Biography.

John Peter Petrucci was born on July 12, 1967, in Kings Park, New York, to an Italian American family. He picked up the guitar at around the age of eight because his older sister was allowed to go to bed later in order to practice the organ. However, he decided to quit the guitar when his attempts to stay up late were unsuccessful. He picked up the guitar again at the age of 12. Petrucci has said he committed to practicing guitar 6 hours a day when he discovered it was his passion. His early influences were bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and later developed an interest in progressive rock and heavy metal, exemplified by Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden, Dixie Dregs and Metallica.  Eventually, his childhood friend and future Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore invited Petrucci to join his cover band. Petrucci attended Berklee College of Music in Boston with childhood friend John Myung (bass), where they met future bandmate Mike Portnoy (drums). While in Berklee they often covered two of their biggest influences, Iron Maiden and Rush. These three, in addition to Kevin Moore, formed the band Majesty. Because there was already another band with the same name, the group later became Dream Theater.  While Petrucci is most commonly associated with Dream Theater, he is also in the project band Liquid Tension Experiment, and has appeared as a guest on records by other artists, such as the "Age of Impact" album by the Explorer's Club.  Petrucci has released a guitar instructional video, "Rock Discipline", which covers warm-up exercises, exercises to avoid injury while playing, alternate picking, sweep picking, chords and other techniques for developing one's guitar playing. Petrucci also has a book named "Guitar World presents John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom", which was compiled from columns he wrote for Guitar World magazine under that title.  In 2001, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai invited Petrucci to tour with them on the popular G3 guitar tour, which exposed him to a massive number of new fans and inspired a solo album. The album, "Suspended Animation", was released on March 1, 2005, and was available for order from his web site. Petrucci also appeared on the 2005 and 2006 G3 tours, and in 2007, went on G3 tour again, this time with Paul Gilbert and Joe Satriani. In a recent video with Larry DiMarzio, Petrucci announced that he is working on a follow-up to his 2005 album, "Suspended Animation" and a new Dream Theater album.  Petrucci also wrote and recorded two instrumental soundtrack songs for a Sega Saturn game titled "Digital Pinball: Necronomicon". Each track is roughly two minutes long, and are named simply "Prologue" and "Epilogue". In a spoof rock band, Nightmare Cinema (which was the Dream Theater members changing instruments for encores), he used the "alternate stage name" Johnny James.  In 2012, Petrucci was invited once again to join Joe Satriani on the G3 tour, along with Steve Morse. He was accompanied by bassist Dave LaRue and drummer and Dream Theater bandmate Mike Mangini.  Dream Theater bandmate Jordan Rudess revealed in an interview that Petrucci is a practicing Catholic. He currently lives in St. James, New York, with his wife Rena Sands, a guitarist in the all-female heavy metal band Meanstreak, and they have three children—twins Samantha and Renato, and Kiara. He is the uncle of Jake Bowen, a guitarist in the progressive metal band Periphery. He is also an avid fan of bodybuilding and dedicates much of his off time to weight training. He is a voting member of NARAS.  In 2018, Petrucci joined Joe Satriani on the G3 tour. They were accompanied by Uli Jon Roth on the European leg of the tour, and Phil Collen in North America. His second solo album, titled "Terminal Velocity" will be released in 2020.

Musical style.

Guitar technique.

Petrucci is respected for his variety of guitar styles and skills. One of the most notable of these is his high-speed alternate picking which, as he himself claims, requires a "strong sense of synchronization between the two [playing] hands." John is notable for frequent use of the seven-string electric guitar, which he says he uses as a writing tool, taking advantage of the extended range for heavier riffing and to play extended range runs as part of a solo. Moreover, Petrucci often combines his metal shredding technique with a slower, emotive soloing style. His influences as a guitarist include Jimmy Page, Brian May, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Morse, Al Di Meola, Steve Howe, Allan Holdsworth, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Randy Rhoads, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Alex Lifeson, Yngwie Malmsteen and David Gilmour.

Lyrics.

Petrucci is Dream Theater's most prolific lyricist, with each album including at least three songs featuring his lyrics. Some of Petrucci's notable songs include "Metropolis, Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper", "The Spirit Carries On", "The Great Debate", "In the Presence of Enemies", and "Through Her Eyes". Petrucci has occasionally used real-life experiences for lyrical inspiration, as heard in songs such as "The Count of Tuscany", "A Nightmare to Remember" and "Endless Sacrifice".

Singing.

Petrucci has acted as a backing vocalist live since the "Awake" Tour. He is a baritone, producing a sound darker than that of James LaBrie's tenor voice. He has also written vocal melodies for Dream Theater. Petrucci's role as a vocalist expanded following the departure of Mike Portnoy, who had been Dream Theater's primary backing vocalist and occasionally even shared lead vocals with LaBrie. In live performances, Petrucci now replicates some vocal parts originally sung by Portnoy, with others being recorded samples.

Equipment.

Petrucci is a long-time user of Music Man JP and Majesty series guitars and Mesa/Boogie amplifiers. While his pedalboard, controller, effects and overdrives have undergone changes over the years, the core of Petrucci's guitar sound remains Dimarzio pickups and Mesa/Boogie amplifiers. Most recently the signature JP-2C amplifier based on the Mark IIC+ series and other Mark and Rectifier series amplifiers, such as during the recording of Train of Thought.  A number of brands have released signature guitar equipment designed or endorsed by Petrucci:  At the beginning of 2016 two new releases were announced: the Dunlop John Petrucci signature Cry-Baby wah, and the Mesa/Boogie JP-2C John Petrucci head, a three-channel amplifier which is available both as a stand-alone amp head and as a rack-mounted amp head, and differs from other Mesa/Boogie Mark series amps in that it features two separate graphic EQs, midi controllable and channel assignable, "Shred" circuit and "pull" functionality on several settings resulting in increased versatility.

John Peter Petrucci (born July 12, 1967) is an American guitarist, composer and producer. He is best known as a founding member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. He produced or co-produced (often with former member Mike Portnoy before he departed the band in 2010) all Dream Theater albums from 1999's "" to 2019's "Distance Over Time". He has been the sole producer of the band's albums released since Portnoy's departure in 2010. Petrucci was named as the third player on the G3 tour seven times, more than any other invited guitarist and he's arguably one of the most highly regarded guitarists of all time. He was voted "The Best Prog guitarist" by "The Prog Magazine" and "The Greatest Guitarist" by the Burrn magazine and Mariskalrock. "Guitar World magazine" lists Petrucci among the Fastest Guitarists of All Time and calls him "the most celebrated and popular guitarist in the world of progressive metal" and "arguably the most versatile and proficient player in his realm, with a highly developed melodic sense and an alternate picking technique that is virtually untouchable as far as speed and precision.", also ranking him among the top 5 Best Guitarists of the Decade. In 2019, Petrucci won the SENA Performers European Award. Joel McIver's 2009 book "The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists" ranks Petrucci second, after Dave Mustaine. He was also named as one of the "Top 10 Greatest Guitar Shredders of All Time" by "GuitarOne" magazine. In 2012, Petrucci was ranked the 17th greatest guitarist of all time by a "Guitar World" magazine reader's poll.. Petrucci's signature guitar model "Majesty" (by Ernie Ball Music Man) is the best selling signature guitar model of all time, according to Forbes.


History.

Francesco I Sforza ruled Milan, having acquired the title of Duke of Milan (1450–1466) after marrying in 1441 the natural daughter and only heir of the last Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, Bianca Maria (1425–1468), making the Sforzas the heirs of the house of Visconti.  The family also held the seigniory of Pesaro, starting with Muzio Attendolo's second son, Alessandro (1409–1473). The Sforza held Pesaro until 1512, after the death of Costanzo II Sforza.  Muzio's third son, Bosio (1411–1476), founded the branch of Santa Fiora, who held the title of count of Cotignola; the Sforza ruled the small county of Santa Fiora in southern Tuscany until 1624. Members of this family also held important ecclesiastical and political positions in the Papal States, and moved to Rome in 1674, taking the name of Sforza Cesarini.  The Sforza became allied with the Borgia family through the arranged marriage (1493–1497) between Lucrezia Borgia and Giovanni (the illegitimate son of Costanzo I of Pesaro). This alliance failed, as the Borgia family annulled the marriage once the Sforza family were no longer needed.  In 1499, in the course of the Italian Wars, the army of Louis XII of France took Milan from Ludovico Sforza (known as "Ludovico il Moro", famous for taking Leonardo da Vinci into his service).  After Imperial German troops drove out the French, Maximilian Sforza, son of Ludovico, became Duke of Milan (1512–1515) until the French returned under Francis I of France and imprisoned him.  In 1521 Charles V drove out the French and restored the younger son of Ludovico, Francesco II Sforza to the duchy. Francesco remained the ruler of Milan until his death in 1535 and as he was childless the Duchy reverted to the Emperor, who passed it to his son Philip II in 1540, thus beginning the period of Spanish rule in Milan.

The House of Sforza () was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan following the extinction of the Visconti family in the mid-15th century, Sforza rule ending in Milan with the death of the last member of the family's main branch in 1535.


Name.

The Old Irish word "tuath" (plural "tuatha") means "people, tribe, nation"; "dé" is the genitive case of "día" and, depending on context, can mean "god, gods, goddess" or more broadly "supernatural being, object of worship". In the earliest writings, the mythical race are referred to as the "Tuath Dé" (plural "Tuatha Dé"). However, Irish monks also began using the term "Tuath Dé" to refer to the Israelites, with the meaning "People of God". Apparently to avoid confusion with the Israelites, writers began to refer to the mythical race as the "Tuath Dé Danann" (plural "Tuatha Dé Danann"). The Old Irish pronunciation is and the Modern Irish pronunciation is in the West and North, and in the South. In Latin they are referred to as the "Plebes Deorum" or "folk of gods." A poem included in the Lebór Gábala Érenn also refers to the Tuath Dé as the "clann Eladan".  "Danann" is generally believed to be the genitive of a female name, for which the nominative case is not attested. It has been reconstructed as "Danu", of which "Anu" (genitive "Anann") may be an alternative form. "Anu" is called "mother of the Irish gods" by Cormac mac Cuilennáin. This may be linked to the Welsh mythical figure Dôn. Hindu mythology also has a goddess called Danu, who may be an Indo-European parallel. However, this reconstruction is not universally accepted. It has also been suggested that "Danann" is a conflation of "dán" ("skill, craft") and the goddess name "Anann". The name is also found as "Donann" and "Domnann", which may point to the origin being proto-Celtic "*don", meaning "earth" (compare the Old Irish word for earth, "doman"). There may be a link with the mythical Fir Domnann and the British Dumnonii.

