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The Navigo USB card reader allows you to recharge your weekly or monthly Navigo Découverte transit pass from your Mac or PC. You can buy the reader from any RATP or STIF ticket window for €7 and by way of a Java plug-in for your browser, you can recharge your Navigo pass from anywhere. The website utilizes a fully functional e-commerce secure server engine that accepts VISA and Mastercard.
Clemson University student Deavin Rencher, a sophomore studying special education and member of the Call Me MISTER program, reads with Tydarius Cobb, 9, at Uptown Barbers in Central, S.C., as part of the Razor Readers program. (Photo by Ken Scar)
Old Cemetery, Ipswich, Suffolk
In loving memory of Jeremiah Wheatley, army scripture reader, who died Novr 15th 1918, aged 81 years. "A sinner redeemed by the grace of God." "He fought a good fight."
Jeremiah Wheatley was born in County Westmeath, Ireland in 1837. At the age of 24 he was married, and a sergeant in the no 9 field battery, 4 Royal Artillery, based at Christchurch in Hampshire. By 1871 they were based in South Shoebury, and he was living with his wife Mary and 4 children.
By 1881 they had five children, but Jeremiah was no longer a soldier. The family were living in TIlehurst on the outskirts of Reading. He was recorded as an Army Scripture Reader. He first appeared in Ipswich in 1891, when he and his family were living at 46 Christchurch Street, an address which still exists. By 1901 they had moved around the corner to 145 Woodbridge Road.
Those guys can be found in Amberg. If you ever come past them, try being quiet. It is hard to read when someone is distrubing you. And they have a lot to read - they sit there 24/7 after all, every day the whole year and I am sure they will have still something to read even during the following one. And the one that comes after that.
I spent a good deal of today reading. Reading news, reading a book, reading a paper for my seminar class... Wish I had so much time for reading as these fellows.
Reading on the beach with Wicklow Head in the background. The big lighthouses are all old, and the one at the very tip is the operational one, which looks very different when seen up close.
Readers Digest classic editions look great on your self. They are only $4.95 apiece at Blue Train Books.
The cover of a Southeast Asia edition of RD published in Chinese, that I found in Canada in the 1980s. In this magazine I found ads for the Colt Galant and Datsun 2000. There was also a Hong Kong edition that was printed in English.
This is the RFID reader I built. It uses a parallax basic stamp 2 microprocessor (HomeWork Board pictured) and a Parallax RFID reader module.
A reader can get information on time and temperature when attached to electronic data loggers embedded in concrete.
Priory Hall, Lancaster, 4:00 pm. When I told him about the project and gave him my card, he said it could be a bookmark, so it is unexpectedly useful. He's reading Terry Pratchett's 'Moving Pictures' (1990).
Thank you for participating in my project, and apologies for interrupting your reading. Other photos in my series of readers are here: www.flickr.com/photos/greg_myers/albums/72157652125931010.
The Gregson Institute, Lancaster. Raphael Hoermann reads 'Die Lösung' by Betold Brecht, in English and then German, The occasion was a 'Come All Ye' event where friends and colleagues of Elizabeth Burns read poems in her memory.
Raphael also took photographs of the event (you can see his cameras around his waist).
Other photos in my series of readers are here: www.flickr.com/photos/greg_myers/albums/72157652125931010.
Readers that read ALL six months of the program received a t-shirt, waterbottle, pencil and braclet in addition to their certificate of award, certificate for free pizza, and a certificate to receive an award at Pizza Hut!
Java Cafe, Oxford Road Station forecourt, Manchester, about 1:00 pm. I asked permission; he is reading up on English grammar for work. Unfortunately, I seem to have broken his concentration; he asked if the project was international, and I said it was, so far, mostly in Lancaster.
I like to get the book in the frame, but with this angle and this wide aperture, I had to choose whether his face or the book would be in focus.
Thank you, Peter, for being part of the project. Other photos in my series of readers are here: www.flickr.com/photos/greg_myers/albums/72157652125931010.
I am a keen reader - here I'm posing with The Blackest Bird by Joel Rose, which I recently got as part of LibraryThing's early reviewer programme. Actually, I finished it a couple of days ago so need to find time to write up my review of the book.
For this image I used the wide end of the 18-55mm kit lens to include both me and the book.
Italien / Toskana - Volterra
Volterra (Italian pronunciation: [volˈtɛrra]; Latin: Volaterrae) is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods.
