Download the Full Ebook and Access More Features - ebookmass.

com

Sustainability in Energy and Buildings:

Proceedings of SEB 2019 1st ed. 2020 Edition John
Littlewood

https://ebookmass.com/product/sustainability-in-energy-and-
buildings-proceedings-of-seb-2019-1st-ed-2020-edition-john-
littlewood/

OR CLICK HERE

DOWLOAD NOW

Download more ebook instantly today at https://ebookmass.com

 Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) ready for you
Download now and discover formats that fit your needs...

Sustainability in Energy and Buildings 2022 John

Littlewood

https://ebookmass.com/product/sustainability-in-energy-and-
buildings-2022-john-littlewood/

ebookmass.com

Environmental Sustainability in a Time of Change 1st ed.

2020 Edition Robert Brinkmann

https://ebookmass.com/product/environmental-sustainability-in-a-time-
of-change-1st-ed-2020-edition-robert-brinkmann/

ebookmass.com

Sustainability, Emerging Technologies, and Pan-Africanism

1st ed. 2020 Edition Thierno Thiam

https://ebookmass.com/product/sustainability-emerging-technologies-
and-pan-africanism-1st-ed-2020-edition-thierno-thiam/

ebookmass.com

Discrete Mathematics T. Veerarajan

https://ebookmass.com/product/discrete-mathematics-t-veerarajan/

ebookmass.com
Feline Behavioral Health and Welfare. Prevention and
Treatment 1st Edition Ilona Rodan Dvm Dabvp (Feline
Practice)
https://ebookmass.com/product/feline-behavioral-health-and-welfare-
prevention-and-treatment-1st-edition-ilona-rodan-dvm-dabvp-feline-
practice/
ebookmass.com

They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence Lauren

Benton

https://ebookmass.com/product/they-called-it-peace-worlds-of-imperial-
violence-lauren-benton/

ebookmass.com

Worlds Together, Worlds Apart (Fifth Edition) (Vol. 2)

Fifth Edition – Ebook PDF Version

https://ebookmass.com/product/worlds-together-worlds-apart-fifth-
edition-vol-2-fifth-edition-ebook-pdf-version/

ebookmass.com

Up to No Gouda (Grilled Cheese Mystery 1) Linda Reilly

https://ebookmass.com/product/up-to-no-gouda-grilled-cheese-
mystery-1-linda-reilly/

ebookmass.com

ISE EBook Online Access for Introduction to Chemical

Engineering Thermodynamics Smith

https://ebookmass.com/product/ise-ebook-online-access-for-
introduction-to-chemical-engineering-thermodynamics-smith/

ebookmass.com
Baudelaire and the Making of Italian Modernity: From the
Scapigliatura to the Futurist Movement, 1857-1912 1st
Edition Alessandro Cabiati
https://ebookmass.com/product/baudelaire-and-the-making-of-italian-
modernity-from-the-scapigliatura-to-the-futurist-
movement-1857-1912-1st-edition-alessandro-cabiati/
ebookmass.com
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies 163

John Littlewood
Robert J. Howlett
Alfonso Capozzoli
Lakhmi C. Jain Editors

Sustainability
in Energy and
Buildings
Proceedings of SEB 2019
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

Volume 163

Series Editors
Robert J. Howlett, Bournemouth University and KES International,
Shoreham-by-sea, UK
Lakhmi C. Jain, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology,
Centre for Artificial Intelligence, University of Technology Sydney,
Sydney, NSW, Australia
The Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies book series encompasses the
topics of knowledge, intelligence, innovation and sustainability. The aim of the
series is to make available a platform for the publication of books on all aspects of
single and multi-disciplinary research on these themes in order to make the latest
results available in a readily-accessible form. Volumes on interdisciplinary research
combining two or more of these areas is particularly sought.
The series covers systems and paradigms that employ knowledge and intelligence
in a broad sense. Its scope is systems having embedded knowledge and intelligence,
which may be applied to the solution of world problems in industry, the environment
and the community. It also focusses on the knowledge-transfer methodologies and
innovation strategies employed to make this happen effectively. The combination of
intelligent systems tools and a broad range of applications introduces a need for a
synergy of disciplines from science, technology, business and the humanities. The
series will include conference proceedings, edited collections, monographs, hand-
books, reference books, and other relevant types of book in areas of science and
technology where smart systems and technologies can offer innovative solutions.
High quality content is an essential feature for all book proposals accepted for the
series. It is expected that editors of all accepted volumes will ensure that
contributions are subjected to an appropriate level of reviewing process and adhere
to KES quality principles.
** Indexing: The books of this series are submitted to ISI Proceedings,
EI-Compendex, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Springerlink **

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8767

John Littlewood Robert J. Howlett
• •

Alfonso Capozzoli Lakhmi C. Jain

•

Editors

Sustainability in Energy
and Buildings
Proceedings of SEB 2019

123
Editors
John Littlewood Robert J. Howlett
School of Art and Design Bournemouth University
Cardiff Metropolitan University Poole, UK
Cardiff, UK
KES International Research
Shoreham-by-sea, UK
Alfonso Capozzoli
Politecnico di Torino
Lakhmi C. Jain
Turin, Italy
University of Canberra
Canberra, Australia
University of Technology Sydney
Sydney, Australia
Liverpool Hope University
Liverpool, UK
KES International Research
Shoreham-by-sea, UK

ISSN 2190-3018 ISSN 2190-3026 (electronic)

Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies
ISBN 978-981-32-9867-5 ISBN 978-981-32-9868-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9868-2
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
International Programme Committee

Dr. Mohamed Abbas, UDES/CDER, Algeria

Dr. Kouzou Abdellah, University of Djelfa, Algeria
Prof. Abdel Ghani Aissaoui, University of Bechar, Algeria
Dr. Mahmood Alam, University of Brighton, UK
Dr. Nader Anani, University of Chichester, UK
Dr. Martin Anda, Murdoch University, Australia
Prof. Shady Attia, University of Liege, Belgium
Prof. Ahmad Taher Azar, Benha University, Egypt
Dr. Magda Baborska-Narożny, Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland
Dr. Gabriele Bernardini, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Italy
Dr. Stephen Berry, University of South Australia, Australia
Prof. Frede Blaabjerg, Aalborg University, Denmark
Dr. Samuel Brunner, Empa, Switzerland
Prof. Alfonso Capozzoli, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Prof. Francesco Causone, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Dr. Boris Ceranic, University of Derby, UK
Prof. Mohammed Chadli, University of Picardie Jules Verne, France
Prof. Christopher Chao, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Dr. Fathia Chekired, UDES/CDER, Algeria
Dr. George Zhen Chen, University of Strathclyde, UK
Dr. Giacomo Chiesa, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Dr. Alfonso Chinnici, The University of Adelaide, Australia
Dr. Marta Chinnici, ENEA, Italy
Prof. Francesco Calise, Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Prof. Dulce Coelho, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, ISEC, Portugal
Dr. Stefano Cascone, University of Catania, Italy
Prof. Pooya Davari, Aalborg University, Denmark
Prof. Mohamed Djemai, Universite de Valenciennes et du Hainaut Cambresis,
France
Prof. Tomislav Dragicevic, Aalborg University, Denmark
Dr. Sonja Dragojlovic-Oliveira, University of West England, UK

v
vi International Programme Committee

Dr. Mahieddine Emziane, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi
Prof. Youssef Errami, Chouaib Doukkali University, Morocco
Prof. Najib Essounbouli, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France
Dr. Stefano Fantucci, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Dr. Fatima Farinha, Universidade do Algarve, Portugal
Dr. Tiago Miguel Ferreira, University of Minho, Portugal
Prof. Antonio Gagliano, University of Catania, Italy
Dr. Michal Ganobjak, Empa, Switzerland
Prof. George Georghiou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Dr. Elisa Di Giuseppe, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy
Dr. Cheng Siew Goh, Heriot-Watt University, Malaysia
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lars-O. Gusig, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hannover,
Germany
Prof. Mike Hoxley, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
Dr. Atif Iqbal, Qatar University, Qatar
Prof. Hong Jin, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Assoc. Prof. Mohammad Arif Kamal, Aligarh Muslim University, India
Prof. George Karani, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
Prof. Khalil Kassmi, Mohamed Premier University, Morocco
Prof. John Kinuthia, University of South Wales, UK
Prof. Denia Kolokotsa, Technical University of Crete, Greece
Prof. Sumathy Krishnan, North Dakota State University, USA
Dr. Akos Lakatos, University of Debrecen, Hungary
Dr. John Littlewood, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
Assist. Prof. Valerio Lo Verso, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Prof. Dr. Bruno Marques, Universidade Lusiada do Norte, Portugal
Prof. Antonio Gomes-Martins, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Prof. Marco Carlo Masoero, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Dr. Jasper Mbachu, Bond University, Australia
Dr. Nachida Kasbadji Merzouk, CDER, Algeria
Prof. Ahmed Mezrhab, University Mohammed First, Oujda, Morocco
Dr. Pablo Benitez Mongelos, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Mr. Jon Moorhouse, University of Liverpool, UK
Prof. Eugenio Morello, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Dr. Michele Morganti, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Prof. Nacer Kouider M’Sirdi, Laboratoire des Sciences de l’Information et des
Systèmes, France
Prof. Aziz Naamane, Aix Marseille Universite, France
Dr. Benedetto Nastasi, Tu Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Prof. Francesco Nocera, University of Catania, Italy
Mr. Emeka Efe Osaji, Leeds Beckett University, UK
Dr. Paul Osmond, University of New South Wales, Australia
Dr. Fabiana Silvero Prieto, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Prof. Abdelhamid Rabhi, MIS Amiens, France
Prof. João Ramos, Polytechnic of Leiria, Portugal
International Programme Committee vii

