7 research outputs found
THE POST-COMMUNIST NOVEL OF TRANSITION AS REALISM OF TRANSITION. THEMATIC PRECEDENTS IN ROMANIAN AND EAST-CENTRAL EUROPEAN LITERATURE
No full textThe Post-Communist Novel of Transition as Realism of Transition. Thematic Precedents in Romanian and East-Central European Literature. The present study aims to analyze how certain narrative formulas circulate within the world literary system – one but unequal (Moretti 2004, WReC 2015) – starting from the case of the novel of post-communist transition, specific to many Eastern European literatures. The Romanian literature abounds in such novels, which take various forms according to the different literary paradigms from which they have emerged. Thus, we consider that post-communist Romanian literature, or at least its social-political regime of relevance, is a symptomatic case of what the authors of Combined and uneven development: Towards a new theory of world-literature (WReC) call “(semi-)peripheral irrealism”. According to this study, the literature produced in peripheries and semi-peripheries is often formally dominated by a series of practices identified as specific to modernism, which arise, determined by the condition of the semi-periphery, in the unique and uneven system of world-literature, in which fiction becomes the narration that mediates lived experience in the “palimpsestic, combinatory and contradictory ‘order’ of peripheral experience.” (WReC). Nevertheless, a new direction of contemporary prose is being traced recently in order to rethink/ reproblematize the past and the way it can be reflected in literature. A series of recent novels such as Bogdan Coșa’s How Close the Cold Rains Are (2020) and Mihai Duțescu’s Beech Sponges (2021), as well as others, give rise to a new aesthetic formula of the post-communist novel of transition through the ways in which they operate with realism. We therefore propose to investigate the recent history of the phenomenon of fictional representation of the Romanian transition in relation to similar phenomena in East-Central Europe, while also analyzing the specifics of “the realism of transition” (as we will call this new literary category, in the footsteps of Mihnea Bâlici).
Romanul tranziției post-comuniste românești ca realism al tranziției. Precedente tematice în literatura română și est-central europeană. Lucrarea de față își propune să analizeze modul în care anumite forme narative circulă în interiorul sistemului mondial literar – unul dar inegal (Moretti 2004, WReC 2015) – plecând de la cazul romanului tranziției postcomuniste, specific pentru multe dintre literaturile Europei de Est. Literatura română abundă de astfel de romane, acestea luând diverse forme, conform diferitelor paradigme literare din care au luat naștere. Noi argumentăm însă că literatura română postcomunistă, sau cel puțin regimul ei social-politic de relevanță, reprezintă un caz simptomatic pentru ceea ce autorii studiului Combined and uneven development: Towards a new theory of world-literature (WReC) numesc “irealism (semi-)periferic”. Conform studiului, literatura produsă în periferii și semiperiferii e adesea dominată formal de o serie de practici identificate drept specifice modernismului, ce iau naștere, determinate fiind de condiția semiperiferiei în sistemul unic și inegal al world literature, în care ficțiunea devine relatarea ce mediază experiența trăită în “«ordinea» palimpsestică, combinatorie și contradictorie a experienței periferice” (WReC). Cu toate acestea, în ultimii ani se trasează o nouă direcție a prozei române contemporane în vederea regândirii/ reproblematizării trecutului și a modului în care acesta poate fi reflectat literar. O serie de romane recente precum Cât de aproape sunt ploile reci (2020) de Bogdan Coșa sau Bureți de fag (2021) de Mihai Duțescu, dar și altele, dau naștere unei noi formule estetice a romanului tranziției postcomuniste prin modurile în care operează cu realismul. Ne propunem așadar să investigăm istoria recentă a fenomenului reprezentării ficționale a tranziției românești în relație cu fenomene similare din literaturile est-central europene, analizând totodată specificul “realismului tranziției” (așa cum vom numi această nouă categorie literară, pe urmele lui Mihnea Bâlici).
Cuvinte-cheie: roman al tranziției, literatură (semi-)periferică, realism periferic, postcomunism, realismul tranziției
Article history: Received 02 February 2024; Revised 21 April 2024; Accepted 25 April 2024; Available online 25 June 2024; Available print 30 June 2024
Una famiglia, una signoria, una città : Politica e società nella contea orsiniana di Nola (XIV-XV secolo)
No full text[Italiano]: La signoria feudale del Mezzogiorno e nel Mezzogiorno è un tema storiografico di lunga durata, che in anni recenti ha ripreso nuova linfa. Il ripensamento delle categorie interpretative del fenomeno signorile basso-medievale, una serie di approfondite analisi delle società rurali tardo-medievali e dei caratteri dei poteri feudali, le circostanziate ricostruzioni delle loro forme di amministrazione e di gestione, le indagini sulla semantica delle rappresentazioni e sul loro grado di pervasività hanno consentito il superamento di quel paradigma storiografico di una feudalità regnicola omogenea al proprio interno e monolitica nei suoi orientamenti.
