Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Propaganda imperiale'

This thesis demonstrates key imperial virtues communicated on Roman Imperial triumphal monuments. A closer examination of monuments located in Rome reveals the presentation of personality traits such as military valor, piety, and mercy through symbolism, nature scenes, and personifications of abstract qualities. Each monument is dedicated to an emperor and exemplifies his virtues. The representation of imperial virtues conveys an emperor's worth to the public by communicating his better qualities. Architecture and coin evidence served as media to convey an emperor's qualities to the public and fostered general acceptance of his rule among the public. Valor (virtus), piety (pietas), and mercy (clementia) are each examined to demonstrate their importance, their multiple types of representations in architecture, and their presentation and reach on coins. Chapters 2 through 4 look at the symbolism and representation of military courage and honor. As a military virtue, valor is easiest to represent and point out through battle scenes, military symbols, and gods who assisted the emperor in war. Honor (honos), as a close association to valor is also a promotable trait. Chapters 5 through 7 look at the multiple representations of an emperor's piety. Piety, being the Roman empire's oldest virtue, can be seen through sacrificial scenes, mythological scenes, and symbols associated with these same gods and sacrifices. Chapter 8 looks at personifications of abstract qualities and natural phenomena and their role in Roman cosmology. Chapter 9 looks at the last virtue, mercy, which is demonstrated as the most valuable but also rare because it demands special skills and balance within a ruler. Mercy's rarity makes its symbolism and representational scenery smaller in comparison to the first two but still evident in architecture and coins. Possession of each trait awarded the possessor honor and divinity heaped on him, as discussed in Chapter 10. The Romans saw divinity as an honor which the senate awarded upon display of these superior virtues. Several arguments are considered and add different viewpoints to how divinity was acquired whether for the possession of these qualities or the actions that resulted from them. This analysis of symbolism and relevant divine scenes associated with imperial virtues demonstrate the emperor's superiority through possession of these virtues and show their subtle inclusion in imperial architecture.

of the images of World War II and of the Resistance, and the silent and hidden face revealed by many documentaries, in primis those of Francesco Pasinetti. The candidate’s subject of the research is the evolution of Italian documentary cinema from the ‘30’s to mid-40’s with a few partial references of the production of the ‘20’s. This is because a large part of the examined documents come from the Archives of the Luce Institute, which, from 1926-27, optimized the typologies of audio-visual products and communication strategies that this research, as well as a large part of the reference bibliography, has demonstrated to be almost unchanged over the considered years. The introduction underlines how, from the ‘30’s, the apparent absence of masters, as elsewhere were Flaherty, Grierson or Ivens, or of a unifying school, as a result gives a critic storiography’s skeptical position to the documentary production and the poor amount of studies over this subject. The following chapters deal with the movies in question. The films are analyzed, as can be foreseen, from a diachronic point of view, but, above all, by pointing out their different purposes or requests: from the cinema archives’ educational-informative documentaries to the most clearly propagandistic ones, even concerning war, made by Luce, and, starting from 1938, by Incom. A chapter of the thesis was devoted to the auteur documentaries, particularly Cines’ under the direction of Emilio Cecchi (we analyzed the films by lasetti, Bragaglia, Poggioli, Vergano, Barbaro, Perilli, Gabriellino D’Annunzio who wanted to discover, among other things, the locations of archeology and art): we tried to demonstrate the exceptionality of these materials and a few others, such as I cantieri dell’Adriatico by Umberto Barbaro or Il pianto delle zitelle by Giacomo Pozzi Bellini, in comparison with a remaining propagandistic production or a production in which Luce does not use the important names that it has. The second part of this chapter is devoted to the quality documentary and is related to the production of the so-called Fascist “left” (made up of young academics, a few of them already secretly anti-Fascists), whose battle, above all, during the first years of World War II, aims at affirming a realistic view that, abandoning the conventions and falsenesses of the old way to make a show, opens the gate to the popular world, to the Italian society like it is and not like the myths and the slogans of the regime in the contemporary propagandistic documents represent it. Particular attention was paid to the documentaries made in Northern Italy, from Gente di Chioggia by Basilio Franchina to Comacchio by Fernando Cerchio, and, above all, by Francesco Pasinetti, author to whom the greatest attention was devoted in this work and, in