Legend.

The Tuatha Dé Danann were descended from Nemed, leader of a previous wave of inhabitants of Ireland. They came from four cities to the north of Ireland—Falias, Gorias, Murias and Finias—where they taught their skills in the sciences, including architecture, the arts, and magic, including necromancy. According to "Lebor Gabála Érenn", they came to Ireland "in dark clouds" and "landed on the mountains of [the] Conmaicne Rein in Connachta", otherwise Sliabh an Iarainn, "and they brought a darkness over the sun for three days and three nights". They immediately burnt the ships "so that they should not think of retreating to them, and the smoke and the mist that came from the vessels filled the neighbouring land and air. Therefore it was conceived that they had arrived in clouds of mist".  A poem in the "Lebor Gabála Érenn" says of their arrival: <poem>It is God who suffered them, though He restrained them they landed with horror, with lofty deed, in their cloud of mighty combat of spectres, upon a mountain of Conmaicne of Connacht.  Without distinction to discerning Ireland, Without ships, a ruthless course the truth was not known beneath the sky of stars, whether they were of heaven or of earth.</poem> According to Tuan: From them are the Tuatha Dé and Andé, whose origin the learned do not know, but that it seems likely to them that they came from heaven, on account of their intelligence and for the excellence of their knowledge.  Led by king Nuada, they fought the First Battle of Magh Tuireadh on the west coast, in which they defeated and displaced the native Fir Bolg, who then inhabited Ireland. In the battle, Nuada lost an arm to their champion, Sreng. Since Nuada was no longer "unblemished", he could not continue as king and was replaced by the half-Fomorian Bres, who turned out to be a tyrant. The physician Dian Cecht replaced Nuada's arm with a working silver one and he was reinstated as king. However, Dian Cecht's son Miach was dissatisfied with the replacement so he recited the spell, ""ault fri halt dí & féith fri féth"" (joint to joint of it and sinew to sinew), which caused flesh to grow over the silver prosthesis over the course of nine days and nights. However, in a fit of jealous rage Dian Cecht slew his own son. Because of Nuada's restoration as the leader, Bres complained to his family and his father, Elatha, who sent him to seek assistance from Balor, king of the Fomorians.  The Tuatha Dé Danann then fought the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh against the Fomorians. Nuada was killed by the Fomorian king Balor's poisonous eye, but Balor was killed by Lugh, champion of the Tuatha Dé, and who then took over as king.  A third battle was fought against a subsequent wave of invaders, the Milesians, from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Galicia and Northern Portugal), descendants of Míl Espáine (who are thought to represent the Goidelic Celts). The Milesians encountered three Tuatha Dé Danann goddesses, Ériu, Banba and Fodla, who asked that the island be named after them; Ériu is the origin of the modern name Éire, and Banba and Fodla are still sometimes used as poetic names for Ireland.  Their three husbands, Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and Mac Gréine, were kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann at that time, and asked for a truce of three days, during which the Milesians would lie at anchor nine waves' distance from the shore. The Milesians complied, but the Tuatha Dé Danann created a magical storm in an attempt to drive them away. The Milesian poet Amergin calmed the sea with his verse, then his people landed and defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann at Tailtiu. When Amergin was called upon to divide the land between the Tuatha Dé Danann and his own people, he cleverly allotted the portion above ground to the Milesians and the portion underground to the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Tuatha Dé Danann were led underground into the Sidhe mounds by Manannán mac Lir and Tir na nOg onto a flowery plain/plain of honey attested to in the Voyage of Bran.

The Four Treasures.

The Tuatha Dé Danann brought four magical treasures with them to Ireland, one apiece from their Four Cities:

Tuatha Dé Danann High Kings of Ireland.

The following is a chronology from the Annals of the Four Masters; based on reign-lengths given in Geoffrey Keating's "Forus Feasa ar Erinn". Nuada's original reign lacks a precise start date.

Additional references.

In the Irish version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius, the chief men of science of the "Tuatha Dé Danann" are listed with their partly Latin names and associations as follows:  In the Annals of Inisfallen, the following are listed as members of the "Tuatha Dé" who overcame the Fir Bolg:

The Tuath(a) Dé Danann (, meaning "the folk of the goddess Danu"), also known by the earlier name Tuath Dé ("tribe of the gods"), are a supernatural race in Irish mythology. They are thought to represent the main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland. The Tuatha Dé Danann constitute a pantheon whose attributes appeared in a number of forms throughout the Celtic world.


Playing career and early coaching career.

Goethals began his career as a goalkeeper in the 1930s with Daring Brussels, making his way through the youth ranks of the club before joining Racing Club Brussel in 1947. He remained at Racing Club Brussel until 1948. After a period spent playing for Renaisiènne, he moved into coaching with Hannutois and Waremme, and led Sint-Truiden to second place in the Belgian First Division in 1966.

Belgium national coach.

Goethals took charge of the Belgian national side in 1968. Belgium would succeed in qualifying for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, although they were eliminated in the first round of the tournament. Belgium hosted the 1972 European Championship, having knocked out holders Italy in the qualifying stages, and defeated Hungary in the match for third place after losing in the semi-final to eventual tournament winners Germany. That marked Goethals' greatest success as national team coach. He also took great pride in the fact that Belgium had held the emergent Dutch national team scoreless in both their meetings in 1974 World Cup qualifying. Belgium completed their qualifying campaign without having conceded a single goal, but lost out to the Netherlands on account of their inferior goal difference.

Return to club coaching.

In 1976 Goethals' tenure as coach of the national side ended, and he joined Anderlecht as coach. In his first season, Anderlecht reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, where they lost to German side Hamburger SV, but won the trophy the following year with a comprehensive victory over FK Austria/WAC. After spells coaching in France at Bordeaux and in Brazil with São Paulo, Goethals returned to Belgium to coach Standard Liège. Standard Liège were Belgian champions in 1982 and 1983, and they reached the Cup Winners' Cup Final in 1982, losing to Barcelona, who were at a considerable advantage in that the final was played at their home ground, Camp Nou.

Controversy and Goethals' return to Anderlecht.

Standard Liège's 1982 championship win was to become the subject of great controversy in 1984. Seemingly preoccupied with winning his first Belgian title, Goethals had suggested and initiated the bribing of the Waterschei players prior to the teams' meeting in the final match of the season, in order to secure championship honours for Standard Liège and ensure that none of his players would miss their European final against Barcelona through injury. Goethals was forced to resign in the wake of the scandal, and he moved to Portugal to take charge of Vitória Guimarães. He then returned to Belgium to coach Racing Jet de Bruxelles before a second spell in charge of Anderlecht, where he won Belgian Cup trophy in 1989. Bordeaux again recruited Goethals, and they finished runners-up in the French championship in 1989–90 behind Marseille. Approaching 70 years of age, Goethals' greatest triumph as a coach was yet to come.

Olympique de Marseille.

In 1990, Goethals was named coach of Marseille and was entrusted with the task of leading the club to European Cup success. In his first season, the club narrowly missed out on European glory, losing on penalties in the European Cup Final to Red Star Belgrade. There was recognition for Goethals' coaching abilities, as he was voted 1991 European Coach of the Year. In 1993, Marseille again reached the European Cup final, where they defeated favourites A.C. Milan with a headed goal by Basile Boli. Having achieved his primary objective at Marseille, Goethals left the club.  Marseille were later stripped of their 1993 French championship when it emerged that three Valenciennes players had been offered money to underperform in a crucial match against Marseille. The club were not allowed to defend their European title as a result, and were punished with relegation to the French second division.

Retirement.

Goethals' coaching career ended at Anderlecht in season 1995–96, but he remained in demand as a television analyst for his insights into football. He died of bowel cancer aged 83. In 2005, the year following his death, he was voted 38th in De Grootste Belg, a Flemish television programme based on the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons. The number 2 stand at F.C. Brussels' home ground, Edmond Machtens Stadium, was renamed in honour of Goethals in late 2005. He remains today as the oldest winning manager of UEFA Champions League.

Honours.

Manager.

Anderlecht  Standard Liège  Marseille  Belgium

Raymond Goethals (; 7 October 1921 – 6 December 2004) was a Belgian football coach who led Marseille to victory in the UEFA Champions League final in 1993, becoming the first coach to win a European trophy with a French club.


Life.

Early.

Theophilos was the son of the Byzantine Emperor Michael II and his wife Thekla, and the godson of Emperor Leo V the Armenian. Michael II crowned Theophilos co-emperor in 822, shortly after his own accession. Unlike his father, Theophilos received an extensive education from John Hylilas, the grammarian, and was a great admirer of music and art. On 2 October 829, Theophilos succeeded his father as sole emperor.  Theophilos continued in his predecessors' iconoclasm, though without his father's more conciliatory tone, issuing an edict in 832 forbidding the veneration of icons. He also saw himself as the champion of justice, which he served most ostentatiously by executing his father's co-conspirators against Leo V immediately after his accession. His reputation as a judge endured, and in the literary composition "Timarion" Theophilos is featured as one of the judges in the Netherworld.

War against the Arabs.

