*3.3. The Design and Construction of SRMF*

The SRMF was among the first mechanized factories dedicated to coin minting in Europe in the 16th century, and the first of its kind in the Kingdom of Spain. It was built on a plot located by the Eresma River in Segovia. The plot had an existing building, an old mill used to produce paper, and a total surface area of 7635 m2. The requirements of the project consisted of a facility able to accommodate all the elements necessary to operate autonomously, with all the mechanical equipment involved in the manufacturing process powered by hydraulic energy.

Juan de Herrera employed an innovative but rather unusual approach in the design of the architectural layout of the SRMF; he analysed the new minting process in depth and, relying heavily on the technical advice provided by the support team of German technicians, integrated the different trades related to the manufacturing workflow and arranged them in an effective workplace distribution, which allowed for better use of the hydraulic resources available and generated significant reductions in both cost and time.

In the following sections, we will review the minting process by roller and how it relates to the architectural layout designed by Juan de Herrera, as well as the hydraulic system designed to power the mechanical elements of the factory.

3.3.1. The Minting Process by Roller and the SRMF Architectural Layout

The different activities related to the minting process by roller can be grouped into the following categories:

A list of the roles necessary for the operation of the SRMF, along with a brief description of their corresponding duties, is displayed in Table 2, below.

**Table 2.** Roles and responsibilities (prepared by the authors, based on [11]).

The sequence of activities that make up a cycle in the production of currency at the SRMF, from the beginning—when the raw material, metal, enters the production chain—until the end of the manufacturing process—when the final product, in the form of coins, is obtained—is shown in the flow charts of Figures 2 and 3. Both charts have been based on those shown in [2], on pages 60 and 61.

**Figure 2.** Intrinsic, auxiliary and administrative process (based on [2] pages 60 and 61).

**Figure 3.** Extrinsic and auxiliary process (based on [2] pages 60 and 61).

The resulting design by Juan de Herrera had a built surface of 4.423 m2 and was made up of three buildings (see Figure 4). The first was called "Edificio del Patio Alto", and the other two were called "Ingenio Grande" and "Ingenio Chico". A water system located between the "Ingenio Grande" and "Ingenio Chico" buildings channelled water to power the waterwheels, located along the façade of the "Ingenio Grande".

**Figure 4.** SRMF Architectural layout with distribution of uses (Based on [11]).

The activities that made up the currency-minting production chain were organized among the different buildings of the SRMF, as follows:

**Figure 5.** "Ingenio Grande" (image property of the authors).

The fact that the equipment necessary to perform such activities had to be powered by hydraulic energy affected the arrangement of the different activities within the space. A sequential order was followed, based on the manufacturing process. A series of waterwheels were installed outside—along one of the longer walls—to power the forge blower, the hammer, the lathe, the rolling mill and the coin die machine (see Figure 6).

**Figure 6.** Functional areas (image property of the authors).

The different functional areas within the building were the following:

to reach the desired thickness. This area was linked to the "Ingenio Chico" building, since the strips were constantly moving between both buildings to alternate the lamination processes with the thermic treatment meant to restore their mechanical properties.

**Figure 7.** The rolling mill (image property of the authors).

**Figure 8.** Illustration by Reiner, Valencia ([12] Figure 3, on p. 97).


1. Introduction

The airfoil is the geometrically shaped structure for mechanical force generation from the relative movement between the airfoil and surrounding airflow of the airfoil structures [1]. For wind turbines, the airfoil shape of the blades influences the turbine power production. The lifting efficiency of the blades determines the effectiveness of rotor rotation to cause productive energy conversion from wind kinetics to rotor rotation, which leads to higher electricity generation from the drive unit.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

From the late eighteenth century, the curving surface geometry was discovered to be advantageous for lifting efficiency in windmill by Smeaton [2]. In the 1880s, Lilienthal discovered the specific shape from the bird's wings, which inspired the airplane invention by Wright brothers [3]. The research of Prandtl and Tietjens revealed the benefit of the thick airfoil through their mathematical skills and wind tunnel tests in 1917 [4]. The US National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)-generated airfoil groups, "NACA airfoil families" in the 1930s, and the series have been widely used even in these days [5]. In contradiction to the mathematical methods to calculate the pressure distribution of airfoil, Jacobs proposed the airfoil design which causes the desired pressure distribution. The laminar flow of airfoil was expanded to cause higher L/D ratio and smaller drag [6]. Later, different types of airfoils for various airplane design and off-design requirements were continuously designed.

The first wind turbine blades were also designed by the airfoils from aeronautic applications. However, in the 1980s, the airfoils specially dedicated for wind turbines were begun to be made due to the defects of aeronautic airfoils applied in a wind turbine. The sensitivity roughness effect on the leading edge arose to be the required element for wind turbine airfoil. The airfoil series for stall-regulated, variable-pitch control wind turbine was developed by NREL in 1984, incorporated with SERI and Airfoils [7]. The wind turbine-dedicated airfoils with the thickness from 15 to 40% of the chord were also made by the team of the Delft University of Technology with the design objective of low sensitivity to roughness, Gurney flaps, and trailing-edge wedge consideration [8]. The airfoils from Risø were designed to have high aerodynamic efficiency and slender blade shape [9]. The airfoil design using numerical optimization for tip region of the blades was researched by Grasso [10]. As mentioned in these studies, the higher aerodynamic efficiency, insensitivity to roughness effect, structural stability and smooth post-stall exhibition, etc., are required for wind turbine airfoil design. To accomplish these objectives, boundary layer consideration of the wind turbine airfoil can be advantageous as it was proven from the laminar airfoil by Jacobs [6].

