Pontic Steppe
90-638: The Zavattari were a family of Italian painters active in Lombardy from the 14th to the 16th century. Cristoforo and Franceschino Zavattari are known as collaborators to the decoration of the Duomo of Milan in the early 15th century. The family's masterwork are the frescoes in the Theodelinda Chapel in the Cathedral of Monza , work by Ambrogio and Gregorio Zavattari (1444). Unusually in fresco,
180-667: A common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the Nordic Bronze Age . The Proto-Germanic language developed in southern Scandinavia (Denmark, south Sweden and southern Norway) and the northern-most part of Germany in Schleswig Holstein and northern Lower Saxony, the Urheimat (original home) of the Germanic tribes. It is possible that Indo-European speakers first arrived in southern Scandinavia with
270-432: A dialect of Proto-Indo-European that had lost its laryngeals and had five long and six short vowels as well as one or two overlong vowels. The consonant system was still that of PIE minus palatovelars and laryngeals, but the loss of syllabic resonants already made the language markedly different from PIE proper. Mutual intelligibility might have still existed with other descendants of PIE, but it would have been strained, and
360-475: A larger scope of linguistic developments, spanning the Nordic Bronze Age and Pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe (second to first millennia BC) to include "Pre-Germanic" (PreGmc), "Early Proto-Germanic" (EPGmc) and "Late Proto-Germanic" (LPGmc). While Proto-Germanic refers only to the reconstruction of the most recent common ancestor of Germanic languages, the Germanic parent language refers to
450-555: A late stage. The early stage includes the stress fixation and resulting "spontaneous vowel-shifts" while the late stage is defined by ten complex rules governing changes of both vowels and consonants. By 250 BC Proto-Germanic had branched into five groups of Germanic: two each in the West and the North and one in the East. The following changes are known or presumed to have occurred in
540-521: A merchant or banker from northern Italy, for example Lombard Street, London . The name "Lombardy" came to denote the whole of northern Italy until the 15th century and sometimes later. From the 14th century onward, the instability created by the internal and external struggles ended in the creation of noble seigniories , the most significant of whom were the Viscontis (later Sforzas ) in Milan and of
630-574: A significant boom due to improved trading, sartorial manufacturing of silk and wool, and agricultural conditions; arms manufacturing for the purpose of defensive army development, by the German imperial divisions of Guelphs ( Welfen ) defending the Pope and Ghibellins ( Wibellingen ) defending the Emperor, became a significant factor. As in other areas of Italy, this led to a growing self-acknowledgement of
720-462: Is an administrative region of Italy that covers 23,844 km (9,206 sq mi); it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is located between the Alps mountain range and tributaries of the river Po , and includes Milan , its capital, the largest metropolitan area in the country, and among
810-696: Is bordered by Canton Ticino and Canton Grisons of Switzerland to the north, and by the Italian regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto to the east, Emilia-Romagna to the south and Piedmont to the west. Lombardy's northern border is between the Valtellina and the valleys of the Rhine and the Inn . To the east, Lake Garda and the Mincio separate Lombardy from the other Italian regions, as does
900-625: Is foundational to Italy in the Middle Ages . The term was also used until around 965 in the form Λογγοβαρδία ( Longobardia ) as the name for the territory roughly covering modern Apulia, which the Byzantines had recovered from the Lombard rump state Duchy of Benevento . Lombardy has a surface area of 23,861 km (9,213 sq mi), and is the fourth-largest region of Italy after Sicily , Piedmont and Sardinia . It
990-807: Is largely a matter of convention. The first coherent text recorded in a Germanic language is the Gothic Bible , written in the later fourth century in the East Germanic variety of the Thervingi Gothic Christians , who had escaped persecution by moving from Scythia to Moesia in 348. Early West Germanic text is available from the fifth century, beginning with the Frankish Bergakker runic inscription . The evolution of Proto-Germanic from its ancestral forms, beginning with its ancestor Proto-Indo-European , began with
SECTION 10
#17327905519841080-570: Is mainly humid subtropical ( Köppen Cfa), especially in the plains, though with significant variations to the Köppen model, especially in the normally long, damp, and cold winters. There is high seasonal temperature variation; in Milan, the average temperature is 2.5 °C (36.5 °F) in January and 24 °C (75 °F) in July. The plains are often subject to fog during the coldest months. In