Inserendosi in questo dibattito, il volume propone un caso di studio: la signoria degli Orsini di Nola tra la Terra di Lavoro e il Principato Ultra (1293-1528). Attraverso l’esame di una varietà di fonti (documentarie, narrative, iconografiche e architettoniche), con particolare attenzione al secondo Quattrocento, l’Autore riflette sulle forme del radicamento del potere orsiniano, sui suoi rapporti con le élites della contea, sui processi di autorappresentazione. In tal modo egli offre un rilevante contributo allo studio dei signori e delle corti signorili nel Regno di Sicilia.
/[English]: The feudal lordship of Southern Italy and in Southern Italy is a long-lasting historiographic theme, which has taken on new life in recent years. The rethinking of the interpretative categories of the medieval lordship, a series of in-depth analyses of the late-medieval rural societies and the characteristics of the feudal powers, the detailed reconstructions of their forms of administration and management, the investigations into the semantics of representations have allowed the overcoming of that historiographic paradigm of a Southern baronial class which was internally homogeneous and monolithic in its orientations.
Aiming to follow this path, this book puts a case study forth: the lordship of the Orsini, counts of Nola, between Terra di Lavoro and Principato Ultra (1293-1528). Using a wide variety of sources (documentary, literary, iconographic and architectural), the author reconstructs how the Orsini were able to entrench themselves within this territory, exposing their network of relationships with Nola’s most prominent families, and analysing the processes of their self-representation through artistic patronage
Artificial Photosynthesis: The Role of Photocatalysis in the Energy Transition
No full textArtificial photosynthesis: the role of photocatalysis in the energy transition
Author (s) Ilenia Rossettia*, Francesco Contea, Gianguido Ramisb
Company a Chemical Plants and Industrial Chemistry Group, Dip. Chimica, Università degli Studi di Milano, CNR-SCITEC and INSTM Unit Milano-Università, via C. Golgi 19, 20133 Milan, Italy; b Dip. Ing. Chimica, Civile ed Ambientale, Università degli Studi di Genova and INSTM Unit Genova, via all’Opera Pia 15A, 16145 Genoa, Italy
* [email protected]
Abstract
Artificial photo-synthetic approaches are gaining spreading interest in order to exploit solar light for the production of fuels. Different applications are proposed, among which the most explored are the production of H2 and the reduction of CO2 and, much more recently, attention is also paid to the photosynthesis of ammonia. Despite the enormous progresses in the field of materials development and characterization, which allowed to understand the main phenomena driving photo-catalysed up-hill reactions, the productivities achieved still do not justify the scale up of the processes to relevant scales and efficiencies are still very low, calculated over natural irradiance, in most cases much lower than 1%.
In this work we focus on a multiscale approach to improve the conversion and productivities, with special reference to the photoreduction of CO2, developing a coupled approach to optimize materials, conditions and irradiance. On the materials scale, TiO2 has been extensively used as photocatalyst, being an inexpensive and non-toxic semiconductor, with manufacturing at industrial scale and recyclability options, but it is absorbing UV radiation, only, ca. 5% of sunlight. Furthermore, photogenerated electrons and holes must survive enough to migrate to the photocatalyst surface and react with the adsorbed species, but unfortunately the charge recombination rate in titania is quite fast. The metal-free polymeric catalyst, graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a relatively novel material, characterized by wider absorbance in the visible region. Its junction with a second semiconductor or with metals can also improve the lifetime of the photogenerated charges.
From the process conditions side, we developed and innovative photoreactor operating at high pressure, up to 20 bar, which is unprecedented in photocatalytic applications, where transparent windows are needed. This allows to boost the solubility of CO2 in water when operating the reactor as tri-phase liquid/gas/solid device, and improves the surface adsorption over the catalyst. The best productivity for HCOOH so far achieved with this system at 18 bar, pH = 14 and by using Na2SO3 as hole scavenger was ca. 1.4 g/h gcat, orders of magnitude higher than literature values.