The boundary layer of the airfoil is exerted by additional pressure generated by the curvature shape of airfoil compared to the constant pressure on boundary layer made of the plate with zero incidences. The pressure distribution on the edge of the boundary layer is same with the pressure distribution on the wall in the plate. However, due to streamline curvature of airfoil surface, the pressure gradients and compensation for the centrifugal force of the streamline flow are generated inside the boundary layer. Furthermore, the transition point of the boundary layer on the airfoil is determined by the outer flow and its pressure difference generated by the curvature shape of the surface [11].

To generate the airfoil shape which has the advantage for pressure distribution in the boundary layer and transition points, genetic algorithm (GA) optimization was used in this study. As all airfoils are designed for higher aerodynamic performance, GA objective functions therefore had two objectives—higher transition points of the larger laminar boundary layer and higher gliding ratio (GR). The airfoil S809 of NREL airfoil series for the wind turbine was chosen as a reference. The shape of insensitiveness to the roughness effect of the airfoil S809 could be maintained in the optimized airfoil. The final evaluations of turbine performance were done with the sample of stall-regulated wind turbine of NREL phase VI, which consists of the same airfoil-type composition [12].

The B-spline parameterization was used for the airfoil description, and the y points of the spline were considered to be the variables. The values of boundary layer parameters and GR of the airfoil were calculated by the flow solver XFOIL. The power performances of turbine unit with blades of the optimized airfoil were calculated by using blade element method (BEM) of the software QBlade. The CFD simulations from OpenFOAM® were performed to visualize the improved aerodynamic aspects.

Section 2 explains the GA airfoil optimization method, Section 3 presents the aerodynamic and boundary layer results of the optimized airfoils with improved power production of turbine unit, Section 4 visualizes the airflow of the optimized airfoil with the reference, and Section 5 concludes this chapter.


**4. Discussion**

#### *4.1. Comparison with Other Mangrove Models*

Combining multi-source remote sensing data and surface observations helps us better understand global distribution of mangrove AGB. The model developed during this study is better able to explain the spatial variability in mangrove AGB (*R*2 = 0.48) than those of other models. Rovai et al. [33] developed a set of statistical climatic-geophysical models based on the environmental signature hypothesis, which explained only 20% of the variability in mangrove AGB in the Neotropics. Twilley et al.'s [31] latitude-based model explained 7.6% of the variation in mangrove AGB at the global scale, while Hutchison et al.'s [32] climate-based model explained 26.7% of the variation. We used our plot data to test Twilley et al.'s latitude-based model and Hutchison et al.'s [32] climate-based model; the resulting explanatory power of these two models was much lower at 2.2% and 10.5%, respectively. There are three primary reasons. First, the initial mangrove AGB dataset was extremely small in both Twilley et al.'s (n = 34) and Hutchison et al.'s (n = 52) analyses. Insufficient training data cannot be used to create a robust global scale model. These models, therefore, have large uncertainty when validated against our larger, global data set (n = 342).

Second, machine learning methods are more suitable to estimating global mangrove AGB than multi-linear regression methods. Although the climate variables used in our model and Hutchison et al.'s [32] climate-based model were similar, the explanatory power of our model was greater because of the difference in regression methods. Several studies have demonstrated that random forest performs better than the linear regression method for estimating biomass [64].

Finally, structural information provided by GLAS and EVI improved the accuracy of random forest to estimate mangrove AGB biomass (Figure 6). Recent field studies have found that canopy height is strongly related to biomass for many mangrove species [65,66]. However, structure information provided by GLAS does not have the expected effects in this study when compared with other research into national and global forest AGB mapping. This may have been caused by the low-density footprint of GLAS in mangrove areas, limiting its ability to represent the structure variation in different mangrove species. Based on the statistical importance of each variable in our model (Figure 6), climate

factors were more important than other variables. This is similar to Simard et al.'s results in which precipitation, temperature and cyclone frequency explain 74% of the global variation in maximum canopy height [53].

**Figure 6.** The mean importance of variables for AGB estimation using the randomForest model is indicated by the percentage increase of mean-squared error (**a**) and the increase in node purity (**b**) from highest to lowest. Percentage increase in mean square error is calculated by the increase in mean square error when a variable is removed in the model. The increase in node purity is calculated based on the reduction in sum of squared errors whenever a variable is chosen to split.

