of the Round Table, but the English Heritage Commission, acting as consultants to a History Channel documentary in which the claim was made, declared that there was no archaeological basis to the story.

The Round Table first appeared in Wace's Roman de Brut, a Norman language adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae finished in 1155. Wace says Arthur created the Round Table to prevent quarrels among his barons, none of whom would accept a lower place than the others. Layamon added to the story when he adapted Wace's work into the Middle English Brut in the early 13th century, saying that the quarrel between Arthur's vassals led to violence at a Yuletide feast. 

In response a Cornish carpenter built an enormous but easily transportable Round Table to prevent further dispute. Wace claims he was not the source of the Round Table; both he and Layamon credited it instead to the Bretons.

Some scholars have doubted this claim, while others believe it may be true. There is some similarity between the chroniclers' description of the Round Table and a custom recorded in Celtic stories, in which warriors sit in a circle around the king or lead warrior, in some cases feuding over the order of precedence as in Layamon. There is a possibility that Wace, contrary to his own claims, derived Arthur's round table not from any Breton source, but rather from medieval biographies of Charlemagne, notably Einhard's Vita Caroli and Notker the Stammerer's De Carolo Magno, in which the king is said to have possessed a round table decorated with a map of Rome.

More information: Ancient Fortresses

The Round Table takes on new dimensions in the romances of the late 12th and early 13th century, where it becomes a symbol of the famed order of chivalry which flourishes under Arthur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, written around the 1190s, the wizard Merlin creates the Round Table in imitation of the table of the Last Supper and of Joseph of Arimathea's Holy Grail table.

This table, here made for Arthur's father Uther Pendragon rather than Arthur himself, has twelve seats and one empty place to mark the betrayal of Judas. This seat must remain empty until the coming of the knight who will achieve the Grail.

The Didot Perceval, a prose continuation of Robert's work, takes up the story, and the knight Percival sits in the seat and initiates the Grail quest. The prose cycles of the 13th century, the Lancelot-Grail cycle and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, further adapt the chivalric attributes of the Round Table. Here it is the perfect knight Galahad, rather than Percival, who assumes the empty seat, now called the Siege Perilous.  

Galahad's arrival marks the start of the Grail quest as well as the end of the Arthurian era. In these works the Round Table is kept by King Leodegrance of Cameliard after Uther's death; Arthur inherits it when he marries Leodegrance's daughter Guinevere. Other versions treat the Round Table differently, for instance Arthurian works from Italy often distinguish between the Old Table of Uther's time and Arthur's New Table.

The artifact known as the Winchester Round Table, a large tabletop hanging in Winchester Castle bearing the names of various knights of Arthur's court, was probably created for a Round Table tournament. The current paintwork is late; it was done by order of Henry VIII of England for Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's 1522 state visit, and depicts Henry himself sitting in Arthur's seat above a Tudor rose. 

The table itself is considerably older; dendrochronology calculates the date of construction to 1250–1280, during the reign of Edward I, using timber from store felled over a period of years. Edward was an Arthurian enthusiast who attended at least five Round Tables and hosted one himself in 1299, which may have been the occasion for the creation of the Winchester Round Table. Martin Biddle, from an examination of Edward's financial accounts, links it instead with a tournament Edward held near Winchester on April 20, 1290, to mark the betrothal of one of his daughters.

More information: Study

 

 

Knights! The gift of freedom is yours by right. 

But the home we seek resides not in some distant land. 

It's in us! And in our actions on this day! 

If this be our destiny, then so be it. 

But let history remember that as free men, 

we chose to make it so. 

King Arthur

CARNIVÀLE, THE ETERNAL FIGHT AGAINST DARK FORCES

Before the beginning, after the Great War between Heaven and Hell, God created the Earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called Man; and to each generation was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness; and great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between Good and Evil. 

There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty; and so it was until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity, and Man forever traded away wonder for reason.

Today, The Grandma wants to spend the day at hotel watching TV. She has chosen one of her favourite American TV Series, Carnivàle, set in the United States Dust Bowl during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The series, created by Daniel Knauf, ran for two seasons between 2003 and 2005. 

More information: WhatCulture

Carnivàle was produced by HBO and aired between September 14, 2003, and March 27, 2005. Its creator, Daniel Knauf, also served as executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore and Howard Klein. Jeff Beal composed the original incidental music. Nick Stahl and Clancy Brown starred as Ben Hawkins and Brother Justin Crowe, respectively. The show was filmed in Santa Clarita, California and nearby Southern California locations.