Finally, the coupling with concentrating solar devices as a follow up of this study will make available a higher irradiance, further boosting the productivity
Village regeneration. A new communication system to storytell the soul of Cangdong village
No full textLAUREA MAGISTRALELa tesi esplora il fenomeno di rapida urbanizzazione della Cina moderna e la conseguente scomparsa dei villaggi rurali. Contrariamente alla maggior parte dei paesi del mondo, la cultura cinese è in gran parte conservata nelle champagne, dove le comunità rurali custodiscono pratiche tradizionali uniche, patrimonio perso per sempre se entro i prossimi decenni non verranno trovati dei modi per integrare i villaggi nella Cina moderna. Per fronteggiare tale panorama, strategie sostenibili stanno oggi emergendo, finalizzate alla riqualificazione dei villaggi e delle loro comunità locali. Lo studio si concentra in particolare sulla strategia di intervento effettuato per il villaggio di Cangdong, un insediamento a 140 chilometri a ovest di Guangzhou nella contea di Kaiping, provincia del Guangdong, chiamata anche la "culla dei cinesi d'oltremare". L'autore ha collaborato con il Cangdong Education Center con l'obiettivo principale di progettare una strategia di comunicazione efficace e convincente per la promozione educativa, il turismo e la conservazione del patrimonio nel villaggio, supportata da casi di studio significativi.The thesis explores the phenomenon of Modern China rapid urbanization and the resulting disappearance of rural villages, leading to an uneven distribution of urban-rural population affecting the Chinese social-cultural landscape. Moreover, contrary to most countries in the world, Chinese culture is largely preserved in the countryside where rural communities are custodians of a wide range of traditional practices unique to China such as art and crafts, architecture and farming related that will be lost forever within the next few decades (Cheung, Fassi 2015) unless new ways to integrate these villages into modern China and preserve rural environment are not found. Within this framework, such a concern is crucial and also preservation lately has been encouraged by the President Xi Jinping, who claimed that China needs to increase its efforts to protect its cultural heritage (Thomson Reuters 2016). To cope with this situation new sustainable strategies are emerging nowadays aiming at the regeneration of the villages and their local community.
The research provides the reader with case studies of sustainable tourism interventions, such as the case of the Maasai Tribe in Africa, to show the negative effects of a wrongly implemented sustainable action and the successful interventions in China of the Old Town of Lijiang and the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat in Yunnan province, the case of Puxing City in Sichuan province and the case of a village regeneration action in Inner Mongolia.
The study specifically focuses on the intervention strategy carried out in the Cangdong village, a forgotten settlement about 140 km West to Guangzhou, in the Kaiping County, Guangdong Province, also called the “cradle of Overseas Chinese”. They are a large community now living a wealthy life abroad with ancestral roots in this area and representing a useful resource for the village as owners of many ancestral houses that without their permission cannot be restored and used as new infrastructures for educational tourism. Kaiping and the surrounding villages were chosen to be inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 2007, and in 2010 the Cangdong Education Center started its activity in the area with the main purpose of enhancing the interest of young generations and common people for cultural heritage conservation and educational tourism throughout instructive workshops, activities and projects enabling the participation of the local villagers to also ultimately build a wealthy community in Cangdong.