particular, to his relationships with the Fascist culture and the city of Venice of which he is the most detailed and inspired poet. The largest part of the examined documents is relevant to the newsreels and documentaries of the Institute Luce with a Venetian location to outline, not only the relationship between film and propaganda or film and poetical needs of a specific director, but the modes by which the cinema could interpret the Italian territory and, specifically, this region. A few important figures: 250 records (the word indicates the single references of the Archives and, therefore, can be used either for newsreels or documentaries or film libraries) from Belluno (meant as a chief town and province), 370 from Padova, 50 from Rovigo, 100 from Treviso, 960 from Venice, 290 from Verona, 120 from Vicenza. The analysis of such a rich group of materials allowed us to identify a series of recurrences (also deductable by numbers) in the objects and modes of the communication of newsreels and allowed to compare them with those of other regions or other forms of communication. This comparison was particularly interesting in the case of Venice, a city suspended between formalism and worldiness of the Luce newsreels, between the historical strength The candidate’s subject of the research is the evolution of Italian documentary cinema from the ‘30’s to mid-40’s with a few partial references of the production of the ‘20’s. This is because a large part of the examined documents come from the Archives of the Luce Institute, which, from 1926-27, optimized the typologies of audio-visual products and communication strategies that this research, as well as a large part of the reference bibliography, has demonstrated to be almost unchanged over the considered years. The introduction underlines how, from the ‘30’s, the apparent absence of masters, as elsewhere were Flaherty, Grierson or Ivens, or of a unifying school, as a result gives a critic storiography’s skeptical position to the documentary production and the poor amount of studies over this subject. The following chapters deal with the movies in question. The films are analyzed, as can be foreseen, from a diachronic point of view, but, above all, by pointing out their different purposes or requests: from the cinema archives’ educational-informative documentaries to the most clearly propagandistic ones, even concerning war, made by Luce, and, starting from 1938, by Incom. A chapter of the thesis was devoted to the auteur documentaries, particularly Cines’ under the direction of Emilio Cecchi (we analyzed the films by lasetti, Bragaglia, Poggioli, Vergano, Barbaro, Perilli, Gabriellino D’Annunzio who wanted to discover, among other things, the locations of archeology and art): we tried to demonstrate the exceptionality of these materials and a few others, such as I cantieri dell’Adriatico by Umberto Barbaro or Il pianto delle zitelle by Giacomo Pozzi Bellini, in comparison with a remaining propagandistic production or a production in which Luce does not use the important names that it has. The second part of this chapter is devoted to the quality documentary and is related to the production of the so-called Fascist “left” (made up of young academics, a few of them already secretly anti-Fascists), whose battle, above all, during the first years of World War II, aims at affirming a realistic view that, abandoning the conventions and falsenesses of the old way to make a show, opens the gate to the popular world, to the Italian society like it is and not like the myths and the slogans of the regime in the contemporary propagandistic documents represent it. Particular attention was paid to the documentaries made in Northern Italy, from Gente di Chioggia by Basilio Franchina to Comacchio by Fernando Cerchio, and, above all, by Francesco Pasinetti, author to whom the greatest attention was devoted in this work and, in particular, to his relationships with the Fascist culture and the city of Venice of which he is the most detailed and inspired poet. The largest part of the examined documents is relevant to the newsreels and documentaries of the Institute Luce with a Venetian location to outline, not only the relationship between film and propaganda or film and poetical needs of a specific director, but the modes by which the cinema could interpret the Italian territory and, specifically, this region. A few important figures: 250 records (the word indicates the single references of the Archives and, therefore, can be used either for newsreels or documentaries or film libraries) from Belluno (meant as a chief town and province), 370 from Padova, 50 from Rovigo, 100 from Treviso, 960 from Venice, 290 from Verona, 120 from Vicenza. The analysis of such a rich group of materials allowed us to identify a series of recurrences (also deductable by numbers) in the objects and modes of the communication of newsreels and allowed to compare them with those of other regions or other forms of communication. This comparison was particularly interesting in the case of Venice, a city suspended between formalism and worldiness of the Luce newsreels, between the historical strength of the images of World War II and of the Resistance, and the silent and hidden face revealed by many documentaries, in primis those of Francesco Pasinetti.