In tracing the lives of disparate groups of people in a traveling carnival, Knauf's story combined a bleak atmosphere with elements of the surreal in portraying struggles between good and evil and between free will and destiny. The show's mythology drew upon themes and motifs from traditional Christianity and gnosticism together with Masonic lore, particularly that of the Knights Templar order.

Early reviews praised Carnivàle for style and originality but questioned the approach and execution of the story. The first episode set an audience record for an HBO original series and drew durable ratings through the first season. When the series proved unable to sustain these ratings in its second season, the series was cancelled. An intended six-season run was thus cut short by four seasons.

 

In all, 24 episodes of Carnivàle were broadcast. In 2004 the series won five Emmys out of fifteen nominations. The show received numerous other nominations and awards between 2004 and 2006.

The two seasons of Carnivàle take place in the Depression-era Dust Bowl between 1934 and 1935, and consist of two main plotlines that slowly converge. The first involves a young man with strange healing powers named Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl), who joins a traveling carnival when it passes near his home in Milfay, Oklahoma. Soon thereafter, Ben begins having surrealistic dreams and visions, which set him on the trail of a man named Henry Scudder, a drifter who crossed paths with the carnival many years before, and who apparently possessed unusual abilities similar to Ben's own.

The second plotline revolves around a Father Coughlin-esque Methodist preacher, Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown), who lives with his sister Iris (Amy Madigan) in California. He shares Ben's prophetic dreams and slowly discovers the extent of his own unearthly powers, which include bending human beings to his will and making their sins and greatest evils manifest as terrifying visions. Certain that he is doing God's work, Brother Justin fully devotes himself to his religious duties, not realizing that his ultimate nemesis Ben Hawkins and the carnival are inexorably drawing closer.

More information: Cinemaclock

The Carnivàle story was originally intended to be a trilogy of books, consisting of two seasons each. This plan did not come to fruition, as HBO canceled the show after the first two seasons. Each season consists of twelve episodes.

Airing on HBO benefited Carnivàle in several ways. Because HBO does not rely on commercial breaks, Carnivàle had the artistic freedom to vary in episode length. Although the episodes averaged a runtime of 54 minutes, the episodes Insomnia and Old Cherry Blossom Road were 46 minutes and 59 minutes, respectively. HBO budgeted approximately US$4 million for each episode, considerably more than most television series receive.

Carnivàle's 1930s' Dust Bowl setting required significant research and historical consultants to be convincing, which was made possible with HBO's strong financial backing. 

As a result, reviews praised the look and production design of the show as impeccable, spectacular and as an absolute visual stunner. In 2004, Carnivàle won four Emmys for art direction, cinematography, costumes, and hairstyling.

To give a sense of the dry and dusty environment of the Dust Bowl, smoke and dirt were constantly blown through tubes onto the set. The actors' clothes were ragged and drenched in dirt, and Carnivàle had approximately 5,000 people costumed in the show's first season alone. The creative team listened to 1930s' music and radio and read old Hollywood magazines to get the period's sound, language, and slang right.

The art department had an extensive research library of old catalogs, among them an original 1934 Sears Catalog, which were purchased at flea markets and antique stores.

More information: Pinterest

The East European background of some characters and Asian themes in Brother Justin's story were incorporated into the show. Aside from the show's supernatural elements, a historical consultant deemed Carnivàle's historic accuracy to be excellent regarding the characters' lives and clothes, their food and accommodations, their cars and all the material culture.

Carnivàle's opening title sequence was created by A52, a visual effects and design company based in Los Angeles, and featured music composed by Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. The opening title sequence won an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design in 2004. The production team of A52 had intended to create a title sequence that grounded viewers in the mid-1930s, but that also allowed people to feel a larger presence of good and evil over all of time.

Carnivàle features instrumental music composed by Jeff Beal, as well as many popular or obscure songs from the 1920s and 1930s, the time when Carnivàle's story takes place. 

Although almost every Carnivàle episode has a distinctive story with a new carnival setting, all episodes are part of an overarching good-versus-evil story that only culminates and resolves very late in Season 2.

The pilot episode begins with a prologue talking of a creature of light and a creature of darkness, also known as Avatars, being born to each generation preparing for a final battle. Carnivàle does not reveal its characters as Avatars beyond insinuation, and makes the nature of suggested Avatars a central question. Reviewers believed Ben to be a Creature of Light and Brother Justin a Creature of Darkness.

