Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Pompei (Italy)”

"Thesis presented June 1998, amended February 2000." Includes bibliography. V. I: text -- v. IIa: Figures -- v. IIb: Figures. This thesis demonstrates the falsity of the assumptions that ancient architects followed innate spatial cues or responses in their designs, that ancient people experienced the resulting buildings through the same responses, and that modern scholars can thus reconstruct both the intentions of the ancient architects and the architectural effects experienced by ancient visitors to ancient buildings throught the medium of their own spatial reactions. This underlying belief is contestable given its basis in unproven and untested late nineteenth century theories of perception. The thesis also demonstrates that the assumption made by modern scholars that the architects of the Forum of Pompeii were primarily concerned with uniformly enclosed space, axial symmetry, and orthogonality, is wrong, and is contradicted by the actual form of the buildings around the Forum.

This thesis details the development of fora in Rome and Pompeii in order that our understanding of these spaces as 'centres' accounts for their changing relationship with the city, between the third century B.C. and the second century A.D. It is a diachronic study of spatial practice and the representation of space, based on archaeological evidence for infrastructures of movement and textual evidence for the articulation of spatial concepts. Having asserted the importance of movement in shaping the perception of space in antiquity, this thesis details the changes to the physical disposition, the management of access, and the representation of fora. It concludes that while the centrality of the Forum Romanum was related to its potential for through movement, access was increasingly restricted in the late-first century B.C. This changing disposition of public space informed the development of the imperial fora, which in turn informed the development of fora outside of the city of Rome. Fora changed from shortcuts to obstacles in the city; from spaces of movement through to spaces of movement to. This represents a fundamental redefinition of their relationship with the city of which they were a part, and of their 'centrality' in both practice and representation.

La sostenibilità ambientale e il processo di urbanizzazione, rappresentano due grandi sfide per uno sviluppo armonico delle città odierne. Il concetto di Smart City si configura come una strategia volta a coniugare i fabbisogni del cittadino con l'evoluzione del contesto urbano caratterizzato sempre più da una stretta interconnessione tra tecnologie dell'informazione, trasporto e produzione. Il presente lavoro ha lo scopo di fornire un quadro sinottico dei vari elementi che compongono una "Smart Grid", focalizzando la propria attenzione su tecnologie e possibili configurazioni da impiegare per la conversione di una "Microgrid" in una "Smart Microgrid". Una volta descritto il contesto generale che caratterizza le nuove "città intelligenti", la tesi sofferma la propria attenzione su due dei possibili miglioramenti previsti per uno sviluppo armonico delle "Microgrid" nell'ambito del contesto territoriale esaminato. Il primo studio riguarda lo sviluppo di un piano per la mobilità sostenibile, condotto in collaborazione con la Multiutiliy Astea Spa (partner industriale del presente dottorato di ricerca). Il progetto consiste in uno studio di fattibilità tecnico-economica, che prevede l'installazione di diverse stazioni di ricarica a partire dall'anno 2014. La seconda parte della presente tesi, riguarda i possibili sviluppi tecnologici della centrale di cogenerazione e teleriscaldamento situata nella città di Osimo. Da una analisi tecnico-economica della centrale sono emersi alcuni aspetti critici legati alla gestione e progettazione dell'impianto come: il sovradimensionamento della turbina a gas, la riduzione del profitto marginale dovuto al profondo mutamento del contesto energetico nazionale, la bassa densità degli utenti lungo la rete e l'assenza di sistemi di misura meglio noti come "smart meters" per una gestione intelligente del calore. Sulla base di quanto anzidetto, saranno analizzati alcune possibili interventi da applicare alla configurazione esistente, al fine di migliorare l'efficienza del sistema e consentire una migliore gestione della richiesta di calore.
Global urbanization trends and the idea of sustainability represent two major challenges for cities. The concept of Smart City has been developed as a strategy to drive economic growth, improve quality of life of people and enable cities to use technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services. This research thesis is organized to provide a synopsis of the various elements which compose a smart grid, and it focuses especially on technologies and system configurations that can be used for converting a Microgrid in a "Smart Microgrid". Once described the context that characterizes the Smart Cities and the Microgrids, the thesis will concentrate on two of the main improvements planned for a harmonious development of the Microgrid examined. The first study concerns the development of a plan for sustainable mobility conducted in cooperation with a local utility (industrial partner of the present Ph.D.). It was submitted to local municipalities Osimo and Recanati, both located in Marche Region (Italy), in order to start a project that envisages the installation of several charging stations starting from 2014. The second part of the study, illustrates the possible technical developments of the CHP-District Heating located in Osimo Town. On the basis of the experience reported by the local utility Astea, some critical aspects in its management and design were put into evidence such as the over-sizing of the gas turbine of the CHP unit, the reduction of the marginal profit due to the variation of the pattern condition in the energy sector, low users density along the network and absence of "smart users energy meters". Regarding the abovementioned aspects, some possible modifications of the existing plant configuration will be analysed, in order to improve the system efficiency and manage the variable heat demand during the year in a smart way.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Classics, 1989?