At the time of his accession, Theophilos was obliged to wage wars against the Arabs on two fronts. Sicily was once again invaded by the Arabs, who took Palermo after a year-long siege in 831, established the Emirate of Sicily, and gradually continued to expand across the island. The defence after the invasion of Anatolia by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'mun in 830 was led by the Emperor himself, but the Byzantines were defeated and lost several fortresses. In 831 Theophilos retaliated by leading a large army into Cilicia and capturing Tarsus. The Emperor returned to Constantinople in triumph, but in the autumn he was defeated in Cappadocia. Another defeat in the same province in 833 forced Theophilos to sue for peace (Theophilos offered 100,000 gold dinars and the return of 7,000 prisoners), which he obtained the next year, after the death of Al-Ma'mun.  During the respite from the war against the Abbasids, Theophilos arranged for the abduction of the Byzantine captives settled north of the Danube by Krum of Bulgaria. The rescue operation was carried out with success in c. 836, and the peace between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire was quickly restored. However, it proved impossible to maintain peace in the East. Theophilos had given asylum to a number of refugees from the east in 834, including Nasr, a Persian. He baptized Theophobos, who married the Emperor's aunt Irene and became one of his generals. As relations with the Abbasids deteriorated, Theophilos prepared for a new war.  In 837 Theophilos led a vast army of 70,000 men towards Mesopotamia and captured Melitene and Arsamosata. The Emperor also took and destroyed Zapetra (Zibatra, Sozopetra), which some sources claim as the birthplace of Caliph al-Mu'tasim. Theophilos returned to Constantinople in triumph. Eager for revenge, Al-Mu'tasim assembled a vast army and launched a two-pronged invasion of Anatolia in 838. Theophilos decided to strike one division of the caliph's army before they could combine. On 21 July 838 at the Battle of Anzen in Dazimon, Theophilos personally led a Byzantine army of 25,000 to 40,000 men against the troops commanded by al-Afshin. Afshin withstood the Byzantine attack, counter-attacked, and won the battle. The Byzantine survivors fell back in disorder and did not interfere in the caliph's continuing campaign.  Al-Mu'tasim took Ancyra, and al-Afshin joined him there. The full Abbasid army advanced against Amorium, the cradle of the dynasty. Initially there was determined resistance. Then a Muslim captive escaped and informed the caliph where there was a section of the wall that had only a front facade. Al-Mu'tasim concentrated his bombardment on this section, and the wall was breached. Having heroically held for fifty-five days, the city now fell to al-Mu'tasim on 12 or 15 August 838.  In 838, in order to impress the Caliph of Baghdad, Theophilus had John the Grammarian distribute 36,000 "nomismata" to the citizens of Baghdad. Around 841, the Republic of Venice sent a fleet of 60 galleys (each carrying 200 men) to assist the Byzantines in driving the Arabs from Crotone, but it failed.  During this campaign Al-Mu'tasim discovered that some of his top generals were plotting against him. Many of these leading commanders were arrested and some executed before he arrived home. Al-Afshin seems not to have been involved in this, but he was detected in other intrigues and died in prison in the spring of 841. Caliph al-Mu'tasim fell sick in October 841 and died on 5 January 842.

Relations with Bulgaria and Serbia.

In 836, following the expiration of the 20-year peace treaty between the Empire and Bulgaria, Theophilos ravaged the Bulgarian frontier. The Bulgarians retaliated, and under the leadership of Isbul they reached Adrianople. At this time, if not earlier, the Bulgarians annexed Philippopolis (Plovdiv) and its environs. Khan Malamir died in 836.  The peace between the Serbs, Byzantine foederati, and the Bulgars lasted until 839. Vlastimir of Serbia united several tribes, and Theophilos granted the Serbs independence; Vlastimir acknowledged nominal overlordship of the Emperor. The annexation of western Macedonia by the Bulgars changed the political situation. Malamir or his successor may have seen a threat in the Serb consolidation and opted to subjugate them in the midst of the conquest of Slav lands. Another cause might have been that the Byzantines wanted to divert attention so that they could cope with the Slavic uprising in the Peloponnese, meaning they sent the Serbs to instigate the war. It is thought that the rapid extension of Bulgars over Slavs prompted the Serbs to unite into a state.  Khan Presian I (r. 836–852) invaded Serbian territory in 839 (see Bulgarian–Serbian Wars). The invasion led to a three-year war, in which Vlastimir was victorious; Presian was heavily defeated, made no territorial gains, and lost many of his men. The Serbs had a tactical advantage in the hills, and the Bulgars were driven out by the army of Vlastimir. The war ended with the death of Theophilos, which released Vlastimir from his obligations to the Byzantine Empire.

Death and legacy.

The health of Theophilos gradually failed, and he died on 20 January 842. Theophilos strengthened the Walls of Constantinople and built a hospital, which continued to exist until the twilight of the Byzantine Empire.

Family.

By his marriage with Theodora, Theophilos had seven children:

The Volkswagen Kübelwagen () (a back-formation as literally, 'tub' car), was a light military vehicle designed by Ferdinand Porsche and built by Volkswagen during World War II for use by the German military (both "Wehrmacht" and "Waffen-SS"). Based heavily on the Volkswagen Beetle, it was prototyped as the Type 62, but eventually became known internally as the Type 82.


Etymology.

The first character in the city's name "ning" ( or ) means "serene", while its second character "bo" () translates to "wave". The city is abbreviated "" () for the eponymous "Yong Hill" (), a prominent coastal hill near the city, and the Yong River that flows through Ningbo. (The abbreviation Ning is used more commonly for Nanjing.)  It was once named Mingzhou (). The first character () is composed of two parts, representing two lakes inside the city wall: Sun Lake () and Moon Lake (). Today, only Moon Lake remains.

History.

Ningbo is one of China's oldest cities, with a history dating to the Hemudu culture in 4800 BC. Ningbo was known as a trade city on the silk road at least two thousand years ago, and then as a major port for foreign trade along with Yangzhou and Guangzhou in the Tang Dynasty, and Quanzhou and Guangzhou in the Sung dynasty.

Tang and Song dynasty.

Since the Tang dynasty Ningbo has been an important commercial port. Arab traders lived in Ningbo during the Song dynasty when it was known as Mingzhou, as the ocean-going trade passages took precedence over land trade during this time. Another name for Mingzhou/Ningbo was Siming. It was a well known center of ocean-going commerce with the foreign world. These merchants did not intermingle with native Chinese, instead practicing their own customs and religion and inhabiting ghettos. They did not try to proselytize Islam to the Chinese. Jews also lived in Ningbo, as evidenced by the fact that, after a major flood destroyed Torah scrolls in Kaifeng in 1642, a replacement was sent to the Kaifeng Jews by the Ningbo Jewish community.

Ming dynasty.

The city of Ningbo was known in Europe for a long time under the name of Liampó. This is the usual spelling used e.g. in the standard Portuguese history, João de Barros's "Décadas da Ásia", although Barros explained that Liampó was a Portuguese "corruption" of the more correct Nimpó. The spelling Liampó is also attested in the "Peregrination" ("Peregrinação") by Fernão Mendes Pinto, a (so-called) autobiography written in Portuguese during the 16th century. For the mid-16th-century Portuguese, the nearby promontory, which they called the cape of Liampó, after the nearby "illustrious city" was the easternmost known point of the mainland Asia. The Portuguese began trading in Ningbo around 1522. By 1542, the Portuguese had a sizable community in Ningbo (or, more likely, on nearby small islands such as Shuangyu). Portuguese activities from their Ningbo base included pillaging and attacking multiple Chinese port cities around Ningbo for plunder and spoil. They also enslaved people during their raids. The Portuguese were ousted from the Ningbo area in 1548.

Qing dynasty.

Ningbo was one of the five Chinese "treaty ports" opened by the Treaty of Nanjing (signed in 1842) at the end of the First Opium War between Britain and China. During the war, British forces briefly took possession of the walled city of Ningbo after storming the fortified town of Zhenhai at the mouth of the Yong River on October 10, 1841. The British subsequently repulsed a Chinese attempt to retake the city in the Battle of Ningpo on March 10, 1842. In 1861, the forces of the Taiping Rebellion took the city relatively unopposed as the defending garrison fled; they held the town for six months. In March 1885, during the Sino-French War, Admiral Courbet's naval squadron blockaded several Chinese warships in Zhenhai Bay and exchanged fire with the shore defenses.  Ningbo was also once famed for traditional Chinese furniture production. During the Qing dynasty, western encyclopedias described Ningbo as a center of craftsmanship and industry.  During the late Qing dynasty, in the 1800s, the Ningbo authorities contracted Cantonese pirates to exterminate and massacre Portuguese pirates who had raided Cantonese shipping around Ningbo. The massacre was "successful", with 40 Portuguese dead and only 2 Chinese dead, being dubbed "The Ningpo Massacre" by an English correspondent, who noted that the Portuguese pirates had behaved savagely towards the Chinese, and that the Portuguese authorities at Macau should have reined in the pirates.  During late Qing era, Western missionaries set up a Presbyterian Church in Ningbo. Li Veng-eing was a Reverend of the Ningpo Church. The Ningpo College was managed by Rev. Robert F. Fitch. The four trustees were natives of Ningbo, three of them had Taotai rank. Rev. George Evans Moule, B. A. was appointed a missionary to China by the Church of England Missionary Society, and arrived at Ningpo with Mrs. Moule in February 1858. He then began a mission station at Hang-chow, between which and Ningpo his time had been chiefly divided. He wrote Christian publications in the Ningbo dialect.

Republican era.

During World War II in 1940, Japan bombed Ningbo with ceramic bombs full of fleas carrying the bubonic plague. According to Daniel Barenblatt, Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda received, with Prince Mikasa, a special screening by Shiro Ishii of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic dissemination over Ningbo in 1940.  Between 80% to 90% of Ningbo's population fled the city during the Japanese invasion.

Geography.