Other than through the characters, the show's good-and-evil theme manifests in the series' contemporary religion, the Christian military order Knights Templar, tarot divination, and in historical events like the Dust Bowl and humankind's first nuclear test.

The writers had established a groundwork for story arcs, character biographies and genealogical character links before filming of the seasons began, but many of the intended clues remained unnoticed by viewers. While Ronald D. Moore was confident that Carnivàle was one of the most complicated shows on television, Daniel Knauf reassured critics that Carnivàle was intended to be a demanding show with a lot of subtext and admitted that you may not understand everything that goes on but it does make a certain sense.

Knauf provided hints about the show's mythological structure to online fandom both during and after the two-season run of Carnivàle, and left fans a production summary of Carnivàle's first season two years after cancellation.

Download Carnivàle Seasons 1 & 2

On the heels of the skirmish men foolishly called the War to End All Wars, the Dark One sought to elude his destiny, live as a mortal. So he fled across the ocean, to an empire called America. But by his mere presence, a cancer corrupted the spirit of the land.

People were rendered mute by fools who spoke many words but said nothing. For whom oppression and cowardice were virtues, and freedom… an obscenity.

And into this dark heartland, the prophet stalked his enemy, till, diminished by his wounds, he turned to the next in the ancient line of Light.

And so it was that the fate of mankind came to rest on the trembling shoulders of the most reluctant of saviors.

Samson

HOWARD CARTER DISCOVERS TUTANKHAMUN'S TOMB

Today, The Weasleys & The Grandma have been reading about Howard Carter,one of the most important archaeologists of the history who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

 

They have also studied the Articles.

 

More information: Articles

Howard Carter (9 May 1874-2 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who became world-famous after discovering the intact tomb, designated KV62, of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh, Tutankhamun, colloquially known as King Tut and the boy king, in November 1922.

Howard Carter was born in Kensington, which is in England, on 9 May 1874, the son of Samuel John Carter, an artist, and Martha Joyce Carter. His father trained and developed Howard's artistic talents.

Carter spent much of his childhood with relatives in the Norfolk market town of Swaffham, the birthplace of both his parents. Nearby was the mansion of the Amherst family, Didlington Hall, containing a sizable collection of Egyptian antiques, which sparked Carter's interest in that subject.

In 1891 the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF), on the prompting of Mary Cecil, sent Carter to assist an Amherst family friend, Percy Newberry, in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan.

Although only 17, Carter was innovative in improving the methods of copying tomb decoration. In 1892, he worked under the tutelage of Flinders Petrie for one season at Amarna, the capital founded by the pharaoh Akhenaten.

From 1894 to 1899, he worked with Édouard Naville at Deir el-Bahari, where he recorded the wall reliefs in the temple of Hatshepsut.

In 1899, Carter was appointed to the position of Chief Inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS). He supervised a number of excavations at Thebes, now known as Luxor.

More information: Eye Witness to History

In 1904, he was transferred to the Inspectorate of Lower Egypt. Carter was praised for his improvements in the protection of, and accessibility to, existing excavation sites, and his development of a grid-block system for searching for tombs. The Antiquities Service also provided funding for Carter to head his own excavation projects.

Carter resigned from the Antiquities Service in 1905 after a formal inquiry into what became known as the Saqqara Affair, a noisy confrontation between Egyptian site guards and a group of French tourists. Carter sided with the Egyptian personnel.

In 1907, after three hard years for Carter, Lord Carnarvon employed him to supervise excavations of nobles' tombs in Deir el-Bahri, near Thebes. Gaston Maspero had recommended Carter to Carnarvon as he knew he would apply modern archaeological methods and systems of recording.

In 1914, Lord Carnarvon received the concession to dig in the Valley of the Kings, Carter was again employed to lead the work. However excavations and study were soon interrupted by the First World War, Carter spending these war years working for the British Government as a diplomatic courier and translator. He enthusiastically resumed his excavation work towards the end of 1917.

By 1922, Lord Carnarvon had become dissatisfied with the lack of results after several years of finding little. He informed Carter that he had one more season of funding to make a significant find in the Valley of the Kings.

More information: UnMuseum

Carter returned to the Valley of Kings, and investigated a line of huts that he had abandoned a few seasons earlier. The crew cleared the huts and rock debris beneath. 

On 4 November 1922, their young water boy accidentally stumbled on a stone that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the bedrock. Carter had the steps partially dug out until the top of a mud-plastered doorway was found. The doorway was stamped with indistinct cartouches, oval seals with hieroglyphic writing. Carter ordered the staircase to be refilled, and sent a telegram to Carnarvon, who arrived two-and-a-half weeks later on 23 November.