Vol. 2. consists of 64 leaves of mounted photographs. Plate 1 is Plan of I 11, 6-7, by Barry Rowney of Dept. of Architecture, University of Adelaide. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 276-291).

The Roman town of Herculaneum, due to its burial by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, provides the rare opportunity to study the diet of middle and lower class Romans living in an urban context in mid-1^st century AD Italy. Knowledge concerning Roman diet, prior to the growth of bioarchaeology in the 1960s and 1970s, was derived from the ancient texts and focused primarily on the elite diet. The diets of the poorer classes have often been considered monotonous and unhealthy and consequently, malnutrition is believed to have been widespread in urban centres. Collaboration between the numerous sub-disciplines of bioarchaeology, including archaeobotany and zooarchaeology, has begun to take place amongst scholars working on the Vesuvian sites and diet is currently being studied using a more holistic approach. The ancient sources act as a secondary resource and it is now the physical food remains that play a crucial role in examining Roman diet and associated topics such as trade, health and nutrition. This thesis investigated the bioarchaeological remains from the Cardo V sewer that ran beneath the shop/apartment complex of Insula Orientalis II in Herculaneum. It is the first large scale study to combine both new and existing bioarchaeological material from Herculaneum in an effort to provide the site with its own bioarchaeological data set, particularly with regards to food and diet. In total, 220L of soil was examined for carbonized and mineralized seeds, seashells, eggshells and fish bones. 194 taxa were identified, included including 94 botanical, 45 fish, 53 shellfish and two bird taxa. 114 of the 194 taxa can be considered edible foodstuffs. The statements of the ancient authors concerning dietary diversity have been examined in light of these findings and found to be comparable. The material displayed little taphonomic bias when compared to Pompeian bioarchaeological assemblages. The excellent preservation of the material, combined with data from modern food sciences, has allowed for much needed interpretation to take place in the areas of health and nutrition. The variety of cereals, fruits and seafood indicate close connections with the nearby land and sea and consequently, the economic implications of such extensive resource exploitation have been considered. A nutritional analysis of the finds have shown that diets were nutrient dense and healthy, enabling the people of Herculaneum to achieve modern day stature as well as survive and recover from illness. Thus it can no longer be assumed that those of moderate means ate an unhealthy and monotonous diet, that malnutrition was widespread in urban centres, and finally, that descriptions of foodstuffs in the ancient sources apply only to the wealthy.

Vol. 2. consists of 64 leaves of mounted photographs
Plate 1 is Plan of I 11, 6-7, by Barry Rowney of Dept. of Architecture, University of Adelaide
Bibliography: leaves 276-291
2 v. (291 leaves, [64] leaves of plates) : ill., plan ; 31 cm.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Classics, 1989?