#### *4.2. Comparison with Previously Published Mangrove AGB Maps*

Our estimated global mangrove AGB (1.52 Pg) was similar to that of two global maps produced using other remote sensing approaches (Table 3). Tang et al. [52] reported that total global mangrove AGB was 1.908 Pg, while Simard et al. [53] estimated it to be 1.75 Pg. Although the estimated mangrove storage was similar between these three remote sensing approaches, mean AGB density (115.23 ± 48.89 Mg/ha) in our study was lower than that of Tang et al. (146.3 Mg/ha) or Simard et al. (129.1 ± 87.2 Mg/ha). These di fferences are mainly caused by uncertainties induced by the allometric equations. Tang et al. [52] and Simard et al. [53] predicted global mangrove biomass using SRTM's tree height and a global mangrove biomass allometry equation. The mean AGB density reported by Tang et al. was the highest of these three estimates. Compared to Saenger and Snedaker's global mangrove height-biomass relationship used by Tang et al. [52], Simard et al. [53] applied 331 in situ plots across a wide variety of mangrove forest ecotypes to fit a global equation between AGB and basal area-weighted height. Our results for global mangrove AGB storage and mean AGB density were similar to that of Simard et al. [53] because both methods utilized spaceborne LiDAR data. Traditionally, mangrove forest aboveground biomass derived using synthetic aperture radar was underestimated due to its limited ability to penetrate the mangrove canopy. Simard et al. [53] used GLAS data to correct the SRTM tree height, thereby overcoming the issue of estimating mangrove AGB from SRTM tree height.

**Table 3.** Comparison of total mangrove AGB and area with previously published results.

The estimated global mangrove AGB storage in our study (1.52 Pg) was significantly lower than those from non-remote sensing approaches (Table 3). Twilley et al. [31] estimated global mangrove AGB at 2.34 Pg based on a latitude model, nearly 54% higher than our result. Hutchison et al. [32] used a climate-based model and predicted that total global mangrove AGB storage was 2.83 Pg, 86% higher than our result. The di fference in the baseline mangrove extent could be a major reason for the variation in these results. Although our study and that of Hutchison et al. [32] both used the mangrove map developed by Spalding et al. [19], the final global mangrove area in our study (13,065,675.00 ha) was 15% smaller than that used by Hutchison et al. [32] (15,314,094 ha). This di fference was caused, in part, by inconsistent land boundaries between our predictor variables, mangrove distribution map, and country extents. These layers have di fferent spatial resolutions and extents, so small mangrove patches along the coast or in the islets were omitted during our analysis. These places are also areas with a large distribution of mangrove [19]. Consequently, the disparity in area led to variations in total mangrove AGB storage between the two results. Part of the variation can also be explained by the models used by Hutchison et al., which may overestimate mangrove AGB [32]. Rovai et al. [33] found that these climate- and latitude-based models overestimated mangrove AGB by 25.3% to 44.4% in the Neotropics region. In addition, the structural data provided by spaceborne LiDAR in this study can provide better information for estimating mangrove AGB at larger geographical scales, thereby reducing uncertainty in estimates of mangrove AGB storage.

Most of the 10 countries with largest total mangrove AGB stock from our study were also reported in other research, such as that of Hutchison et al. (2014) [32] and Simard et al. (2019) [53], but the order in which these countries appear on the list was di fferent. Indonesia has the largest mangrove AGB stock, which is consist in each study, even though the mangrove AGB in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea reported by our study was much lower than those of Hutchison et al. (2014) [32] and Simard et al. (2019) [53] (Figure 7). This phenomenon maybe caused by the model we used to predict biomass. Validation (Figure 5) showed that our model tended to underestimate mangrove AGB density at high values (>125 Mg/ha) since observations are limited in these high biomass areas. The mangrove AGB stock in Mexico, Cuba, and Colombia differed between the three studies. The difference in Mexico and Cuba was induced by a bias in predicted mean mangrove AGB density in the different studies. Adame et al. (2013) reported that the AGB in tall, medium and dwarf mangroves in the Mexican Caribbean were as much as 176.2, 114.2 and 7.1 Mg/ha, respectively [68]. The mean mangrove AGB density of Mexico in our study was 113.30 Mg/ha which is closer to that of the medium mangroves reported by Adame et al. (2013). Simard et al. (2019) [53] reported a mean AGB in Mexico of 37.9 Mg/ha, which is much lower than that of the medium mangroves. This underestimation in Simard et al. (2019) [53] may have been caused by using a global allometric equation to predict biomass. The difference in Colombia was mainly caused by inconsistencies in mangrove extent. The mangrove area in Colombia reported by Simard et al. (2019) [53] is much lower than that in our study and in Hutchison et al. (2014) [32].

**Figure 7.** Comparison of (**a**) mean mangrove AGB density, (**b**) mangrove area, and (**c**) total mangrove AGB stock between our study, Hutchison et al. (2014) and Simard et al. (2019) in ten countries with the highest mangrove AGB.

#### *4.3. Limitations and Future Studies*

Although our model estimates global mangrove aboveground biomass fairly well, there are limitations to this study. Available observation data was limited when compared with other regional and global studies. Field data is fundamental for accurate estimations of global mangrove biomass. In this study, we collected 510 records from a number of sources but more than 30% of them could not be used because of uncertainty in location information. Moreover, geolocation errors in mangrove plots cannot be reduced by the point-radius model used by Su et al. [47] and Hu et al. [46], because randomly shifting mangrove plot locations had a large probability of relocating the plot into the ocean. Furthermore, the mismatch of spatial observation scales between plots and remote sensing data was a problem. Researchers have begun recently to use drone-based LiDAR to retrieve mangrove biomass [69], using it as a bridge to scale AGB from the plot level to the scale of satellite observations [70]. The increase in drone-based LiDAR data in mangrove areas will benefit global mangrove forest biomass mapping efforts in the future. Second, sparse GLAS datapoints within areas of mangrove lose some of the variability in structure during extrapolation. Even though we used GLAS data within a 100-km bu ffer of the coast to increase the number of GLAS datapoints, the explanatory power of the extrapolation models were nearly 10% lower than those for China and global forest mapping [46,47]. Fortunately, the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) project [71] recently started collecting global waveform LiDAR data, which will provide higher density data with a smaller footprint than GLAS. This data will help us better understand variability in mangrove structure and biomass distribution. Third, factors such as salinity [72] and river discharge [73] that specifically control the distribution and production of mangrove forest should be added to the model in the future. With these factors, we can more accurately estimate the biomass and better understand how mangrove AGB varies under di fferent environmental conditions.