The author has collaborated with the Cangdong Education Center with the main goal to design an effective and compelling communication strategy to promote educational tourism and heritage conservation in the village, supported by meaningful case studies of successful examples of empathic communication with the target audience. The strategy is applied to digital touch-points, storytelling powerful and impressive contents about the village addressed to foreign tourists, international students and Overseas Chinese. This will finally contribute to the achievement of the main design challenge of the study: strengthen the territorial identity of Cangdong
Ana Vidović : a literary profile
No full textStudija se bavi dvojezičnim opusom Ane Vidović (1800. - 1879.) i recepcijom tog opusa u Hrvatskoj i Italiji. Auktorova je teza da je ep Anka i Stanko te pjesnikinje znakovit prinos hrvatskoj književnosti kad se ona preporađala četrdesetih godina 19. stoljeća i da ide u red literarnih događaja kao đto su Vrazove Đulabije, Demetrovo Grobničko polje, Pogled u Bosnu Matije Mažuranića, Putositnice Antuna Nemčića, Smrt Smail-age Čengića Ivana Mažuranića i Preradovićevi Prvenci. Valorizira također njezin potpuno zapostavljeni ep Bezmišljenja u ljubav kao vrijedno literarno ostvarenje u kojem se prije Luke Botića poetizira ljubav između dvoje mladih inovjeraca (muslimanke i kršćana). Što se tiče promašenog epa Romolo, pisac studije ispravlja neke netočne podatke iz literature o njemu (vrsta stihova i kitica), te prvi put prevodi na hrvatski neke karakteristične ulomke. Preveo je i auktoričinu autobiografiju koja je bila u funkciji predgovora Romolu. U studiji se utvrđuje da je Ana Vidović bila važna književna spona između južne Hrvatske i Zagreba, da je propovijedala u pjesmama “domorodne” ideje, te da je bila oduševljena pobornica sjedinjenja Dalmacije s matičnom zemljom - za razliku od N. Tommasea, također iz Šibenika. Po ocu Talijanka, po majci Hrvatica, udana za Hrvata (contea Marka Antuna Vidovića), ona se s podjednakom ljubavlju odnosila prema domovini oca i domovini majke smatrajući Hrvatsku svojim zavičajem. Po svojem profilu i talentu Ana Vidović je uz Dragojlu Jarnević bila najvažnija dama hrvatskog romantizma.The study deals with a bilingual work by Ana Vidović (1800 - 1879) and the reception of that opus in Croatia and Italy. The author’s thesis is that an epic poem Anka i Stanko written by that poetess makes a significant contribution to Croatian literature at the time of its revival during the 1840-ies and that it belongs side by side with such literary events as Đulabije by Stanko Vraz, Dimitrija Demeter’s Grobničko polje, Pogled u Bosnu by Matija Mažuranić, Antun Nemčić’s Putositnice, Smrt Smail-age Čengića by Ivan Mažuranić and Preradović’s Prvenci. The paper also evaluates her completely neglected epic Bezmišljenja u ljubav as a valuable literary accomplishement in which, before Luka Botić, love between two young non-coreligionists (a Muslim girl and a Christian boy) is poetized. As far as a failed epic Romolo is concerned, the author of the study has corrected some inaccurate information stated in literature about it (type of verse and stanzas) and has for the first time translated into Croatian some characteristic fragments. He has also translated Ana Vidović’s autobiography, which served as a preface to Romolo. The paper establishes that the poetess was an important literary link between Southern Croatia and Zagreb, that in her poems she propagated “patriotic” ideas and that she was an enthusiastic defender of the unification of Dalmatia and its mother country - as opposed to N. Tommaseo, also from Šibenik. Italian on her father’s side, Croatian on her mother’s side and married to a Croat (count Marko Antun Vidović), she equally loved both the homeland of her father and the homeland of her mother, considering Croatia as her native country. Taking into account her profile and talent, Ana Vidović was, together with Dragojla Jarnević, the most important lady in the period of Croatian Romanticism
"Da O'Neill a O'Neill"