Four, “sub-effusive” type of nodules, collected from the uppermost layer of the Sarno (Pomici di Base - PB) plinian eruption, were studied in this doctoral research. This thesis presents new geochemical data (major/trace elements and volatiles) of both melt inclusion (MI) and minerals of the studied nodules. The main goal of this research was to constrain the formation depth of the nodules, and hence the depth of the magma chamber associated with the Sarno (PB) eruption, but later the focus shifted on the origin of melts trapped in representative minerals of the nodules. A detailed petrographic study was carried out on all four selected nodules. They have porphyrogranular texture, but they differ in terms of modal composition. Three of the four nodules contain clinopyroxene and olivine as phenocrysts (Type A nodules), whereas one contains amphibole (Type B). The groundmass in both cases is completely crystallized, and crystallized melt pockets were also recognized in the interstitial space. MI are abundant in clinopyroxenes in the nodules. All MI observed in this study are partially to completely crystallized, suggesting they cooled relatively slowly after trapping. Two types of MI can be distinguished based on petrography. Type I consists of mica, Fe-Ti-oxide minerals and/or dark green spinel, clinopyroxene, feldspar and a vapor bubble. No volatile species (CO2, H2O) were detected in the bubbles during Raman analysis. Type II inclusions are generally lighter in color and they contain feldspar and/or glass and oxides. Both types of MI are randomly distributed in the crystals or occur along a growth zone and are interpreted to be primary. Some of the MI were analyzed by LA-ICP-MS without homogenizing them first, but most of the MI were heated to produce a homogeneous glass phase before analysis. MI homogenized between 1202-1256 °C, but mostly above 1220 °C. Type I MI can be classified as phono-tephrite – tephri-phonolite – basaltic trachy-andesite, whereas Type II MI have mainly basaltic composition. The two different types of MI also show different trace element patterns. Type I MI are more enriched in incompatible elements compared to Type II MI. The heating experiments revealed, however, that only Type I MI are representative of the crystallizing melt. The compositions of Type II MI are strongly modified by accidentally trapped An-rich feldspar. The comparative study of Type I MI and bulk rock of Mt. Somma-Vesuvius concluded that compositions of Type I MI are similar to the bulk composition of the pre-Sarno, older Somma lava rocks rather than the Sarno (PB) volcanics. Therefore, the NLM1-1a nodule and perhaps the other two Type A nodules have formed from the same melt that was erupted during the early history of Mt. Somma. The presence of older, crystallized material in the younger eruptive products indicates that the Sarno (PB) magma erupted from the same (or a deeper) magma chamber(s) that fed the older eruptions. The thermobarometer models estimate at least 4 kbar (~12 km) for nodule formation. MI were also studied in amphibole from Type B nodules. The petrographic and geochemical studies, however suggested that the compositions of these MI are strongly modified by trapping solid inclusions, including phlogopite and less commonly, apatite. Therefore, the origin of Type B nodules cannot be determined based on MI compositions. Most likely this nodule crystallized from a melt that was more enriched in light REE, but less enriched in Ti, compared to melts from which Type A nodules crystallized. Thermobarometer models estimate at least 8 kbar (~24 km) for Type B nodule formation.

Master's thesis is devoted to the topic of urban planning and the city of Rome. The aim of the thesis is to explore the ways of depicting urbanism in contemporary fine arts, forms and topics in which it is presented. Furthermore, the essential part of the work is the history of urbanism, the principles and deviations of urbanism and especially the Eternal City (Rome). As far as Rome is concerned, the author discusses her foundations, the growth of the city from the very beginning of the foundation, the influences of urbanism, the demonstration of the characteristics of the ancient "urbe" and how today's contemporary artists solve new ways of urbanization, or how and in what way they are inspired by Roman cities? An important element of the cities is not only the city planning itself, but also its Genius loci, the spirit of the place, the author separates and explores the cities of the day and the night cities and explores what are their differences in character. An important part of the thesis will be: How do today's children perceive cities, what do they mean to them? What do they think is important and what is the function of a city? How can a city educate a child culturally? The author will propose a set of art assignments for primary and secondary school pupils, which will present the...

When ancient people entered a temple or other sacred space, how did the art and architecture of the site work upon their senses as mediators of divine presence? This thesis demonstrates that the ancient perception of the deity's actual presence in visual images created a tension that was intensified by the spatial environment and the theatricality of ritual performance. Visual representations acted in concert with cultic ritual to manipulate the visitor through a revelatory experience and create the phenomenon of epiphany. Epiphany, from the Greek word epiphaneia, is the visible manifestation of the deity. Epiphany in the ancient world could manifest as miracles, signs and natural phenomena; however, my thesis will focus primarily on visual epiphany of deity. My aim is to describe how the elements of the built environment and performative ritual combined to create not only the expectation but the actualization of an epiphanic experience for the beholder. The phenomenon of visual epiphany has been largely overlooked until relatively recently. Scholarly examination of temples and other ritual spaces has focused more on archaeological description, formal analysis, mythic narrative, and social and political structures. There has been very little exploration of the actual ritual and neuro-phenomenological experience of religious participants as it relates to the visual environment. With this work my aim is to contribute to the scholarly knowledge of the ancient viewer's experience of epiphany as it was shaped by sacred space and mediated by religious ritual in the ancient world.