Prof. Carlo Renno, University of Salerno, Italy

Prof. Saffa Riffat, University of Nottingham, UK
Dr. Eric Roberts, Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd, UK
Prof. Fernanda Rodrigues, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Prof. Antonio Ruano, University of Algarve, Portugal
Dr. Atul Sagade, Renewable Energy Innovation and Research Foundation, India
Dr. Wilfried van Sark, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Assist. Prof. Francesca Scalisi, University of Palermo, Italy
Prof. Gaetano Antonio Sciuto, University of Catania, Italy
Mrs. Geraldine Seguela, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Assoc. Prof. Begum Sertyesilisik, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Dr. Anjali Sharma Krishan, Architect Planner, India
Prof. Nilkanth N.Shinde, Shivaji University, India
Dr. Marina Sokolova, Orel State University, Russia
Prof. Shyam Lal Soni, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, India
Prof. Fionn Stevenson, The University of Sheffield School of Architecture, UK
Dr. Ali Tahri, University of science and technology of Oran Mohamed Boudiaf,
Algeria
Prof. Giuseppe Marco Tina, University of Catania, Italy
Mrs. Linda Toledo, De Montfort University, UK
Prof. Paolo Tronville, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Dr. Simon Tucker, Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Mrs. Maria Unuigbe, Leeds Beckett University, UK
Prof. Romeu Vicente, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Dr. Simon Walters, University of Brighton, UK
Prof. Huai Wang, Aalborg University, Denmark
Prof. Xiongfei Wang, Aalborg University, Denmark
Dr. Jannis Wernery, Empa, Switzerland
Assoc. Prof. Sara Wilkinson, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Prof. Yongheng Yang, Aalborg University, Denmark
Prof. Geun Young Yun, Kyung Hee University, South Korea
Prof. Smail Zouggar, University Mohammed first Oujda, Morocco
Preface

The 11th International Conference on Sustainability and Energy in Buildings 2019

(SEB-19) was a major international conference held in Budapest during 4–5 July
2019 organised by KES International in partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan
University, Wales, UK.
SEB-19 invited contributions on a range of topics related to sustainable build-
ings and explored innovative themes regarding sustainable energy systems.
The aim of the conference was to bring together researchers and government and
industry professionals to discuss the future of energy in buildings, neighbourhoods
and cities from a theoretical, practical, implementation and simulation perspective.
The conference formed an exciting chance to present, interact and learn about the
latest research and practical developments on the subject.
The conference featured General Tracks chaired by experts in the field, and in
addition, 13 Invited Sessions were proposed by prominent researchers.
SEB-19 featured two keynote speakers: Philippe Moseley, Senior Project
Advisor from the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
(EASME), at the European Commission, who gave a talk entitled EU support to
decarbonise the building stock and Prof. Fernanda Rodrigues, University of Aveiro,
Portugal, who gave a talk entitled Climate Changes’ Impact on the durability and
energy performance of buildings.
The conference attracted submissions from around the world. Submissions for
the Full-Paper Track were subjected to a blind peer-review process. Only the best
of these were selected for presentation at the conference and publication in the
proceedings in a volume in the KES-Springer ‘Smart Innovation, Systems and
Technologies’ series. Submissions for the Short-Paper Track were subjected to a
‘lighter-touch’ review and may be published elsewhere.
Thanks are due to the very many people who have given their time and goodwill
freely to make SEB-19 a success. We would like to thank the members of the
International Programme Committee who were essential in providing their reviews
of the conference papers. We thank the high-profile keynote speakers for providing
interesting talks to inform delegates and provoke discussion. Important contributors

ix
x Preface

to the conference were made by the authors, presenters and delegates without whom
the conference could not have taken place, so we offer them our thanks.
It is intended that this volume provides a useful and informative snapshot of
recent research developments in the important and vibrant area of Sustainability in
Energy and Buildings.
SEB-19 Conference Chairs

Poole, UK Prof. Robert J. Howlett

Cardiff, Wales, UK Dr. John Littlewood
Turin, Italy Dr. Alfonso Capozzoli
Canberra, Australia Prof. Lakhmi C. Jain
Contents

1 The Utilisation of Smart Meter Technology to Increase Energy

Awareness for Residential Buildings in Queensland, Australia . . . . 1
Olusola Charles Akinsipe, Domagoj Leskarac, Sascha Stegen,
Diego Moya and Parasad Kaparaju
2 Impact of Building Massing on Energy Efficient School
Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Yasemin Afacan and Ali Ranjbar
3 Solar Home System with Peak-Shaving Function and Smart
Control in Hot Water Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Bin-Juine Huang, Po-Chien Hsu, Shen-Jie Sia, Min-Han Wu,
Zi-Ming Dong, Jia-Wei Wang, Ming-Jia Lee, Jen-Fu Yeh,
Min-Tso Wu, Ji-Ding Wu, Yan-An Pan, Ming-Shian Chen,
Po-Hsien Wu, Kang Li and Kung-Yen Lee
4 Influential Factors on Using Reclaimed and Recycled
Building Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Zahra Balador, Morten Gjerde and Nigel Isaacs
5 Energy and Economic Analyses for Supporting Early Design
Stages: Introducing Uncertainty in Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Giacomo Chiesa and Elena Fregonara
6 Using Evidence Accumulation-Based Clustering and Symbolic
Transformation to Group Multiple Buildings Based on Electricity
Usage Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Kehua Li, Zhenjun Ma, Duane Robinson and Jun Ma
7 Laboratory Tests of High-Performance Thermal Insulations . . . . . 73
Zsolt Kovács, Sándor Szanyi, István Budai and Ákos Lakatos

xi
xii Contents

8 A Conceptual Methodology for Estimating Embodied Carbon

Emissions of Buildings in Sri Lanka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Amalka Nawarathna, Zaid Alwan, Barry Gledson
and Nirodha Fernando
9 Suitability of Passivhaus Design for Housing Projects
in Colombia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Vincenzo Costanzo, J. E. Carrillo Gómez, Gianpiero Evola
and Luigi Marletta
10 Earth–Air Heat Exchanger Potential Under Future Climate
Change Scenarios in Nine North American Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
A. Zajch, W. Gough and G. Chiesa
11 Developing a Didactic Thermal Chamber for Building Envelope
Material Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Bechara Nehme, Fadi Moucharrafie, Tilda Akiki, Rida Nuwayhid,
Paul Abi Khattar Zgheib and Barbar Zeghondy
12 The Relationship Between the Form of Enclosed Residential
Areas and Microclimate in Severe Cold Area of China . . . . . . . . . 135
Tingkai Yan, Hong Jin and Hua Zhao
13 The Successful Introduction of Energy Efficiency in Higher
Education Institution Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Dirk V. H. K. Franco, Marijke Maes, Lieven Vanstraelen,
Miquel Casas and Marleen Schepers
14 LCA Integration in the Construction Industry: A Case Study
of a Sustainable Building in Aveiro University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Kamar Aljundi, Fernanda Rodrigues, Armando Pinto and Ana Dias
15 Standard-Based Analysis of Measurement Uncertainty
for the Determination of Thermal Conductivity of Super
Insulating Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Chiara Cucchi, Alice Lorenzati, Sebastian Treml,
Christoph Sprengard and Marco Perino
16 Field Experimental Study on Energy Performance of Aerogel
Glazings with Hollow Silica: Preliminary Results
in Mid-Season Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
C. Buratti, E. Moretti, E. Belloni, F. Merli, V. Piermatti and T. Ihara
17 ‘Zukunftsquartier’—On the Path to Plus Energy
Neighbourhoods in Vienna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Jens Leibold, Simon Schneider, Momir Tabakovic, Thomas Zelger,
Daniel Bell, Petra Schöfmann and Nadja Bartlmä
Contents xiii