On 26 November 1922, Carter made a tiny breach in the top left hand corner of the doorway, with Carnarvon, his daughter Lady Evelyn Herbert, and others in attendance, using a chisel that his grandmother had given him for his 17th birthday. 

He was able to peer in by the light of a candle and see that many of the gold and ebony treasures were still in place. He did not yet know whether it was a tomb or merely a cache, but he did see a promising sealed doorway between two sentinel statues.

Carnarvon asked, Can you see anything? Carter replied with the famous words: Yes, wonderful things! Carter had, in fact, discovered Tutankhamun's tomb, subsequently designated KV62.

The next several months were spent cataloguing the contents of the antechamber under the often stressful supervision of Pierre Lacau, director general of the Department of Antiquities of Egypt.

More information: ThoughtCo

On 16 February 1923, Carter opened the sealed doorway and found that it did indeed lead to a burial chamber, and he got his first glimpse of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

The tomb was considered the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings, and the discovery was eagerly covered by the world's press, but most of their representatives were kept in their hotels, much to their annoyance. Only H. V. Morton of The Times was allowed on the scene, and his vivid descriptions helped to cement Carter's reputation with the British public.

Carter's own notes and photographic evidence indicate that he, Lord Carnarvon, and Lady Evelyn Herbert entered the burial chamber in November 1922, shortly after the tomb's discovery and before the official opening.

Towards the end of February 1923 a rift between Lord Carnarvon and Carter, probably caused by a disagreement on how to manage the supervising Egyptian authorities, temporarily closed excavation. Work recommenced in early March after Lord Carnarvon apologised to Carter.

Later that month Lord Carnarvon contracted blood poisoning while staying in Luxor near the tomb site. He died in Cairo on 5 April 1923. Lady Carnarvon retained her late husband's concession in the Valley of the Kings, allowing Carter to continue his work.

Carter's painstaking cataloguing of the thousands of objects in the tomb continued until 1932, most being moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There were a number of breaks in the work, including one lasting nearly a year in 1924–25, caused by to a dispute over what Carter saw as excessive control of the excavation by the Egyptian Antiquities Service. The Egyptian authorities eventually agreed that Carter should complete the tomb's clearance.

Despite being involved in the greatest archaeological find of his time, Carter received no honour from the British government. However, in 1926, Carter received the Order of the Nile, third class, from King Fuad I of Egypt.

Carter died at his London flat at 49 Albert Court, next to the Royal Albert Hall, on 2 March 1939, aged 64 from Hodgkin's Disease. Few people attended his funeral, one of them was his older brother William (b. 1863) who died in the same year. Carter is buried in Putney Vale Cemetery in London.

More information: Spiegel

 

 

 The news of the discovery spread fast all over the country,

and inquisitive enquiries mingled with congratulations

from this moment became the daily programme.

Howard Carter

CAPRAIA, A MARINE SANCTUARY OF VOLCANIC ORIGIN

Arriving to Punta della Bellavista, Capraia

Today, Claire Fontaine and her friends are visiting Capraia, one of the seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelago.

They continue sailing across these wonderful archipelago and discovering how beautiful and important is every island.

During the sailing from Gorgona to Capraia, The Grandma has studied the last lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 21).

 More information: People

Capraia is a Tuscan island, the northwesternmost of the seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, and the third largest after Elba and Giglio; it is also a comune, municipality belonging to the Province of Livorno. The island has a population of about 400.

Capraia is 62 kilometres from the city of Livorno by sea, and 32 kilometres northwest of the island of Elba; it is slightly closer, at 30 kilometres, to the island of Corsica. The island is accessible by ferries that depart from the port of Livorno.

Capraia is of volcanic origin, has an area of 19 square kilometres and its highest point is 466 metres above sea level. It is about 8 kilometres long, from Punta della Teglia to Punta dello Zenobio, and about 4 kilometres wide.

Joseph visits the Fortezza di San Giorgio, Capraia

It has a coastline that is about 30 kilometres in circumference. The island is part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park and marine sanctuary.

The island's small harbour, Porto di Capraia, is connected to the village by the one and only asphalted road on the island. The village, dominated by the Fortress of St George, preserves its original characteristics unaltered.

Sites of tourist interest include the Church of the Assunta, the Church of St Nicola and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Church and Convent of St Antonio, and the Church of St Stefano alla Piana. The Fortress is not open to visitors.

