Universiẗat, Diss., 2003--Marburg.

Climate change has already had noticeable effects on the environment. Glaciers are retreating, ice on lakes and rivers is melting earlier, plant and animal species have relocated, and trees are blooming sooner. The Alpine landscape is one very good example of these dramatic shifts, which significantly impacted its identity and the economic stability of its communities. The effects on the classic forms of alpine tourism, especially the winter one, coupled with the mismanagement of the land and the lack of valorisation of the cultural heritage of the valleys have led to two equally disruptive phenomena: on one side, mass overtourism affects the most popular locations in the mountains requiring the construction of new infrastructures and resorts; on the other, the abandonment of the smallest or less known villages threatens the disappearing of rural communities with the consequent undermining of their surrounding landscape. Addressing the recovery plan drafted by the Italian Government after the pandemic (PNRR 2021), which includes giving new life to smaller villages and their ecological environment as well as reintroducing the Italian cinematographic industry as a competitive player within the international scene, the project aims to tackle the progress/paradox situation affecting the Italian Alps, Overtourism versus Abandonment, and its consequent impact on the landscape. The design is located in the Valle D’Aosta region, due to its proximity to Turin, a scenographic city where Italian cinema was born, and to its controversial nature which sees overbooked glamorous locations juxtaposed to the abandoned small rural realities. Particularly the proposal takes the story of the hamlet of Oyace, whose abandoned buildings are currently being sold at the symbolic price of 1 euro, in order to imagine a different future for alpine communities, which includes both economic growth and environmental awareness.Thought as a continuous dialogue between reality and fiction, the project starts in Oyace, taking shape as a film director’s studio in one of the currently abandoned buildings. It then continues as a new village envisioned by the director on the nearby artificial lake de Place Moulin, chosen for its symbiotic natural and man-made environment. The masterplan, drafted as a movie unfolding on site, borrows from the narrative of a romantic novel, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, written by Italian Francesco Colonna and published in Venice in 1499, which is set in mythical and personified landscapes. The different chapters of the novel with their allegorical nature inspire the ethos of each of the buildings of the village.The architecture of the proposal, which accommodates different programs typically present in a traditional Italian alpine village alongside spaces and structures necessary to the moviemaking, borrows from alpine forms and heritage, set design and movie strategies and the landscape. The result is a series of performative infrastructures staging, re-enacting, revealing and counteracting issues currently experienced by the hamlet of Oyace, these can be environmental, social or economic, and their consequences on the alpine environment. Despite taking from the story of the book and manifesting itself as a village, the project is not limited to the novel, but rather it attempts to start an investigation into the role of architecture within the wider context of the endangered alpine environment, whilst arguing for a multidisciplinary approach and the use of narrative as critical tools for the production of impactful architecture in times of crisis.Ultimately the design aims to envision a new future for the community of Oyace and its ecological environment, speculating on a new approach towards giving new life to alpine communities based on a deeper awareness of their surrounding environment.

This dissertation studies a local manifestation of ecclesiastical reform in the medieval county of Savoy: the twelfth-century transformation of secular canons into Augustinian regular canons at the church of Sts. Peter and Ursus in the alpine town of Aosta (now Italy). I argue that textual sources, material culture, and the practice of place together express how the newly reformed canons established their identity, shaped their material environment, and managed their relationship with the unreformed secular canons at the cathedral. The pattern of regularization in Aosta—instigated by a new bishop influenced by ideas of canonical reform—is only one among several models for implementing reform in medieval Savoy. This study asserts the importance of this medieval county as a center for reforming efforts among a regional network of churchmen, laymen, and noblemen, including the count of Savoy, Amadeus III (d. 1148). After a prologue and introduction, chapter 1 draws on traditional textual evidence to recount the history of reform in medieval Savoy. Chapters 2 through 4 focus on the twelfth-century sculpted capitals in the cloister built to accommodate the common life of the new regular canons. Several of the historiated capitals portray the biblical siblings, Martha and Mary, and Leah and Rachel, as material metaphors that reflect and reinforce the active and contemplative lives of the Augustinian canons. Other capitals represent the regular canons’ assertion of their precedence over the cathedral canons and suggest tensions between the two communities. The final chapter examines thirteenth-century conflicts over bell-ringing and ecclesiastical processions in the urban topography of Aosta to illustrate how the regular and secular canons continued to negotiate their relationship. Appendices include an English translation of a vita of St. Ursus (BHL 8453). The dissertation as a whole reconstructs the places and material culture of medieval Aosta to convey the complexities of religious and institutional life during a time of reform and beyond. / text