18 Electrical Devices Identification Driven by Features

and Based on Machine Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Andrea Tundis, Ali Faizan and Max Mühlhäuser
19 Maslow in the Mud. Contrast Between Qualitative
and Quantitative Assessment of Thermal Performance
in Historic Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Marcin Mateusz Kołakowski
20 Hidden Building Performance Evaluation Sources:
What Can Trip Advisor and Other Informal User-Generated
Data Tell Us? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Julie Godefroy
21 Use of an Object-Oriented System for Optimizing Life Cycle
Embodied Energy and Life Cycle Material Cost of Shopping
Centres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
K. K. Weththasinghe, André Stephan, Valerie Francis
and Piyush Tiwari
22 Hygrothermal Characterization of High-Performance
Aerogel-Based Internal Plaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Stefano Fantucci, Elisa Fenoglio, Valentina Serra, Marco Perino,
Marco Dutto and Valentina Marino
23 Combining Conservation and Visitors’ Fruition for Sustainable
Building Heritage Use: Application to a Hypogeum . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Benedetta Gregorini, Michele Lucesoli, Gabriele Bernardini,
Enrico Quagliarini and Marco D’Orazio
24 Energy Savings and Summer Thermal Comfort for Retrofitted
Buildings: A Complex Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Gianpiero Evola, Luigi Marletta and Federica Avola
25 Building Energy Simulation of Traditional Listed Dwellings
in the UK: Data Sourcing for a Base-Case Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Michela Menconi, Noel Painting and Poorang Piroozfar
26 Building Insulating Materials from Agricultural By-Products:
A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Santi Maria Cascone, Stefano Cascone and Matteo Vitale
27 Energy Consumption and Retrofitting Potential of Latvian
Unclassified Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Anatolijs Borodinecs, Aleksandrs Geikins and Aleksejs Prozuments
28 Towards a User-Centered and Condition-Based Approach
in Building Operation and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Gabriele Bernardini and Elisa Di Giuseppe
xiv Contents

29 Towards a Near-Zero Energy Landmark Building

Using Building Integrated Photovoltaics: The Case
of the Van Unnik Building at Utrecht Science Park . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Wilfried van Sark and Eelke Bontekoe
30 Internal Insulation of Historic Buildings: A Stochastic Approach
to Life Cycle Costing Within RIBuild EU Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Elisa Di Giuseppe, Gianluca Maracchini, Andrea Gianangeli,
Gabriele Bernardini and Marco D’Orazio
31 Process for the Formulation of Natural Mortars Based
on the Use of a New Natural Hydraulic Binder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Santi Maria Cascone, Giuseppe Antonio Longhitano,
Renata Rapisarda and Nicoletta Tomasello
32 Assessment of the Efficiency and Reliability of the District
Heating Systems Within Different Development Scenarios . . . . . . . 371
Aleksandrs Zajacs, Anatolijs Borodiņecs and Raimonds Bogdanovičs
33 Architects’ Tactics to Embed as-Designed Performance
in the Design Process of Low Energy Non-domestic Buildings . . . . 383
Gabriela Zapata-Lancaster
34 How Much Does It Cost to Go Off-Grid with Renewables?
A Case Study of a Polygeneration System for a Neighbourhood
in Hermosillo, Mexico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Moritz Wegener, Carlos Lopez Ordóñez, Antonio Isalgué,
Anders Malmquist and Andrew Martin
35 Steps Towards an Optimal Building-Integrated Photovoltaics
(BIPV) Value Chain in the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Ernst van der Poel, Wilfried van Sark, Yael Aartsma, Erik Teunissen,
Ingrid van Straten and Arthur de Vries
36 Citizen Engagement in Energy Efficiency Retrofit of Public
Housing Buildings: A Lisbon Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Catarina Rolim and Ricardo Gomes
37 The Role of Thermal Insulation in the Architecture
of Hot Desert Climates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Carlos López-Ordóñez, Isabel Crespo Cabillo, Jaume Roset Calzada
and Helena Coch Roura
38 Performance of Different PV Array Configurations Under
Different Partial Shading Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Haider Ibrahim and Nader Anani
Contents xv

39 Automatic Thresholding for Sensor Data Gap Detection

Using Statistical Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Houda Najeh, Mahendra Pratap Singh, Stéphane Ploix, Karim Chabir
and Mohamed Naceur Abdelkrim
40 How the Position of a Root-Top One-Sided Wind Tower Affects
Its Cross-Ventilation Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Mehrnoosh Ahmadi
41 Cool Roofs with Variable Thermal Insulation: UHI Mitigation
and Energy Savings for Several Italian Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
Maurizio Detommaso, Stefano Cascone, Antonio Gagliano,
Francesco Nocera and Gaetano Sciuto
42 Green Space Factor Assessment of High-Rise Residential Areas
in Harbin, China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Ming Lu, Xuetong Wang and Jun Xing
43 Critical Review of Ageing Mechanisms and State of Health
Estimation Methods for Battery Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
K. Saqli, H. Bouchareb, M. Oudghiri and N. K. M’Sirdi
44 Climate Adaptation of “Smart City” by Assessing Bioclimatic
Comfort for UBEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
Ilya V. Dunichkin and Irina N. Ilina
45 Adaptive Design to Mitigate the Effects of UHI: The Case Study
of Piazza Togliatti in the Municipality of Scandicci . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Rosa Romano, Roberto Bologna, Giulio Hasanaj
and Maria Vittoria Arnetoli
46 The Correlation Between Urban Morphology Parameters
and Incident Solar Radiation Performance to Enhance Pedestrian
Comfort, Case Study Jeddah, Saudi Arabia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Badia Masoud, Helena Coch and Benoit Beckers
47 Active Buildings in Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Joanna Clarke, Paul Jones, John Littlewood and Dave Worsley
48 Urban Climate and Health: Two Strictly Connected Topics
in the History of Meteorology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Chiara Bertolin and Dario Camuffo
49 The Impact of Stakeholder Preferences in Multicriteria
Evaluation for the Retrofitting of Office Buildings in Italy . . . . . . . 581
Giuseppe Pinto, Alfonso Capozzoli, Marco Savino Piscitelli
and Laura Savoldi
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
determined to be present at the tragedy of to-day. Behind his chair,
in scarlet robes, are his cardinals and counsellors, with many
dignitaries besides in mitres and cowls, ranged in circles, according
to their place in the Papal body. Behind the ecclesiastics are seated,
row on row, the nobility and beauty of Rome. Plumes wave, stars
gleam, and seem to mock the frocks and cowls gathered near them,
whose wearers, however, would not exchange these mystic
garments for all the bravery that blazes around them. The vast
sweep of the Court of St. Angelo is densely occupied. Its ample floor
is covered from end to end with a closely-wedged mass of citizens,
who have come to see the spectacle. In the centre of the throng,
rising a little way over the sea of human heads, is seen a scaffold,
with an iron stake, and beside it a bundle of faggots.
A slight movement begins to be perceptible in the crowd beside
the gate. Some one is entering. The next moment a storm of hissing
and execration salutes the ear. It is plain that the person who has
just made his entrance is the object of universal dislike. The clank of
irons on the stone floor of the court, as he comes forward, tells how
heavily his limbs are loaded with fetters. He is still young; but his
face is pale and haggard with suffering. He lifts his eyes, and with
countenance undismayed surveys the vast assembly, and the dismal
apparatus that stands in the midst of it, waiting its victim. There sits
a calm courage on his brow; the serene light of deep, untroubled
peace beams in his eye. He mounts the scaffold, and stands beside
the stake. Every eye is now turned, not on the wearer of the tiara,
but on the man who is clad in the sanbenito. “Good people,” says
the martyr—​and the whole assembly keep silence—“I am come here
to die for confessing the doctrine of my Divine Master and Saviour,
Jesus Christ.” Then turning to Pius IV. he arraigned him as the
enemy of Christ, the persecutor of his people, and the Anti-Christ of
Scripture, and concluded by summoning him and all his cardinals to
answer for their cruelties and murders before the throne of the
Lamb. “At his words,” says the historian Crespin, “the people were
deeply moved, and the Pope and the cardinals gnashed their
teeth.”[93]
 group of roman peasants.