Ningbo ranges in latitude from 28° 51' to 30° 33' N and in longitude from 120° 55' to 122° 16' E, bounded on the east by the East China Sea and Zhoushan Archipelago, on the north by Hangzhou Bay, across which it faces Jiaxing and Shanghai, on the west by Shaoxing, and on the south by Taizhou. Its land area is, while oceanic territory amounts to ; there is a total of coastline including of mainland coastline and of island coastline, together accounting for one-third of the entire provincial coastline. There are 531 islands accounting for under the city's administration.  Ningbo's city proper is sandwiched between the ocean and low-lying mountains to the southwest, with coastal plain and valleys in between. Important peninsulas include the Chuanshan Peninsula (), located in Beilun District and containing mainland Zhejiang's easternmost point, and the Xiangshan Peninsula () in Xiangshan County. The Siming Mountains () run north from Mount Tiantai and within Ningbo City, traverse Yuyao City, Haishu District, and Fenghua District, reaching a height of.

Climate.

Ningbo has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa") with four distinctive seasons, characterized by hot, humid summers and chilly, cloudy and dry winters (with occasional snow). The mean annual temperature is, with monthly daily averages ranging from in January to in July. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from on 12 January 1955 to on 8 August 2013. The city receives an average annual rainfall of and is affected by the plum rains of the Asian monsoon in June, when average relative humidity also peaks. From August to October, Ningbo experiences the effects of typhoons, and is affected by an average 1.8 storms annually, though the city is not often struck directly by these systems. A 2012 OECD study lists Ningbo among the top 20 cities worldwide most at risk of flooding due to anthropogenic climate change.

Ningbo (;, ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises the urban districts of Ningbo proper, three satellite cities, and a number of rural counties including islands in Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. Its port, the port of Ningbo–Zhoushan, spread across several locations, is among the busiest in the world and the municipality possesses a separate state-planning status. As of the 2010 census, the entire administrated area had a population of 7.6 million, with 3.5 million in the built-up area made of six urban districts of Ningbo proper. To the north, Hangzhou Bay separates Ningbo from Shanghai; to the east lies Zhoushan in the East China Sea; on the west and south, Ningbo borders Shaoxing and Taizhou respectively.


Numbers.

The Hebrew language has names for common numbers that range from zero to one million. Letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used to represent numbers in a few traditional contexts, for example in calendars. In other situations Arabic numerals are used. Cardinal and ordinal numbers must agree in gender with the noun they are describing. If there is no such noun (e.g. telephone numbers), the feminine form is used. For ordinal numbers greater than ten the cardinal is used and numbers above the value 20 have no gender.

Ordinal values.

Note: For ordinal numbers greater than 10, cardinal numbers are used instead.

Cardinal values.

Note: For numbers greater than 20, gender does not apply. Officially, numbers greater than a million were represented by the long scale; However, since January 21, 2013, the modified short scale (under which the long scale milliard is substituted for the strict short scale billion), which was already the colloquial standard, became official.

Speaking and writing.

Cardinal and ordinal numbers must agree in gender (masculine or feminine; mixed groups are treated as masculine) with the noun they are describing. If there is no such noun (e.g. a telephone number or a house number in a street address), the feminine form is used. Ordinal numbers must also agree in number and definite status like other adjectives. The cardinal number precedes the noun (e.g., "shlosha yeladim"), except for the number one which succeeds it (e.g., "yeled echad"). The number two is special: "shnayim" (m.) and "shtayim" (f.) become "shney" (m.) and "shtey" (f.) when followed by the noun they count. For ordinal numbers (numbers indicating position) greater than ten the cardinal is used.

Calculations.

The Hebrew numeric system operates on the additive principle in which the numeric values of the letters are added together to form the total. For example, 177 is represented as which (from right to left) corresponds to 100 + 70 + 7 = 177.  Mathematically, this type of system requires 27 letters (1-9, 10-90, 100-900). In practice the last letter, "tav" (which has the value 400) is used in combination with itself and/or other letters from "qof" (100) onwards, to generate numbers from 500 and above. Alternatively, the 22-letter Hebrew numeral set is sometimes extended to 27 by using 5 "sofit" (final) forms of the Hebrew letters.

Key exceptions.

By convention, the numbers 15 and 16 are represented as (9 + 6) and (9 + 7), respectively, in order to refrain from using the two-letter combinations (10 + 5) and (10 + 6), which are alternate written forms for the Name of God in everyday writing. In the calendar, this manifests every full moon, since all Hebrew months start on a new moon (see for example: Tu BiShvat).  Combinations which would spell out words with negative connotations are sometimes avoided by switching the order of the letters. For instance, 744 which should be written as (meaning "you/it will be destroyed") might instead be written as or (meaning "end to demon").

Use of final letters.

The Hebrew numeral system has sometimes been extended to include the five final letter forms— for 500, for 600, for 700, for 800, for 900—which are then used to indicate the numbers from 500 to 900.  The ordinary additive forms for 500 to 900 are,,, and.

Gershayim.

Gershayim (U+05F4 in Unicode, and resembling a double quote mark) (sometimes erroneously referred to as "merkha'ot", which is Hebrew for double quote) are inserted before (to the right of) the last (leftmost) letter to indicate that the sequence of letters represents a number rather than a word. This is used in the case where a number is represented by two or more Hebrew numerals ("e.g.," 28 → ).  Similarly, a single geresh (U+05F3 in Unicode, and resembling a single quote mark) is appended after (to the left of) a single letter to indicate that the letter represents a number rather than a (one-letter) word. This is used in the case where a number is represented by a single Hebrew numeral ("e.g." 100 → ).  Note that geresh and gershayim merely indicate ""not a (normal) word."" Context usually determines whether they indicate a number or something else (such as ""abbreviation"").  An alternative method found in old manuscripts and still found on modern-day tombstones is to put a dot above each letter of the number.

Decimals.

In print, Arabic numerals are employed in Modern Hebrew for most purposes. Hebrew numerals are used nowadays primarily for writing the days and years of the Hebrew calendar; for references to traditional Jewish texts (particularly for Biblical chapter and verse and for Talmudic folios); for bulleted or numbered lists (similar to "A", "B", "C", "etc.", in English); and in numerology (gematria).

Thousands and date formats.

Thousands are counted separately, and the thousands count precedes the rest of the number (to the "right", since Hebrew is read from right to left). There are no special marks to signify that the “count” is starting over with thousands, which can theoretically lead to ambiguity, although a single quote mark is sometimes used after the letter. When specifying years of the Hebrew calendar in the present millennium, writers usually omit the thousands (which is presently 5 []), but if they do not this is accepted to mean 5,000, with no ambiguity. The current Israeli coinage includes the thousands.

Date examples.

“Monday, 15 Adar 5764” (where 5764 = 5(×1000) + 400 + 300 + 60 + 4, and 15 = 9 + 6):  “Thursday, 3 Nisan 5767” (where 5767 = 5(×1000) + 400 + 300 + 60 + 7):  To see how "today's" date in the Hebrew calendar is written, see, for example, Hebcal date converter.

Recent years.

5780 (2019–20) =  5779 (2018–19) =  5772 (2011–12) =  5771 (2010–11) =  5770 (2009–10) =  5769 (2008–09) =  5761 (2000–01) =  5760 (1999–2000) =

Similar systems.

The Abjad numerals are equivalent to the Hebrew numerals up to 400. The Greek numerals differ from the Hebrew ones from 90 upwards because in the Greek alphabet there is no equivalent for "tsade" ().

The system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The system was adapted from that of the Greek numerals in the late 2nd century BCE.


Name.

It has been given the name "traveller's palm" because the sheaths of the stems hold rainwater, which supposedly could be used as an emergency drinking supply for needy travellers. However, the water inside the plant is murky, black and smelly and should not be consumed without purification. Another plausible reason for its name is that the fan tends to grow on an east-west line, providing a crude compass.  The scientific name "Ravenala" comes from Malagasy "ravinala" meaning "forest leaves".

Description.

The enormous paddle-shaped leaves are borne on long petioles, in a distinctive fan shape aligned in a single plane (distichous). The large white flowers are structurally similar to those of its relatives, the bird-of-paradise flowers "Strelitzia reginae" and "Strelitzia nicolai", but are generally considered less attractive, with a green bract. These flowers, upon being pollinated, produce brilliant blue seeds; possibly the only blue seeds found in nature. In tropical and subtropical regions, the plant is widely cultivated for its distinctive habit and foliage. As the plant grows older, it progressively loses the lowest or oldest leaves and reveals a sturdy grey trunk. Of the four forms, varieties or subspecies, the largest is the "Bemavo", from the hills of eastern Madagascar, which can be 100 feet (30 metres) in height with a trunk 2 feet (60 cm) thick. The foliar fan consists of 20 to 35 leaves, each as much as 36 feet (11 metres) in length.  The chromosome number is 2n = 22.

Ecology.

Ruffed lemurs are a known pollinator of this plant, and given the size and structure of the inflorescences, as well as the lemur's selectivity, method of feeding, and long muzzle, this relationship is thought to have coevolved.

Cultivation.

The plant requires a sunny spot (not full sun until it is larger). It responds well to fertiliser, especially if it is high in nitrogen during the growing season. This produces better growth and foliage. The plant grows to an average height of and requires moderate water.

Ravenala is a genus of flowering plants with a single species, Ravenala madagascariensis, commonly known as the traveller's tree, traveller's palm or East-West palm, from Madagascar. It is not a true palm (family Arecaceae) but a member of a monocotyledonous flowering plant family, Strelitziaceae. The genus is closely related to the southern African genus "Strelitzia" and the South American genus "Phenakospermum". Some older classifications include these genera in the banana family (Musaceae). Although it is usually considered to be a single species, four different forms have been distinguished.


Discovery.

In 1893, French chemist Auguste Trillat discovered the means to insolubilize casein by immersion in formaldehyde. In 1897, Wilhelm Krische, a printer from Hanover, Germany was commissioned to develop white, non-flammable, erasable chalkboards. He had difficulty in making the casein adhere to the supporting cardboard, and asked German chemist (Friedrich) Adolph Spitteler (1846–1940) for help. The resultant horn-like plastic was unsuitable for the original purpose, but other applications were soon found.

Production and usage.