History
Volterra, known to the ancient Etruscans as Velathri or Vlathri and to the Romans as Volaterrae, is a town and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy. The town was a Bronze Age settlement of the Proto-Villanovan culture, and an important Etruscan center (Velàthre, Velathri or Felathri in Etruscan, Volaterrae in Latin language), one of the "twelve cities" of the Etruscan League.
The site is believed to have been continuously inhabited as a city since at least the end of the 8th century BC. It became a municipium allied to Rome at the end of the 3rd century BC. The city was a bishop's residence in the 5th century, and its episcopal power was affirmed during the 12th century. With the decline of the episcopate and the discovery of local alum deposits, Volterra became a place of interest of the Republic of Florence, whose forces conquered Volterra. Florentine rule was not always popular, and opposition occasionally broke into rebellion. These rebellions were put down by Florence.
When the Republic of Florence fell in 1530, Volterra came under the control of the Medici family and later followed the history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
Culture
The main events that take place during the year in Volterra are
Volterra gusto
Volterra arte
Volterra teatro
Main sights
Roman Theatre of Volterra, 1st century BC, excavated in the 1950s
the Roman amphitheatre was discovered in 2015 and has been excavated over the succeeding years
Piazza dei Priori, the main square, a fine example of medieval Tuscan town squares
Palazzo dei Priori, the town hall located on Piazza dei Priori, construction begun in 1208 and finished in 1257
Pinacoteca e museo civico di Volterra (Art Gallery) in Palazzo Minucci-Solaini. Founded in 1905, the gallery consists mostly of works by Tuscan artists from 14th to 17th centuries. Includes a Deposition by Rosso Fiorentino.
Etruscan Acropolis and Roman Cistern. The acropolis on the citadel dates to the 8th century B.C., while the impressive cistern is from the 1st century B.C.
Volterra Cathedral. It was enlarged in the 13th century after an earthquake. It houses a ciborium and some angels by Mino da Fiesole, a notable wood Deposition (1228), a masterwork of Romanesque sculpture and the Sacrament Chapel, with paintings by Santi di Tito, Giovanni Balducci and Agostino Veracini. In the center of the vault are fragments of an Eternal Father by Niccolò Circignani. Also noteworthy is the Addolorata Chapel, with a terracotta group attributed to Andrea della Robbia and a fresco of Riding Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli. In the nearby chapel, dedicated to the Most Holy Name of Jesus, is a table with Christ's monogram, allegedly painted by Bernardino of Siena. The rectangular bell tower is from 1493.
Volterra Baptistery of San Giovanni, built in the second half of the 13th century.
Fortezza Medicea (Medicean Fortress), built in the 1470s, now a prison housing the noted restaurant, Fortezza Medicea restaurant.
Guarnacci Etruscan Museum, with thousands of funeral urns dating back to the Hellenistic and Archaic periods. Main attractions are the bronze statuette "Ombra della sera" (lit. '"Shadow of the Night"'), and the sculpted effigy, "Urna degli Sposi" (lit. '"Urn of the Spouses"') of an Etruscan couple in terra cotta.
The Etruscan Walls of Volterra, including the well-preserved Walls of Volterra (3rd-2nd centuries BC), and Porta Diana gates.
The Medici Villa di Spedaletto, outside the city, in direction of Lajatico
There are excavations of Etruscan tombs in the Valle Bona area.
Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, Founded in 1888 until 1978, it was reopened for public and will be once more used for psychiatric purposes.
In popular culture
Volterra features in Horatius, a poem by Lord Macaulay.
Linda Proud's A Tabernacle for the Sun (2005), the first volume of The Botticelli Trilogy, begins with the sack of Volterra in 1472. Volterra is the ancestral home of the Maffei family and the events of 1472 lead directly to the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. The protagonist of the novel is Tommaso de' Maffei, half brother of one of the conspirators.
Volterra is an important location in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. In the books, Volterra is home to the Volturi, a clan of rich, regal, powerful ancient vampires, who essentially act as the rulers of the world's vampire population. (However, the relevant scenes from the movie were shot in Montepulciano.)
Volterra is the site of Stendhal's famously disastrous encounter in 1819 with his beloved Countess Mathilde Dembowska: she recognised him there, despite his disguise of new clothes and green glasses, and was furious. This is the central incident in his book On Love
Volterra is mentioned repeatedly in British author Dudley Pope's Captain Nicholas Ramage historical nautical series. Gianna, the Marchesa of Volterra and the fictional ruler of the area, features in the first twelve books of the eighteen-book series. The books chart the progress and career of Ramage during the Napoleonic wars of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, providing readers with well-scripted articulate details of life aboard sailing vessels and conditions at sea of that time.