The inquisitors hastily gave the signal. The executioners came

round him, and having strangled him, they kindled the faggots, and
the flames blazing up speedily reduced his body to ashes. For once
the Pope had performed his function. With his key of fire, which he
may truly claim to carry, he had opened the celestial doors, and had
sent his poor prisoner from the dark dungeons of the Inquisition, to
dwell in the palace of the sky.
So died, or rather passed into the life eternal, Jean Louis
Paschale, the Waldensian missionary and pastor of the flock in
Calabria. His ashes were collected and thrown into the Tiber, and by
the Tiber they were borne to the Mediterranean. And this was the
grave of the preacher-martyr, whose noble bearing and undaunted
courage before the Pope himself gave added value to his splendid
testimony for the Protestant cause. Time may consume the marble,
violence or war may drag down the monumental pile;
 “The pyramids that cleave heaven’s jewelled portal;
Elëan Jove’s star-spangled dome; the tomb
Where rich Mausolus sleeps—​are not immortal.”[94]
But the tomb of the far-sounding sea to which the ashes of Paschale
were committed, with a final display of impotent rage, was a nobler
mausoleum than ever Rome raised to any of her Pontiffs.
 CHAPTER XII.

THE YEAR OF THE PLAGUE.

Peace—​Re-occupation of their Homes—​Partial Famine—​Contributions of Foreign
Churches—​Castrocaro, Governor of the Valleys—​His Treacheries and
Oppressions—​Letter of Elector Palatine to the Duke—​A Voice raised for
Toleration—​Fate of Castrocaro—​The Plague—​Awful Ravages—10,000 Deaths—​
Only Two Pastors Survive—​Ministers come from Switzerland, &c.—​Worship
conducted henceforward in French.
A whole century nearly passed away between the trampling out of
the Protestant Church in Calabria, and the next great persecution
which befel that venerable people whose tragic history we are
recording. We can touch only the more prominent of the events
which fill up the interval.
The war that La Trinita, so ingloriously for himself, had waged
against the Waldenses, ended, as we have seen, in a treaty of
peace, which was signed at Cavour on the 5th of June, 1561,
between Philip of Savoy and the deputies of the Valleys. But though
the cloud had rolled past, it had left numerous and affecting
memorials of the desolation it had inflicted. The inhabitants
descended from the mountains to exchange the weapons of war for
the spade and the pruning-knife. With steps slow and feeble the
aged and the infirm were let down into the vales, to sit once more at
noon or at eve beneath the shadow of their vines and ancestral
chestnut-trees. But, alas! how often did the tear of sorrow moisten
the eye as it marked the desolation and ruin that deformed those
scenes lately so fair and smiling! The fruit-bearing trees cut down;
vineyard and corn-field marred; hamlets burned; villages, in some
cases, a heap of ruins, all testified to the rage of the enemy who had
invaded their land. Years must pass before these deep scars could
be effaced, and the beauty of their Valleys restored. And there were
yet tender griefs weighing upon them. How many were there who
had lived under the same roof-tree with them, and joined night and
morning in the same psalm, who would return no more!
Distress, bordering on famine, began to invade the Valleys. Seven
months of incessant fighting had left them no time to cultivate the
fields; and now the stock of last year’s provisions was exhausted,
and starvation stared them in the face. Before the treaty of peace
was signed, the time of sowing was past, and when the autumn
came there was scarcely anything to reap. Their destitution was
further aggravated by the fugitives from Calabria, who began about
this time to arrive in the Valleys. Escaping with nothing but their
lives, they presented themselves in hunger and nakedness. Their
brethren opened their arms to receive them, and though their own
necessities were great, they nevertheless shared with them the little
they had.
The tale of the suffering now prevailing in the Valleys was known
in other countries, and evoked the sympathy of their Protestant
brethren. Calvin, with characteristic promptness and ardour, led in
the movement for their relief. By his advice they sent deputies to
represent their case to the Churches of Protestantism abroad, and
collections were made for them in Geneva, France, Switzerland, and
Germany. The subscriptions were headed by the Elector Palatine,
after whom came the Duke of Wurtemburg, the Canton of Bern, the
Church at Strasburg, and others.
By-and-by, seed-time and harvest were restored in the Valleys;
smiling châlets began again to dot the sides of their mountains, and
to rise by the banks of their torrents; and the miseries which La
Trinita’s campaign had entailed upon them were passing into
oblivion, when their vexations were renewed by the appointment of
a deputy-governor of their Valleys, Castrocaro, a Tuscan by birth.
 This man had served against the Vaudois as a colonel of militia
under La Trinita; he had been taken prisoner in an encounter with
them, but honourably treated, and at length generously released. He
returned the Waldenses evil for good. His appointment as Governor
of the Valleys he owed mainly to his acquaintance with the Duchess
Margaret, the protectress of the Vaudois, into whose favour he had
ingratiated himself by professing a warm affection for the men of the
Valleys; and his friendship with the Archbishop of Turin, to whom he
had pledged himself to do his utmost to convert the Vaudois to
Romanism. When at length Castrocaro arrived in the Valleys in the
character of governor, he forgot his professions to the duchess, but
faithfully set about fulfilling the promise he had made to the
archbishop.
The new governor began by restricting the liberties guaranteed to
their Churches in the treaty of peace; he next ordered the dismissal
of certain of the pastors, and when their congregations refused to
comply, he began to fine and imprison the recusants. He sent false
and calumnious reports to the court of the duke, and introduced a
troop of soldiers into the country, on the pretext that the Waldenses
were breaking out into rebellion. He built the fortress of Mirabouc, at
the foot of the Col de la Croix, in the narrow gorge that leads from
Bobbio to France, to close this gate of exit from their territory, and
overawe the Valley of Lucerna. At last he threatened to renew the
war unless the Waldenses should comply with his wishes.
What was to be done? They carried their complaints and
remonstrances to Turin; but, alas! the ear of the duke and duchess
had been poisoned by the malice and craft of the governor. Soon
again the old alternative would be presented to them, the mass or
death.[95]
In their extremity they sought the help of the Protestant princes
of Germany. The cry from the Alps found a responsive echo from the
German plains. The great Protestant chiefs of the Fatherland,
especially Frederick, Elector Palatine, saw in these poor oppressed
herdsmen and vine-dressers his brethren, and with zeal and warmth
espoused their cause. He indited a letter to the duke, distinguished
for its elevation of sentiment, as well as the catholicity of its views.
It is a noble defence of the rights of conscience, and an eloquent
pleading in behalf of toleration. “Let your highness,” says the Elector,
“know that there is a God in heaven, who not only contemplates the
actions, but also tries the hearts and reins of men, and from whom
nothing is hid. Let your highness take care not voluntarily to make
war upon God, and not to persecute Christ in his members....
Persecution, moreover, will never advance the cause it pretends to
defend. The ashes of the martyrs are the seed of the Christian
Church. For the Church resembles the palm-tree, whose stem only
shoots up the taller the greater the weights that are hung upon it.
Let your highness consider that the Christian religion was established
by persuasion, and not by violence; and as it is certain that religion
is nothing else than a firm and enlightened persuasion of God, and
of his will, as revealed in his Word, and engraven in the hearts of
believers by his Holy Spirit, it cannot, when once rooted, be torn
away by tortures.”[96] So did the Elector Palatine warn the duke.
These are remarkable words when we think that they were
written in the middle of the sixteenth century. We question whether
our own age could express itself more justly on the subject of the
rights of conscience, the spirituality of religion, and the impolicy, as
well as criminality, of persecution. We sometimes apologise for the
cruel deeds of Spain and France, on the ground of the intolerance
and blindness of the age. But six years before the St. Bartholomew
Massacre was enacted, this great voice had been raised in
Christendom for toleration.
What effect this letter had upon the duke we do not certainly
know, but from about this time Castrocaro moderated his violence,
though he still continued at intervals to terrify the poor people he so
basely oppressed by fulminating against them the most atrocious
threats. On the death of Emanuel Philibert, in 1580, the villainy of
the governor came to light. The young Duke Charles Emanuel
ordered his arrest; but the execution of it was a matter of difficulty,
for Castrocaro had entrenched himself in the Castle of La Torre, and
surrounded himself with a band of desperadoes, to which he had
added, for his yet greater defence, a pack of ferocious bloodhounds
of unusual size and strength.[97] A captain of his guard betrayed
him, and thus as he had maintained himself by treachery, so by
treachery did his doom at last overtake him. He was carried to Turin,
where he perished in prison.[98]
Famine, persecution, war—​all three, sometimes in succession and
sometimes together—​had afflicted this much-enduring people, but
now they were to be visited by pestilence. For some years they had
enjoyed an unusual peace; and this quiet was the more remarkable
inasmuch as all around their mountains Europe was in combustion.
Their brethren of the Reformed Church in France, in Spain, and in
Italy were falling on the field, perishing by massacre, or dying at the
stake, while they were guarded from harm. But now a new calamity
carried gloom and mourning into their Valleys. On the morning of
the 23rd of August, 1629, a cloud of unusual blackness gathered on
the summit of the Col Julien. It burst in a water-spout or deluge.
The torrents rolled down the mountain on both sides, and the
villages of Bobbio and Prali, situated the one in the southern and the
other in the northern valley, were overflown by the sudden
inundation. Many of the houses were swept away, and the
inhabitants had barely time to save their lives by flight. In
September of the same year, there came an icy wind, accompanied
by a dry cloud, which scathed their Valleys and destroyed the crop of
the chestnut-tree. There followed a second deluge of rain, which
completely ruined the vintage. These calamities were the more
grievous inasmuch as they succeeded a year of partial famine. The
Vaudois pastors assembled in solemn synod, to humble themselves
and to lift up their voices in prayer to God. Little did they imagine
that at that moment a still heavier calamity hung over them, and
that this was the last time they were ever to meet one another on
earth.[99]
 In 1630, a French army, under Marshal Schomberg, suddenly
occupied the Valleys. In that army were many volunteers, who had
made their escape from a virulent contagious disease then raging in
France. The weather was hot, and the seeds of the pestilence which
the army had brought with it speedily developed themselves. The
plague showed itself in the first week of May in the Valley of Perosa;
it next broke out in the more northern Valley of San Martino; and
soon it spread throughout all the Valleys. The pastors met together
to supplicate the Almighty, and to concert practical measures for
checking the ravages of this mysterious and terrible scourge. They
purchased medicine and collected provisions for the poor.[100] They
visited the sick, consoled the dying, and preached in the open air to
crowds, solemnised and eager to listen.