**4. Conclusion**

The importance of NTFPs in rural sustainable livelihoods are directly proportional to the conservation interventions of forest wealth which in turn have an impact on poverty reduction. The communities engaged in doing NTFPs value addition as an enterprise will be benefited with uninterrupted supply of raw materials thus strengthening the NTFP raw material base, simultaneously the processing units of these NTFPs quality will improve which have a cascading effect on rural livelihoods. But they people benefiting from the NTFP dependent enterprises should know and mitigate the negative impact on environment. Evolve and reinforce efforts of various projects and programs to achieve food security, escalate cash flow through income and conserve forests through NTFP related interventions. To achieve the UN Development goals during the course of present investigation, a comprehensive approach to have to be adopted which are enumerated as follows;

Such comprehensive and broader efforts globally could escalate and impact on achieving sustainability goals and reinforce the national and international conglomeration to respond proactively to contain poverty and secure livelihoods of local communities of their respective countries as a responsible welfare state.

**273**

**Author details**

Chinta Srinivas

Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh State, India

\*Address all correspondence to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
provided the original work is properly cited.

Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India,

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Sustainability and Livelihoods*

**Acknowledgements**

investigation.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96158*

The author acknowledges the fellow scientists, technical assistants and other para forces helping in collection of data and other support rendered during course of the investigation in various states of India and analytical team which has put its efforts in interpretation of data who directly or indirectly supported in the


2.1 Phenotyping biomass sorghums

are classed as third generation. Major crops used for the production of biofuel are

The choice of the most efficient biofuel depends upon its life cycle analysis, climatic, and economic factors. Moreover, its transportation cost to refinery, price of biofuel, and greenhouse gases also matter. Plant-based feedstocks for biofuels include crops like corn, sugarcane, soybean, poplar, sorghum, switch grass, etc. The cost-effective biofuel production depends upon the exploitation of high-yielding energy crops. Designing climate-smart energy crop with optimized composition to

It has diverse germplasm owing to extensive breeding and natural selection [7]. Sorghum is a crop of subsistence worldwide, the fifth most important cereal crop and

suit the growers, consumers, and industry needs is the backbone of costcompetitive biofuel industry. C4 grasses provide a perfect fit to this definition owing to higher photosynthetic rate, productivity, and broader genetic base of germplasm. Sorghum is a short duration crop of about 3–4 months and produces higher biomass yield with less inputs. These characteristics make sorghum a popular biofuel feedstock [3]. Sorghum has different end-use types including biomass, forage, sweet, and grain sorghums. Energy sorghum including biomass and sweet type varieties is the most efficient and climate-smart feedstock being able to grow with less inputs on marginal lands under harsh climatic conditions and having

an important component of poultry industry [8]. It is very responsive to

length in sorghum. In this chapter, stem composition evaluation and

order to screen promising energy-type sorghum.

162

proteomics-based recent research involving USDA sorghum germplasm is reported in

biotechniques ranging from simple in vitro culture to transgenics, cisgenics, and genome-editing technologies. However, the outcrossing of sorghum with its weedy relatives has prevented regulation of GM technology in this crop. All above-ground parts of sorghum, starch, sugar, or stem biomass are utilized for the first- and secondgeneration biofuel production [9]. Though sweet sorghum has been widely used as a biofuel source, biomass sorghum has also been recently recognized as a promising feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production. This sorghum type usually has stem higher than 5 m, more number of leaves, fibrous roots, greater potential for vegetative growth, and is suitable for mechanization [10]. Besides producing secondgeneration ethanol, biomass sorghum also releases energy during biomass combustion [11]. It is a good substitute to corn and sugarcane with additional benefit of less water consumption. It is an annual grass having higher dry matter yield like perennial crops but in less duration, thus facilitating cheaper crop rotation. Recent wide scale applications of omics approaches like phenomics, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics are enhancing the efficiency of sorghum breeding processes. Being an important element of system biology approach, omics analysis dissects the association between genes and proteins within diverse phenotypes. Genome analysis further refines this integration. Sorghum yields fuel and chemicals form sugars and cell wall biopolymers. Sorghum is a widely grown summer forage of Pakistan, while its biofuel potential is yet to be explored in the country. Information on sorghum stem quality traits is vital for designing eco-friendly biofuel source. Present study intended to demonstrate the basis of morphological characterization of 24 USDA sorghum genotypes selected under Pakistan conditions. These genotypes were subjected to proximate analysis to measure stem quality traits like crude protein, ash contents, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, hemicellulose, cellulose, and acid detergent lignin. Translational analysis indicated a unique band of 56.1 kDa in 12 out of 24 genotypes. This uncharacterized protein is supposed to be translated by Dw1 gene (Sobic.009G229800) comprising of 510 amino acids and controls the internodal

sugarcane, corn, wheat, sorghum, sugar beet, and cassava [2].