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La tesi si propone di individuare e di definire una sorta di (sotto)genere letterario fin qui mai trattato, quello del romanzo-testamento. Con questa definizione mi riferisco a tutte le opere scritte all’interno della “dimensione della morte”, ovvero la fase della vita in cui il pensiero della morte diviene dominante. Questo accade solitamente per tre possibili motivi: per l’età avanzata, per una grave malattia o per una precisa volontà suicida; a queste tre motivazioni corrispondono altrettanti capitoli, ognuno dei quali approfondisce quattro diversi testi (romanzi, racconti o fumetti che siano). La situazione nelle quali gli autori realizzano le rispettive opere è estremamente differente: chi affronta la morte in tarda età può permettersi di scrivere con una certa serenità, nella consapevolezza di avere completato naturalmente il proprio percorso; chi muore anzitempo, per malattia, rimpiange gli anni che non potrà vivere e realizza opere animate da una notevole tensione narrativa; chi sceglie di darsi volontariamente la morte si rivolge al mondo con atteggiamento di sfida, per quanto il suo sguardo si dimostri freddo e distaccato. Segue quindi un’appendice nella quale si analizzano altri tre romanzi: originariamente contenuti nei tre capitoli iniziali, essi sono stati successivamente stralciati in quanto sfuggivano a una precisa categorizzazione e male si amalgamavano agli altri; peraltro, tali romanzi erano troppo pertinenti per ignorarli, per cui sono stati trattati in un’apposita sezione. Capitolo 1. Il vecchio scrittore e la morte. I romanzi analizzati sono Deux anglaises et le continent (Henri-Pierre Roché, 1956), Mercy of a Rude Stream (Henry Roth, 1994-1998), The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (Charles Bukowski, 1998) e Ravelstein (Saul Bellow, 2000). Quattro opere realizzate da autori piuttosto avanti con l’età (si va dai 72 anni di Bukowski agli 89 di Roth) che si rivelano interamente o parzialmente autobiografiche: Roché rivive una fase della propria giovinezza, romanzandola; Roth ripercorre i tredici anni vissuti ad Harlem tra il 1914 e il 1927 dedicandovi ben quattro volumi (per un totale di circa 1500 pagine); Bukowski tiene un vero e proprio diario in cui racconta le proprie esperienze quotidiane; Bellow narra la propria amicizia con Abe Ravelstein, intellettuale ebreo morto qualche anno prima. L’unico dei quattro a usare il proprio vero nome è Bukowski; gli altri tre ricorrono ad altrettanti alter-ego che peraltro nascondono poco o nulla della reale identità dei personaggi. Capitolo 2. Lo scrittore e la malattia. Il capitolo si apre con l’analisi degli ultimi romanzi di Leonardo Sciascia, Il cavaliere e la morte (1988) e Una storia semplice (1989). Si prosegue con il testo più breve esaminato nella presente ricerca: “Nel frattempo”, racconto a fumetti di sei pagine realizzato da Magnus (nome d’arte di Roberto Raviola) nel 1996; si termina quindi con Le soleil des mourants, scritto da Jean-Claude Izzo nel 1999. Si tratta di opere realizzate nell’imminenza della morte (Una storia semplice, “Nel frattempo”) o comunque nella piena consapevolezza che la vita sta per giungere al termine (Il cavaliere e la morte, Le soleil des mourants). Nonostante ognuno dei quattro scritti contenga elementi autobiografici, nessuno di essi è puramente autobiografico: Sciascia scrive due polizieschi, Magnus una commedia, Izzo un dramma on the road. I quattro protagonisti sono accomnati da un fatto: tutti loro si confrontano con la malattia, reale (Il cavaliere e la morte, Le soleil des mourants) o metaforica (Una storia semplice, “Nel frattempo”) che sia. L’unico a uscire vincitore da questo confronto è il personaggio di Magnus; gli altri risultano tutti sconfitti, seppure in misura diversa (la sconfitta è totale per Izzo e lo Sciascia del Cavaliere e la morte, mentre