Il lavoro di ricerca del candidato ha come oggetto l’evoluzione del cinema documentario italiano dagli anni Trenta alla metà degli anni Quaranta, con alcune parziali incursioni nella produzione degli anni Venti. Questo perché parte consistente dei materiali esaminati provengono dall’Archivio dell’Istituto Luce che, proprio a partire dal 1926/27, mette a punto tipologie di prodotti audiovisivi e strategie comunicative che anche questa ricerca, al pari di buona parte della bibliografia di riferimento, ha dimostrato mantenersi sostanzialmente immutate nel corso degli anni presi in considerazione. Dalle pagine introduttive in cui si sottolinea come una, almeno apparente, assenza fin dagli anni Trenta di maestri come altrove sono Flaherty, Grierson o Ivens o di una scuola unificante si traduca in una posizione scettica della storiografia critica nei confronti della produzione documentaria e in una conseguente scarsità di studi in materia, si passa ai capitoli di analisi dei film in questione. Film analizzati prevedibilmente in prospettiva diacronica, ma soprattutto evidenziando le diverse finalità o istanze di cui essi si fanno carico: dai documentari educativo-informativi delle cinemateche a quelli più dichiaratamente propagandistici e di argomento bellico prodotti dal Luce e, a partire dal 1938, dalla Incom. Un capitolo della tesi è stato dedicato anche alle manifestazioni del documentario d’autore, in particolare di quello della Cines sotto la direzione di Emilio Cecchi (si sono analizzati film di Blasetti, Bragaglia, Poggioli, Vergano, Barbaro, Perilli, Gabriellino D’Annunzio che vanno alla scoperta, tra le altre realtà, di località d’archeologia e d’arte): si è tentata di dimostrare l’eccezionalità, di questi e di pochi altri materiali, come I cantieri dell’Adriatico di Umberto Barbaro o Il pianto delle zitelle di Giacomo Pozzi Bellini, ad una produzione per il resto prevalentemente propagandistica o nella quale il Luce, sebbene attivo, non impegna le grandi firme di cui pure dispone. Il secondo nucleo di questo capitolo dedicato al documentario di qualità è quello legato alla produzione della cosiddetta “sinistra” fascista (composta da giovani intellettuali, alcuni dei quali già segretamente antifascisti), la cui battaglia, soprattutto durante i primi anni del secondo conflitto mondiale, è finalizzata all’affermazione di una linea realistica che, uscendo dalle convenzioni e dalle falsità del vecchio modo di fare spettacolo, spalanchi le porte al mondo popolare, alla società italiana così come è e non come, nei coevi documentari di propaganda, la rappresentano i miti e gli slogan del regime. Con un’attenzione particolare ai documentari realizzati nel Nord Italia, da Gente di Chioggia di Basilio Franchina a Comacchio di Fernando Cerchio, passando soprattutto per la figura autoriale cui è stata dedicata maggiore attenzione in questo lavoro di ricerca: quella di Francesco Pasinetti, in particolare nelle sue relazioni con la cultura fascista e la città di Venezia, di cui risulta essere il più attento e ispirato cantore. La parte quantitativamente più consistente dei materiali esaminati è, però, quella relativa ai cinegiornali e documentari dell’Istituto Luce di ambientazione veneta per delineare non più, o non tanto, il rapporto tra pellicola e propaganda o pellicola ed istanze poetiche di un determinato regista, quanto piuttosto le modalità con cui la cineinformazione ha saputo leggere il territorio italiano, e questa regione in particolare. Qualche numero indicativo: 250 record (termine che indica le singole rispondenze dell’Archivio, quindi utilizzabile tanto per cinegiornali che per documentari o materiali di repertorio) per Belluno (inteso come capoluogo e provincia), 370 per Padova, 50 per Rovigo, 100 per Treviso, 960 per Venezia, 290 per Verona, 120 per Vicenza. L’analisi di un così significativo corpus di materiali ha consentito di identificare una serie di ricorrenze (rilevabili anche numericamente) negli oggetti e nelle modalità della comunicazione cinegiornalistica e ha permesso di raffrontarle con quelle di altre realtà regionali o di altre forme comunicative. Raffronto, questo, che si è rivelato particolarmente interessante nel caso di Venezia, città sospesa tra l’ufficialità e la mondanità dei cinegiornali Luce, la carica storica delle immagini della seconda guerra mondiale e della Resistenza e il volto silenzioso e nascosto svelato da molti documentari, in primis quelli di Francesco Pasinetti.