interior of st. john lateran, rome.

In July and August the heat was excessive, and the malady raged
yet more furiously. In the month of July four of the pastors were
carried off by the plague; in August seven others died; and in the
following month another, the twelfth, was mortally stricken. There
remained now only three pastors, and it was remarked that they
belonged to three several valleys—​Lucerna, Martino, and Perosa.
The three survivors met on the heights of Angrogna, to consult with
the deputies of the various parishes regarding the means of
providing for the celebration of worship. They wrote to Geneva and
Dauphiné requesting that pastors might be sent to supply the place
of those whom the plague had struck down, that so the venerable
Church of the Valleys, which had survived so many calamities, might
not become extinct. They also recalled Antoine Leger from
Constantinople.[101]
The plague subsided during the winter, but in spring (1631) it
rose up again in renewed force. Of the three surviving pastors, one
other died; leaving thus only two, Pierre Gilles of Lucerna, and
Valerius Gross of Martino. With the heats of the summer the
pestilence waxed in strength. Armies, going and coming in the
Valleys, suffered equally with the inhabitants. Horsemen would be
seen to drop from the saddle on the highway, seized with sudden
illness. Soldiers and sutlers, struck in by-paths, lay there infecting
the air with their corpses. In La Torre alone fifty families became
extinct. The most moderate estimate of the numbers cut off by the
plague is 10,000, or from a half to two-thirds of the entire
population of the Valleys. The corn in many places remained uncut,
the grapes rotted on the bough, and the fruit dropped from the tree.
Strangers who had come to find health in the pure mountain air
obtained from the soil nothing but a grave. Towns and villages,
which had rung so recently from the sounds of industry, were now
silent. Parents were without children, and children were without
parents. Patriarchs, who had been wont with pride and joy to gather
round them their numerous grandchildren, had seen them sicken
and die, and were now alone. The venerable pastor Gilles lost his
four elder sons. Though continually present in the homes of the
stricken, and at the bedsides of the dying, he himself was spared to
compile the monuments of his ancient Church, and narrate among
other woes that which had just passed over his native land, and
“part of which he had been.”
 Of the Vaudois pastors only two now remained; and ministers
hastened from Geneva and other places to the Valleys, lest the old
lamp should go out. The services of the Waldensian Churches had
hitherto been performed in the Italian tongue, but the new pastors
could speak only French. Worship was henceforward conducted in
that language, but the Vaudois soon came to understand it, their
own ancient tongue being a dialect between the French and Italian.
Another change introduced at this time was the assimilation of their
ritual to that of Geneva. And further, the primitive and affectionate
name of Barba was dropped, and the modern title substituted,
Monsieur le Ministre.[102]
 CHAPTER XIII.

THE GREAT MASSACRE.