The island produces wine, and is a centre of the anchovy fishery. About 40 kilometres  to the north is the island of Gorgona, which is also famous for its anchovies. In the summer the island is also a popular stopping point for yachts sailing between Livorno, Elba, and Corsica.

More information: Visit Tuscany

The Greeks called the island Aegyllon or Aegyllion, Αίγυλλον Greek for Goat Place. Its current name may have originated in the Etruscan carpa -stone- a word that comes from the archaic Greek Kalpe -sepulchral stone. The Romans called the island Capraria, its name possibly then morphing to reflect the presence of wild goats in Greek capros κάπρος, wild boar.

In the 4th century AD it housed a cenobium, where the church of St. Stephen now stands. The early 5th century poet Rutilius recorded that the island was a mess and that there were many monastic communities by his time.

Tina Picotes visits Capraia, Tuscany

In 1055 it was raided by Saracen pirates, and later the Republic of Pisa owned it. It became part of the Republic of Genoa after the Battle of Meloria, being assigned to the patrician Jacopo de Mari (1430).

In 1540 the Genoese built the Forte San Giorgio on a pre-existing fortification that the Ottoman corsair Turgut Reis had demolished. The Genoese also built three coastal watch towers, part of a system of Genoese towers, to protect against pirates.

The three are Torre del Porto (1541), which protected the entrance to the harbour, and which replaced or added to an earlier tower dating to 1510. Torre dello Zenobito (1545); and Torre delle Barbici (1699), also known as Torre della Teja or Torre della Regina. It is the only tower with a square shape, which makes it somewhat similar to the De Redin towers on Malta. Torre delle Barbici is in a fairly dilapidated state. Since 2009 a path connects it to the port.

In 1767 troops under Pasquale Paoli of the new independent Corsican Republic occupied Capraia. In 1796 the British, under Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, occupied the island for a short time, following the creation of the short-lived Anglo-Corsican Kingdom.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815 annexed the Republic of Genoa to the Kingdom of Sardinia, Capraia became part of the province of Genoa. Then in 1925, it was assigned to Livorno.

Between 1873 and 1986 a penal colony occupied almost two-thirds of Capraia. In 1986 the government closed the penal colony and opened the island to visitors.

More information: Wild Trips

With vengeance, move Gorgona from the sea

Caprera move, and dam up Arno’s mouth,

Till every living soul is drowned in thee

For though Count Ugolin in very truth.

Dante, Inferno. Canto XXXIII.

GORGONA & 'PROGETTO GRANDUCATO', NEW CHANCES

Arriving to Isola di Gorgona, Tuscan Archipelago

Today, The Grandma and her friends are visiting Gorgona, one of the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago. The Grandma loves Mediterranean islands and this is a great opportunity to visit these amazing islands with centuries of history that belong to Tuscany. They have also asked for a permission to take photos in the island.

During the trip by boat from Livorno to Gorgona, The Grandma has been studying a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 20).

More information: Everyday Objects

Gorgona is the northernmost island in the Tuscan Archipelago, a group of islands off the west coast of Tuscany. Between Corsica and Livorno, this diminutive island has been valued most for its wildlife, especially marine birds, and its isolation. The latter quality resulted in the foundation of Gorgona Abbey in the Middle Ages. After its closure the monastery grounds and buildings were appropriated in 1869, at the foundation of an agricultural penal colony, which is currently in use.

Gorgona is located about 19 nautical miles, about 35 km, straight out from Livorno. It is a ferry ride of about 1.5 hours; however, access to the island is forbidden without permission from the Italian Ministry of Justice. It grants a standing concession exclusively to one group for supervised tours.  

Photographic equipment is not allowed. Private boats may approach the island no closer than 500 m except in emergencies. Capraia is 35 km away; Corsica, 60 km.

Visiting Isola di Gorgona, Tuscan Archipelago

The only landing place is Cala dello Scalo, an inlet on the northeast side surrounded by cliffs, the site of the only beach. A fishing village over the beach is now inhabited by workers of the Penal Colony and, above all in the summer, by families of heirs of the old settlers.

On the cliff overlooking the bay is a historic site, the Torre Nuova, new tower, built as a watchtower by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the 17th century.

From the beach an unpaved road leads up to the settlement at the head of a pass between the two prominent heights: Punta Gorgona at 254 m to the south and Punta Zirri at 213 m to the north. On the cliffs at the west side of the island on the other side of the pass is the Torre Vecchia, old tower, built as a watchtower by the Republic of Pisa in the 12th century.