Analisamos neste trabalho como as transformações econômicas e sociais, que ocorreram no Segundo Reinado, contribuíram para desestabilizar a ordem imperial e, ao mesmo tempo, fortalecer o movimento republicano. As mudanças relacionadas à manutenção do trabalho escravo, que se colocava como o principal pilar de sustentação da ordem imperial, desencadearam necessidades divergentes que não podiam ser satisfatoriamente atendidas pela monarquia brasileira. Com isso, o movimento republicano que se organiza a partir de 1870 busca nas fragilidades do Império o seu espaço de atuação. Os republicanos, sentindo-se excluídos do jogo político imperial, viram na República Federativa a alternativa para a centralização política e administrativa do Império. Mas, é em São Paulo, onde os efeitos negativos dessa centralização eram mais sentidos, que se desenvolve o partido republicano mais forte e organizado do movimento. O republicano paulista Alberto Sales, dialogando com a insatisfação da elite econômica de São Paulo, envolve-se no trabalho doutrinário, que tinha como objetivo construir um programa capaz de orientar a ação republicana e torná-la coesa. Entretanto, os rumos que a República tomou na sua primeira década de vigência contribuíram para que esse propagandista paulista se desencantasse com ela. Buscamos aqui explorar o contexto político, econômico e social em que o movimento republicano emerge e investigar, a partir da teoria que orientou o movimento em São Paulo, as razões que poderiam explicar o desencantamento de um dos seus principais propagandistas com a República que se efetivou.
The objective of this paper is to analyze how the economical and social changes which occurred in the Second Empire helped to destabilize the imperial order and, at the same time, strengthen the republican movement. The changes related to the maintenance of slavery, which was the foundation of the imperial order, yielded divergent needs that could not be met satisfactorily by the Brazilian monarchy. Thus, the republican movement that became organized after 1870 tried to find in the empires´ weaknesses its field of action. The republicans, feeling excluded from the imperial political game, saw in the Federal Republic an alternative for the administrative and political centralization of the Empire. But, in Sao Paulo, where the negative effects of this centralization were most seriously felt, the strongest and best organized Republican Party arose. Alberto Sales, a republican from Sao Paulo, conversing with the dissatisfied economically elite there, got involved in political indoctrination to build a program capable of guiding the republican action and making it consistent. Nevertheless, the direction taken by the Republic in its first decade led the propagandist Alberto Sales to disappointment. We wish here to explore the political, economical and social contexts in which the republican movement emerged and to investigate, by taking as a starting point the theory that guided the movement in Sao Paulo, the reasons that could explain the disappointment of one of the Republic\'s most important propagandists.

This dissertation examines the political career of Scottish-born John Buchan (1875-1940) who, through the avenue of the British Empire, formed political alliances that enabled him to enter into the power circles of the British government. Buchan's involvement in governmental service is illustrative of the political and financial advantages Scots sought in Imperial service. Sources include Buchan's published works, collections of correspondence, personal papers, and diaries in the holdings of the National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Letters and other documents pertaining to Buchan's life and career are also available in the Beaverbrook papers, Lloyd George papers, and Strachey papers at the House of Lords Record Office, London, and in the Liddle Hart Collection at King's College, London. Documents concerning Buchan's association with the War Cabinet, the Foreign Office, and the Department of Information are among those preserved at the Public Record Office, London. References to Buchan's association with the British Expeditionary Force in France are included in the holdings of the Intelligence Corps Museum, Ashford, Kent. The study is arranged chronologically, and discusses Buchan's Scottish heritage, his education, his assignment on Lord Alfred Milner's staff in South Africa, and his appointment as Director of the Department of Information during World War I. The study devotes particular attention to Buchan's leadership of the Department of Information, a propaganda arm of the British government during the First World War. Buchan consolidated independent branches of propaganda production and distribution, and coordinated the integration of information provided by the British Foreign Office, War Office, and the Department of Information's Intelligence Bureau to forward Britain's propaganda effort. The study also considers his literary contributions, his Parliamentary service, and, when raised to the peerage as Lord Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, his royal commission as Governor-General of Canada. This dissertation concludes that, while pursuing an imperial career, John Buchan established a relationship with a powerful clique that enabled him to become part of the machinery of state.