Biomass for Bioenergy - Recent Trends and Future Challenges

ability to utilize more sunlight [4–6].

Sorghum biomass is influenced by genetic and environmental factors [12]. The identification of variation in phenotypic, genetic, structural, and physiological characters of energy sorghum is vital to its improvement. Sorghum biomass improvement model relies on integrating several genomic-assisted techniques with phenomics approaches. Common field-based selection of high biomass sorghum depends upon characterizing biomass-related morphological traits like days to flowering (days after sowing), plant height, fresh biomass yield, dry matter, and dry matter yield, plant height, stalk diameter, leaf number, leaf width, leaf length, leaf angle and leaf area index, etc. [13]. Several studies report on morphological diversity assessment of sorghum for biomass traits in the field environment [14, 15].

Accurate and comprehensive phenotypic data are the baseline to elucidate genetic mechanisms underlying complex quantitative biomass traits. Since biomassrelated traits are measured via destructive sampling, recording morphological data during the entire growing period of energy sorghum is possible only once. Manual, nondestructive sampling for these traits over complete development of sorghum is impossible. As compared to relatively cheaper technologies of genomic selection, association mapping and GWAS, reliable phenotyping is laborious and expensive. About 20 years back when genotyping techniques were fast advancing, improving phenotyping approaches was completely ignored. Recently, there has been a growing interest in developing effective sorghum phenotyping methods. The work started with optimizing high-throughput phenotyping systems for model plants under controlled environments. Later on, field-based phenotyping platforms were devised for short stature crops [16]. In the last 5 years, different approaches have been excogitated with promising capabilities of recording sorghum phenology in field environments. Some of these include various UAS platforms [17, 18], field-based robotic phenotyping system [19], unmanned aerial system [20], ultrasonic sensors [21], the light detection and ranging (LiDAR) [22], the time of flight cameras [23], tomography imaging [24], Kinect v2 camera [21], RGB and NIR imaging [25], and Phenobot 1.0 [26]. The next-generation phenomics tools generate enormous amount of data that are being translated via machine- learning statistical approaches into trait descriptions, relevant to sorghum breeders [27].


**1. Introduction: The Good Place and the Bad Place**

In early 2018, an interview by journalist Eugenio Scalfari of *La Repubblica* with Pope Francis (Scalfari 2018) made world-wide headlines: "The Holy Father, the Supreme Pontiff, the infallible definer of Catholic doctrine, said nope, he doesn't believe in hell", reported one newspaper in New Zealand (Lapsley 2018). "Pope Francis 'abolishes hell', saying souls of unrepentant sinners will simply disappear", stated the *Times* (Willan 2018). Although quickly contested by the Vatican (Parole del Papa 2018), the reported words of Pope Francis on hell not being an actual place seemed to complement what he had said regarding heaven during the general audience of 26 November 2014. More than a place, he affirmed, heaven "is a 'state' of soul in which our deepest hopes are fulfilled in superabundance and our being, as creatures and as children of God, reach their full maturity". There, he added, we "will finally be clothed in the joy, peace and love of God, completely, without any limit, and we will come face to face with Him!" (Francis 2014).

Today, perhaps, the suggestion that heaven and hell might not be actual places may correspond to widespread beliefs. Even those who believe in the existence of an afterlife can disagree as to what it might look like (Paradise Polled 2015), or as to how the good and bad places might even differ (as in the 2016–2019 Netflix series "The Good Place"). In 16th century Italy, however, there was no such confusion. Christians lived their lives knowing beyond doubt that the *dies irae*—the day of wrath—was imminent.1 On that day, the world would dissolve into ashes; with universal dread the Book of

1 In fact, according to Mirko Breitenstein, daily life during the Middle ages presented these two challenges: "to know that there are representatives from the other world, and to behave towards them adequately, that is, to search them or to flee

Consciences would be read out—judging the living and the dead; at that very moment "when the doomed can no more flee from the fires of misery", the sheep would be separated from the goats, the righteous would shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, while the sinners would be cast into the fiery furnaces where there would be but weeping and gnashing of teeth (Dies Irae 1998).2 If there were a choice between spending eternity dancing in a heavenly garden with the saints and angels, or being chewed to pieces by Satan,3 most believers would try to behave in such a way as to be destined to the good place and not the bad.

Catholic religious orders that have education as part of their charism4 have often used visions of the afterlife in theatre productions as vehicles to transmit a message of conversion, especially to those who, because of age or illiteracy, would not benefit as much from Scripture readings or complex sermons.5 The goals of such plays set in heaven and hell, with angels and demons, the blessed and the damned—in addition to being visually entertaining, with special costumes, light and smoke effects—were meant to move a young or illiterate audience to follow or avoid the examples of others who now witnessed the experience of eternal triumph or suffering. These plays did not debate the existence of heaven and hell; in a Catholic setting, such an understanding of the afterlife was taken for granted. Rather, they indicated what kind of people, and sometimes, like Dante Alighieri, even which historical figures, would go there—and thus they educated the spectators on which role model to follow.