No full textIl saggio si articola dichiaratamente in un processo metaforicamente analogo a quello traduttivo, come suggestivamente lo interpreta Brian Friel nel suo dramma ‘Translations’. Nella storia, il processo traduttivo viene attivandosi, secondo Friel, con Hugh O'Neill, ultimo capoclan gaelico della contea di Tyrone in Irlanda al volgere del secolo sedicesimo in quello successivo. Il personaggio storico si vede tradotto, "traslato" in mito (con il dramma dell'uomo che vede la propria "translation into a star") quando, secondo l'augurio del suo biografo Sean O'Faolain quasi mezzo secolo prima, il drammaturgo Brian Friel incentra, nel 1989, "Making History" sulla sua figura, la quale dialetticamente si traduce nel suo biografo che ne scrive la versione ufficiale della vita terminata in esilio a Roma, dove Paolo V lo ha accolto dopo il fallimento dell'impresa che mirava alla liberazione dell'Irlanda dal Britannico. Un diverso processo traduttivo, quello della back-translation o retrotraduzione, riconduce verso la lingua di origine dalla "target language" il drammaturgo statunitense di origine irlandese, Eugene O'Neill, alla figura dell"antenato esiliato. Con un sottile quanto labile gioco di travestimenti, infatti, O'Neill si fa carico, nella fiction del postumo “A Long Day's Journey into Night”, della propria complessa eredità genetica che riassume nel nome Tyrone. Attraverso l'analisi di alcuni passi dell'importante e sofferto lavoro teatrale di O'Neill, l'autrice del saggio -- avvalendosi anche della documentazione raccolta, aggiornata e pubblicata dal Pontifical Irish College con sede a Roma in occasione del quattrocentesimo centenario del "flight of the Earls" (2007) -- mostra come venga costruendosi un "supreme drama" che libera i personaggi dalla prigionia della storia famigliare per offrirli alla letteratura nel gioco delle identità in dialogo nel teatro -- tragico o comico, ma comunque all'insegna dello spettacolare.The essay is constructed on a metaphorical process modelled on “translation” that has been activated, across history, through the figure of Irish County Tyrone Gaelic chief Hugh O'Neill at the turn of the fifteenth century and that is based on Brian Friel’s acclaimed play ‘Translations’. The historical character is translated into myth (reaching a "translation into a star") when the Irish playwright makes him a protagonist of his 1989 play, "Making History". It is the realization of O'Neill's biographer's (Sean O'Faolain's) dream of almost half a century before, when he writes of his final days as an exile in Rome and of how he had been welcomed there by Paul V after the unsuccessful adventure that had aimed at freeing Ireland from the British. A different translation process - that of backtranslation - leads playwright Eugene O'Neill (of Irish origin), who is seduced by his exiled ancestor, back towards the original language from the target language. With a subtle masquerading game O'Neill assumes the role - in “A Long Day's Journey into Night” - of Hugh O'Neill's heir summed up in the family name Tyrone. Through the analysis of O'Neill's suffered-through dramatic work, the author - on the basis of documents kept at Pontifical Irish College, searched through on the occasion of the four hundredth anniversary of the "Flight of the Earls" (2007) -- shows how a "supreme drama" is being created that frees the characters from the family history and offers them to the literary interplay of identities, among the comic as well as the tragic features at play in the spectacular quality of theatre
Dominium quoad protectionem: Alleanza di Duecastelli con Ugo VIII di Duino del 1386
No full textAutor priređuje i analizira neobjavljenu listinu, izdanu 1386. godine u Dvigradu, kojom je sklopljen savez između dvigradske komune, nominalno pod jurisdikcijom akvilejskih patrijarha, i Hugona VIII. Devinskog, kapetana susjedne Istarske grofovije, upravne regije pod vrhovnom vlašću kuće Habsburg. Ističući razne nedaće koje su pogodile Akvilejski patrijarhat i Markgrofoviju Istru tijekom zadnjih desetljeća 14. stoljeća, imenovanje je Hugona VIII. kao novoga advokata (tj. zaštitnika, lat. advocatus) Dvigrada interpretirano u svjetlu jurisdikcijskoga pluraliteta, poroznih granica istarskoga srednjovjekovlja i, najvažnije, recipročne naravi odnosa između gospodara i podanika. Autor zaključuje da je novoutemeljeni savez bio prvenstveno motiviran nemoći tadašnjih istarskih markgrofova da svojim podanicima pruže primjerenu vojnu zaštitu, pogotovo u kontekstu tradicionalnih graničnih sporova između podanika akvilejske Crkve s jedne i Istarske grofovije s druge strane. Štoviše, kako je Akvilejski patrijarhat potonuo u građanski rat, koji je suprotstavio promletački tabor na čelu s Udinama protiv propadovanskoga, koji su vodili de iure patrijarh Filip d’Alençon i Čedad, Hugon VIII. Devinski postao je jedan od najmoćnijih regionalnih vlastodržaca. Istovremeno, tadašnji istarski markgrof, Dujam od Castella, otvoreno je podržavao promletački front te mu je stoga zakoniti patrijarh d’Alençon osporavao legitimitet ureda; Hugon VIII., s druge strane, ostao je službeno neutralan u ovom sukobu, ali je prešutno podržavao propadovanski savez, postajući de facto neprijatelj istarskoga markgrofa Dujma, de iure gospodara Dvigrada. Upravo je u tom kontekstu neprijateljstva, krize i neizvjesnosti građanskoga rata dvigradska komuna, na čije su teritorije najvjerojatnije pljačkaški upadali podanici Pazinske knežije