Master of Philosophy / The following paper will present a study of 76 impasto and bucchero ceramic artefacts that form part of the collection of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney. These artefacts have not been previously studied in any detail and while some have been published, publication was limited to a brief description. The paper is divided into three sections: impasto, Caeretan stamped ware and bucchero. A preliminary discussion of the ceramic type is followed by a catalogue. The catalogue provides a detailed description, any provenance and publication details, parallels and provides a date and possible geographical context of each vessel.

Master of Philosophy / The following paper will present a study of 76 impasto and bucchero ceramic artefacts that form part of the collection of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney. These artefacts have not been previously studied in any detail and while some have been published, publication was limited to a brief description. The paper is divided into three sections: impasto, Caeretan stamped ware and bucchero. A preliminary discussion of the ceramic type is followed by a catalogue. The catalogue provides a detailed description, any provenance and publication details, parallels and provides a date and possible geographical context of each vessel.

Several commentators have argued that the focus within political theory in recent decades on abstraction rather than 'reality' has left it with has nothing to say to political actors. On these grounds, some have even expressed concern regarding the discipline's future. As a reply to these concerns, I introduce in this thesis the scholarship and political career of the Italian philosopher Massimo Cacciari. Cacciari shares many goals with Anglophone political theorists, but neither his scholarship nor his practice have engaged in the kind of intellectual abstraction which they now find so troubling. Drawing from Cacciari's philosophy, political career, and interventions as a public intellectual, I show how his understanding of real-world conflicts and contradictions begins with a commitment to what I call his 'geophilosophy of the archipelago', which regards the foundations of human knowledge to be irreducibly plural. A commitment to irreducibly plural foundations means that philosophers and political actors must discard what Cacciari views as 'enchantment' with the possibility of ultimate or absolute resolution of all political discord. In return, however, he argues that hopeful political engagement is still possible, because political actors remain able to cope in material and semiotic terms with the complex realities they face. I suggest that serious consideration of Cacciari's example of recognising irreducible plurality, coupled with a disenchanted engagement with both the material and the semiotic dimensions of political life, offers a compelling alternative orientation to the world that may suggest new ways forward in political theory.

This thesis examines how the newly-born Anglo-Italian alliance operated during World War I, and how it influenced each of Britain's and Italy's strategies. It argues that Britain was Italy's main partner in the conflict: Rome sought to make Britain the guarantor of the London treaty, which had brought Italy into the war on the side of the Allies, as well as its main naval and financial partner within the Entente. London, for its part, used its special partnership with Italy to reach three main objectives. The first was to have Rome increasingly involved in the Entente's global war, thus going beyond the national dimension of the 'fourth war of independence' against Austria-Hungary. Britain aimed in particular to complete the blockade of the Central Powers by securing the Mediterranean. This result was achieved slowly - Italy declared war on Turkey in autumn 1915 and on Germany in summer 1916 - and not without contradictions, such as Italy's persistently self-reliant trade policy. The second British goal was to keep Italy in the war when the Caporetto crisis hit: British financial, commercial and military support was crucial to restore Italian forces and morale, and allow Rome to pursue to fight. Finally, in a wider geo-political sense, Britain took advantage of its good relations with Italy to balance French influence in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. London acted as a mediator in the controversies between Rome, Petrograd and Paris, taking upon it the task of keeping the alliance together. Anglo-Italian relations worsened in 1918. Britain's leadership within the Entente declined and was gradually replaced by American leadership. President Wilson's 'politics of nationalities' produced a significant revision of the London pact: Italy felt betrayed by its main partner, Britain, and this caused a long-lasting resentment towards London which had far-reaching consequences in the post-war period.

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The Renaissance Florentine Captain of the People began as a court, which defended the common people or popolo from the magnates and tried crimes such as assault, murder and fraud. This study reveals how factionalism, economic stress and the rise of citizen magistrate courts eroded the jurisdiction and ended the Court of the Captain. The creation of the Captain in 1250 occurred during the external fight for dominance between the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope and the struggle between the Guelfs and Ghibellines within the city of Florence. The rise of the Ciompi in 1379, worried the Florentine aristocracy who believed the Ciompi was a threat to their power and they created the Otto di Guardia, a citizen magistrate court. This court began as a way to manage gaps in jurisdiction not covered by the Captain and his fellow rectors. However, by 1433 the Otto eroded the power of the Captain and his fellow rectors. Historians have argued that the Roman law jurists in this period became the tool for the aristocracy but in fact, the citizen magistrate courts acted as a source of power for the aristocracy. In the 1430s, the Albizzi and Medici fought for power. The Albizzi utilized a government mandate, which had the case already carried out or a bullectini to exile Medici adherents. However, by 1433, the Medici triumphed and Cosimo de Medici returned to the city of Florence. He expanded the power of the Otto in order to utilize the bullectini to exile his enemies. The expansion of jurisdiction of the Otto further eroded the power of the Captain. Factionalism, economic stress and the rise of the citizen magistrate courts eroded the power of the Captain of the people.

This work examines the anti-Catholic bias of Jacob Burckhardt as he employed it in the Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. A biographical chapter examines his early education in the Lutheran seminary and the influence of his educators at the University of Berlin. The Civilization is examined in three critical areas: Burckhardt's treatment of the popes in his chapter "The State as a Work of Art," the reform tendencies of the Italian humanists which Burckhardt virtually ignored, and the rise of confraternities in Italy. In each instance, Burckhardt demonstrated a clear bias against the Catholic Church. Further study could reveal if this initial bias was perpetuated through later "Burckhardtian" historians.

Inspired by the Municipal preprimary schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, two art studio teachers and a researcher have explored experiences and meaning in the atelier. When studio teachers document children's thinking through digital photographs. transcribed audio tapes, quotations of a child's verbal thoughts, and copies of their work, an indescribable moment in teacher thinking interweaves with the child's learning, As teachers capture children's representations, investigate, interpret, and share their ideas with colleagues and community-an underlying question emerges. What are studio teachers' experiences o/teaching-learning in the atelier as they utilize documentation, collaboration, and reflection as a way to inform their practices? From this question, reader and researcher start a journey together into a six-month phenomenological study of studio teaching experiences. As a core member in the teaching team, the studio teacher resides in the atelier to bring teaching and learning together in a profound way, to bridge classroom experiences with representative arts, and to facilitate the community's learning about teaching-learning. The methods used to inform this study include observations, in-depth interviews, electronic journaling, description, photos, and interpretation of studio work. Overall, this study's methods inform the phenomenological research and construct an in-depth look at experiences in the artist's studio. The results of this research are retold through narratives focusing on experiences and meaning-making in the studios. Stories such as living with the cracked egg; isolation in the studio: gifts for others; rough stones polishing one another; and many others, utilize photographs to enhance meaning through picturesque artifacts. Essential themes, conclusions, and implications appear in the webbing of experiences and are explored in the final chapter. The themes include conceptual frameworks such as life eats entropy, serendipity and synergy and more. Conclusions are drawn and findings are made connecting studio experiences to participant voice, disequilibrium, listening, engaging, stepping back, and slowing time; demonstrating documentation as learning, revisiting, representation, and manageability; making meaning of collaboration as struggle, communication, and reconstruction; and reflecting back as purposeful and an act of teaching-learning. Overall, this research study exposes techniques, ideas, and wonderings from two studio teachers' and a researcher's experiences in the atelier.

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Classics and Modern European Languages / M.A. (Ancient History)