Volterra is the site where the novel Chimaira by the Italian author Valerio Massimo Manfredi takes place.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi's The Ancient Curse is also set in Volterra, where a statue called 'The Shade of Twilight' is stolen from the Volterra museum.
Volterra is featured in Jhumpa Lahiri's 2008 collection of short stories Unaccustomed Earth. It is where Hema and Kaushik, the protagonists of the final short story "Going Ashore," travel before they part.
Volterra is featured in Luchino Visconti's 1965 film Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa, released as Sandra (Of a Thousand Delights) in the United States and as Of These Thousand Pleasures in the UK.
Volterra's scenery is used for Central City in the 2017 film Fullmetal Alchemist (film) directed by Fumihiko Sori.
The 2016 video game The Town of Light is set in a fictionalized version of the notorious Volterra Psychiatric Hospital.
"Volaterrae" is the name given by Dan and Una to their secret place in Far Wood in Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill. They named it from the verse in Lord Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome:
From lordly Volaterrae,
Where scowls the far-famed hold
Piled by the hands of giants
For Godlike Kings of old.
Volterra and its relationship with Medici Florence features in the 2018 second season of Medici: Masters of Florence.
(Wikipedia)
Volterra, lateinisch Volaterrae, ist eine italienische Stadt mit 9980 Einwohnern (Stand 31. Dezember 2019) in der Provinz Pisa in der Region Toskana.
Geographie
Volterra liegt etwa 50 Kilometer südlich von Pisa und 30 Kilometer vom Mittelmeer entfernt. Die Stadt gilt mit ihrem spektakulären landschaftlichen Umfeld als eine der schönsten in der Toskana.
Der Kern der heutigen Stadt liegt abgeschieden auf einem 550 m hohen Bergrücken über dem Tal der Cecina (Val di Cecina) inmitten einer kargen, zerfurchten Hügellandschaft. Die Felsabbrüche und Geröllhalden sind das Produkt jahrhundertelanger Erosion. Das Gebiet Le Balze im Nordwesten Volterras vermittelt einen beispielhaften Eindruck dieses Phänomens.
Die Stadt wird beherrscht von einer heute als Staatsgefängnis benutzten Festung der Medici, der Fortezza Medicea. Volterra ist ein Zentrum der Alabasterverarbeitung.
Zu den Ortsteilen (Frazioni) zählen Mazzolla, Montemiccioli, Saline di Volterra und Villamagna.
Die Nachbargemeinden sind Casole d’Elsa (SI), Colle di Val d’Elsa (SI), Gambassi Terme (FI), Lajatico, Montaione (FI), Montecatini Val di Cecina, Peccioli, Pomarance und San Gimignano (SI).
Geschichte
Volterra kann auf eine lange Geschichte zurückblicken. Bereits im 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. entstand der Ort aus der Verbindung mehrerer kleiner etruskischer Ansiedlungen, deren Bestand bis ins 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. zurückverfolgt werden kann. Zu dieser Zeit bauten die Etrusker eine sieben Kilometer lange Ringmauer und nannten die nunmehr vereinigte Stadt Velathri.
Volterra war eine der ältesten und größten der zwölf Bundesstädte Etruriens. Später war es eine römische Stadt mit den Rechten eines Municipiums. Ihre hohe Lage machte sie zu einer starken Festung, die Sulla im ersten Bürgerkrieg erst nach zweijähriger Belagerung 79 v. Chr. einnehmen konnte.
Im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert war Volterra eine Republik; im 14. Jahrhundert fiel es an Florenz.
Sehenswürdigkeiten
Architektonische und künstlerische Zeugnisse der verschiedenen Epochen zeugen von der wechselvollen Existenz und Bedeutung der Stadt. Einige der etruskischen Nekropolen und mittelalterlichen Kirchenmauern sind jedoch in der Vergangenheit der Erosion zum Opfer gefallen.
Am Hauptplatz der Stadt, der Piazza dei Priori, steht der älteste erhaltene Kommunalpalast der Toskana, der Palazzo dei Priori.
Von der etruskischen Stadtmauer ist als einziges Tor die Porta all’Arco gut erhalten. Es stammt aus dem 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Im äußeren Bogen sind drei verwitterte Köpfe zu erkennen, deren Bedeutung aber umstritten ist.