1170-565: Is of more recent origin; formed by the deposit of detrital material on the continental shelf, coming from the erosion caused by surface waters, which accompanied the lifting of the Alpine chain, which rose to the west and north of the plain, and of the Apennine chain to the south, which filled the marine gulf existing in the Pliocene created by the uplift of the two mountain chains. Lombardy
1260-546: Is one of the most-air-polluted areas of Europe. Because of high levels of industrialisation and the lack of wind due to the region being enclosed between mountain ranges, air pollution remains a severe problem in Lombardy and northern Italy. In March 2019, the European Space Agency (ESA) published images taken from its satellites that show a large stain composed of nitrogen dioxide and fine particles above
1350-413: Is termed Pre-Proto-Germanic . Whether it is to be included under a wider meaning of Proto-Germanic is a matter of usage. Winfred P. Lehmann regarded Jacob Grimm 's "First Germanic Sound Shift", or Grimm's law, and Verner's law , (which pertained mainly to consonants and were considered for many decades to have generated Proto-Germanic) as pre-Proto-Germanic and held that the "upper boundary" (that is,
1440-847: Is the Alpine zone, which includes the Lepontine and Rhaetian Alps (4,020 m (13,190 ft)), which derive their name, respectively, from the Raeti , a population of Etruscan origin who took refuge in the Central Alps during the Celtic invasion of the Italian peninsula, and from the Ligurian population of the Lepontii settled in this area and then subjugated by the Roman emperor Augustus ,
1530-695: Is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages . Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branches during the fifth century BC to fifth century AD: West Germanic , East Germanic and North Germanic . The latter of these remained in contact with the others over a considerable time, especially with the Ingvaeonic languages (including English ), which arose from West Germanic dialects, and had remained in contact with
1620-556: Is the economic capital of Italy and is a global financial centre . Of the fifty-eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Italy, eleven are in Lombardy, tying it with Castile and León in northwest-central Spain . Virgil , Pliny the Elder , Ambrose , Gerolamo Cardano , Caravaggio , Claudio Monteverdi , Antonio Stradivari , Cesare Beccaria , Alessandro Volta , and Alessandro Manzoni ; and popes John XXIII and Paul VI originated in
1710-564: Is the question of what specific tree, in the tree model of language evolution, best explains the paths of descent of all the members of a language family from a common language, or proto-language (at the root of the tree) to the attested languages (at the leaves of the tree). The Germanic languages form a tree with Proto-Germanic at its root that is a branch of the Indo-European tree, which in turn has Proto-Indo-European at its root. Borrowing of lexical items from contact languages makes
1800-789: Is the second most populous region of the European Union (EU), and the second region of the European Union by nominal GDP. Lombardy is the first region of Italy in terms of economic importance, contributing to approximately a fifth of the national gross domestic product (GDP). Lombardy is a member of the Four Motors for Europe , an international economical organization whose other members are Baden-Württemberg in Germany, Catalonia in Spain, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France. Milan
1890-495: Is typical not of Germanic but Celtic languages. Another is * walhaz 'foreigner; Celt' from the Celtic tribal name Volcae with k → h and o → a . Other likely Celtic loans include * ambahtaz 'servant', * brunjǭ 'mailshirt', * gīslaz 'hostage', * īsarną 'iron', * lēkijaz 'healer', * laudą 'lead', * Rīnaz 'Rhine', and * tūnaz, tūną 'fortified enclosure'. These loans would likely have been borrowed during
SECTION 20
#17327905519841980-911: The Risorgimento , with the Five Days of Milan in March 1848, the Ten Days of Brescia in 1849, the Belfiore martyrs in Mantua in the years between 1851 and 1853. The annexation of Lombardy to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia occurred following the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859, a war during which Lombardy was the main theatre of battle (battles of Montebello , Palestro , Magenta , Solferino and San Fermo ). In 1861, with
2070-572: The Adriatic Sea . Celtic development was halted by the Roman expansion in the Po Valley from the 3d century BC. After centuries of struggle, at the end of the 2nd century B.C., the entirety of modern-day Lombardy became a Roman province called Gallia Cisalpina —" Gaul on the inner side (with respect to Rome) of the Alps ". The Roman culture and language overwhelmed the former civilisation in