More information: Visit Tuscany

Occupation of the island has been primarily on the steep slopes and terraces of the east coast. A number of monastery and other buildings were constructed there. The prison, which has been structured as a working farm, has taken over or takes responsibility for maintaining this entire region.

Prisoners work in agriculture or raise animals or learn whatever building trades are useful to the enterprise. Their living space is rather big with good rooms as cells, some spaces for group activities and a pleasant soccer 5 field. Most of the prisoners work outdoors, in the village area too. So interaction with residents and outsiders is controlled.

Urgon or Gorgòn, Γοργόν in Ancient Greek, believed to be Gorgona, receives brief mention in Pliny, who only states that it is near Pianosa and Capraia. Pomponius Mela had mentioned the name earlier (43 BC) but only as an item in a list of the islands in the vicinity.

Claire Fontaine visits Isola di Gorgona, Tuscany

Rutilius Claudius Namatianus in describing his voyage of 416 AD in the region says that Gorgon rises up in the middle of the sea between the Pisan and Cyrniacan (Corsican) shores. 

He had already stated that there were monachi, monks, on Capraia and now relates the story of an aristocratic youth who had given up wealth, status and the opportunity for marriage to retire to Gorgon in superstitious exile, implying that monasteries of sorts were already on the two islands.

Tradition holds that monks from Gorgona rescued the relics of Saint Julia of Corsica before they were carried to the mainland in the 8th century. Finally, in 1425, the Saint Julia relics were carried to Calci Chartreuse, near to Pisa.

The monastery was abandoned after its destruction by the Saracens. In the 11th century the Republic of Pisa cleared the Tyrrhenian Sea of Muslims and proceeded against their strongholds in Africa.

More information: Tuscany Charming

In 1051, just prior to the Pisan occupation of Corsica, the monastery was reconstituted, still Benedictine, and was declared under papal protection. Subsequently, gifts of land were made by aristocrats in Tuscany, where Pisa is located, and northern Corsica. The monastery began to keep land records from Corsica, the first known from there.

Letter 130 of Catherine of Siena, a Dominican nun, to Ippolito degli Ubaldini of Florence encourages him to enter and contribute to the monastery of Gorgona. The letter in stating that the monastery needed to be refurbished to conform to the rule of the Carthusian Order implies that it was recently converted to that order. It must have been written after her vision of 1375 and visit to the island then.

Jordi Santanyí visits Isola di Gorgona, Tuscany

Two inscriptions at Pisa Charterhouse at Calci attribute the change of order to the influence of Catherine on Pope Gregory XI in trying to obtain economic assistance for the Carthusians. The pope made a grant of money and gave the Carthusians Gorgona.

The change cast reproach on the Benedictines for their alleged non-monastic way of life. They were asked to leave the island and were banned from it.

Carthusians from Pisa Charterhouse retenanted the monastery under Don Bartholomew Serafini. He promptly invited Catherine to visit. She lodged outside the monastery but was invited to address the monks. She spoke on resisting the temptations of Satan. The mantle she was asked to leave as a token of the visit placed later in the hands of a young monk tempted to suicide by the death or illness of his mother is said to have removed all temptation, a token, in the church, of her sainthood.

More information: Borghi di Toscana

Subsequently, the Mediterranean became politically unstable. Fearing an attack by Saracen corsairs the monks left the island for the charterhouse at Calci in 1425, taking all the records and works of art with them, and never returned. The records were duly published at Pisa. The island however remained in the ownership of Pisa Charterhouse until the 18th century.

Early in 1771 Peter Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, purchased Gorgona from the Carthusians of Pisa with the intent of making it part of a plan for economic revival.

In March of that year he passed a law opening the island to settlement by fishermen with the proviso that they would catch and cure anchovies and sell them in Livorno. The fishing village dates to this time. This opportunity to live in Gorgona was raised from the families named Citti and Dodoli, coming from Garfagnana region in province of Lucca. These two families worked hard to make Gorgona a good place to live in, being able to stay there until the present day.

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Gorgona's vineyards

With the unification of Italy in 1861, including the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany, ownership of Gorgona passed to the new Kingdom of Italy.

Gorgona became a new and experimental agricultural penal colony in 1869.

The ecology of Gorgona is under the protection of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, dating from 1996, with headquarters at Portoferraio, Elba. Most of the island is in its native state, 90% of it being forested with maquis, 2 m  to 5 m high.