This thesis examines the ways in which the Magna Mater became an integral part of Augustan ideology and the visual language of the early principate. Traditionally, our picture of the Augustan Magna Mater has been shaped by evidence from literary sources. Here, however, the monuments of the goddess' cult are considered in their religio-political context. Works that link Augustus himself to the Magna Mater are shown to reveal that the goddess played a significant and hitherto unappreciated role in official propaganda. Part I examines the nature of the Augustan reconstruction of the Palatine Temple of the Magna Mater and challenges persistent claims that the princeps was disinterested in the metroac cult. Augustus' use of inexpensive building materials is shown to be, not a display of parsimony, but an attempt to retain the traditional appearance of a venerable structure. A reinterpretation of the temple's pedimental and acroterial sculpture, using the Valle-Medici reliefs, demonstrates that Augustus promoted the Magna Mater as an allegory of Rome's Trojan heritage and as a symbol of a new Golden Age. Part II investigates the topography of the Augustan precinct on the Palatine, and argues that the geographic linkage of the metroön and the House of Augustus became a topos in imperial imagery. It then demonstrates that several well-known works of art echo this connection between the princeps and the goddess. These works range from statues in the Circus Maximus designed to be viewed by thousands, to the Gemma Augustea, a luxury item intended for the elite. They are also found both inside and outside Rome. A reassessment of the Vicus Sandaliarius altar and the Sorrento base illustrates popular recognition of Augustus' reinvention of the Magna Mater as a national deity of Rome and the tutelary goddess of the Julio-Claudii.

Nel mondo romano, un ruolo fondamentale nella comunicazione assumono le reti viarie e i collegamenti. Essi costituiscono il veicolo di penetrazione della lingua, delle idee, della civiltà: la loro efficienza e capillarità consentono alle leggi ed ai messaggi politici e religiosi di raggiungere i punti più lontani dell’impero. Le grandi arterie costituiscono il principale mezzo di penetrazione in ogni territorio sottoposto all’influenza di Roma e nel contempo rappresentano la struttura ordinatrice di ogni attività connessa con il governo del paese. La rete stradale romana si manifesta in tal senso come il fattore principale di unificazione della penisola e del mondo antico occidentale sotto il dominio di Roma, unificazione che non si ferma solamente all’aspetto militare, politico o economico, ma che diviene un fatto sociale, culturale e civile. In tale contesto, le vie acquistano una valenza tutta particolare che le porta a divenire un importante luogo di comunicazione e a conferire ai messaggi posti su di esse un significato che trascende il mero contenuto. Come indica il titolo di questo lavoro, lo studio qui proposto si svolge su due piani di ricerca: uno analitico, relativo ai manufatti oggetto dello studio e alle iscrizioni su essi incise, che costituisce la parte catalografica della ricerca, e uno più interpretativo, mirato appunto ad approfondire forme e modi in cui lungo le strade romane, per mezzo delle iscrizioni, si faceva politica e propaganda. Per quanto riguarda le iscrizioni oggetto di studio si sono considerate tutte le categorie di supporti che potevano avere una relazione con le vie pubbliche: cippi miliari, colonne onorarie, lastre, iscrizioni su ponti, su gallerie e su rupi. Sono state considerate le iscrizioni relative a interventi viari su strade territoriali da parte del governo centrale, escludendo dunque solamente le iscrizioni di carattere urbano, quelle menzionanti funzionari o evergeti locali e infine quelle di tipo privato. I testi epigrafici sono stati esaminati de visu, disegnati e fotografati ogni qualvolta è stato possibile, ovvero quando non sono andati dispersi e quando ne è stata concessa la visione da parte degli enti preposti alla loro conservazione, e sono stati catalogati in schede descrittive, le quali sono state stampate in forma sintetica e allegate a questo lavoro tramite apposito apparato. Esse inoltre fanno parte di un sistema GIS utilizzato per la gestione della ricerca. Nella raccolta si è seguito un ordine