In this article, I will look at how such visions of the blessed and the damned, of heaven and hell, of angels and demons, were used in educational theatre in Italy both by Jesuit priests in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Salesian sisters in the 20th century. My goal is to discuss how the afterlife was used in theatre for the education of the youth during these centuries. I have chosen these two congregations in particular because both used theatre as an essential part of their educational system. Moreover, given that the Jesuits educated only young men, and the Salesian sisters only young women, the diverse blessed and damned souls that they stage allow us to discuss what virtues and vices young men and women were to pursue or avoid. Finally, the historical background for the Jesuit and Salesian plays that I will analyze will also help uncover a propagandistic layer of meaning in their representation of the afterworld, as the Jesuits' tragedies date to the years of the counter-reformation, while the Salesian sisters' plays belong to the era of the cold war. These two periods, although separated by some four centuries, include similarities of political and religious tensions, each creating a climate of disagreement and suspicion which gave rise to anti-protestant (in the counterreformation years) and anti-Communist (in the 20th century) beliefs and propaganda within Catholic religious institutions. Thus, the Jesuit and Salesian theatrical depictions of heaven and hell which I will discuss will provide insight into not only the religious understanding of the eras, but also the social and political concerns of the times in which they were composed, as well as the diverse educational messages transmitted to young men and young women.

#### **2. Jesuit Theatre and the Afterlife**

The connection between theatre and the Catholic church dates at least to the middle ages. In fact, the earliest recorded theatre in Western Europe appears to be the liturgical drama of the church,

from them [and] to develop strategies in order to avoid hell or to reach heaven within the Beyond after death" (Breitenstein 2018, p. 122).

2 See, for example, Mt 13: 41–43.

3 See, for example, the dance of the blessed in Beato Angelico's "Last Judgment", in the Museo Nazionale di San Marco of Florence, or the depiction of Satan chewing on the bodies of the damned in the "Last Judgment" by Coppo di Marcovaldo, in the Battistero di S. Giovanni in Florence. For early modern artistic depictions of heaven and hell, see Hughes (1968).

4 In the New Testament, the word 'charism' refers to a spiritual gift given to individuals through divine grace (1Corinthians 12) or gifts of community leadership (Ephesians 4: 1–16). In Catholic theology, it has come to refer to the particular form of service to the church that a religious congregation has chosen or inherited from their founder (McFarland 2011).

5 Several religious orders also used theatre as a vehicle for evangelization in missions abroad. See, for example, Isgrò (2015).

used to tell stories from the Bible, teach doctrine and encourage good behavior. In Italy, the oldest remaining dramatic text is a 12th century lament of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, part of a passion play. Other genres that flourished in the middle ages were the lives of the saints and sacred plays (Medieval Drama 2000). Beginning about the time of the Renaissance, the educational purpose of Catholic theatre expanded from the churches and the squares to the schools of those religious orders that devoted themselves to the education of the youth. This form of Catholic educational theatre reached its maximum success with the plays performed in Jesuit schools in the 16th and 17th centuries.6

The Jesuits opened their first Italian college in Messina in 1548; by 1556, the year their founder Ignatius Loyola died, they had established some twenty colleges throughout Italy and several more throughout Europe. By 1773, when the order was suppressed, there were about 700 Jesuit schools in Europe and 100 in the rest of the world (Grendler 2014, p. 8; Sani 2009, pp. 33–34).7

Jesuit education was meant to confirm Catholic youth in their faith, confute heresy, and educate future leaders toward the good of society (Grendler 2014, p. 9). From nearly the beginning, theatre had a role in achieving these goals. "The Jesuits embraced theater as a didactic tool" explains Kevin Wetmore, "even as they feared its potential for immorality. They recognized its power, but worked to ensure the students seeing and performing the shows realized the drama was a means to an end, not an end in and of itself" (Wetmore 2016). Already by 1555, or possibly even earlier,8 comedies and tragedies began to be performed in Jesuit schools (Oldani and Yanitelli 1999, p. 18),9 bringing several benefits to both the students and the school. Students gained exercise in memory and Latin as well as acquiring virtue by emulation. In addition, since Jesuit performances on special occasions (the feast of a patron saint, or a prizegiving ceremony) were open not only to school members but to the entire community, theatre was as well "a form of advertising for Jesuit education, but also [ . . . ] a way of dialogue and alliance with civil and religious authorities" (Gallo 2018). Finally, the public nature of educational theatre helped the schools' prospects of gaining the support of wealthy donors (Sani 2009, p. 44). In 1556, in a letter to "Those Going to Begin the College in Prague by Commission", Ignatius himself encouraged the staging of plays "to aid and encourage the students and their families and to gain authority for the classes" (Ignatius of Loyola 2006, p. 636).