Galalith could not be moulded once set, so it had to be produced in sheets, but it had the advantage that it was inexpensive to produce. It could be cut, drilled, embossed and dyed without difficulty, and its structure could be manipulated to create a range of effects. One limitation on the uses of Galalith was that when made into items above a certain size it tended to splinter or warp. No other plastic at the time could compete on price, however, and with ivory, horn and bone products becoming far more expensive, it found a natural home in the fashion industry.  This new plastic was presented at Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900. In France, Galalith was distributed by the Compagnie Française de Galalithe located near Paris in Levallois-Perret. As a result, the Jura area became the first to use the material.  Galalith was marketed in boards, pipes and rods. In 1913, thirty million litres (eight million US gallons) of milk were used to produce Galalith in Germany alone. In 1914, Syrolit Ltd gained the license for manufacture in the United Kingdom. Renaming itself Erinoid Ltd., it started manufacture in the former Lightpill wool mill in Dudbridge, Stroud, Gloucestershire. Casein from rennet produces a superior plastic to acid-precipitated casein.  Galalith could produce gemstone imitations that looked strikingly real. In 1926, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel published a picture of a short, simple black dress in "Vogue". It was calf-length, straight, and decorated only by a few diagonal lines. Vogue called it ""Chanel’s Ford,”" as like the Model T, the little black dress was simple and accessible for women of all social classes. To accessorize the little black dress, Chanel revamped her designs, thus facilitating the breakthrough and mass popularity of costume jewelry. Galalith was used for striking Art Deco jewelry designs by artists such as Jacob Bengel and Auguste Bonaz, as well as for hair combs and accessories. By the 1930s, Galalith was also used for knitting needles, pens, umbrella handles, white piano keys (replacing natural ivory), and electrical goods, with world production at that time reaching 10,000 tons.

Today.

Although Galalith was historically cheap, the fact it could not be moulded led to its demise by commercial end users. Production slowed as the restrictions of World War II led to a need for milk as a food, and due to new oil-derived wartime plastic developments. Production continued in Brazil until the 1960s.  Nowadays "Galalith" still continues to be produced in small quantities, mainly for buttons.

Galalith (Erinoid in the United Kingdom) is a synthetic plastic material manufactured by the interaction of casein and formaldehyde. The commercial name is derived from the Greek words "gala" (milk) and "lithos" (stone). It is odourless, insoluble in water, biodegradable, non-allergenic, antistatic and virtually nonflammable. It was produced under other names such as aladdinite (in the USA), Casolith (in the Netherlands) and lactoloid (in Japan).


Background.

The Grail Movement had its beginnings when Oskar Ernst Bernhardt took up residence in Vomperberg, Tyrol (Austria) in 1928, in order to focus on the writing of his major work "In the Light of Truth" - The Grail Message (as Abd Ru Shin), which was then followed by other works.  The establishment of the Grail Settlement on Vomperberg came about when groups of readers of The Grail Message, wishing to live and work in his immediate vicinity, took up residence there. The Settlement developed gradually; adding residences, work and administration buildings and then a small hall with seating for about 300 people. This hall was used by Abd-ru-shin for Sunday Hours of Worship and for the three annual Grail Festivals, Easter Festival etc., to which adherents of the Grail Message also journeyed.  This development was interrupted in 1938 when the Nazi regime annexed Austria and expropriated the Grail Settlement. Abd-ru-shin was arrested on the first day of the annexation and taken to Innsbruck prison. All residents were expelled so that the Settlement could be used as a Nazi training camp. Abd-ru-shin was eventually released but kept under house arrest and surveillance until he died in 1941 in Kipsdorf, Germany.  It was not until late in 1945 when the Allies returned the Settlement to his widow Maria Bernhardt that, under her direction, new development began. During this time the term "Grail Movement" was in common use, as a group designation for adherents of the Grail Message. Over the years national Grail Movements have formed in many countries, some of which, (e.g., Canada, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Congo (Zaire) and Nigeria) have built their own Halls of Worship although Abd-ru-shin had explicitly stated in his writings that he had not come to establish a new religion.

The Grail Movement is an organization which originated in Germany in the late 1940s, inspired by the work of the self-proclaimed Messiah Oskar Ernst Bernhardt (also known by his pen name Abd-ru-shin), principally "". Abd-ru-shin did not establish the organization; the Movement as it exists today was formally organized by followers. The Grail Movement is a new spiritual movement dedicated to the dissemination and spread of the work "" by Abd-ru-shin. Most members reside in 16 countries across Europe, primarily Germany and France, with the Grail Movement reporting hundreds of members in Britain and in the USA. It can also be found in Canada, Brazil and currently established in 22 African countries such as Nigeria, Zaire (DR Congo) and Côte d'Ivoire, as well as in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Ecuador amongst others.


Origin and composition.

The fluid is discharged from the urethra of the penis during arousal, masturbation, foreplay or at an early stage during sexual intercourse, some time before the individual fully reaches orgasm and semen is ejaculated. It is primarily produced by the bulbourethral glands (Cowper's glands), with the glands of Littre (the mucus-secreting urethral glands) also contributing. The amount of fluid that is issued varies widely among individuals. Some individuals do not produce any pre-ejaculate fluid, while others emit as much as.  Pre-ejaculate contains some chemicals associated with semen, such as acid phosphatase. However, other semen markers, such as gamma-glutamyltransferase, are completely absent from pre-ejaculate fluid.

Function and risks.

Pre-ejaculate neutralizes residual acidity in the urethra caused by urine, creating a more favorable environment for the passage of sperm. The vagina is normally acidic, so the deposit of pre-ejaculate before the emission of semen may change the vaginal environment to promote sperm survival. Pre-ejaculate also acts as a lubricant during sexual activity, and plays a role in semen coagulation.  Low levels or no sperm exists in pre-ejaculate, although studies examined small samples of men. Two contrary studies found mixed evidence, including individual cases of a high sperm concentration. Popular belief – dating to a 1966 Masters and Johnson study – stated that pre-ejaculate may contain sperm that can cause pregnancy, which is a common basis of argument against the use of coitus interruptus (withdrawal) as a contraceptive method. However, pre-ejaculate is ineffectual at causing pregnancy.  Studies have demonstrated the presence of HIV in most pre-ejaculate samples from infected men.

Overproduction.

In rare cases, an individual may produce an excessive amount of pre-ejaculate fluid that can be a cause of embarrassment or irritation. A few case reports have indicated satisfactory results when such individuals are treated with a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor, such as finasteride.

Pre-ejaculate (also known as pre-ejaculatory fluid, pre-seminal fluid or Cowper's fluid, and colloquially as "pre-cum") is a clear, colorless, viscous fluid that is emitted from the urethra of the penis during sexual arousal. It is similar in composition to semen but has distinct chemical differences. The presence of sperm in the fluid is variable from low to absent. Pre-ejaculate functions as a lubricant and an acid neutralizer.


Biography.

Carissimi's exact birthdate is not known, but it was probably in 1604 or 1605 in Marino near Rome, Italy. Of his early life almost nothing is known. Giacomo's parents, Amico (1548–1633, a cooper by trade) and Livia (1565–1622), were married on 14 May 1595 and had four daughters and two sons; Giacomo was the youngest.  Nothing is known of his early musical training. His first known appointments were at Tivoli Cathedral, under the maestri di cappella Aurelio Briganti Colonna, Alessandro Capece and Francesco Manelli; from October 1623 he sang in the choir, and from October 1624 to October 1627 he was the organist. In 1628 Carissimi moved north to Assisi, as maestro di cappella (chapel master) at the Cathedral of San Rufino. In 1628 he obtained the same position at the church of Sant'Apollinare belonging to the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, which he held until his death. This was despite him receiving several offers to work in very prominent establishments, including an offer to take over from Claudio Monteverdi at San Marco di Venezia in Venice. In 1637 he was ordained a priest. He seems to have never left Italy at all during his entire lifetime. He died in 1674 in Rome.  Carissimi's successor as "maestro di cappella" at the Collegium Germanicum in 1686 described him as tall, thin, very frugal in his domestic affairs, with very noble manners towards his friends and acquaintances, and prone to melancholy.

Music.

The great achievements generally ascribed to Carissimi are the further development of the recitative, introduced by Monteverdi, which is highly important to the history of dramatic music; the further development of the chamber cantata, by which Carissimi superseded the concertato madrigals which had themselves replaced the madrigals of the late Renaissance; and the development of the oratorio, of which he was the first significant composer.  Carissimi's position in the history of church, vocal and chamber music is somewhat similar to that of Francesco Cavalli in the history of opera. While Luigi Rossi was his predecessor in developing the chamber cantata, Carissimi was the composer who first made this form the vehicle for the most intellectual style of chamber music, a function which it continued to perform until the death of Alessandro Scarlatti, Emanuele d'Astorga and Benedetto Marcello.  Carissimi is also noted as one of the first composers of oratorios, with "Jephte" as probably his best known work, along with "Jonas". These works and others are important for establishing the form of oratorio unaccompanied by dramatic action, which maintained its hold for 200 years. The name comes from their presentation at the Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso in Rome. He may also be credited for having given greater variety and interest to the instrumental accompaniments of vocal compositions. Charles Burney and John Hawkins both published specimens of his compositions in their works on the history of music, while Henry Aldrich collected an almost complete set of his compositions, which are currently housed at the library of Christ Church, Oxford. The British Museum also possesses numerous works by Carissimi. Most of his oratorios are in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris.  Carissimi was active at the time when secular music was about to usurp the dominance of sacred music in Italy. The change was decisive and permanent. When Carissimi began composing, the influence of the previous generations of Roman composers was still heavy (for instance, the style of Palestrina) and when his career came to a close the operatic forms, as well as the instrumental secular forms, were predominant. In addition, Carissimi was important as a teacher, and his influence spread far into Germany and France. Much of the musical style of Marc-Antoine Charpentier, for instance, was influenced by Carissimi.

In popular culture.

Samuel Pepys was delighted with Carissimi's music. His Diary records that he met "Mr. Hill, and Andrews, and one slovenly and ugly fellow, Seignor Pedro, who sings Italian songs to the theorbo most neatly, and they spent the whole evening in singing the best piece of musique counted of all hands in the world, made by Seignor Charissimi, the famous master in Rome. Fine it was, indeed, and too fine for me to judge of."  Carissimi is the viewpoint character for the "Euterpe" series of short stories by Enrico M. Toro within the 1632 series of books edited by Eric Flint.