topografico: le iscrizioni sono state numerate progressivamente, con numero arabo, e raccolte per tracciati viari, procedendo, nei limiti del possibile, da occidente ad oriente e da sud a nord. Sono stati inseriti nel catalogo talora alcuni cippi oggi anepigrafi, provenienti da un contesto viario del quale costituivano l’arredo, inquadrabili pertanto con buona probabilità in opere di manutenzione stradale; non essendo in genere attribuibili ad un imperatore non sono stati utilizzati ai fini della ricerca, ma si è preferito darne comunque segnalazione per completezza espositiva sul tratto viario di cui fanno parte. Per quando riguarda, poi, l’ambito territoriale della ricerca, ci si è concentrati sull’Italia centro-settentrionale, settore che è sembrato offrire un campione e un contesto storico-geografico rappresentativo, in virtù delle sue eterogenee realtà geografiche, culturali e politico/amministrative. Per la stretta connessione dei messaggi viari con il contesto territoriale, culturale e amministrativo, nella delimitazione della ricerca si sono considerati non tanto i confini e le demarcazioni regionali attuali, quanto le suddivisioni antiche. Seppure l’arco cronologico preso in esame veda evidenziata la grande variabilità dei confini amministrativi, un punto di riferimento importante è sicuramente costituito dalla divisione dell’Italia in regioni attuata da Augusto, a conclusione del lungo processo di romanizzazione e conquista del periodo repubblicano, divisione che viene a dare un nuovo assetto di stabilità dei confini, ripensato e riorganizzato solo con Diocleziano tre secoli più tardi. Nel lavoro sono stati dunque presi in esame quei territori che nella divisione di Augusto costituirono le regiones VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, secondo la descrizione di Plinio il Vecchio. In sostanza, è stato considerato quel comprensorio che ha come confini a Sud i fiumi Esino e Tevere (limiti meridionali delle regiones VI e VII), a nord gli stessi confini amministrativi dell’Italia attuale, a ovest il fiume Varo, a est il fiume Arsa. Per quanto concerne, infine, la scansione cronologica del lavoro, lo studio dei testi è proceduto secondo la ripartizione di età repubblicana ed età imperiale ed organizzato per singolo funzionario e imperatore, cercando di cogliere l’evoluzione storica degli interventi in materia di amministrazione, politica e propaganda.
In the Roman world, the road networks acquires a key role. They become the vehicle for penetration of the language, ideas, civilization: their efficiency and capillarity allow laws, religious and political messages to reach the farthest regions of the empire. The major arteries are the main way of penetration in any territory under the influence of Rome and at the same time represent the structure that organize all activities related to governance of the empire. So, the Roman road network manifests itself as the main factor of unification of the peninsula and west of the ancient world under Roman rule, unification that does not only includes the military, political or economic aspects, but that also becomes a social, cultural and civic event. In this context, the streets acquire a great relevance that leads them to become an important place of communication and that gives to the messages placed on them a meaning that transcends the mere content. As the title of this work suggest, this study takes place on two levels of research: an analytical study of the artifacts and the inscriptions engraved on them, which builds the inscriptions catalog, and a more interpretative part, focused on investigating in which forms the Roman government made politics and propaganda through these inscriptions. The study includes all categories of support that could be linked with a public highway: milestones, honorary columns, slabs, inscriptions on bridges, tunnels and on rocks. The gathering considered the inscriptions relating to territorial roads and placed by the central government, thus excluding only the inscription from urban contexts, inscriptions referring to interventions by local officers or evergeti and finally inscription about private works. The epigraphic texts were examined visually, they were drawn and photographed whenever it was possible, that is when they went not missing and when they have been