Nature and History in Modern Italy

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments Identifying and then selecting the best scholarship about Italy’s modern environmental past has not been an easy assignment. This project faced conceptual,disciplinary,and linguistic barriers,and we realize that the process and product have not been perfect—and much too time consuming. Some excellent scholarship did not make it into our book, and some of the following pages might be trimmed further. Still, we are happy to present this sampling of insights to an English-speaking world, and we hope that our collective efforts will linger in readers’ minds like a long sip of smooth barbaresco, or else deliver that mouth-puckering of gelato al limone. All authors listed in the following chapters deserve special praise for enduring repeated requests to rework, rephrase, and refine. The conversion of Italian into English has been a particularly delicate task, with most chapters undergoing at least four levels of translation: a preliminary effort by authors, many with assistance from professional translators; a chapter-by-chapter smoothing by Carrol Firmage, environmental humanities research assistant at the University of Utah; a complete rereading and smoothing by both of us followed by more author input; and then copyediting by Ricky S. Huard and Joan Sherman. For those who have not tried it, translation is high art, but we are confident that the following pages render most of what should be told. In later stages, the book received production assistance from Nancy Basmajian, Beth Pratt, Jean Cunningham, and Judy Wilson. Maps of Italy 1.1–1.3 were ably created by MargaretW.Pearce and her team at the Ohio University Cartographic Center.Florence’s tourist office,l’Agenzia per il Turismo di Firenze, generously donated the cover image of Giambologna’s sculpture in Villa Demidoff, Il Colosso dell’Appennino. We are especially grateful to acquisitions editor Gillian Berchowitz and series editor James L. A. Webb, Jr., for seeing value in the project, and without their encouragement the book xvi | Acknowledgments would never have arrived in your hands. Significant financial assistance covering a variety of costs as well as other support has been derived from the Institute for the Studies of Mediterranean Societies (Italian National Research Council), the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University, the University of California Berkeley, and the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University (to Marco Armiero); and from the University of Utah and University of Zurich (to Marcus Hall). Esteemed mentor and dear friend Donald Worster has been following our sundry ventures for many years, and we are delighted and honored that he could offer his reflections on this latest one. Lastly we are grateful to our families, immediate and extended, far and near, young and old, for continuing to provide the sustenance, inspiration, and love that make it all possible. Marco Armiero, Barcelona Marcus Hall, Zurich June 2010 Map o.2. Geographic map of northern Italy (Ohio University Cartographic Center) Map o.3. Geographic map of southern Italy (Ohio University Cartographic Center) ...