2160-482: The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), Po Valley air pollution reduces life expectancy by about six months. Air pollution in the Po Valley is connected to livestock and factories. The use of NPK fertilizers , made of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, along with manure emissions from intensive breeding and high levels of nitrogen dioxide released by diesel and petrol engines are all causes of pollution in
2250-552: The Alta —an upper, permeable ground zone in the north—and the Bassa , a lower zone dotted by the line of fontanili , spring waters rising from impermeable ground. Inconsistent with the three distinctions above is the small sub-region of Oltrepò Pavese , which is formed by the Apennine foothills beyond the Po , and Lomellina , area particularly renowned for its rice paddies . The Po marks
2340-788: The Bernina Pass (2,323 m (7,621 ft)), with the latter two which are located in Swiss territory. The most important national passes are the Stelvio Pass (2,759 m (9,052 ft)) and the Tonale Pass (1,883 m (6,178 ft)), which connect Lombardy with Trentino-Alto Adige . These Alpine passes are also of great importance from a historical point of view, given that they have always allowed easy communication between Lombardy and its bordering territories. It then resulted in constant commercial traffic, which contributed to
2430-677: The Corded Ware culture in the mid-3rd millennium BC, developing into the Nordic Bronze Age cultures by the early second millennium BC. According to Mallory, Germanicists "generally agree" that the Urheimat ('original homeland') of the Proto-Germanic language, the ancestral idiom of all attested Germanic dialects, was primarily situated in an area corresponding to the extent of the Jastorf culture . Early Germanic expansion in
2520-654: The Fossa Interna , also known as the Inner Ring. The urban section of the Naviglio Martesana was covered over at the beginning of the 1930s, together with the entire Inner Ring, thus sounding the death knell for the north-eastern canals. The Lombard Alpine valleys are wider than those found, again in the Alps , in Piedmont and Aosta Valley . Most of them are crossed by streams that descend towards
2610-503: The Funnelbeaker culture , but the sound change in the Germanic languages known as Grimm's law points to a non-substratic development away from other branches of Indo-European. Proto-Germanic itself was likely spoken after c. 500 BC, and Proto-Norse , from the second century AD and later, is still quite close to reconstructed Proto-Germanic, but other common innovations separating Germanic from Proto-Indo-European suggest
2700-738: The Gonzagas in Mantua. This wealth, however, attracted the now-more-organised armies of national powers such as France and Austria, which waged a lengthy battle for Lombardy in the late 15th to early 16th centuries. After the Battle of Pavia , the Duchy of Milan became a possession of the Habsburgs of Spain; the new rulers did little to improve the economy of Lombardy, instead imposing a growing series of taxes to support their lengthy series of European wars. The eastern part of modern-day Lombardy, including
2790-472: The Kingdom of Italy , both of which were puppet states of France's First Empire , with Milan as capital and Napoleon as head of state. During this period, Lombardy regained Valtellina from Switzerland. The restoration of Austrian rule in 1815 as the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was characterised by a struggle with the new ideals introduced by the Napoleonic era. Lombardy was then an important centre of
Zavattari - Misplaced Pages Continue
2880-637: The Norse . A defining feature of Proto-Germanic is the completion of the process described by Grimm's law , a set of sound changes that occurred between its status as a dialect of Proto-Indo-European and its gradual divergence into a separate language. The end of the Common Germanic period is reached with the beginning of the Migration Period in the fourth century AD. The alternative term " Germanic parent language " may be used to include
2970-790: The Oltrepò Pavese , formerly the southern part of the Province of Novara , to the Province of Pavia . The Alpine front of World War I crossed the eastern Lombardy Alpine side, and in the post-war period Milan was the centre of the Italian Fasces of Combat . Milan then became the Gold Medal of Military Valor for the Italian resistance movement during the Italian Civil War after its liberation from fascism during
3060-930: The Orobic Alps (3,050 m (10,010 ft)) which derive their name from the Orobii , population of Ligurian or perhaps Celtic origin, the Ortler Alps and the Adamello massif. It is followed by the Alpine foothills zone Prealps , which are followed by hills that smooth the transition from the mountain to the Po Valley , the main peaks of which are the Grigna Group (2,410 m (7,910 ft)), Resegone 1,875 m (6,152 ft), and Presolana (2,521 m (8,271 ft)). The plains of Lombardy, which are formed by alluvial deposits, can be divided into