Preliminary Attacks—​The Propaganda de Fide—​Marchioness de Pianeza—​
Gastaldo’s Order—​Its Barbarous Execution—​Greater Sorrows—​Perfidy of
Pianeza—​The Massacring Army—​Its Attack and Repulse—​Treachery—​The
Massacre Begins—​Its Horrors—​Modes of Torture—​Individual Martyrs—​Leger
collects Evidence on the Spot—​He Appeals to the Protestant States—​
Interposition of Cromwell—​Mission of Sir Samuel Morland—​A Martyr’s
Monument.
The first labour of the Waldenses, on the departure of the plague,
was the re-organisation of society. There was not a house in all their
Valleys where death had not been; all ties had been rent, the family
was all but extinct; but now, the destroyer being gone, the scattered
inhabitants began to draw together, and to join hand and heart in
restoring the ruined churches, raising up the fallen habitations, and
creating anew family and home.
Other events of an auspicious kind, which occurred at this time,
contributed to revive the spirits of the Waldenses, and to brighten
with a gleam of hope the scene of the recent great catastrophe. The
army took its departure, peace having been signed between the
French monarch and the duke, and the Valleys returned once more
under the dominion of the House of Savoy. A decade and a half of
comparative tranquillity allowed the population to root itself anew,
and their Valleys and mountain-sides to be brought again under
tillage. Fifteen years—​how short a breathing-space amid storms so
awful!
 These fifteen years draw to a close; it is now 1650, and the
Vaudois are entering within the shadow of their greatest woe. The
throne of Savoy was at this time filled by Charles Emmanuel II., a
youth of fifteen. He was a prince of mild and humane disposition;
but he was counselled and ruled by his mother, the Duchess
Christina, who had been appointed regent of the kingdom during his
minority. That mother was sprung of a race which has ever been
noted for its dissimulation, its cruelty, and its bigoted devotion to
Rome. She was the daughter of Henry IV. and Mary de Medici, and
granddaughter of that Catherine de Medici whose name stands so
conspicuously connected with a tragedy which has received, as it
merited, the execration of mankind—​the St. Bartholomew Massacre.
The ferocious temper and gloomy superstition of the grandmother
had descended to the granddaughter. In no reign did the tears and
blood of the Waldenses flow so profusely, a fact for which we cannot
satisfactorily account, unless on the supposition that the sufferings
which now overwhelmed them came not from the mild prince who
occupied the throne, but from the cold, cruel, and bloodthirsty
regent who governed the kingdom. In short, there is reason to
believe that it was not the facile spirit of the House of Savoy, but the
astute spirit of the Medici, prompted by the Vatican, that enacted
those scenes of carnage that we are now to record.
The blow did not descend all at once; a series of lesser attacks
heralded the great and consummating stroke. Machinations,
chicaneries, and legal robberies paved the way for an extermination
that was meant to be complete and final.
First of all came the monks. Pestilence, as we have seen, visited
the Valleys in 1630. There came, however, a second plague—​not this
time the pestilence, but a swarm of Capuchins. They had been sent
to convert the heretics, and they began by eagerly challenging the
pastors to a controversy, in which they felt sure of triumphing. A few
attempts, however, convinced them that victory was not to be so
easily won as they had fondly thought. The heretics made “a Pope of
their Bible,” they complained, and as this was a book which the
Fathers had not studied, they did not know where to find the
passages which they were sure would confute the Vaudois pastors;
they could silence them only by banishing them, and among others
whom they drove into exile was the accomplished Antoine Leger, the
uncle of the historian. Thus were the people deprived of their natural
leaders.[103] The Vaudois were forbidden on pain of confiscation and
death to purchase or farm lands outside their own narrow territories.
Certain of their churches were closed. Their territory was converted
into a prison by an order forbidding them to cross the frontier even
for a few hours, unless on fair-days. The wholly Protestant
communes of Bobbio, Villaro, Angrogna, and Rora were ordered to
maintain each a mission of Capuchins; and foreign Protestants were
interdicted from settling in the Valleys under pain of death, and a
fine of 1,000 gold crowns upon the communes that should receive
them. This law was levelled against their pastors, who, since the
plague, were mostly French or Swiss. It was hoped that in a few
years the Vaudois would be without ministers. Monts-de-Piété were
established to induce the Vaudois, whom confiscations, bad
harvests, and the billeting of soldiers had reduced to great straits, to
pawn their goods, and when all had been put in pledge they were
offered restitution in full on condition of renouncing their faith.
Dowries were promised to young maidens on the same terms.[104]
These various arts had a success surprisingly small. Some dozen of
Waldensian perverts were added to the Roman Church. It was plain
that the good work of proselytising was proceeding too slowly. More
efficient measures must be had recourse to.
The Society for the “Propagation of the Faith,” established by
Pope Gregory XV. in 1622, had already been spread over Italy and
France. The object of the society was originally set forth in words
sufficiently simple and innocent—“De Propagandâ Fide” (for the
Propagation of the Faith). Since the first institution of this society,
however, its object had undergone enlargement, or, if not its object,
at all events its title. Its first modern designation was supplemented
by the emphatic words, “et Extirpandis Hæreticis” (and the
Extirpation of Heretics). The membership of the society soon
became numerous: it included both laymen and priests; all ranks,
from the noble and the prelate to the peasant and the pauper,
pressed forward to enrol themselves in it—​the inducement being a
plenary indulgence to all who should take part in the good work so
unmistakably indicated in the one brief and pithy clause, “et
Extirpandis Hæreticis.” The societies in the smaller towns reported to
the metropolitan cities; the metropolitan cities to the capital; and the
capitals to Rome, where, in the words of Leger, “sat the great spider
that held the threads of this mighty web.”
In 1650 the “Council of the Propagation of the Faith” was
established at Turin. The chief councillors of state, the great lords of
the country, and the dignitaries of the Church enrolled themselves as
a presiding board. Societies of women were formed, at the head of
which was the Marchioness de Pianeza. She was the first lady at
court; and as she had not worn “the white rose of a blameless life,”
she was all the more zealous in this cause, in the hope of making
expiation for the errors of the past. She was at infinite pains to
further the object of the society; and her own eager spirit she
infused into all under her. “The lady propagandists,” says Leger,[105]
“distributed the towns into districts, and each visited the district
assigned to her twice a week, suborning simple girls, servant maids,
and young children by their flattering allurements and fair promises,
and doing evil turns to such as would not listen to them. They had
their spies everywhere, who, among other information, ascertained
in what Protestant families disagreement existed, and hither would
the propagandists repair, stirring up the flame of dissension in order
to separate the husband from the wife, the wife from the husband,
the children from the parents; promising them, and indeed giving
them, great advantages, if they would consent to attend mass. Did
they hear of a tradesman whose business was falling off, or of a
gentleman who from gambling or otherwise was in want of money,
these ladies were at hand with their Dabo tibi (I will give thee), on
condition of apostacy; and the prisoner was in like manner relieved
from his dungeon, who would give himself up to them. To meet the
very heavy expenses of this proselytising, to keep the machinery at
work, to purchase the souls that sold themselves for bread, regular
collections were made in the chapels, and in private families, in the
shops, in the inns, in the gambling-houses, in the streets—​
everywhere was alms-begging in operation. The Marchioness of
Pianeza herself, great lady as she was, used every second or third
day to make a circuit in search of subscriptions, even going into the
taverns for that purpose.... If any person of condition, who was
believed able to contribute a coin, chanced to arrive at any hotel in
town, these ladies did not fail to wait upon him, purse in hand, and
solicit a donation. When persons of substance known to belong to
the religion [Reformed] arrived in Turin, they did not scruple to ask
money of them for the propagation of the faith, and the influence of
the marchioness, or fear of losing their errand and ruining their
affairs, would often induce such to comply.”
While busied in the prosecution of these schemes the
Marchioness de Pianeza was stricken with death. Feeling remorse,
and wishing to make atonement, she summoned her lord, from
whom she had been parted many years, to her bedside, and
charged him, as he valued the repose of her soul and the safety of
his own, to continue the good work, on which her heart had been so
much set, of converting the Vaudois. To stimulate his zeal, she
bequeathed him a sum of money, which, however, he could not
touch till he had fulfilled the condition on which it was granted. The
marquis undertook the task with the utmost goodwill.[106] A bigot
and a soldier, he could think of only one way of converting the
Vaudois. It was now that the storm burst.
On the 25th of January, 1655, came the famous order of
Gastaldo. This decree commanded all the Vaudois families domiciled
in the communes of Lucerna, Fenile, Bubiana, Bricherasio, San
Giovanni, and La Torre—​in short, the whole of that rich district that
separates their capital from the plain of Piedmont—​to quit their
dwellings within three days, and retire into the Valleys of Bobbio,
Angrogna, and Rora. This they were to do on pain of death. They
were further required to sell their lands to Romanists within twenty
days. Those who were willing to abjure the Protestant faith were
exempted from the decree.
Anything more inhuman and barbarous under the circumstances
than this edict it would not be easy to imagine. It was the depth of
winter, and an Alpine winter has terrors unknown to the winters of
even more northern regions. How ever could a population like that
on which the decree fell, including young children and old men, the
sick and bed-ridden, the blind and the lame, undertake a journey
across swollen rivers, through valleys buried in snow, and over
mountains covered with ice? They must inevitably perish, and the
edict that cast them out was but another form of condemning them
to die of cold and hunger. “Pray ye,” said Christ, when warning his
disciples to flee when they should see the Roman armies gathering
round Jerusalem, “pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.” The
Romish Propaganda at Turin chose this season for the enforced flight
of the Vaudois. Cold were the icy peaks that looked down on this
miserable troop, who were now fording the torrents and now
struggling up the mountain tracks; but the heart of the persecutor
was colder still. True, an alternative was offered them; they might go
to mass. Did they avail themselves of it? The historian Leger informs
us that he had a congregation of wellnigh 2,000 persons, and that
not a man of them all accepted the alternative. “I can well bear
them this testimony,” he observes, “seeing I was their pastor for
eleven years, and I knew every one of them by name; judge, reader,
whether I had not cause to weep for joy, as well as for sorrow, when
I saw that all the fury of these wolves was not able to influence one
of these lambs, and that no earthly advantage could shake their