uz podršku samoga Hugona VIII., odlučila sklopiti savez sa svojim moćnim susjedom, preferirajući imenovati tadašnjega kapetana Pazina kao svojega službenog zaštitnika i plaćati mu godišnji danak (tj. reket), nego ostati vjerna nemoćnoj akvilejskoj Crkvi.The author edits and analyzes an inedited charter, issued in Dvigrad in 1386, by which an alliance was forged between the Commune of Dvigrad, nominally under the jurisdiction of Aquileian patriarchs, and Hugo VIII of Duino, the captain of the neighboring County of Istria, a jurisdictional region under the supreme authority of House Habsburg. Highlighting various calamities that plagued the Patriarchate of Aquileia and the Margraviate of Istria during the final decades of the 14th century, the appointment of Hugo VIII as the new guard (Lat. advocatus) of Dvigrad is interpreted in the light of jurisdictional plurality, porous boundaries of Istrian Middle Ages, and, most importantly, the reciprocal nature of the lord-subject relationship. The author concludes that the newly forged alliance was primarily motivated by the inability of the incumbent Istrian margraves to offer adequate military protection to their subjects, especially in the context of traditional border disputes between the subjects of the Church of Aquileia and the subjects of the County of Istria. Moreover, as the Church of Aquileia plunged into civil war which pitted the pro-Venetian faction led by Udine against the pro-Paduan faction led by the de iure patriarch, Philip d’Alençon and Cividale, Hugo VIII of Duino emerged as one of the most powerful regional potentates. At the same time, the incumbent margrave of Istria, Domnius of Castello, openly supported the pro-Venetian front and as such the legitimacy of his office was disputed by the lawful patriarch Alençon; Hugo VIII, on the other hand, remained officially neutral in the conflict, but he tacitly supported the pro-Paduan alliance, becoming a de facto enemy of Margrave Domnius, the de iure lord of Dvigrad. It was in this context of enmity, crisis, and the uncertainty of civil war that the Commune of Dvigrad, most probably pillaged by the neighboring subjects of the County of Pazin backed by Hugo VIII, decided to forge an alliance with their more powerful neighbor, preferring to constitute the incumbent captain of Pazin as their official guard and to pay him a new annual tax (i.e. a protection racket) than to remain faithful to the powerless Church of Aquileia.L’autore dispone e analizza un documento inedito, rilasciato nel 1386 a Duecastelli, con il quale fu stabilita l’alleanza tra il comune di Duecastelli, nominalmente sotto la giurisdizione
dei Patriarchi di Aquileia, e Ugo VIII di Duino, capitano del vicino Marchesato d’Istria, regione amministrativa sotto l’autorità suprema della casa d’Asburgo. Sottolineando vari disagi che colpirono il patriarcato di Aquileia e il Margraviato d’Istria negli ultimi decenni del XIV secolo, la nomina di Ugo VIII a nuovo avvocato (ovvero protettore, lat. advocatus) di Duecastelli fu interpretata alla luce della pluralità delle giurisdizioni, dei confini porosi del medioevo istriano e, la più importante reciprocità del rapporto tra autorità e sudditi. L’autore conclude che la nuova alleanza stabilita fu motivata soprattutto dall’incapacità dei margravi istriani di allora nell’offrire una protezione militare adeguata ai propri sudditi, soprattutto nel contesto delle tradizionali controversie frontaliere tra i sudditi della Chiesa d’Aquileia da una parte e il Marchesato d’Istria dall’altra parte. Inoltre, dato che il patriarcato di Aquileia sprofondò nella guerra civile che vide opporsi la parte pro veneziana, con a capo Udine, contro quella pro padovana guidata de iure dal patriarca Filippo d’Alençon e Cividale del Friuli, Ugo VIII di Duino diventò uno dei più potenti sovrani regionali. Contemporaneamente, il margravio istriano di allora, Doimo di Castello, sosteneva apertamente il fronte pro veneziano e per quel motivo, il patriarca legittimo d’Alençon, contestava la legittimità dell’ufficio; Ugo VIII, dall’altra parte rimase ufficialmente neutrale in quel conflitto, però sostenne tacitamente l’alleanza pro padovana, diventando de facto nemico del margravio istriano Doimo, de iure padrone di Duecastelli. Proprio in quel contesto di ostilità, crisi e incertezza della guerra civile il comune di Duecastelli, su cui territorio presumibilmente le invasioni dei rapinatori erano effettuate dai sudditi della Contea di Pisino con il sostegno di Ugo VIII stesso, decise di stipulare l’alleanza con il proprio vicino potente, preferendo nominare il capitano di Pisino di allora a proprio protettore ufficiale e a pagargli il tributo annuale (ovvero il racket) che rimanere fedele all’impotente Chiesa di Aquileia