3150-404: The Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan in 1969 and the Piazza della Loggia bombing in Brescia in 1974. In the 1980s, Milan became a symbol of the country's economic growth, and a symbol of the economic-financial rampantism of the so-called "Milano da bere" , literally "Milan to be drunk", while the Milanese socialist group of Bettino Craxi was in the national government. The city of Milan, in
3240-435: The Po Valley , forming rivers which then flow into the Po on the hydrographic left. Thanks to the width of their valleys, the Lombard Alpine passes, although they are at a high altitude, are easily accessible. The most important international passes found in the Lombard Alps and which connect the region with Switzerland are the Splügen Pass (2,118 m (6,949 ft)), the Maloja Pass (1,815 m (5,955 ft)) and
3330-423: The Pre-Roman Iron Age (fifth to first centuries BC) placed Proto-Germanic speakers in contact with the Continental Celtic La Tène horizon . A number of Celtic loanwords in Proto-Germanic have been identified. By the first century AD, Germanic expansion reached the Danube and the Upper Rhine in the south and the Germanic peoples first entered the historical record . At about the same time, extending east of
3420-402: The Prealpine zone, up to 1,500 to 2,000 mm (59.1 to 78.7 in) annually, but is also abundant in the plains and alpine zones, with an average of 600 to 850 mm (23.6 to 33.5 in) annually. Average annual rainfall is 827 mm (32.6 in). Lake Garda, thanks to its size and position, mitigates the climate of its coasts, creating a " Mediterranean " microclimate which makes
3510-404: The Valcamonica depicting animals, people, and symbols were made over 8,000 years before the Iron Age , based on about 300,000 records. The many artefacts found in a necropolis near Lake Maggiore and the Ticino demonstrate the presence of the Golasecca Bronze Age culture that prospered in western Lombardy between the ninth and the 4th centuries BC. In the following centuries, Lombardy
3600-403: The Vistula ( Oksywie culture , Przeworsk culture ), Germanic speakers came into contact with early Slavic cultures, as reflected in early Germanic loans in Proto-Slavic . By the third century, Late Proto-Germanic speakers had expanded over significant distance, from the Rhine to the Dniepr spanning about 1,200 km (700 mi). The period marks the breakup of Late Proto-Germanic and
3690-463: The World War II , while the partisan resistance spread across the valleys and provinces. Following the historical borders, in 1948 the administrative region of Lombardy was prefigured as part of the newly formed Italian Republic . In the years of the Italian economic miracle , Milan was one of the poles of the "industrial triangle" of northern Italy formed by the cities of Turin - Milan - Genoa . The Years of Lead had wide relevance in Lombardy, with
Zavattari - Misplaced Pages Continue
3780-457: The proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy , Lombardy became part of the modern Italian state, except for the central-eastern part of the province of Mantua which was annexed in 1866 after the Third Italian War of Independence . Regarding the battle of Solferino, it was during this conflict that Henry Dunant took the initiative to create the Red Cross . After the annexation of Mantua, Lombardy achieved its present-day territorial shape by adding
3870-484: The "lower boundary" was the dropping of final -a or -e in unstressed syllables; for example, post-PIE * wóyd-e > Gothic wait , 'knows'. Elmer H. Antonsen agreed with Lehmann about the upper boundary but later found runic evidence that the -a was not dropped: ékwakraz … wraita , 'I, Wakraz, … wrote (this)'. He says: "We must therefore search for a new lower boundary for Proto-Germanic." Antonsen's own scheme divides Proto-Germanic into an early stage and
3960-442: The 2nd century CE, as well as the non-runic Negau helmet inscription, dated to the 2nd century BCE), and in Roman Empire -era transcriptions of individual words (notably in Tacitus ' Germania , c. AD 90 ). Proto-Germanic developed out of pre-Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe. According to the Germanic substrate hypothesis , it may have been influenced by non-Indo-European cultures, such as
4050-416: The Alpine foothills with oceanic climate ( Köppen Cfb), numerous lakes have a mitigating influence, allowing typically Mediterranean crops (olive, citrus fruit ) to grow. In the hills and mountains, the climate is humid continental ( Köppen Dfb). In the valleys, it is relatively mild while it can be severely cold with copious snowfalls above 1,500 m (4,900 ft). Precipitation is more intense in
4140-589: The Alps are a succession of low hills of morainic origin that were formed during the Last Glacial Period and small, barely fertile plateaux with typical heaths and conifer woods. A minor mountainous area the Oltrepò Pavese lies in the Apennines range south of the Po. The navigli are a system of interconnected canals in and around Milan dating back as far as the Middle Ages. The system consists of five canals: Naviglio Grande , Naviglio Pavese , Naviglio Martesana , Naviglio di Paderno , Naviglio di Bereguardo . The first three were connected through Milan via