constancy. And when I marked the traces of their blood on the snow
and ice over which they had dragged their lacerated limbs, had I not
cause to bless God that I had seen accomplished in their poor bodies
what remained of the measure of the sufferings of Christ, and
especially when I beheld this heavy cross borne by them with a
fortitude so noble?”[107]
 The Vaudois of the other valleys welcomed these poor exiles, and
joyfully shared with them their own humble and scanty fare. They
spread the table for all, and loaded it with polenta and roasted
chestnuts, with the milk and butter of their mountains, to which they
did not forget to add a cup of that red wine which their valleys
produce.[108] Their enemies were amazed when they saw the whole
community rise up as one man and depart.
Greater woes trod fast upon the heels of this initial calamity. A
part only of the Vaudois nation had suffered from the cruel decree of
Gastaldo; but the fixed object of the Propaganda was the extirpation
of the entire race, and the matter was gone about with consummate
perfidy and deliberate cruelty. From the upper valleys, to which they
had retired, the Waldenses sent respectful representations to the
court of Turin. They described their piteous condition in terms so
moving—​and it would have been hard to have exaggerated it—​and
besought the fulfilment of treaties in which the honour and truth of
the House of Savoy were pledged, in language so temperate and
just, that one would have thought that their supplication must needs
prevail. Alas, no! The ear of their prince had been poisoned by
falsehood. Even access to him was denied them. As regarded the
Propaganda, their remonstrances, though accompanied with tears
and groans, were wholly unheeded. The Vaudois were but charming
deaf adders. They were put off with equivocal answers and delusive
promises till the fatal 17th of April had arrived, when it was no
longer necessary to dissemble and equivocate.[109]
On the day above named, April 17th, 1655, the Marquis de
Pianeza departed secretly at midnight from Turin, and appeared
before the Valleys at the head of an army of 15,000 men.[110]
Waldensian deputies were by appointment knocking at the door of
the marquis in Turin, while he himself was on the road to La Torre.
He appeared under the walls of that town at eight o’clock on
Saturday evening, the same 17th of April, attended by about 300
men; the main body of his army he had left encamped on the plain.
That army, secretly prepared, was composed of Piedmontese,
comprising a good many banditti, who were promised pardon and
plunder should they behave themselves well, some companies of
Bavarians, six regiments of French, whose thirst for blood the
Huguenot wars had not been able to slake, and several companies of
Irish Romanists, who, banished by Cromwell, arrived in Piedmont
dripping from the massacre of their Protestant fellow-subjects in
their native land.[111]
The Waldenses had hastily constructed a barricade at the
entrance of La Torre. The marquis ordered his soldiers to storm it;
but the besieged resisted so stoutly that, after three hours’ fighting,
the enemy found he had made no advance. At one o’clock on the
Sunday morning, Count Amadeus of Lucerna, who knew the locality,
made a flank movement along the banks of the Pelice, stole silently
through the meadows and orchards, and, advancing from the
opposite quarter, attacked the Vaudois in the rear. They faced round,
pierced the ranks of their assailants, and made good their retreat to
the hills, leaving La Torre in the hands of the enemy. The Vaudois
had lost only three men in all that fighting. It was now between two
and three o’clock on Sunday morning, and though the hour was
early, the Romanists repaired in a body to the church and chanted a
Te Deum.[112] The day was Palm-Sunday, and in this fashion did the
Roman Church, by her soldiers, celebrate that great festival of love
and goodwill in the Waldensian Valleys.
The Vaudois were once more on their mountains. Their families
had been previously transported to their natural fastnesses. Their
sentinels kept watch night and day along the frontier heights. They
could see the movements of Pianeza’s army on the plains beneath.
They beheld their orchards falling by the axes, and their dwellings
being consumed by the torches of the soldiers. On Monday the 19th,
and Tuesday the 20th, a series of skirmishes took place along the
line of their mountain passes and forts. The Vaudois, though poorly
armed and vastly outnumbered—​for they were but as one to a
hundred—​were victorious on all points. The Popish soldiers fell back
in ignominious rout, carrying wondrous tales of the Vaudois’ valour
and heroism to their comrades on the plain, and infusing incipient
panic into the camp.[113]
Guilt is ever cowardly. Pianeza now began to have misgivings
touching the issue. The recollection that mighty armies had
aforetime perished on these mountains haunted and disquieted him.
He betook him to a weapon which the Waldenses have ever been
less able to cope with than the sword. On Wednesday, the 21st,
before daybreak, he announced, by sound of trumpet at the various
Vaudois entrenchments, his willingness to receive their deputies and
treat for peace. Delegates set out for his camp, and on their arrival
at head-quarters were received with the utmost urbanity, and
sumptuously entertained. Pianeza expressed the utmost regret for
the excesses his soldiers had committed, and which had been done,
he said, contrary to orders. He protested that he had come into their
valleys only to track a few fugitives who had disobeyed Gastaldo’s
order, that the higher communes had nothing to fear, and that if
they would admit a single regiment each for a few days, in token of
their loyalty, all would be amicably ended. The craft of the man
conquered the deputies, and despite the warnings of the more
sagacious, the pastor Leger in particular, the Waldenses opened the
passes of their valleys and the doors of their dwellings to the
soldiers of Pianeza.
Alas! alas! these poor people were undone. They had received
under their roof the murderers of themselves and their families. The
first two days, the 22nd and 23rd of April, were passed in
comparative peace, the soldiers eating at the same table, sleeping
under the same roof, and conversing freely with their destined
victims. This interval was needed to allow every preparation to be
made for what was to follow. The enemy now occupied the towns,
the villages, the cottages, and the roads throughout the valleys.
They hung upon the heights. Two great passes led into France: the
one over the snows of the lofty Col Julien, and the other by the
Valley of Queyras into Dauphiné. But, alas! escape was not possible
by either outlet. No one could traverse the Col Julien at this season
and live, and the fortress of Mirabouc, that guarded the narrow
gorge which led into the Valley of Queyras, the enemy had been
careful to secure.[114] The Vaudois were enclosed as in a net—​shut
in as in a prison.
At last the blow fell with the sudden crash of the thunderbolt. At
four o’clock on the morning of Saturday, the 24th of April, 1655, the
signal was given from the castle-hill of La Torre.[115] But who shall
rehearse the tragedy that followed? “It is Cain a second time,” says
Monastier, “shedding the blood of his brother Abel.”[116] On the
instant a thousand assassins began the work of death. Dismay,
horror, agony, woe in a moment overspread the Valleys of Lucerna
and Angrogna. Though Pandemonium had sent forth its fiends to riot
in crime and revel in blood, they could not have outdone the soldiers
of the Propaganda. Though the victims climbed the hills with what
speed they could, the murderer was on their track. The torrents as
they rolled down from the heights soon began to be tinged with
blood. Gleams of lurid light burst out through the dark smoke that
was rolling through the vales, for a priest and monk accompanied
each party of soldiers, to set fire to the houses as soon as the
inmates had been dispatched. Alas! what sounds are those that
repeatedly strike the ear? The cries and groans of the dying were
echoed and re-echoed from the rocks around, and it seemed as if
the mountains had taken up a wailing for the slaughter of their
children. “Our Valley of Lucerna,” exclaims Leger, “which was like a
Goshen, was now converted into a Mount Etna, darting forth cinders
and fire and flames. The earth resembled a furnace, and the air was
filled with a darkness like that of Egypt, which might be felt, from
the smoke of towns, villages, temples, mansions, granges, and
buildings, all burning in the flames of the Vatican.”[117]
The soldiers were not content with the quick dispatch of the
sword, they invented new and hitherto unheard-of modes of torture
and death. No man at this day dare write in plain words all the
disgusting and horrible deeds of these men; their wickedness can
never be all known, because it never can be all told.
 From the awful narration of Leger, we select only a few instances;
but even these few, however mildly stated, grow, without our
intending it, into a group of horrors. Little children were torn from
the arms of their mothers, clasped by their tiny feet, and their heads
dashed against the rocks; or were held between two soldiers and
their quivering limbs torn up by main force. Their mangled bodies
were then thrown on the highways or fields, to be devoured by
beasts. The sick and the aged were burned alive in their dwellings.
Some had their hands and arms and legs lopped off, and fire applied
to the severed parts to staunch the bleeding and prolong their
suffering. Some were flayed alive, some were roasted alive, some
disembowelled; or tied to trees in their own orchards, and their
hearts cut out. Some were horribly mutilated, and of others the
brains were boiled and eaten by these cannibals. Some were
fastened down into the furrows of their own fields, and ploughed
into the soil as men plough manure into it. Others were buried alive.
Fathers were marched to death with the heads of their sons
suspended round their necks. Parents were compelled to look on
while their children were first outraged, then massacred, before
being themselves permitted to die. But here we must stop. We
cannot proceed farther in Leger’s awful narration. There come vile,
abominable, and monstrous deeds, utterly and overwhelmingly
disgusting, horrible and fiendish, which we dare not transcribe. The
heart sickens, and the brain begins to swim. “My hand trembles,”
says Leger, “so that I scarce can hold the pen, and my tears mingle
in torrents with my ink, while I write the deeds of these children of
darkness—​blacker even than the Prince of Darkness himself.”[118]
No general account, however awful, can convey so correct an
idea of the horrors of this persecution as would the history of
individual cases; but this we are precluded from giving. Could we
take these martyrs one by one—​could we describe the tragical fate
of Peter Simeon of Angrogna—​the barbarous death of Magdalene,
wife of Peter Pilon of Villaro—​the sad story—​but no, that story could
not be told—​of Anne, daughter of John Charbonier of La Torre—​the
cruel martyrdom of Paul Garnier of Rora, whose eyes were first
plucked out, who next endured other horrible indignities, and, last of
all, was flayed alive, and his skin, divided into four parts, extended
on the window gratings of the four principal houses in Lucerna—​
could we describe these cases, with hundreds of others equally
horrible and appalling, our narrative would grow so harrowing that
our readers, unable to proceed, would turn from the page. Literally
did the Waldenses suffer all the things of which the apostle speaks,
as endured by the martyrs of old, with other torments not then
invented, or which the rage of even a Nero shrank from inflicting:
—“They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were
slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-
skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was
not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in
dens, and caves of the earth.”
 the entrance to la torre.