Giacomo Carissimi (; baptized 18 April 160512 January 1674) was an Italian composer and music teacher. He is one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque or, more accurately, the Roman School of music. Carissimi established the characteristic features of the Latin oratorio and was a prolific composer of motets and cantatas. He was highly influential in musical developments in north European countries through his pupils and the wide dissemination of his music.


Background.

Lunacharsky was born on 23 or 24 November 1875 in Poltava, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) as the illegitimate child of Alexander Antonov and Alexandra Lunacharskaya, née Rostovtseva. His mother was then married to statesman Vasily Lunacharsky, whence Anatoly's surname and patronym. She later divorced Vasily Lunacharsky and married Antonov, but Anatoly kept his former name. In 1890, at the age of 15, Lunacharsky became a Marxist. From 1894, he studied at the University of Zurich under Richard Avenarius for two years without taking a degree. In Zürich, he met European socialists including Rosa Luxemburg and Leo Jogiches and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

Career.

In 1896, Luncharsky returned to Russia, where he was arrested and sent to Kaluga in Siberia through 1901–1902, when he returned to Kiev. In February 1902, he moved in with Alexander Bogdanov, who was working in a mental hospital in Vologda, Russia.

Vpered.

In 1903, the party split into Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin and Mensheviks led by Julius Martov and Lunacharsky sided with the former. In 1907, he attended the International Socialist Congress, held in Stuttgart. When the Bolsheviks in turn split into Lenin's supporters and Alexander Bogdanov's followers in 1908, Lunacharsky supported his brother-in-law Bogdanov in setting up "Vpered". Like many contemporary socialists (including Bogdanov), Lunacharsky was influenced by the empirio-criticism philosophy of Ernst Mach and Avenarius. Lenin opposed Machism as a form of subjective idealism and strongly criticised its proponents in his book "Materialism and Empirio-criticism" (1908). In 1909, Lunacharsky joined Bogdanov and Gorky at the latter's villa on the island of Capri, where they started a school for Russian socialist workers. In 1910, Bogdanov, Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky and their supporters moved the school to Bologna, where they continued teaching classes through 1911. In 1913, Lunacharsky moved to Paris, where he started his own Circle of Proletarian Culture.

World War I.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Lunacharsky adopted an internationalist antiwar position which put him on a course of convergence with Lenin and Leon Trotsky. In 1915, Lunacharsky and Pavel Lebedev-Poliansky restarted the social democratic newspaper "Vpered" with an emphasis on proletarian culture.  After the February Revolution of 1917, Lunacharsky left his family in Switzerland and returned to Russia. Like other internationalist social democrats returning from abroad, he briefly joined the Mezhraiontsy before they merged with the Bolsheviks in July–August 1917. In July 1917, the Kerensky government jailed him.

People's Commissariat for Education (Narkompros).

After the October Revolution of 1917, Lunacharsky was appointed head of the People's Commissariat for Education (Narkompros) in the first Soviet government and remained in that position until 1929. In 1921, "The New York Times" reported his resignation.  Lunacharsky was associated with the establishment of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in 1919, working with Maxim Gorky, Alexander Blok and Maria Andreyeva. He was also in charge of the Soviet state's first censorship system. Lunacharsky helped his former colleague Alexander Bogdanov start a semi-independent proletarian art movement called Proletkult. Lunacharsky also oversaw improvements in Russia's literacy rate. By arguing for their architectural Importance, he argued for the protection of historic buildings against elements in the Bolshevik Party who wanted to destroy them.  Lunacharsky directed some of the great experiments in public arts after the Revolution such as the agit-trains and agit-boats that circulated over all Russia spreading Revolution and revolutionary arts. He also gave support to constructivism's theatrical experiments and the initiatives such as the ROSTA Windows, revolutionary posters designed and written by Mayakovsky, Rodchenko and others.  While commissar, Lunacharsky's initiatives included the establishment of Isadora Duncan's school in Moscow, but he was also a playwright, critic, essayist and a widely admired man of culture. As the first Commissar of Enlightenment after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, he was credited with preserving much of Russia's cultural heritage.  In June 1919, "The New York Times" decried Lunacharsky's efforts in education in an article entitle "Reds Are Ruining Children of Russia". It claimed that he was instilling a "system of calculated moral depravity [...] in one of the most diabolical of all measures conceived by the Bolshevik rulers of Russia".  In 1929, Lunacharsky supported a change in the Soviet Union from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet.

Later career.

In 1929 Lunacharsky was appointed to the Learned Council of the Soviet Union Central Executive Committee. He also became an editor for the Literature Encyclopedia (published 1929–1939).  In 1930, Lunacharsky represented the Soviet Union at the League of Nations through 1932.  In 1933, he was appointed ambassador to Spain, a post he never assumed as he died en route.

Death.

Lunacharsky died at 58 on 26 December 1933 in Menton, France en route to take up the post of Soviet ambassador to Spain as the conflict that would become the Spanish Civil War appeared increasingly inevitable.

Personal life.

In 1902, he married Anna Alexandrovna Malinovkaya, Alexander Bogdanov's sister. They had one child, a daughter named Irina Lunacharsky. In 1922, he met Natalya Rozenel, an actress at the Maly Theater. He left his family and married her.  Lunacharsky was known as an art connoisseur and a critic. Besides Marxist dialectics, he had been interested in philosophy since he was a student. For instance, he was fond of the ideas of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Frederich Nietzsche and Richard Avenarius. He could read six modern languages and two dead ones. Lunacharsky corresponded with H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw and Romain Rolland. He met numerous other famous cultural figures such as Rabindranath Tagore and Nicholas Roerich.  Lunacharsky once described Nadezhda Krupskaya as the "soul of Narkompros".  Friends included Igor Moiseyev.

Legacy.

Lunacharsky's remains were returned to Moscow where his urn was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, a rare privilege during the Soviet era. During the Great Purge of 1936-1938, Lunacharsky's name was erased from the Communist Party's history and his memoirs were banned. A revival came in the late 1950s and 1960s, with a surge of memoirs about Lunacharsky and many streets and organizations named or renamed in his honor. During that era, Lunacharsky was viewed by the Soviet intelligentsia as an educated, refined and tolerant Soviet politician.  In the 1960s, his daughter Irina Lunacharsky helped revive his popularity. Several streets and institutions were named in his honor.  In 1971, Asteroid 2446 was named after Lunacharsky.  Some Soviet-built orchestral harps also bear the name of Lunacharsky, presumably in his honor. These concert pedal harps were produced in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, Russia).  "The New York Times" dubbed Nikolai Gubenko, last culture commissar of the Soviet Union, "the first arts professional since Anatoly V. Lunacharsky" because he seemed to "identify" with Lunacharsky.

Works.

Lunacharsky was also a prolific writer. He wrote literary essays on the works of several writers, including Alexander Pushkin, George Bernard Shaw and Marcel Proust. However, his most notable work is his memoirs, "Revolutionary Silhouettes", which describe anecdotes and Lunacharsky's general impressions of Lenin, Trotsky and eight other revolutionaries. Trotsky reacted to some of Lunacharsky's opinions in his own autobiography, "My Life."  In the 1920s, Lunacharsky produced Lyubov Popova's "The Locksmith and the Chancellor" at the Comedy Theater.  Some of his works include:

Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky (born Anatoly Aleksandrovich Antonov, – 26 December 1933) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Bolshevik Soviet People's Commissar (Narkompros) responsible for Ministry and Education as well as active playwright, critic, essayist and journalist throughout his career.


Early observations.

After the discovery of M100 by Méchain, Charles Messier made observations of the galaxy depicting it as a nebula without a star. He pointed out that it was difficult to recognize the nebula because of its faintness. William Herschel was able to identify a bright cluster of stars within the nebula during observations he did before John Herschel expanded the findings in 1833. With the advent of better telescopes, John Herschel was able to see a round, brighter galaxy; however, he also mentioned that it was barely visible through clouds. William Henry Smyth extended the studies of M100, detailing it as a pearly white nebula and pointing out diffuse spots.

Star formation.

Messier 100 is considered a starburst galaxy with the strongest star formation activity concentrated in its center, within a ring - actually two tightly wound spiral arms attached to a small nuclear bar with a radius of 1 kilo-parsec – where star formation has been taking place since at least 500 million years ago in separate bursts.  As usual on spiral galaxies of the Virgo Cluster, in the rest of the disk both star formation and neutral hydrogen, of which M100 is deficient compared to isolated spiral galaxies of similar Hubble type, are truncated within the galaxy's disk, which is caused by interactions with the intracluster medium of Virgo.

Supernovae.

Seven supernovae have been identified in M100. In March 1901 the first supernova of M100 was found, SN 1901B, a type I supernova found with a magnitude of 15.6 at 110"W and 4"N from its nucleus. SN 1914A was then discovered in February to March 1914; its type was undeterminable but was found with a magnitude of 15.7 at 24"E and 111"S from its nucleus. Observations of M100 from February 21, 1960 to June 17, 1960 led to the discovery of SN 1959E, another type I supernova, with the faintest magnitude, 17.5, among the five found, at 58"E and 21"S from its nucleus. On April 15, 1979, the first type II supernova found in the M100 galaxy was discovered; however the star SN 1979C faded quickly; later observations from x-ray to radio wavelengths revealed its remnant. The fifth supernova was discovered February 7, 2006; the star SN 2006X had a magnitude of 15.3 when discovered two weeks before fading to magnitude +17. Supernova SN 2019ehk, discovered on April 29, 2019, reached a peak magnitude of approximately 15.8. The seventh supernova, SN 2020oi, was discovered on January 7, 2020.