L'étude des bijoux - notion complexe pour la période prise en examen - et de leurs représentations, s'appuie sur l'analyse des images en deux dimensions de la Vallée d'Aoste, du Piémont, de Ligurie et de Lombardie aux XIVe et XVe siècle. Elle vise à observer les contextes et les types de support permettant d'observer des détails comme les objets précieux, ainsi qu'à déterminer les grands groupes de commanditaires des images mettant en scène ces objets. Elle vise ensuite à analyser la fréquence d'apparition des différents bijoux et accessoires de parure, ainsi qu'à déterminer les catégories de personnages les plus ornées, tout en confrontant ces résultats avec les autres sources à notre disposition: mobilier archéologique, objets d'orfèvrerie, documentation comptable, inventaires après décès, lois somptuaires, récits de chroniqueurs, sermons, correspondance, poésie, ainsi que les Lapidaires dédiés aux gemmes. Sont abordées les particularités mises en avant par les images, qui insistent sur les différentes valeurs morales attachées à chaque type d'objet de parure, à l'endroit du corps auquel il était destiné ainsi qu'au rang de celui qui les portait.Le recours à plusieurs études relevant du domaine de l'anthropologie historique permet d'observer le rôle important des occasions qui requéraient le port de ces objets ou qui en commandaient les échanges, découlant des nécessités imposées par un cérémonial très ritualisé, lors duquel les objets de parure jouaient un rôle de représentation et de protection.L'analyse s'oriente sur la « stratégie » déployée par les images et leurs commanditaires, au sein d'une logique des apparences visant à légitimer leur position. / The study about jewels and adornment accessories - a complex notion for the period in examination - and their representations, leans on the analysis of the two-dimensions images produced in Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria and Lombardy in the 14th and 15th century.It aims at observing contexts and types of medium allowing images to show such details as jewels and adornment accessories, when still visible, and to determine the different groups of people who subscribed the images where these objects appear.It aims at analyzing the frequency of appearance of the various jewels and dress adornments, as well as determining which are the most decorated categories of characters, while confronting these results with the other sources at our disposal: archeological and goldsmiths' work finds, account books, inventories, sumptuary laws, chroniclers narratives, sermons, correspondence, poetry, and a particular genre of literature dedicated to gemstones: Lapidaries.The particularities advanced by images insist on the various moral values attached to every type of jewel and adornment object, their location on the body, as well as the rank of their owner.The recourse to several studies belonging to the historic anthropology domain allows focusing on the important role played by the occasions which required the bearing of these objects or which commanded their exchanges, ensuing from a ritualized ceremonial, during which the finery objects played a role of representation as well as protection.Finally, the analysis turns on the "strategy" displayed by images and, especially by those who ordered them, joining within logic of appearances, in order to legitimize their position. / Lo studio dei gioielli – nozione complessa per il periodo preso in esame – e delle loro rappresentazioni, si basa sull’analisi delle immagini a due dimensioni prodotte nella Valle d’Aosta, in Piemonte, Liguria e Lombardia ne Trecento e Quattrocento. Mira innanzitutto ad osservare quali sono i contesti ed i tipi di produzione che permettono di osservare dettagli come gli accessori ornamentali, quando questi sono ancora reperibili, così come a determinare i grandi gruppi di promotori delle immagini raffiguranti questi oggetti. Mira poi ad analizzare in modo quantitativo la frequenza delle apparizione di quei differenti tipi di gioielli ed accessori preziosi, nonchè a determinare quali sono le categorie di personaggi più ornati, pure confrontando questi risultati con le altre fonti a disposizione. Tra queste si annoverano reperti archeologici e oggetti di oreficeria, ma anche fonti scritte : documentazione archivistica contabile, inventari, leggi suntuarie, opere di cronisti, sermoni, corrispondenza, poesia, così come une tipo particolare dedicato alle gemme : i Lapidari. Sono così evidenziate le particolarità messe in luce dalle immagini, che insistono sulle differenti caratteristiche morali legate ad ogni tipo di oggetti presi in conto, alla parte del corpo alla quale era destinato, così come al rango sociale di chi lo portava. Il ricorso a parecchi studi che rientrano nel campo dell’antropologia storica permette di osservare il ruolo importante delle occasioni che richiedevano di ornarsi con questi oggetti o che ne determinavano gli scambi, il che dérivava dalle necessità imposte da un cerimoniale molto ritualizzato, nel quale quegli oggetti preziosi assumevano nello stesso tempo una funzione di rappresentazione et di protezione. Infine, l’analisi si orienta sulla « strategia » sviluppata dalle immagini, e sopratutto dai loro donatori, iscrivendosi in una logica delle apparenze che tendeva a legittimare la loro posizione.