4230-429: The Germanic subfamily exhibited a less treelike behaviour, as some of its characteristics were acquired from neighbours early in its evolution rather than from its direct ancestors. The internal diversification of West Germanic developed in an especially non-treelike manner. Proto-Germanic is generally agreed to have begun about 500 BC. Its hypothetical ancestor between the end of Proto-Indo-European and 500 BC
4320-403: The Lombard people and the Gallo-Roman peoples improved. The Lombard language and culture was integrated with the Latin culture, leaving evidence in many names, the legal code and laws. The Lombards became intermixed with the Roman population owing to their relatively smaller number. The end of Lombard rule came in 774, when the Frankish king Charlemagne conquered Pavia , deposed Desiderius
4410-454: The Lombard side of the river Ticino to protect one of the last major examples of fluvial forest in northern Italy. There have also been efforts to protect the endangered Italian agile frog . Parco naturale lombardo della Valle del Ticino is the first Italian regional park to be established as well as the first European river park. In 2022 the two Parks were included by UNESCO in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves . Other parks in
4500-545: The Po Valley area. Lombardy is the geographic and economic centre of this area, with more than 10 million residents and the highest GRP per inhabitant of the country. Most of its major cities are located in the Po river basin, which crosses the region. The stain analysed by ESA is the main reason Po Valley air pollution levels are so high. Milan also has high levels of ozone and nitrogen oxides , which are mainly produced by cars diesel and petrol engines. According to Chicago Energy Policy Institute , which has recently developed
4590-473: The Po Valley suffer the most serious impact of poor air quality in Europe, primarily the metropolitan area of Milan, which is 13th in terms of fine particulate impact, with an annual premature death rate of 3,967 – approximately 9% of the total. From archaeological findings of ceramics, arrows, axes, and carved stones, the area of current-day Lombardy has been settled at least since the second millennium BC. Well-preserved rock drawings left by ancient Camuni in
SECTION 50
#17327905519844680-443: The Po river in the south with the exception of the province of Mantua and Oltrepò Pavese . The western boundary is formed by the Lake Maggiore and the Ticino river, except Lomellina . Lombardy has three natural zones; mountains, hills and plains—the last being divided into Alta (high plains) and Bassa (low plains). The surface area of Lombardy is divided almost equally between the plains (which represent approximately 47% of
4770-487: The Prealpine area include some species of saxifrage , Lombardy garlic , groundsel and bellflowers . The highlands are characterised by the typical vegetation of the Italian Alps . At and below about 1,100 m (3,600 ft), oaks or broadleaf trees grow; on the mountain slopes between 2,000 and 2,100 m (6,600 and 6,900 ft), beech trees grow at the lowest limits with conifer woods higher up. Shrubs such as rhododendron , dwarf pine and juniper are native to
4860-431: The area of modern-day Lombardy. The name Lombardy comes from Lombard , which is derived from Late Latin Longobardus, Langobardus ("a Lombard"), which derived from the Proto-Germanic elements * langaz + * bardaz ; equivalent to long beard . According to some scholars, the second element derives from Proto-Germanic *bardǭ , *barduz ("axe"), related to German Barte . The name of
4950-426: The beginning of the (historiographically recorded) Germanic migrations . The earliest available complete sentences in a Germanic language are variably dated to the 2nd century AD, around 300 AD or the first century AD in runic inscriptions (such as the Tune Runestone ). The language of these sentences is known as Proto-Norse , although the delineation of Late Common Germanic from Proto-Norse at about that time
5040-504: The cities Bergamo and Brescia , was controlled by the Republic of Venice , which had begun to extend its influence in the area from the 14th century onwards. Between the mid-15th century and the battle of Marignano in 1515, the northern part of east Lombardy from Airolo to Chiasso (modern Ticino ), and the Valtellina valley came under possession of the Old Swiss Confederacy . Pestilences like that of 1628–1630, which Alessandro Manzoni described in his I Promessi Sposi , and
5130-444: The cities, whose increasing wealth made them able to defy the traditional feudal supreme power that was represented by the German emperors and their local legates. This process peaked in the 12th and 13th centuries, when Lombard Leagues formed by allied cities of Lombardy, usually led by Milan, defeated the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick I , at Legnano but not his grandson Frederick II at Battle of Cortenuova . Although having