granted the vision by the institutions responsible for their preservation. They were categorized into descriptive records, which were printed in a summary form and attached to this work through a special apparatus. They are also part of a GIS system used for the organization of the research. The numbering follows a topographic order: the inscriptions were numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals along each road proceeding, as far as possible, from west to east and from south to north. Sometimes, archaeological findings (miliari) without inscriptions were included in the catalog, coming from a context of road furniture, therefore, most probably in a context of works of road maintenance. These findings, by the reason that are not generally attributable to an emperor, were not used for research purposes but it was preferred, however, to indicate their presence to complete the description of the road where they belong. This work focuses over central and northern Italy, an area taht seems to provide a representative historical-geographical sample by virtue of its geographical, cultural and political / administrative heterogeneity. Due to the close connection between the messages and their cultural and administrative context, in this research ancient divisions were considered instead of current regional boundaries and demarcations. Although these divisions changed widely over the chronological period considered, an important reference point is surely made by the division of Italy into regions implemented by Augustus at the end of the long process of conquest and Romanization of the Republican period. This divisions gave new stability to borders, which were reorganized by Diocletian not before three centuries had passed. Hence, this work considers the territories that, in Augustus' division, formed the regiones VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, as described by Pliny the Elder. In essence, it was considered that district whose south boundaries were the Esino and Tiber rivers (southern limits of the regiones VI and VII), north boundaries were the same administrative boundaries of Italy nowadays, west and east boundaries were the Varo and the Arsa rivers. The study of texts was carried out following the separation into republican and imperial periods and organized for each official and emperor, trying to grasp the historical evolution of interventions on administration, politics and propaganda.

In this dissertation I offer an analysis of the ideological significance of Juan de Castellanos' writings in light of the epic model provided by Alonso de Ercilla's La Araucana. My main goal is to demonstrate that, unlike Ercilla, Castellanos embraced and manipulated the resources at the disposal of epic poets not only to praise the deeds and defend the rights of the first wave of colonists, but also to challenge the policies of Hapsburg monarchs concerning the administration of the recently established Viceroyalties in the New World. Hence, this dissertation aims to foreground the complexities and ambiguities of a text that bears evidence of an internal ideological fissure that significantly shaped Spain’s political and territorial expansion and contributed to the emergence of a new type of literature. If epic, as has been persuasively argued by Elizabeth B. Davis "was invaluable to the ruling circles of the imperial monarchy, who used it to forge a sense of unity and to script cultural identities during the period of expansion and conquest" (10), then the heroic poems written by Castellanos on behalf of the conquistadors and encomenderos represent the boldest attempt to turn the most prestigious vehicle of Spanish imperial propaganda, epic poetry, into a tool for the expression of colonial political concerns, a project which included but was not limited to the deployment of aggressive practices of poetic imitation, the expression of a new sense of selfhood, and the demarcation of a new sense of patriotism. Nevertheless, from its inception Castellanos' project was also plagued by many contradictions, most of which are the result of his nostalgia for the values and practices commonly associated with the warrior nobility of the feudal era, and by the constraints imposed by simultaneously having to point to and erase the trace of Ercilla's text.