These cruelties form a scene that is unparalleled and unique in

the history of at least civilised countries. There have been tragedies
in which more blood was spilt and more life sacrificed, but none in
which the actors were so completely dehumanised, and the forms of
suffering so monstrously disgusting, so unutterably cruel and
revolting. The Piedmontese Massacres in this respect stand alone.
They are more fiendish than all the atrocities and murders before or
since, and Leger may still advance his challenge to “all travellers,
and all who have studied the history of ancient and modern pagans,
whether among the Chinese, Tartars and Turks, they ever witnessed
or heard tell of such execrable perfidies and barbarities.”
 The authors of these deeds, thinking it may be that their very
atrocity would make the world slow to believe them, made bold to
deny that they had ever been done, even before the blood was well
dry in the Valleys. Pastor Leger took instant and effectual means to
demonstrate the falsehood of that denial, and to provide that clear,
irrefragable, and indubitable proof of these awful crimes should go
down to posterity. He travelled from commune to commune,
immediately after the massacre, attended by notaries, who took
down the depositions and attestations of the survivors and
eyewitnesses of these deeds, in presence of the council and
consistory of the place.[119] From the evidence of these witnesses
he compiled and gave to the world a book, which Dr. Gilly truly
characterised as one of the most “dreadful” in existence.[120] The
originals of these depositions Leger gave to Sir Samuel Morland, who
deposited them, together with other valuable documents pertaining
to the Waldenses, in the Library of the University of Cambridge.
Uncontrollable grief seized the hearts of the survivors at the sight
of their brethren slain, their country devastated, and their Church
overthrown. “Oh that my head were waters,” exclaims Leger, “and
mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for
the slain of the daughter of my people! Behold and see if there be
any sorrow like unto my sorrow.” “It was then,” he adds, “that the
fugitives, who had been snatched as brands from the burning, could
address God in the words of the 79th Psalm, which literally as
emphatically describes their condition:—
“‘O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritances,
Thy holy temple have they defiled;
They have laid Jerusalem on heaps.
The dead bodies of thy servants have they given
To be meat unto the fowls of heaven,
The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth,
Their blood have they shed like water; ...
And there was none to bury them!’”[121]
 When the storm had abated, Leger assembled the scattered
survivors, in order to take counsel with them as to the steps to be
now taken. It does not surprise us to find that some had begun to
entertain the idea of abandoning the Valleys altogether. Leger
strongly dissuaded them against the thought of forsaking their
ancient inheritance. They must, he said, rebuild their Zion in the
faith that the God of their fathers would not permit the Church of
the Valleys to be finally overthrown. To encourage them, he
undertook to lay a representation of their sufferings and broken
condition before their brethren of other countries, who, he was sure,
would hasten to their help at this great crisis. These counsels
prevailed. “Our tears are no longer of water,” so wrote the remnant
of the slaughtered Vaudois to the Protestants of Europe, “they are of
blood; they do not merely obscure our sight, they choke our very
hearts. Our hands tremble and our heads ache by the many blows
we have received. We cannot frame an epistle answerable to the
intent of our minds, and the strangeness of our desolations. We pray
you to excuse us, and to collect amid our groans the meaning of
what we fain would utter.” After this touching introduction, they
proceeded with a representation of their state, expressing
themselves in terms the moderation of which contrasts strongly with
the extent of their wrongs. Protestant Europe was horror-struck
when it heard of the massacre.
Nowhere did these awful tidings awaken a deeper sympathy or
kindle a stronger indignation than in England. Cromwell, who was
then at the head of the State, proclaimed a fast, ordered a collection
for the sufferers,[122] and wrote to all the Protestant princes, and to
the King of France, with the intent of enlisting their sympathy and
aid in behalf of the Vaudois. One of the noblest as well as most
sacred of the tasks ever undertaken by the great poet, who then
acted as the Protector’s Latin secretary, was the writing of these
letters. Milton’s pen was not less gloriously occupied when writing in
behalf of these venerable sufferers for conscience’ sake, than when
writing “Paradise Lost.” In token of the deep interest he took in this
affair, Cromwell sent Sir Samuel Morland with a letter to the Duke of
Savoy, expressive of the astonishment and sorrow he felt at the
barbarities which had been committed on those who were his
brethren in the faith. Cromwell’s ambassador visited the Valleys on
his way to Turin, and saw with his own eyes the frightful spectacle
which the region still presented. “If,” said he, addressing the duke,
the horrors he had just seen giving point to his eloquence, and
kindling his republican plainness into Puritan fervour, “If the tyrants
of all times and ages were alive again, they would doubtless be
ashamed to find that nothing barbarous nor inhuman, in comparison
of these deeds, had ever been invented by them. In the meantime,”
he continued, “the angels are stricken with horror; men are dizzy
with amazement; heaven itself appears astonished with the cries of
the dying, and the very earth to blush with the gore of so many
innocent persons. Avenge not thyself, O God, for this mighty
wickedness, this parricidal slaughter! Let thy blood, O Christ, wash
out this blood!”[123]
We have repeatedly mentioned the Castelluzzo in our narrative of
this people and their many martyrdoms. It is closely connected with
the Massacre of 1655, and as such kindled the muse of Milton. It
stands at the entrance of the Valleys, its feet swathed in feathery
woods; above which is a mass of débris and fallen rocks, which
countless tempests have gathered like a girdle round its middle.
From amidst these the supreme column shoots up, pillar-like, and
touches that white cloud which is floating past in mid-heaven. One
can see a dark spot on the face of the cliff just below the crowning
rocks of the summit. It would be taken for the shadow of a passing
cloud upon the mountain, were it not that it is immovable. That is
the mouth of a cave so roomy, it is said, as to be able to contain
some hundreds. To this friendly chamber the Waldenses were wont
to flee when the valley beneath was a perfect Pandemonium,
glittering with steel, red with crime, and ringing with execrations and
blasphemies. To this cave many of the Vaudois fled on occasion of
the great massacre. But, alas! thither the persecutor tracked them,
and dragging them forth rolled them down the awful precipice.
 The law that indissolubly links great crimes with the spot where
they were perpetrated, has written the Massacre of 1655 on this
mountain, and given it in eternal keeping to its rock. There is not
another such martyrs’ monument in the whole world. While the
Castelluzzo stands the memory of this great crime cannot die;
through all the ages it will continue to cry, and that cry our sublimest
poet has interpreted in his sublime sonnet:—
“Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipt stocks and stones,
Forget not: in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll’d
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To heaven. Their martyr’d blood and ashes sow
O’er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
The triple tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who having learned Thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.”
 CHAPTER XIV.

EXPLOITS OF GIANAVELLO—​MASSACRE AND

PILLAGE OF RORA.
Ascent of La Combe—​Beauty and Grandeur of Valley of Rora—​Gianavello—​His
Character—​Marquis de Pianeza—​His First Assault—​Brave Repulse—​Treachery
of the Marquis—​No Faith with Heretics—​Gianavello’s Band—​Repulse of Second
and Third Attacks—​Death of a Persecutor—​An Army raised to invade Rora—​
Massacre and Pillage—​Letter of Pianeza—​Gianavello’s Heroic Reply—​
Gianavello renews the War—500 against 15,000—​Success of the Waldenses—​
Horror at the Massacre—​Interposition of England—​Letter of Cromwell—​Treaty
of Peace.
The next tragic episode in the history of the Waldenses takes us to
the Valley of Rora. The invasion and outrages of which this valley
became the scene were contemporaneous with the horrors of the
great massacre. In what we are now to relate, feats of heroism are
blended with deeds of suffering, and we are called to admire the
valour of the patriot, as well as the patience of the martyr.
The Valley of Rora lies on the left as one enters La Torre; it is
separated from Lucerna by a barrier of mountains. Rora has two
entrances: one by a side ravine, which branches off about two miles
before reaching La Torre, and the other by crossing the Valley of
Lucerna and climbing the mountains. This last is worthy of being
briefly described. We start, let us suppose, from the town of La
Torre; we skirt the Castelluzzo on the right, which high in air hangs
its precipices, with their many tragic memories, above us. From this
point we turn to the left, descend into the valley, traverse its bright
meadows, here shaded by the vine which stretches its arms in
classic freedom from tree to tree. We cross the torrent of the Pelice
by a small bridge, and hold on our way till we reach the foot of the
mountains of La Combe, that wall in the Valley of Rora. We begin to
climb by a winding path. Pasturage and vineyard give place to
chestnut forest; the chestnut in its turn yields to the pine; and, as
we mount still higher, we find ourselves amid the naked ledges of
the mountain, with their gushing rills, margined by moss or other
Alpine herbage.
An ascent of two hours brings us to the summit of the pass. We
have here a pedestal, some 4,000 feet in height, in the midst of a
stupendous amphitheatre of Alps, from which to view their glories.
How profoundly deep the valley from which we have just climbed
up! A thread of silver is now the Pelice; a patch of green a few
inches square is now the meadow; the chestnut-tree is a mere dot,
hardly visible; and yonder are La Torre and the white Villaro, so tiny
that they look as if they could be packed into a child’s toy-box.
But while all else has diminished, the mountains seem to have
enlarged their bulk and increased their stature. High above us
towers the summit of the Castelluzzo; still higher rise the rolling
masses of the Vandalin, the lower slopes of which form a vast and
magnificent hanging garden, utterly dwarfing those which were
among the wonders of Babylon. And in the far distance the eye rests
on a tumultuous sea of mountains, here rising in needles, there
running off in long serrated ridges, and there standing up in massive
peaks of naked granite, wearing the shining garments which winter
weaves for the giants of the Alps.
We now descend into the Valley of Rora. It lies at our feet, a cup
of verdure, some sixty miles in circumference, its sides and bottom
variously clothed with corn-field and meadow, with vineyard and
orchard, with the walnut, the cherry, and all fruit-bearing trees, from
amid which numerous brown châlets peep out. The great mountains
sweep round the valley like a wall, and among them, pre-eminent in
glory as in stature, stands the monarch of the Cottian Alps—​Monte
Viso.
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebookmass.com