5220-412: The cultivation of olive trees and the production of olive oil possible; the so-called "Lombard oil" is also produced in other Lombard lake areas. The geological structure of Lombardy derives from the orogeny of the Alps due to the collision between the African and Eurasian plates which generated the Alpine chain from the Upper Cretaceous to the Miocene . The Po Valley , on the other hand,
5310-427: The dates of borrowings and sound laws are not precisely known, it is not possible to use loans to establish absolute or calendar chronology. Most loans from Celtic appear to have been made before or during the Germanic Sound Shift . For instance, one specimen * rīks 'ruler' was borrowed from Celtic * rīxs 'king' (stem * rīg- ), with g → k . It is clearly not native because PIE * ē → ī
5400-414: The development of a separate common way of speech among some geographically nearby speakers of a prior language and ended with the dispersion of the proto-language speakers into distinct populations with mostly independent speech habits. Between the two points, many sound changes occurred. Phylogeny as applied to historical linguistics involves the evolutionary descent of languages. The phylogeny problem
5490-433: The development of the region. The plains have been intensively cultivated for centuries, and little of the original environment remains. The most common trees are elm , alder , sycamore , poplar , willow and hornbeam . In the area of the foothills lakes, however, olive , cypresses and larches grow, as do varieties of subtropical flora such as magnolia , azalea and acacias . Numerous species of endemic flora in
SECTION 60
#17327905519845580-432: The earlier boundary) was the fixing of the accent, or stress, on the root syllable of a word, typically on the first syllable. Proto-Indo-European had featured a moveable pitch-accent consisting of "an alternation of high and low tones" as well as stress of position determined by a set of rules based on the lengths of a word's syllables. The fixation of the stress led to sound changes in unstressed syllables. For Lehmann,
5670-455: The early 1990s, was the origin of the series of scandals known as Tangentopoli which emerged from the judicial investigations of the Milanese prosecutor's office known as Mani pulite , which then spread to the rest of the country. In early 2020, Lombardy was severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic , in which Italy was one of the worst-affected countries in Europe. Several towns were quarantined from 22 February after community transmission
5760-428: The entire journey that the dialect of Proto-Indo-European that would become Proto-Germanic underwent through the millennia. The Proto-Germanic language is not directly attested by any complete surviving texts; it has been reconstructed using the comparative method . However, there is fragmentary direct attestation of (late) Proto-Germanic in early runic inscriptions (specifically the Vimose inscriptions , dated to
5850-496: The erosion of unstressed syllables, which would continue in its descendants. The final stage of the language included the remaining development until the breakup into dialects and, most notably, featured the development of nasal vowels and the start of umlaut , another characteristic Germanic feature. Loans into Proto-Germanic from other (known) languages or from Proto-Germanic into other languages can be dated relative to each other by which Germanic sound laws have acted on them. Since
5940-512: The fall of Pavia on the river Ticino , in CE 774 by the Frankish Charlemagne on the Pope's behalf. As such, "Lombardy" and "Italy" were almost interchangeable; by the mid-8th century, the Lombards ruled everywhere except the Papal possessions around Rome —roughly modern Lazio and northern Umbria — Venice and some Byzantine possessions in the south—southern Apulia and Calabria ; some coastal settlements including Amalfi , Gaeta , Naples and Sorrento ; Sicily and Sardinia ; their culture
6030-423: The famous Edict of Milan that gave freedom of confession to all religions within the Roman Empire. During and after the fall of the Western Empire, Lombardy heavily suffered from destruction brought about by a series of invasions by tribal peoples. After 540, Pavia became the permanent capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom , the fixed site of the court and the royal treasury. The last and most effective invasion
6120-399: The following centuries. In the 10th century, Lombardy, although formally under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire, was included in the kingdom of Italy , of which Pavia remained the capital until 1024. Starting gradually in the late-11th century, Lombardy became divided into many small, autonomous city-states, the medieval communes . Also in the 11th century, the region's economy underwent