Linaria capraria is endemic to the archipelago and to Gorgona. Evergreens predominate. There are groves of holm-oak, the remnant of a prehistoric forest, and pine woods of Pinus halepensis, Pinus pinea, and Pinus pinaster.

More information: Visit Elba

Gorgona is one of only five islands in the world on which the Corsican finch is found. In the nineteenth century the island was famous for its anchovies. Reservation by the Italian government reduced all economy to that of the prison until last year.

In 2012 the Department of Justice approved and gave finances to a plan called Progetto Granducato, Granducato Project, to reach the goal of giving prisoners professional training and real job opportunies, inviting private investors to start enterprises in Gorgona. 

The first company getting a business agreement with the prison's management, was the world-famous wine producer Marchesi de' Frescobaldi. So nowadays the oldest and more prestigious wine brand of Tuscany, is giving prisoners of Gorgona the chance to get an exceptional know-how grown in the centuries, to make their own wines Vermentino and Ansonica, extra virgin olive oil and any other farm goods.

More information: Italia Slow Tour

Hope is being able to see that

there is light despite all of the darkness.

Desmond Tutu

LIVORNO, PORT OF IMMIGRANTS SINCE 17TH CENTURY

Visiting Terrazza Mascagni in Livorno, Tuscany

Yesterday, The Grandma and her friends arrived to Livorno, an amazing city that remembers Venezia a little, on the side of the Ligurian Sea, site of an important Jewish community and one of the most important ports of the entire Mediterranean Basin.

During this interesting and wonderful trip from Carrara to Livorno, The Grandma studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 19).

More information: Tools and Technology

Livorno is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno. It has traditionally been known in English as Leghorn.

Livorno inhabitants speak a variant of the Italian Tuscan dialect, known as a vernacolo.

The bagitto was a Judæo-Italian regional dialect once used by the Jewish community in Livorno. It was a language based on Italian, developed with words coming from Tuscan, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew and Yiddish; the presence of Portuguese and Spanish words is due to the origin of the first Jews who came to Livorno, having been expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the late 15th century.

The origins of Livorno are controversial, although the place was inhabited since the Neolithic Age as shown by worked bones, pieces of copper and ceramic found on the Livorno Hills in a cave between Ardenza and Montenero. Then Livorno was Etruscan (Labro).

Tina Picotes visits Livorno, Tuscany

The construction of the Via Aurelia coincided with the occupation of the region by the Romans, who left traces of their presence in the toponyms and ruins of towers. The natural cove called Liburna, is a reference to the type of ship, the liburna, used by Roman navy.

Others ancient toponyms include: Salviano (Salvius), Antignano (Ante ignem) which was the place situated before Ardenza (Ardentia) where were the beacons for the ships directed to Porto Pisano.

Cicerone cited Liburna in a letter to his brother and call it Labrone. Livorna is mentioned for the first time in 1017 as a small coastal village, the port and the remains of a Roman tower under the rule of Lucca.

In 1077, a tower was built by Matilda of Tuscany. The Republic of Pisa owned Livorna from 1103 and built a quadrangular Fort called Quadratura dei Pisani, Quarter of the Pisans, to defend the port.

More information: Visit Tuscany

Porto Pisano was destroyed after the crushing defeat of the Pisan fleet in the Battle of Meloria in 1284. In 1399, Pisa sold Livorna to the Visconti of Milan, in 1405 it was sold to the Republic of Genoa and on 28 August 1421 it was bought by the Republic of Florence. The name Leghorn derives from genoan name Ligorna.  Livorno was used certainly in the eighteen century by Florentine.

Between 1427 and 1429, a census counted 118 families in Livorno, including 423 persons. Monks, Jews, military personnel, and the homeless were not included in the census. The only remainder of medieval Livorno is a fragment of two towers and a wall, located inside the Fortezza Vecchia.

After the arrival of the Medici, the ruling dynasty of Florence, some modifications were made; between 1518 and 1534 the Fortezza Vecchia was constructed, and the voluntary resettlement of the population to Livorno was stimulated, but Livorno still remained a rather insignificant coastal fortress. By 1551, the population had grown to 1562 residents.

Scali del Ponte di Marmo e degli isolotti, Livorno

During the Italian Renaissance, when it was ruled by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany of the House of Medici Livorno was designed as an Ideal town. 

In 1577 the architect Bernardo Buontalenti drew up the first plan. The new fortified town had a pentagonal design, for which it is called Pentagono del Buontalenti, incorporating the original settlement. The Porto Mediceo was overlooked and defended by towers and fortresses leading to the town centre.

