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Talk:Interpreted language

Interpreted Language is a meaningless misnomer
There is not actually a concept of an interpreted language to any meaningful degree. I believe this page is propagating a lot of misinformation. Instead of critiquing every little phrase I'll just explain the disconnect here.

There a programming languages, there are interpreters, and there are compilers. Programming languages need to be turned in to executable programs somehow. The two most popular ways are interpreting them and compiling them (see the respective pages for an explanation as to what the differences are.) The fact that you interpret the code or compile the code, however, is not a language-specific property at all.

Many languages have both. There are also often many compilers for one language. What is an interpreted language then? A programming language for which no one has yet to write a compiler? Show me that language and I'll write you a compiler for it. That language is no longer an interpreted language. This phrase just does not have meaning despite it being a very common phrase in the programming language community. I think we should stop perpetuating the myth that a language is either compiled or interpreted by removing this page. -MM — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.6.55.158 (talk) 22:58, 21 June 2013 (UTC)
 * That's right, the term is just a misnomer used informally. Being interpreted or compiled is not a property of programming languages because, as stated above, on a theoretical level, every "interpreted" programming language can be compiled. Accappona La Pelle (talk) 13:58, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Languages which modify the structure of code at runtime, can only work as interpreted languages. The only way to compile them is to embed the interpreter within them, and thus there is still interpreting going on. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shkaboinka (talk • contribs) 20:44, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It is not true that languages which modify the structure of code at runtime can only work as interpreted, please refer to the Wikipedia page about self-modifying code for an example. It may be true that the only way to compile some programs, written in languages that are usually interpreted, is to embed some parts of the interpreter within them, that's because those parts are part of the program itself. Accappona La Pelle (talk) 13:44, 23 October 2020 (UTC)

Change definition
The entire first paragraph never says what an interpreted language is and neither does the interpreter page. All the content in there was incomprehensible to a non comp sci person like me. Could someone please simplify this and say what the interpreted language means in the first 2-3 sentences...Truetyper 03:44, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Compiled v. Interpreted

 * In an interpreted language your source code is read in command by command by a software tool, which is called the Interpreter and executed.

What ? Command-by-command ? No interpreter is using such crappy technique nowadays. --Taw

 * I'm afraid you're incorrect: MatLab uses this technique, sadly. --wlievens

As an example of how outdated the above claim (the "line by line" claim) is, you need only look at a few of the pages on wikipedia detailing some of the ancient BASIC systems. As a single cite, see the Applesoft BASIC page. 205.250.157.193 (talk) 00:56, 21 January 2009 (UTC) tim rowledge

From Interpreted Language/Talk

 * some languages (like Perl) are compiled at runtime

Could you elaborate ? --Taw

Every time a perl script is run, Perl compiles it and then runs the compiled code. At least, this is the usual way of using perl, although it's not the only way. --Zundark, 2001 Dec 15

You mean compile to syntactic tree or compile to machine code ? --Taw

 * I believe it's compiled to bytecode, much like Java. As of perl 5.6 (version?), it's possible to produce a bytecode version of a perl program to save the compilation step. I think the bytecode can be converted back to full source as well, but I'm not as sure about that. Indigo Perl (http://www.indigoperl.com) produces a perl compiler that produces a machine executable, but I think the resulting executable consists of both the actual bytecode and enough of the perl engine to run the bytecode, so they tend to be rather large. Their advantage is being able to deploy the code to machines that don't necessarily have the Perl interpreter installed. They have versions for both Windows and Unix-ish platforms.  --Wesley

Old Interpreted Language article
An interpreted language is a type of programming language that is not compiled into machine code, but is interpreted at run-time by the computer, and translated into machine understandable code as required.

Then how is that any different from JIT compilation? --Cowlinator

It is often a mistake to refer to a language as either "interpreted" or "compiled", because most languages can be implemented in either way, and some languages (like Perl) are compiled at runtime but behave as if they were interpreted. Other languages, like Java, may be partially compiled into an intermediate form which is then interpreted (although that, too, might be compiled). Some languages, though, are specifically designed to favor interpretation.