6210-458: The following years, and Lombardy became one of the most-developed and richest areas of Italy with the construction of roads and the development of agriculture and trade. Important figures were born here, such as Pliny the Elder (in Como ) and Virgil (in Mantua). In late antiquity the strategic role of Lombardy was emphasised by the move of the capital of the Western Empire to Mediolanum (Milan). Here, in 313 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine issued
6300-399: The general decline of Italy's economy in the 17th and 18th centuries halted further development of Lombardy. In 1706 the Austrian Empire came to power, and introduced some economic and social measures that allowed a degree of recovery to occur. Austrian rule was interrupted in the late-18th century by the French; under Napoleon , Lombardy became the centre of the Cisalpine Republic and of
6390-500: The gold sky is patterned in relief pastiglia plasterwork. Some attribute this work to Troso da Monza . Subsequently, Franceschino and his sons worked at the Certosa di Pavia , where they conserve a fresco depicting the Madonna , and the church of San Lanfranco in Pavia . To the Zavattari are attributed some of the cards in the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck , usually referred to as Bonifacio Bembo . Lombardy Lombardy ( Italian : Lombardia ; Lombard : Lombardia )
6480-545: The history of Proto-Germanic in the wider sense from the end of Proto-Indo-European up to the point that Proto-Germanic began to break into mutually unintelligible dialects. The changes are listed roughly in chronological order, with changes that operate on the outcome of earlier ones appearing later in the list. The stages distinguished and the changes associated with each stage rely heavily on Ringe 2006 , Chapter 3, "The development of Proto-Germanic". Ringe in turn summarizes standard concepts and terminology. This stage began with
6570-579: The largest in the EU. Its territory is divided into 1,502 comuni (region with the largest number of comuni in the entire national territory ), distributed in twelve administrative subdivisions (eleven provinces plus the Metropolitan City of Milan ). The region ranks first in Italy in terms of population, population density and number of local authorities, while it is fourth in terms of surface area, after Sicily , Piedmont and Sardinia . It
6660-437: The last Lombard king, and annexed the Kingdom of Italy —mostly northern and central present-day Italy—to his newly established Holy Roman Empire . Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope on 25 December 800. The former Lombard dukes and nobles were replaced by other German vassals, prince-bishops and marquises. The entire northern part of the Italian peninsula continued to be called "Lombardy" and its population "Lombards" throughout
6750-569: The military purpose as preponderant, the Lombard League also had its own stable government, considered one of the first examples of confederation in Europe. Subsequently, among the local city-states, a process of consolidation took place, and by the end of the 14th century, two signoria emerged as rival hegemons in Lombardy; Milan and Mantua . In the 15th century, the Duchy of Milan
6840-537: The north of Italy. Lombardy also produces vast amounts of animal waste, a big contributor to pollution. Lombardy produces more than 40% of Italy's milk and over half of the Italian pig production is located in the Po Valley. According to research published in The Lancet Planetary Health , in January 2021, Brescia and Bergamo had the highest death rate from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) in Europe. The data show many cities in Lombardy and
6930-413: The period marked the definitive break of Germanic from the other Indo-European languages and the beginning of Germanic proper, containing most of the sound changes that are now held to define this branch distinctively. This stage contained various consonant and vowel shifts, the loss of the contrastive accent inherited from PIE for a uniform accent on the first syllable of the word root, and the beginnings of
7020-552: The reduction of the resulting unstressed syllables. By this stage, Germanic had emerged as a distinctive branch and had undergone many of the sound changes that would make its later descendants recognisable as Germanic languages. It had shifted its consonant inventory from a system that was rich in plosives to one containing primarily fricatives, had lost the PIE mobile pitch accent for a predictable stress accent, and had merged two of its vowels. The stress accent had already begun to cause
7110-602: The region are the Campo dei Fiori and the Cinque Vette Park , both of which are located in the Province of Varese . The system of protected areas in Lombardy consists of one national park, 24 regional parks, 65 natural reserves and 30 natural monuments . In total, protected areas cover more than 27% of the regional territory. Lombardy has a wide array of climates due to variance in elevation, proximity to inland water basins, and large metropolitan areas. The climate