In the late 1580s, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, declared Livorno a free port, porto franco, which meant that the goods traded here were duty-free within the area of the town's control.

In 1593, the Duke's administration established the Leggi Livornine to regulate the trade. These laws protected merchant activities from crime and racketeering, and instituted laws regarding international trade. The laws established a well-regulated market and were in force until 1603.

More information: Discover Tuscany

Expanding Christian tolerance, the laws offered the right of public freedom of religion and amnesty to people having to gain penance given by clergy in order to conduct civil business.

The Grand Duke attracted numerous Turks, Persians, Moors, Greeks, and Armenians, along with Jewish immigrants. Arrival of the latter begun in the late sixteenth century with the Alhambra Decree, which resulted in the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal -while Livorno extended to them rights and privileges; they contributed to the mercantile wealth and scholarship in the city.

Livorno became an enlightened European city and one of the most important ports of the entire Mediterranean Basin. Many European foreigners moved to Livorno. These included Christian Protestant reformers who supported such leaders as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. French, Dutch, and English arrived, along with Orthodox Greeks. Meanwhile, Jews continued to trade under their previous treaties with the Grand Duke. On 19 March 1606, Ferdinando I de' Medici elevated Livorno to the rank of city; the ceremony was held in the Fortezza Vecchia Chapel of Francis of Assisi.

Joseph contemplates the city of Livorno, Tuscany

The Counter-Reformation increased tensions among Christians; dissidents to the Papacy were targeted by various Catholic absolute rulers. Livorno's tolerance fell victim to the European wars of religion.

But, in the preceding period, the merchants of Livorno had developed a series of trading networks with Protestant Europe, and the Dutch, British, and Germans worked to retain these. In 1653 a naval battle, the Battle of Leghorn was fought near Livorno during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

At the end of the 17th century, Livorno underwent a period of great urban planning and expansion. Near the defensive pile of the Old Fortress, a new fortress was built, together with the town walls and the system of navigable canals through neighborhoods. After the port of Pisa had silted up in the 13th century, its distance from the sea increased and it lost its dominance in trade, so Livorno took over as the main port in Tuscany.

 More information: Jewish Virtual Library

The more successful of the European powers re-established trading houses in the region, especially the British with the Levant Company. In turn, the trading networks grew, and with it, Britain's cultural contact with Tuscany. An increasing number of British writers, artists, philosophers, and travelers visited the area and developed the unique historical ties between the two communities. 

The British referred to the city as Leghorn. Through the centuries, the city's trade fortunes fell and rose according to the success or failure of the Great Powers. The British and their Protestant allies were important to its trade.

Tonyi Tamaki visits Terrazza Mascagni, Livorno

During the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars of the late Eighteenth century, Napoleon's troops occupied Livorno with the rest of Tuscany. Under the Continental System, the French prohibited trade with Britain, and the economy of Livorno suffered greatly.

The French had altogether taken over Tuscany in 1808, incorporating it into the Napoleonic empire. After the Congress of Vienna, Austrian rule replaced the French.

In 1861, Italy succeeded in its wars of unification. Livorno and Tuscany became part of the new Kingdom of Italy and as part of the Kingdom the town lost its status as a free port and the city's commercial importance declined.

More information: Love from Tuscany

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Livorno had numerous public parks housing important museums such as the Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Museo di storia naturale del Mediterraneo, and cultural institutions as the Biblioteca Labronica F.D. Guerrazzi and others in Neoclassical style as Cisternone, Teatro Goldoni and Liberty style as Palazzo Corallo, Mercato delle Vettovaglie, Stabilimento termale Acque della Salute, the Scuole elementari Benci all the last on project by Angiolo Badaloni.

During the 1930s, numerous villas were built on the avenue along the sea in Liberty style on design by Cioni.

In the early 19th century, the first American-born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton converted from Protestantism to Catholicism while visiting Italian friends in Livorno.

The city suffered extensive damage during World War II. Many historic sites and buildings were destroyed by bombs of the Allies preceding their invasion, including the cathedral and Synagogue of Livorno.

Livorno's citizens in recent decades have become well known for their left-wing politics. The Italian Communist Party was founded in Livorno in 1921.

More information: Tuscany

Leghorn is the prime port belonging to all the Duke’s territories; heretofore a very obscure town, but since Duke Ferdinand 

has strongly fortified it, drained the marshes by cutting a channel thence to Pisa navigable sixteen miles.

John Evelyn