è solo parziale in Una storia semplice). Capitolo 3. Lo scrittore e il suicidio. I testi analizzati nel terzo capitolo sono Le feu follet (Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, 1931), Dissipatio H.G. (Guido Morselli, 1973), “Good Old Neon” (David Foster Wallace, 2004) e Suicide (Édouard Levé, 2008). Realizzate da autori poi suicidatisi, queste quattro opere narrano le storie di altrettanti suicidi: tre sono biografie che ricostruiscono l’esistenza di persone realmente vissute (Feu follet racconta, romanzandola, la fine di Jacques Rigaut; “Good Old Neon” e Suicide si ispirano alla scomparsa di due conoscenti dei rispettivi autori), mentre la quarta (Dissipatio H.G.) è una vicenda di pura invenzione. Nonostante la presenza dei suddetti rimandi biografici, i quattro protagonisti sono caratterizzati in modo tale da divenire dei parziali alter-ego degli scrittori: la fedeltà biografica non è mai una priorità. Due di queste opere (Feu follet e Suicide) hanno uno sfondo estremamente realistico, mentre le altre due (Dissipatio H.G. e “Good Old Neon”) si svolgono in suggestivi scenari fantastico/fantascientifici, come a suggerire la volontà di abbandonare questo mondo che contraddistingue gli autori. Appendice. (In)consapevolezza di morire. I romanzi qui raccolti sono tre: Palomar (Italo Calvino, 1983), Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeo (Andrea Pazienza, 1987) e Camere separate (Pier Vittorio Tondelli, 1989). L’ultimo è stato scritto da un autore che sapeva di essere affetto da AIDS e che, pertanto, era consapevole che non sarebbe sopravvissuto molto (per quanto la natura della malattia lo autorizzasse a sperare che la fine fosse ancora lontana); gli altri due sono invece opera di scrittori che erano in buone condizioni di salute e non sospettavano che di lì a poco sarebbero morti; eppure, al termine dei rispettivi romanzi, essi uccidono i propri protagonisti (entrambi alter-ego). Il capitolo si occupa appunto di individuare la connessione, evidente o sotterranea che sia, tra il destino del personaggio e quello del suo autore. La condizione nella quale si giunge al termine della vita influenza inevitabilmente l’approccio alla scrittura. La relativa serenità che contraddistingue chi si avvia a morire in tarda età fa sì che il vecchio scrittore si dedichi principalmente a una narrativa apertamente autobiografica che ricorda il passato, in modo che egli lo possa rivivere ancora una volta prima di andarsene. Chi muore anzitempo e incolpevole, a causa di una malattia, guarda con rimpianto agli anni futuri che non avrà la possibilità di vivere: scrivere in questo stato d’animo conduce alla realizzazione di opere con una componente didattica, che mirano a trasmettere un messaggio universale. Il desiderio di raggiungere un ampio numero di lettori fa sì che l’autore ricorra alla narrativa di genere; alla base di tale atteggiamento c’è la volontà di esercitare una forma di controllo su un futuro a cui non si potrà assistere in prima persona. Lo scrittore suicida, infine, realizza con il proprio ultimo romanzo una lunga lettera d’addio: egli dimostra la propria volontà di evadere dal mondo dando vita a elaborati scenari di fantasia oppure descrivendo una realtà all’interno della quale si trova spaesato, fuori posto. In un caso come nell’altro, egli vuole fuggire da questo mondo per andare alla scoperta dell’altro. A prescindere dal tipo di morte che li attende, gli scrittori che hanno raggiunto l’ultima fase della propria vita non usano metafore o giri di parole: nelle proprie opere, essi presentano direttamente la propria situazione. Pertanto, i protagonisti dei loro romanzi-testamento sono anziani che riflettono sulla loro prossima morte, oppure persone mortalmente malate, oppure giovani uomini dalle chiare tendenza suicide: in poche parole, personaggi che sono alter-ego totali o parziali dei rispettivi creatori.