The Battle of Cambrai (Battle of Cambrai, 1917, First Battle of Cambrai and Schlacht von Cambrai) was a British attack followed by the biggest German counter-attack against the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) since 1914, in the First World War. The town of Cambrai, in the département of Nord, was an important supply point for the German (known to the British as the Hindenburg Line) and capture of the town and the nearby Bourlon Ridge would threaten the rear of the German line to the north. Major General Henry Tudor, Commander, Royal Artillery (CRA) of the 9th (Scottish) Division, advocated the use of new artillery-infantry techniques on his sector of the front. During preparations, J. F. C. Fuller, a staff officer with the Tank Corps, looked for places to use tanks for raids. General Julian Byng, commander of the British Third Army, decided to combine both plans. The French and British armies had used tanks in mass earlier in 1917, although to considerably less effect.


Plot.

Wounded and dishonourably discharged from the Prussian Army and threatened by financial troubles and serious bribery allegations, Major von Tellheim waits at a Berlin hotel, with his servant, Just, for the outcome of his trial. His penniless condition is because repayment of a large sum advanced to the government during the recent war is being held up and his honor in making the loan questioned. During Tellheim's absence from the inn, the landlord has caused Tellheim's effects to be removed, ostensibly because his rooms were needed for a lady and her maid. In reality, the landlord doubts Tellheim's ability to pay, since he is already in arrears.  In the removal of the Major's possessions, the landlord comes upon a sealed envelope marked as containing five hundred thalers. This discovery makes him anxious to placate Tellheim. What he does not know is that the money has been left with the Major by Paul Werner, his former sergeant. Werner, knowing Tellheim's predicament, is in hope that he will use the money as his own. Tellheim is too honorable to borrow when he has no assurance of repaying. Instead, he bids his servant to take his last possession of value, an expensive ring, and pawn it to satisfy the landlord's bill and his own back wages.  Just pledges the ring with the landlord but refuses to accept either wages or dismissal on the plea that he is in Tellheim's debt and will have to work it out. The garrulous landlord shows the ring to some newly-arrived guests, revealing considerable concerning the owner's circumstances. The lady, Minna von Barnhelm, recognizes the ring as one of the betrothal rings which she and Tellheim had exchanged, and is overjoyed that her search for her missing lover is ended.  When Tellheim appears, however, he refuses to accept her hand or to continue the engagement on account of his precarious circumstances. When no argument can move him, Minna, with the help of her maid, Franziska, pretends that she, too, is penniless and in dire straits. Under these circumstances Tellheim immediately claims the privilege of marrying and protecting her.  At this point a delayed letter from the King is delivered. It announces the restoration of Tellheim's fortune and the vindication of his honor. To punish him for making her suffer, Minna now pretends that she cannot marry Tellheim because of the inequality of their circumstances. In answer to his pleas, she uses his own recent arguments to confound him. Only when Tellheim is reduced to the verge of despair and the belated arrival of Minna's uncle and guardian threatens to give the whole thing away does Minna relent and reveal the truth. In a final scene of celebration, matters are settled to the satisfaction of everyone, including Franziska and Paul Werner who have discovered a lively interest in each other.

Performance history.

The play had its world premiere at 30 September 1767 at the Hamburg National Theatre, which Lessing had just joined as a dramaturg. In Prussia it was then briefly banned from performance in a dispute with the Berlin censors. It then won huge stage success and was performed in all the main theatres in the German-speaking countries and then abroad. Goethe celebrated "Minna" to Eckermann in retrospect as "a shining Meteor. It made us aware something else existed, higher than the concept of that literary era." Later productions were particularly influenced by Goethe's comment that "One work, however, is the truest product of the Seven Years' War, a perfect north-German national product, one which I must honourably mention above all, the first theatrical production of real-life, set in a specific time, which had a more calculated effect than anything that came before: Minna von Barnhelm." Lessing modeled the character of the sergeant in on the famous lieutenant general of the Prussian army, Paul von Werner, commander of the Brown hussars ( Hussar Regiment No 6): the character's name was even Paul von Werner. The play was a characteristic "Soldatenstücke" (soldier plays) popular in the latter half of the 18th century. In one amateur production a young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe played the part of Werner.  To date it is one of the most-performed plays in Germany. Scenes from it were performed at Bunce Court School, an exiled German Jewish refugee school in England. It was performed by refugee children under the direction of Wilhelm Marckwald, also a refugee and a former director at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.  A production also premiered on 16 December 2005 at the Wiener Burgtheater, with the lead roles taken by Sven-Eric Bechtolf and Sabine Haupt – its key point was that money was in lieu of honour. Another was put on at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in January 2005, with Martina Gedeck as Minna, Ulrich Matthes as Tellheim and Nina Hoss as Franziska.

Adaptations.

Musical.

An adaptation as a musical (with book and lyrics by Michael Wildenhain, the idea and concept by Klaus Wagner, and the music by Konstantin Wecker and Nicolas Kemmer) premiered on 2 December 2000 at the Theater Heilbronn, with 22 performances in a run until 7 April 2001.

Minna von Barnhelm or the Soldiers' Happiness () is a "lustspiel" or comedy by the German author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. It has five acts, was begun in 1763 and completed in 1767 – its author put the year 1763 on the official title page, presumably to emphasize that the recent Seven Years' War plays a major part in the play, which is set on 22 August 1763. It is one of the most important comedies in German literature. It was first performed in 1767 by the Hamburg National Theatre, where Lessing worked as a dramaturg.


Biography.

Bonpland was born as Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud in La Rochelle, France, on 22, 28, or 29 August 1773. His father was a physician and, around 1790, he joined his brother Michael in Paris, where they both studied medicine. From 1791, they attended courses given at Paris's Botanical Museum of Natural History. Their teachers included Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, and René Louiche Desfontaines; Aimé further studied under Jean-Nicolas Corvisart and may have attended classes given by Pierre-Joseph Desault at the Hôtel-Dieu. During this period, Aimé also befriended his fellow student, Xavier Bichat.  Amid the turmoil of the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars, Bonpland served as a surgeon in the French army or navy.  Having befriended Alexander von Humboldt at Corvisart's house, he joined him on a five-year journey through the Canary islands, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and the United States, as well as the Orinoco and Amazon basins. During this trip, he collected and classified about 6,000 plants that were mostly unknown in Europe up to that time. His account of these findings was published as a series of volumes from 1808 to 1816 entitled "Equatorial Plants" ().  Upon his return to Paris, Napoleon granted him a pension of 3000 francs per year in return for the many specimens he bestowed upon the Museum of Natural History. The Empress Josephine was very fond of him and installed him as superintendent over the gardens at Malmaison, where many seeds he had brought from the Americas were cultivated. In 1813, he published his "Description of the Rare Plants Cultivated at Malmaison and in Navarre" (""). During this period, he also became acquainted with Gay-Lussac, Arago, and other eminent scientists and, after the abdication of Fontainebleau, vainly pleaded with Napoleon to retire to Venezuela. He was present at Josephine's deathbed.  In 1816, he took various European plants to Buenos Aires, where he was elected professor of natural history. He soon left his post, however, to explore the interior of South America. In 1821, he established a colony at Santa Ana near the Paraná for the specific object of harvesting and selling yerba mate. The colony was located in territory claimed by both Paraguay and Argentina; further, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, governor of Paraguay, "feared that Bonpland's success in cultivating "mate" would interfere with his own attempt to monopolize that business." The Paraguayans therefore destroyed the colony on December 8,1821, and Bonpland was arrested as a spy and detained at Santa Maria, Paraguay until 1829. During his captivity, he married and had several children. He was given freedom of movement and acted as a physician for the local poor and the military garrison. At the same epoch, the Swiss naturalist Johann Rudolph Rengger also stayed in Paraguay: he was not allowed to cross the strictly guarded border, but was free to circulate pending the request of a special permit for each excursion.  Bonpland was freed in 1829 and in 1831 returned to Argentina, where he settled at San Borja in Corrientes. There, aged 58, he married a local woman and made a living farming and trading in yerba mate. In 1853, he returned to Santa Ana, where he cultivated the orange trees he had introduced. He received a piastre estate from the Corrientes government in gratitude for his work in the province. The small town around it is now known as "Bonpland" in his honor. A different small town in Misiones province just south of Santa Ana (Misiones) is also named Bonpland.  He died at age 84, at San Borja, Santa Ana, or Restauración on 4 or 11 May 1858, before his planned return to Paris.

Legacy.

Bonpland's biography was written by Adolphe Brunel. A fictionalized account of his travels with Humboldt occurs in Daniel Kehlmann's "Die Vermessung der Welt", translated by Carol Brown Janeway as "Measuring the World: A Novel".  Bonpland Street in the ritzy Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo Hollywood lies among streets named after Charles Darwin, Robert FitzRoy, and Alexander von Humboldt. There is also a Bonpland Street in the city of Bahía Blanca, Argentina, in Caracas, Venezuela, and in Montevideo, Uruguay.  Many animals and plants are also named in his honor, including the squid "Grimalditeuthis bonplandi" and the orchid "Ornithocephalus bonplandi".  The lunar crater Bonpland is named after him. Also Pico Bonpland in the Venezuelan Andes is named to his honor, although he never visited the Venezuelan Andes. A peak of over in New Zealand also bears his name. The mountain is near the head of Lake Wakatipu in the South Island.

Taxonomic descriptions.

The following genera and species have been named or described by Aimé Bonpland.

Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (August 1773 – May 1858) was a French explorer and botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scientific results of their expedition.


Childhood and early youth.

Born in Gijón, Asturias province, into the House of Carrillo, Santiago Carrillo was the son of Socialist leader Wenceslao Carrillo and María Rosalía Solares Martínez. When he was six years old, his family moved to Madrid. After attending school, he began to work in "El Socialista", the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) newspaper at the age of 13. At the same time, he joined the Socialist Union, the Workers' General Union and the Socialist Youth.

Second Republic and Civil War.