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No início do período moderno, a exploração da costa africana pelos europeus e o estabelecimento de rotas marítimas directas entre a Europa, a Ásia e a América conduziram a um incremento do consumo de mercadorias e produtos extra-europeus, que se tornaram num importante elemento do quotidiano nos ambientes cortesãos. Entre estes, os animais exóticos contavam-se entre os que eram cultural e politicamente mais relevantes. O envolvimento pioneiro da Coroa portuguesa no processo da Expansão europeia e no estabelecimento de redes de comércio, influência e poder imperial garantia-lhe um acesso privilegiado a estes animais exóticos, que os monarcas de Avis depressa incorporaram nas suas estratégias de propaganda política e na construção das suas imagens de poder pessoal e dinástico. Os animais extra-europeus vivos e os seus subprodutos eram uma parte significativa das mercadorias de origem natural que eram importadas, sendo, por isso, essenciais para o contacto europeu com as realidades naturais extra-europeias, e para a construção do conhecimento sobre a natureza. Mas para além de mercadorias transacionáveis e objectos de conhecimento, estes animais também eram mantidos em cativeiro em ménageries reais e exibidos em cerimónias públicas, onde funcionavam como símbolos de poder imperial e monárquico; e circulando entre diversas cortes no contexto de uma “economia da dádiva”, mediavam relações diplomáticas e políticas entre soberanos, transpondo por vezes fronteiras culturais, religiosas e civilizacionais. O importante papel que animais selvagens extra-europeus desempenharam na construção da memória política dos monarcas portugueses dos séculos XV e XVI deve ser compreendido no quadro de uma tradição antiga e medieval, em que a reunião deste tipo de animais, a sua exibição pública, e o seu uso como presentes diplomáticos eram práticas universalmente identificadas com o exercício da soberania. Para além de evidenciarem o controlo humano sobre o mundo natural, estas práticas também sinalizavam o controlo dos soberanos sobre populações e territórios, em particular em contextos imperiais. Na corte portuguesa do Renascimento, o seu significado político era evidente, remetendo directamente para os projectos e pretensões imperiais da Coroa, e garantindo-lhe um papel como mediadora no acesso de outras cortes europeias a alguns destes animais, como elefantes e rinocerontes. Estas práticas também se encontravam relacionadas com a forma como a natureza extra-europeia, e em particular os animais, eram percepcionados. Cada animal podia evocar múltiplas associações e significados, que justificavam a sua apropriação como um símbolo de identidade. Assim, os animais exóticos desempenhavam uma função cultural crucial na percepção e representação europeia do mundo extra-europeu; mas podiam, também, funcionar como emblemas de qualidades, virtudes e vícios humanos. Esta tese tem como objectivo analisar a utilização política destes animais à luz das múltiplas funções que desempenhavam e dos diversos significados que encerravam, procurando interagir com algumas questões centrais da historiografia mais recente que se debruça sobre as relações entre humanos e animais não-humanos. Neste sentido, é importante referir que as percepções sobre estes animais e a sua instrumentalização por parte dos humanos, eram não raras vezes influenciadas e condicionadas pelas interacções directas que se estabeleciam, questão que não deve ser descurada.
In the beginning of the early-modern period, European exploration of the African coast and the establishment of direct maritime routes between Europe, Asia and the Americas led to a significant increase in the consumption of non-European commodities. Among these, exotic animals were some of the most culturally and politically relevant. Through its early involvement in the European expansion and the establishment of networks of trade, influence and imperial power, the Portuguese Crown had a privileged access to these exotic animals, which Portuguese kings quickly incorporated in their strategies of political propaganda and in the construction of their political and dynastic identities. Live exotic animals and their processed body parts formed a significant part of the natural commodities imported from other continents, making them essential elements for the construction of knowledge on non-European nature, and for the European experience of distant places. But besides being objects of trade and knowledge, these animals were also kept in royal menageries and exhibited in public ceremonies, where they functioned as symbols of imperial power. And through gift-giving practices, they circulated between courts, mediating diplomatic and political relations, and sometimes crossing cultural, religious and civilizational boundaries. The important role that wild non-European animals played in the construction of the political memory of Portuguese monarchs of the 15th and 16th centuries must be understood as part of an ancient and medieval tradition, in which keeping, exhibiting and sending these animals as diplomatic gifts were practices universally identified with kingship. Besides testifying human control over the natural world, these practices also signaled the sovereigns’ control over populations and territories, especially in imperial contexts. At the Renaissance Portuguese court, they recalled the Crown’s imperial activities and agenda, and secured its role as a mediator in the access of other European courts to some of these animals, such as elephants and rhinoceroses. These practices were also related to European perceptions of non-European nature and animals. In the Renaissance, each animal could evoke multiple associations and meanings, which justified its appropriation as a symbol of identity. Therefore, exotic animals were instrumental to the perception and representation of the non-European world in general; but they could also function as emblems of human qualities, virtues and vices that were projected onto them by humans. This thesis analyzes the political use of exotic animals and the multiple functions and meanings associated to them, while engaging with some issues of current animal studies historiography. In this sense, it should not be disregarded that human perceptions of these animals and their political appropriation were often influenced and conditioned in diverse ways by the animals themselves, and the direct interactions between them and the humans in whose lives they participated.