The aim of this doctoral thesis is to identify and to define a new and previously unseen literary sub-genre: the “testamentary novel”. By saying so, I embrace all the works of literature that have been written by an author who is living within the “dimension of death”, that is to say the stage of life in which the idea of death has become overwhelming. This may happen because of three main reasons: old age, severe illness or suicidal tendencies. Three different situations that originate three different kinds of narratives: a man who faces death in his old age writes relatively peacefully, knowing that he has naturally come to the end of his life; a man who dies prematurely, by illness, regrets all the future years that he won’t be able to live and writes works of literature that vibrate with narrative tension; a man who voluntarily gives an end to his own life addresses the whole world as if to defy it, and yet writes in a cold and detached style. After these three chapters there is an appendix in which I analyze three other novels: they were initially meant for the already existing chapters, but then I realized that they didn’t belong there, being quite eccentric and avoiding every clear classification, so I left them out. However, they were too pertinent to be totally ignored, so I put them in this separate section (that so became a sort of fourth chapter). Chapter 1. The old writer and death. In this first chapter I analyze the following novels: Deux anglaises et le continent (Henri-Pierre Roché, 1956), Mercy of a Rude Stream (Henry Roth, 1994-1998), The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship (Charles Bukowski, 1998) and Ravelstein (Saul Bellow, 2000). Written by aged authors (spanning the age range 72 to 89, Bukowski being the “youngest” and Roth the oldest), these four narratives are either entirely or partially autobiographical: Roché tells a story about his long gone youth; Roth retraces (in a four-volumes and 1500 pages novel) the thirteen years he lived in Harlem as a kid, between 1914 and 1927; Bukowski keeps an actual diary in which he writes about his daily life; Bellow gives an accout of his friendship with the recently deceased Abe Ravelstein. The only writer who uses his real name in the narrative is Bukowski, whereas the other ones adopt three well recognizable alter-egos. Chapter 2. The writer and the illness. The second chapter begins with the last two novels written by Leonardo Sciascia, Il cavaliere e la morte (1988) and Una storia semplice (1989). These novels are followed by the shortest story analyzed in this thesis: “Nel frattempo”, a six-pages graphic novel that Magnus (Roberto Raviola’s nom de plume) wrote and drew in 1996; the second chapter is completed by Le soleil des mourants, a novel by Jean-Claude Izzo (1999). These narratives have been written by authors who were severely ill and were fully aware that they would die shortly. Each one of the four stories is partly autobiographical, but no one of them is completely autobiographical: Sciascia writes two detective novels, Magnus writes a sort of dark comedy and Izzo writes an extremely dramatic story which resembles a classic tragedy. The four protagonists have one thing in common: they all face illness, sometimes actual (Il cavaliere e la morte, Le soleil des mourants) and sometimes metaphorical (Una storia semplice, “Nel frattempo”). The only one of them who clearly wins this peculiar battle is Magnus’ character; the other ones all suffer a defeat (a total defeat in Le soleil des mourants and Il cavaliere e la morte, a partial defeat in Una storia semplice). Capitolo 3. The writer and suicide. The four works of literature analyzed in the third chapter are the following ones: Le feu follet (Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, 1931), Dissipatio H.G. (Guido Morselli, 1973), “Good Old Neon” (David Foster Wallace, 2004) and Suicide (Édouard Levé, 2008). Written by authors who have actually committed suicide, these narratives tell the stories of four suicidal men: three of them are biographical accounts (Feu follet tells about Jacques Rigaut’s suicide, while “Good Old Neon” and Suicide are inspired by the suicides committed some years before by two acquaintances of the authors), the fourth one is entirely fictional. However, these biographical accounts are deliberately inaccurate, so the characters portrayed by the writers become eventually their partial alter-egos. Two of the four narratives take place in a completely realistic setting; on the other hand, the background of the other two is imaginary and fantastic, as if to suggest the authors’ desire to leave the world he’s still living in. Appendix. (Un)aware to die. In this appendix, which is a sort of fourth chapter, three novels are analyzed: Palomar (Italo Calvino, 1983), Gli ultimi giorni di Pompeo (Andrea Pazienza, 1987) and Camere separate (Pier Vittorio Tondelli, 1989). The third one has been written by a man who was suffering from AIDS and was therefore aware that he wouldn’t survive much longer (even if he couldn’t foresee the specific moment of his future demise, of course); on the contrary, the two other novels have been written by two healthy men who couldn’t imagine that they would die a few months after having completed their works; nevertheless, at the end of their narratives they both kill their main character (who is clearly their alter-ego). There is indeed a connection between the death of the character and the death of the author, and this appendix aims to identify it. After having analyzed these fifteen narratives I realized that different kinds of death originate different kinds of writing. The man who dies in the relative peacefulness of his old age is naturally encouraged to write about his past life, so he can relive it one last time. When a man dies prematurely, because of an incurable disease, he regrets all the future years that he won’t be able to live: he writes a somehow educational work of literature, a novel containing a universal message that aims to teach something to the ones who will survive him; in order to reach the maximum amount of readers, he makes use of an “easy” genre, such as comedy or detective novel. He does so because he wants to use his narrative in order to exert a sort of influence over the future (even if, or just because, he knows that he won’t be there in person). The suicidal man writes his final novel as if it were a long suicide letter: he shows off his strong desire to leave this life by making up imaginary worlds or else describing a reality that doesn’t fit him, a world in which he just can’t find his proper place. Apart from the kind of death that awaits them, the writers who have reached the final stage of their life don’t use metaphors or circumlocution: in their novels, they plainly present their own situation. So, the main characters of their testamentary works of literature are old men who muse about dying, or persons severely ill, or young men with suicidal tendencies: in short, these characters are total or partial alter-egos who have the specific duty of standing in for their creators.