Because it was part of the Jesuits' educational system, theatre in the Jesuit tradition had to follow rules that were spelled out in the Ratio Studiorum of 1599: "Tragedies and comedies must be in Latin, and they must be very few. Their subjects should be religious and edifying, and there should be no interludes that are not in Latin and in good taste. No female characters or costumes may be used" (McCabe 1983, p. 14).10 Thus, most Jesuit plays, at least for the first century, were in Latin. To facilitate understanding, a summary of the events of the play in the vernacular would often form the preface to the publication, be distributed to the audience or, in some cases, even read aloud before each act (Saulini 2002, p. 50). Plays were distinguished as either *ludi solemnes*, that is, tragedies performed

6 The bibliography on Jesuit theatre is constantly growing, from the seminal article by Schnitzler (1952) to the more recent O'Malley (2013); Wetmore (2016) and Gallo (2018); see also Oldani and Yanitelli (1999); Sani (2009) and Zanlonghi (2004, 2006) for Jesuit theatre in Italy in particular.

Elissa Weaver has suggested that the Jesuits may have been aware of and possibly influenced by the tradition of theatre used in the education of young women in convents before the establishment of Jesuit schools (Weaver 2002, p. 4). Some of the theatrical works staged in convents in Renaissance Florence also had angels and devils as characters and referred to the joys or torment of the afterlife as consequences of the choices made during one's life. See for example Haraguchi (2009) on *Rappresentazione delle virtù e dei vizi* [Play of the Virtues and Vices] (1650) by Eleonora de Montalvo (1602–1659). Using the structure of the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, this play shows one group taken by St Michael the archangel at the moment of their death, while the second—those that did not repent in time—is dragged away by Lucifer.

7 Jesuit schools were open to males of all social classes "who could pass the courses and obey the rules"; there was no tuition fee to pay (O'Malley 2013, p. 59). The number of students would range from 100 to more than 2000 in individual schools, with an average of about 400 (McCabe 1983, pp. 8–9).

8 McCabe states that there is evidence of plays being staged in Messina even in 1551 (1983, p. 38).

9 Performance of drama in Latin by Plautus and Terence was already part of Humanistic schools in Florence (Black 2007, p. 164).

10 These rules appear somewhat more relaxed than previous ones. For example, in the guidelines emitted in 1591, there was also a prohibition of women spectators (McCabe 1983, p. 13).

by senior students, or *ludi priores*, often comedies performed during the Carnival season by younger students (Oldani and Yanitelli 1999, p. 18). There was a tendency to not reuse a play which had already been staged in another college, hence the necessity to create always new works. William McCabe calculates the number of plays produced in Jesuit colleges "conservatively at nearly one hundred thousand" (McCabe 1983, p. 47). Schnitzler claims, however, that although plays may have been new, they may not have been entirely original, as they would follow a typical dramatic scheme and an ethical message which reflected the mission of the order, that is, the salvation of the souls: "every play was to exalt the blessing of a devout life and to inspire the audience with the Christian values of humility and piety" (Schnitzler 1952, p. 285). This common theme was used in a variety of theatrical genres, from tragedy to comedy, and pastoral play to pantomime, including even farce, opera and ballet (Schnitzler 1952, p. 286). In many cases, however, summaries are all that are left of the thousands of plays written for Jesuit theatre (Filippi 2001, pp. 13–15).11

Looking at the summaries of these numerous plays, it is evident that most would focus on the fight between good and evil, the battle between the two forces that vie for the human soul and the salvation of the world, as embodied on stage in the characters of Christ and Satan (Saulini 2002, p. 42). In fact, the aspect of Jesuit drama that I intend to explore here is the use of allegorical figures, be it the personification of ideas, or supernatural characters such as angels and demons. Such characters "were used in frequent dream scenes, in episodes showing magicians and sorcerers at work, in frightening images of Hell, or in dazzling visions of Heaven" (Schnitzler 1952, p. 286).12 While on the stage itself human life developed, moving from town to forest, or fortress to port, "from heaven descend[ed] patron saints; angels and allegorical characters show[ed] themselves from the clouds; while from the abyss there suddenly emerge[d] demons, infernal spirits and magical prodigies" (Filippi 2001, p. 55).13 Thus, the use of special effects on stage would deeply affect the spectators' senses, rendering more effective the educational message presented in the play even for illiterate audiences (Schnitzler 1952, p. 288).14

This "tendency to exhibit constant activity" on stage was certainly due to the needs and preferences of the audience (McCabe 1983, p. 64). But the reason behind such effects also connects to Jesuit spirituality: as part of the spiritual exercises, Ignatius Loyola instructed on the "application of the senses" to make one's meditation or contemplation more effective. In other words, as Wetmore (2016) summarizes, "the Ignatian *Spiritual Exercises* are a form of acting exercise in which one imagines oneself as a character in various biblical situations and explores what it means, physically, emotionally, and (most important) spiritually to experience it".

In the Jesuit tradition, therefore, theatre and spiritual exercises unite; theatre is, in fact, rooted in Ignatian spirituality. Consider the Spiritual Exercises themselves: in the fifth exercise of the first week of the Spiritual exercises, the exercitants are instructed to imagine themselves in hell. First, they should "see with the eyes of the imagination the huge fires and, so to speak, the souls within the bodies full of fire". Then, "hear the wailing, the shrieking, the cries, and the blasphemies against our Lord and all his saints". After seeing and hearing, the exercitants will have to employ their other three senses, as they are instructed to experience "the smoke, the sulphur, the filth and the rotting things [ . . . ] the bitter flavors of hell: tears, sadness and the worm of conscience [ . . . and finally] feel how the flames touch the souls and burn them" (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, p. 141).

