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This study applies the ICB model of state behavior in international crisis to one actor, Italy, in the 1953 Trieste crisis. At the historical level it reconstructs in detail, through recently declassified American and Italian documents, the flow of events from mid-1951 until October 5, 1954 when the signing of the so-called Memorandum of Understanding solved the Trieste question. At the theoretical level, it seeks to determine the impact of crisis-induced stress on the coping processes and choice patterns of Italian decision-makers. The findings confirm the major hypothesis (advanced by Holsti and George) about the stress-performance nexus, namely that "moderate" levels of stress improve decision-making performance while "high" stress might impair it. A modification of the definition of foreign policy crisis adopted by the ICB model is also suggested.

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This thesis is concerned with cartographic practices and the representation of the world during the Renaissance. In contrast with the modern instrumentalized world view, it will present surveying techniques and representational means that were defined by and reflected a divine transcendental order. The work of Cristoforo Sorte, as exemplified in his chorographia, will be investigated in order to display the mysterious qualities and geometric depth shared with Renaissance art and architecture. An examination of Sorte's methods of creating his work, relying on memory and the active recollection of the viewer, will reveal the primacy of shared human experience in the making of meaningful art and artifacts during the Renaissance. Perhaps an understanding of this world view will help mediate the dominating gaze which enframes the modern world and recover embodied perception as the site of architecture.

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This thesis focuses on the Summa Angelica de casibus conscientie written by Angelo da Chivasso (d. 1495), first printed in 1486. Angelo belonged to the Observantine branch of the Franciscan Order and was its vicar general four times. Having documented Angelo's life and career, the thesis centres on the construction and purpose of his Summa. It assesses its originality within the tradition of confession manuals and the reasons for its popularity. It argues that the structure is very clear because Angelo intended it for the use of simplices confessores, by which he probably meant priests who did not have a university degree. He arranged his material alphabetically and in the longer sections, paragraphs were numbered, making cross-referencing easy. He included a list of authorities and explained the manner of quoting from them. Not all these features were original, but together they helped to make the Summa popular. There are several noteworthy features of Angelo's Summa. The procedures described had been laid down in earlier manuals, including the need for more rigorous questions - ad status – relating to the profession of each penitent and where this might lead to sin. Angelo however diverged from some earlier authorities by warning about excessive rigour. Circumstances were to be taken into account, and where possible penitents to be given the benefit of the doubt. The number of copies of Angelo's Summa printed throughout Western Christendom during his lifetime and following his death are a tribute to its importance. The period of fame however, was short. Martin Luther was a particularly virulent critic of the Summa, and the Catholic Church changed the method of hearing confessions, making much of it redundant, though it survived for some centuries more as a work of reference for confessors.