In 1932, Carrillo joined the Executive Commission of the Socialist Youth and became editor of its newspaper, "Renovación". Carrillo belonged to the left wing of the organisation. In 1933, as the Socialist Youth was becoming more radical, Carrillo was elected as General Secretary. From October 1934 to February 1936 he was jailed, due to his participation in the failed 1934 leftist coup (Carrillo was a member of the National Revolutionary Committee).  After his release, in March 1936, Carrillo and the executive of the Socialist Youth travelled to Moscow to meet the leaders of the Young Communist International and prepare the unification of Socialist and Communist youth leagues. He was accompanied on the visit to Moscow by Leandro Carro and Juan Astigarrabía. The result was the creation of the Unified Socialist Youth ("Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas").  After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Carrillo joined the Communist Party and did so on the day the government left Madrid in November. During the war, he was intensely pro-Soviet. On 7 November 1936 Carrillo was elected Councillor for Public Order in the Defence Council of Madrid, which was given supreme power in besieged Madrid, after the government left the city.  During his term, several thousand military and civilian prisoners, including many women and children, were killed by communist groups in the Paracuellos massacres at Paracuellos del Jarama and Torrejón de Ardoz (the biggest mass killings by the Republican side during the Civil War). The dead were buried in common graves. Carrillo denied any knowledge of the massacres in his memoirs but some historians like César Vidal or Pío Moa maintain that Carrillo was involved. In an interview with the historian Ian Gibson, Carrillo set out his version of events concerning the massacre.  In March 1939 Madrid surrendered after Casado's coup against the Negrín administration and its close ally, the Communist Party, which sought to continue the resistance until the expected outbreak of the World War. Carrillo's father, Wenceslao, a member of the PSOE, was among those who led the coup and was a member of Casado's Junta. Some weeks before, Carrillo's mother had died. Carrillo then wrote an open letter to his father describing the coup as counter-revolutionary and as a betrayal, reproaching him for his anti-communism, and renouncing any further communication with him. In his memoirs, Carrillo states that the letter was written on 7 March. However, journalist and historian Carlos Fernández published the letter in 1983, as it had been published in "Correspondance International"; it was dated 15 May.  After the military collapse of the Republican Government, Carrillo fled to Paris and worked to reorganise the party. Carrillo spent 38 years in exile, most of the time in France, but also in the USSR and other countries.

Exile.

In 1944 Carrillo led the retreat of the communist guerrillas from the Aran Valley.  According to the historian Ricardo de la Cierva, in 1945 Carrillo ordered the execution of fellow communist party member Gabriel León Trilla and helped the Francoist forces to detain his fellow communist Jesús Monzón. According to Enrique Líster and de la Cierva, Carrillo also ordered the 1949 execution of fellow communist Joan Comorera, who was saved by the precautions he took. In 2005 Carrillo said ""yo he tenido que eliminar a alguna persona"" (I have had to eliminate someone).  In August 1948, Carrillo met Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.  Carrillo became the General Secretary of the PCE in 1960, replacing Dolores Ibárruri ("La Pasionaria"), who was given the honorary post of Party Chairman. Carrillo's policies were aimed at strengthening the party's position among the working class and intellectual groups, and survived opposition from Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist and social democratic factions. In 1968, when the Soviets and Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia, Carrillo distanced the party from Moscow.

Spanish transition and Eurocommunism.

Carrillo returned secretly to Spain in 1976 after the death of long-time Spanish "caudillo" Francisco Franco. Arrested by the police, he was released within days. Together with communist party leaders Georges Marchais of France and Enrico Berlinguer of Italy, he launched the Eurocommunist movement in a meeting held in Madrid on March 2, 1977.  In the first democratic elections in 1977, shortly after the legalization of the PCE (9 April 1977) by the government of Adolfo Suárez, Carrillo was elected to the Spanish Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados), the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales to represent the Madrid district. Throughout the transition period, Carrillo's authority and leadership were decisive in securing peaceful evolution towards a democratic system, a constructive approach based on dialogue with opponents, and a healing of the wounds from the Civil War (the "Reconciliation" policy). It is widely acknowledged that this policy played a key role in making possible a peaceful transition to democracy.  Carrillo was re-elected in 1979, but the failed right-wing coup d'état attempt on 23 February 1981 reduced support for the PCE, as Spanish society was still recovering from the trauma of the Civil War and subsequent repression and dictatorship. This was despite Carrillo's celebrated and highly public defiance of the coup plotters in the chamber of deputies - he was one of the few members who refused to obey their instructions and did not duck when they shot into the air - and his equally famous claim to be a royalist after the King faced down the plotters.  Fear of another military uprising increased support for moderate left-wing forces in the 1982 elections, in which Carrillo held his parliamentary seat. He was forced to leave his post as party leader on 6 November 1982, owing to the party's poor electoral performance. The new General Secretary, the much younger Gerardo Iglesias, a member of the "renovators" wing, had been at odds with him from the beginning of his tenure.

Leaving the Spanish Communist Party.

On 15 April 1985, Carrillo and his followers were expelled from the PCE, and in 1986 they formed their own political group, the Workers Party of Spain-Communist Unity (PTE-UC). This tiny party was unable to attract enough voters, so on 27 October 1991, Carrillo announced that it would be disbanded. Subsequently, the PTE-UC merged into the ruling PSOE, but Carrillo declined PSOE membership considering his many years as a communist member.

Retirement and death.

On 20 October 2005, Carrillo was granted an honorary doctorate by the Autonomous University of Madrid. The action of the university was strongly criticized by right-wing commentators. Carrillo had retired from public life at the time of his death at his home in Madrid at the age of 97 on 18 September 2012. He was cremated in Madrid on 20 September.

Santiago José Carrillo Solares (18 January 1915 – 18 September 2012) was a Spanish politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) from 1960 to 1982. His role in the Paracuellos massacres during the Civil War was particularly controversial. He would later be exiled during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, becoming a leader of the democratic opposition to the regime. His role as leader of the PCE would later make him a key figure in the transition to democracy. He later embraced Eurocommunism and democratic socialism, and was a member of the Congress of Deputies from 1977 to 1986.


Background.

Both Syriac sources such as Michael the Syrian and Arabic ones like al-Tabari and Mas'udi hold that the emperor was of a Ghassanid Arab origin. Byzantine chronicles, however, although generally hostile to him, make no explicit mention about his ethnic background. On the other hand, al-Tabari claims that he learned of Nikephoros' Arab origins from Byzantine sources. Some scholars, like Paul Julius Alexander, accept al-Tabari's account, citing a Byzantine apocalyptic text in which the emperor is said to be "from the race of Gopsin". The word "Gopsin" could be a Greek rendering of the name "Ghassan", or the name "Gafna", the eponym of the Ghassanids.

Reign.

A patrician from Seleucia Sidera, Nikephoros was appointed finance minister ("logothetēs tou genikou") by the Empress Irene. With the help of the patricians and eunuchs he contrived to dethrone and exile Irene, and to be chosen as Emperor in her stead on 31 October 802. He crowned his son Staurakios co-emperor in 803.  His rule was endangered by Bardanes Tourkos, one of his ablest generals, who revolted and received support from other commanders, notably the later emperors Leo V the Armenian and Michael II the Amorian in 803.  But Nikephoros gained over the latter two, and by inducing the rebel army to disperse achieved the submission of Bardanes, who was blinded and relegated to a monastery. A conspiracy headed by the patrician Arsaber had a similar result.  Nikephoros embarked on a general reorganization of the Roman Empire, creating new themes in the Balkans (where he initiated the re-Hellenization by resettling Greeks from Anatolia) and strengthening the frontiers. Needing large sums to increase his military forces, he set himself with great energy to increase the Empire's revenue. By his rigorous tax imposts he alienated his subjects, especially the clergy, whom he otherwise sought to control firmly. Although he appointed an iconodule, Nikephoros, as patriarch, Emperor Nikephoros was portrayed as a villain by ecclesiastical historians like Theophanes the Confessor.  In 803, Nikephoros concluded a treaty, called the "Pax Nicephori", with Charlemagne, but refused to recognize the latter's imperial dignity. Relations deteriorated and led to a war over Venice in 806–810. In the process, Nikephoros had quelled a Venetian rebellion in 807, but suffered extensive losses to the Franks. The conflict was resolved only after Nikephoros' death, and Venice, Istria, the Dalmatian coast and South Italy were assigned to the East, while Rome, Ravenna and the Pentapolis were included in the Western realm.  By withholding the tribute which Irene had agreed to pay to the caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd, Nikephoros committed himself to a war against the Arabs. Compelled by Bardanes' disloyalty to take the field himself, he sustained a severe defeat at the Battle of Krasos in Phrygia (805). In 806 a Muslim army of 135,000 men invaded the Empire. Unable to counter the Muslim numbers, Nikephoros agreed to make peace on condition of paying 50,000 nomismata immediately and a yearly tribute of 30,000 nomismata. With a succession struggle enveloping the caliphate on the death of Hārūn al-Rashīd in 809, Nikephoros was free to deal with Krum, Khan of Bulgaria, who was harassing his northern frontiers and had just conquered Serdica (Sofia).  In 811, Nikephoros invaded Bulgaria, defeated Krum twice, and sacked the Bulgarian capital Pliska. The Chronicle of the 12th-century patriarch of the Syrian Jacobites, Michael the Syrian, describes the brutalities and atrocities of Nikephoros: "Nikephoros, emperor of the Byzantine empire, walked into the Bulgarians' land: he was victorious and killed great number of them. He reached their capital, seized it and devastated it. His savagery went to the point that he ordered to bring their small children, got them tied down on earth and made thresh grain stones to smash them." During Nikephoros' retreat, the imperial army was ambushed and destroyed in Varbishki mountain passes on 26 July by Krum. Nikephoros was captured during the battle and sent to Pliska, where Krum ordered his decapitation. Krum is said to have made a drinking-cup of Nikephoros' skull.

Family.

By an unknown wife Nikephoros I had at least two children:

Nikephoros I, or Nicephorus I (, "Nikēphoros I"; 750 – 26 July 811) was Byzantine Emperor from 802 to 811, when he was killed in the Battle of Pliska. Prior to his accession, he had served as "genikos logothetēs", whence he is sometimes surnamed "the Logothete" (ὁ Λογοθέτης) and "Genikos" or "Genicus" (ὁ Γενικός).