Außerhalb der mittelalterlichen Porta Fiorentina liegt das Teatro Romano, erbaut zur Zeit des Kaisers Augustus. Von der Zuschauertribüne für etwa 2000 Personen blickt man auf die teilweise rekonstruierte Bühnenwand. Die unterhalb des Theaters liegenden Thermenanlagen stammen aus späterer Zeit.
Andere historische öffentliche Gebäude sind der Dom Santa Maria Assunta aus dem frühen 12. Jahrhundert mit einer Kassettendecke und mit Granit vortäuschender Stuckverkleidung der Säulen sowie etlichen künstlerisch hochrangigen Ausstattungsstücken, das oktogonale Baptisterium mit einem Taufbecken von Andrea Sansovino, der auf Privatpaläste und Wohntürme aus dem 12. und 13. Jahrhundert zurückgehende Palazzo Pretorio sowie der als Gefängnis dienende Torre del Porcellino. Schließlich gehört der Palazzo Incontri-Viti zu den prachtvollsten Gebäuden Volterras.
Unter den Kirchen sind zu nennen: die spätromanische S. Michele sowie die Kirchen von S. Francesco, S. Lino und S. Girolamo mit Bildern und Skulpturen aus der Schule von Florenz.
Museen
Von besonderer Bedeutung ist das archäologische Museo Etrusco Guarnacci im Palazzo Desideri Tangassi. Mario Guarnacci (1701–1785), ein vielseitig interessierter Gelehrter, widmete seine Studien der antiken Geschichte. Dabei konnte er durch Ankäufe und Ausgrabungen eine ansehnliche Menge Belegmaterial über die etruskische Zivilisation sammeln.
Ein bedeutender Teil der Sammlung umfasst Ascheurnen sowie Stücke aus Bronze und Keramik. Die Urnen bestehen aus Tuffstein, Alabaster und Tonerde. Eine der bekanntesten ganz Etruriens ist die Urna degli Sposi (dt. Urne der Brautleute), auf deren Deckel ein Paar beim Festmahl liegend dargestellt ist.
Das bedeutendste Stück der Sammlung ist jedoch die Bronzefigur Ombra della sera (dt. Abendschatten). Es ist mit der Zeit zu einer „Ikone“ für das Museum und die Stadt Volterra geworden. Seine Berühmtheit verdankt es hauptsächlich seiner einzigartigen Form, die den italienischen Dichter Gabriele D’Annunzio an den Schatten einer menschlichen Figur in der Abendsonne erinnert haben soll. Es ist ein Meisterwerk etruskischer Bronzegießer aus der hellenistischen Periode. Ein weiteres bedeutendes Exponat ist die Stele des Avile Tite aus dem 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr.
Weitere Ausstellungsstücke sind verschiedene Mosaikböden aus der römischen Kaiserzeit, die aus Volterra und Segalari stammen. Hinzu kommt eine Münzsammlung mit seltenen etruskischen Münzen aus Gold, Silber und Bronze. Schließlich sind noch mit Edelsteinen verzierte etruskische und römische Schmuckstücke zu sehen.
Wichtig ist die Sammlung der seit 1982 im Minucci-Solaini-Palast untergebrachten „Pinacoteca“ mit der berühmten Kreuzesabnahme (1521), dem Meisterwerk des Malers Rosso Fiorentino, und den bedeutendsten Arbeiten von Taddeo di Bartolo, Domenico Ghirlandaio und Luca Signorelli, welche die künstlerischen Einflüsse aus Pisa, Florenz und Siena anschaulich machen.
Im April 2003 wurde im Turmhaus des Palazzo Minucci-Solaini das Ecomuseo dell’Alabastro eröffnet, in dem die Geschichte der Gewinnung und der Verarbeitung von Alabaster seit der Antike bis zur Gegenwart dargestellt ist.
Volterra in der Literatur
Volterra ist eine wichtige Stadt in Stephenie Meyers „Biss“-Serie. Dort ist Volterra die Heimatstadt der Volturi, einer königlichen Vampirfamilie.
Volterra spielt auch in der von Dudley Pope geschriebenen Romanreihe um den britischen Marineoffizier Nicolas Ramage eine Rolle. Im ersten Band rettet er während der Napoleonischen Kriege die Marchesa von Volterra vor den französischen Besatzungstruppen. Er verliebt sich in sie, und ihre Herrschaft über Volterra spielt in den weiteren Bänden eine wichtige Rolle. Auch ihr Neffe, Paolo Orsini, nächster in der Erbreihenfolge der Regentschaft, kommt in den meisten Romanen vor, da er als Fähnrich unter Ramages Kommando segelt.
(Wikipedia)