7200-696: The region derives from the name of the people of the Lombards who arrived in Italy in 568 and made Pavia their capital. During the Early Middle Ages , "Lombardy" referred to the Kingdom of the Lombards ( Latin : Regnum Langobardorum ), which was ruled by the Germanic Lombard raiders who had controlled most of early Christian Italy since their invasion of Byzantine Italy in CE 568 until
7290-539: The relative position of the Germanic branch within Indo-European less clear than the positions of the other branches of Indo-European. In the course of the development of historical linguistics, various solutions have been proposed, none certain and all debatable. In the evolutionary history of a language family, philologists consider a genetic "tree model" appropriate only if communities do not remain in effective contact as their languages diverge. Early Indo-European had limited contact between distinct lineages, and, uniquely,
7380-511: The separation of a distinct speech, perhaps while it was still forming part of the Proto-Indo-European dialect continuum. It contained many innovations that were shared with other Indo-European branches to various degrees, probably through areal contacts, and mutual intelligibility with other dialects would have remained for some time. It was nevertheless on its own path, whether dialect or language. This stage began its evolution as
7470-1024: The southern border of the region for about 210 km (130 mi); its major tributaries are the Ticino , which rises in the Val Bedretto in Switzerland and joins the Po near Pavia, the Olona , the Lambro , the Adda , the Oglio and the Mincio . The numerous lakes of Lombardy are all of glacial origin and are located in the northern highlands. From west to east, these are: Lake Maggiore , Lake Lugano (both shared with Switzerland), Lake Como , Lake Iseo , Lake Idro , and Lake Garda (the largest lake in Italy). South of
7560-463: The summit zone beyond 2,200 m (7,200 ft). Lombardy includes many protected areas. The most important is Stelvio National Park , established in 1935 —the fourth largest Italian natural park, with typically alpine wildlife such as red deer , roe deer , ibex , chamois , foxes, ermine and golden eagles ; and the Parco naturale lombardo della Valle del Ticino , which was instituted in 1974 on
7650-612: The territory) and the mountainous areas (which represent 41%). The remaining 12% of the region is hilly. The orography of Lombardy is characterised by three distinct belts; a northern mountainous belt constituted by the Alpine relief, a central piedmont area of mostly alluvial pebbly soils, and the Lombard section of the Padan Plain in the south of the region. The main valleys are Val Camonica , Val Trompia , Valle Sabbia , Valtellina , Val Seriana , Val Brembana , Valsassina , and Valassina . The most important mountainous area
7740-651: The use of vending machines, but from the beginning of May, following a reported decrease in the number of active cases, restrictions were gradually relaxed. Proto-Germanic language Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc ; also called Common Germanic )
7830-531: Was documented in Lombardy and Veneto the previous day. The entirety of Lombardy was placed under lockdown on 8 March, followed by all of Italy the following day, making Italy the first country to implement a nationwide lockdown in response to the epidemic, which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic on 11 March. The lockdown was extended twice, and the region toughened restrictions on 22 March, banning outdoor exercise and
7920-672: Was inhabited by different peoples; the Etruscans founded the city of Mantua and spread the use of writing. It was seat of the Celtic Canegrate culture starting from the 13th century BC, and later of the Celtic Golasecca culture . From the 5th century BC, the area was invaded by more Celtic Gallic tribes coming from north of the Alps. These people settled in several cities including Milan and extended their rule to
8010-468: Was one of the wealthiest states during the Renaissance . Milan and Mantua became centres of the Renaissance , whose culture with people such as Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea Mantegna , and works of art such as da Vinci's The Last Supper were highly regarded. The enterprising class of the communes extended its trade and banking activities well into northern Europe; the metonym "Lombard" designated
8100-658: Was that of the Germanic Lombards or Longobards, whose nation migrated to the region from the Carpathian basin in fear of the conquering Pannonian Avars in 568. The Lombards' long-lasting reign, with its capital in Pavia , gave the current name to the region. There was a close relationship between the Frankish , Bavarian and Lombard nobility for many centuries. After the initial struggles, relationships between
#983016