In the second week of the exercises, on the fourth day, we see another image that will influence Jesuit theatre, as the exercitant is further invited to visualize "Christ, our supreme commander and

11 See Filippi (2001, pp. 16–26) for a description and discussion of the remaining Jesuit theatre scenarios.

12 Schnitzler (1952, p. 287) also points to another important characteristic of Jesuit theatre, which is the use of elaborate stage effects: scenic effects, trap doors, costumes, music, light and sound.

13 All translations of quotations from the Italian and Latin in this article are mine. I am grateful to Dr. Christina Robertson of the University of Auckland for her help with the Latin texts.

14 That is one of the reasons why Jesuits used theatre with such great success in their missions abroad (Schnitzler 1952, p. 285) and within Italy as well (Selwyn 2004, pp. 211–18).

Lord" and "Lucifer, the mortal enemy of our human nature"; each wants all humans to militate under his standard.15 The images invoked in the exercise present a battlefield, in which both commanders prepare their armies.16 The section that is relevant to Jesuit theatrical representations is the description of Lucifer as commander-in-chief, as well as a list of his deceits. The penitent is instructed to imagine the devil "in that great plain of Babylon. He is seated on a throne of fire and smoke, in aspect horrible and terrifying" as he "summons uncountable devils, disperses some to one city and others to another, and thus reaches into the whole world". He then tells them "to set out snares and chains", to lure men with promises of riches, then honor, then pride; "and from these three steps the enemy entices them to any other vices" (Ignatius of Loyola 1991, pp. 154–55). In other words, it would appear that according to Ignatius Loyola himself, the root of all evil is not so much the pursuit of pleasure as the quest for riches, honor and pride.17

In many of the Jesuit plays, similar demons and angels appear as part of the background action, as for example in the *The apotheosis or consecration of Saints Ignatius and Francis Xavier*, staged for the first time in 1622 at the Collegio Romano on the occasion of the canonization of Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier. Mixing acting, opera and ballet, the play contained scenes set in hell, as well as acts in which demons attacked the saints (Wetmore 2016). The play ended with "a spectacular earthquake [which] gives way to an opening in the heavens [and] all the countries prostrat[ing] themselves before the new saints and a chorus of angels" (Cohelho 1997, p. 31). In another play, also staged in 1622 for the celebration of the canonization of Francis Xavier, *Pirimalo*18 by Gino Angelo Capponi, infernal spirits "emerge furiously and impetuously from a horrid cave" attempting to distract Francis Xavier from prayer (Filippi 2001, pp. 108–9).19 Just as demons try to interfere with the life of humans, in the same play Francis Xavier's guardian angel, armed with lightening, intervenes in a human battle defeating and submerging the enemy ships.

Among the many works of Jesuit theatre where angels and devils show their influence on human souls, two in particular stand out, as their entire Latin text remains: Stefano Tuccio's *Christus Iudex* [The Judging Christ], first staged in Messina in 1569, and Vincenzo Guiniggi's *Ignatius arma mutans* [Ignatius changing arms] first staged in Rome in 1622.20 *Christus Iudex* enacts the very day of judgment, when souls are eternally assigned to heaven or hell, the last and only moment in human history in which there will no longer exist the possibility of repentance. *Ignatius arma mutans*, on the other hand, allows spectators to see the demonic forces at work throughout human history, even in the present, warning against those human ambitions and desires which, though they might appear justifiable, may well be of demonic origin. Thus, both plays stage angelic and demonic figures as characters, and heaven and

15 See Conrod (2010) on the importance of creating an image of Hell as a place of eternal punishment for indigenous populations that did not have a hell as part of their cosmology.

16 See Prosperi (2015, pp. 368–69) for the imagery of the two standards: "The two standards are those of Christ and Lucifer, the two captains who, according to military practice, planted their standards and enlisted those willing to gather under their ensigns. [ . . . ] The vision presented for the fourth day is of the whole world as a place of conflict where the armies of the two opposing captains line up and confront each other".

17 See Mk 1: 12–13, Lk 4: 1–13, and Mt 4: 1–11 where the devil tempted Jesus himself with riches, honor and pride.

18 The play staged the martyrdom of Pirimalo, prince of Ceylon, killed by his father the day after he was baptized by Francis Xavier.

19 Demons also appear in Leone Santi's *Il gigante* [The giant] (1632), a retelling in Italian of the story of David and Goliath. In the first scene of the second act, the play stages an infernal council modelled on Canto IV of *Gerusalemme liberata*. The council concludes in a scene of music and dance. Lucifer and other demons are also present in *Isacco* [Isaac] by Antonio Casilio staged in 1637 (Filippi 2001, pp. 159–66). A dance of devils who predict the crown for a cruel and revengeful tyrant is mentioned in the argument for the Italian tragedy *Alessio Comneno* (1674) of unknown author (Filippi 2001, pp. 348–51). An infernal spirit declares to have abandoned hell and has taken up human form in order to act as a tempter of the protagonist in the hagiographic play *Alessio* (1690) of unknown author (Filippi 2001, pp. 378–80). The celebrated tragedy *Crispo* by Bernardino Stefonio, modelled on Seneca's *Phaedra*, staged multiple times after its 1596 premiere at the Collegio Romano, also has scenes that take place in hell.