An example of an interpreted language is JavaScript.

But more modern implementations are usually JIT compiled. I'm of the opinion that the whole compiled/interpreted separation is very vague at best.

Is Java interpreted, or what?

The Java programming language article says:

 * "The first implementations of the language used an interpreted virtual machine to achieve portability, and many implementations still do. These implementations produce programs that run more slowly than the fully-compiled programs created by the typical C++ compiler and some later Java language compilers, so the language suffered a reputation for producing slow programs. More recent implementations of the Java VM produce programs that run much faster, using multiple techniques."

The Java language is compiled, always. It is designed as a compiled language, and is implemented as a compiled language. It is often compiled into bytecode, which is then interpreted (with a virtual machine). I think the Java language article is correct, but maybe it could be worded better. --LDC

Yes, and you can also compile Jave straight down to machine code if you like. The above claim that it is a mistake to differentiate between interpreted and compiled languages is IMHO incorrect; every language that has an "eval" statement which lets you construct and evaluate statements on the fly can never be cleanly compiled down to machine code; you will always have to embed an interpreter in your compiled code. --AxelBoldt

But "eval" doesn't necessarily need to interpret the code, it might as well compile it to machine or bytecode (which might in turn get JITted to machine code).

Way too much mess here has been caused by lack of clear definition of "compiling". It is used in two distinct meanings, as in:
 * 1) compiled to machine code (or assembly)
 * 2) compiled to byte code/parse tree/some other internal representation

I think it's wrong to call languages that use the second way "compiled". In such case there would be virtually no interpreted language in use - no language uses line-by-line parsing nowadays, all "compile" source to some form of internal representation.

Quote from FOLDOC: Compiler

A program that converts another program from some {source language} (or {programming language}) to    {machine language} (object code). Some compilers output {assembly language} which is then converted to {machine language} by a separate {assembler}. ...

A more precise statement would be that a compiler translates from one form to another (either native code, bytecode, or even another high-level langauge), but does the translation all at once, before the program is run. An interpreter is a program that starts executing while some or all of the original program is still in source format, and that does translation on-the-fly. The source format and destination format are irrelevant to these distinctions. Stoustrup's original "cfront", for example, compiled C++ into C, which was then compiled again into native code. Contrary to the above assertion, most compilers do in fact compile to native code rather than an intermediate form, with the minority exceptions of Java and Microsoft BASIC. --LDC

I removed this paragraph:

 * One distinction of interpreted language from compiled language is the late binding of the addresses to the variables and labels.

Late binding may allow some interpreted languages to change the logic of the program by modifying its own code at run time. Such a feature cannot be achieved in any compiled language.

For one, it's in broken English and I'm not sure I understand what it's trying to say, and what I think it says isn't true. Late binding has nothing to do with self-modifying code, and compiled languages can pull some sneaky tricks to allow both anyway. If the author of this paragraph can explain to me what he's trying to say and that it makes sense, I'll be happy to edit it and put it back. --Lee Daniel Crocker

The article seems to overemphasise the difficulty of eval in a compiled system. I understand this may be difficult in some systems I am not familiar with, but in a compiled Common Lisp system, once you have implemented the compile function that converts functions into machine code, eval is a one-liner: (defun eval (expr) (funcall (compile `(lambda ,expr)))).

I think this article is complete nonsense and should be removed. There is no such thing as 'interpreted language' or 'compiled language'; there're languages, which may or may not have compilers and/or interpreters. All the issues stated in the article that separate 'compiled' languages from 'interpreted' ones are fairly artificial. Every language can be compiled. Every language can be interpreted. Python is listed as an interpreted language and there's not a single Python interpreter in existance. Etc, etc. --Lament

While every language can be interpreted and complied, it is also true really almost all C programs are complied and Perl programs are interpreted (though Perl code are compilied internally). It is not a bad idea to talk about genral cases. -- Taku 00:41 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

 * Oh well. I'm removing the mentions of Python, because there really are no Python interpreters. --Lament

- I'm also removing this paragraph:

''Many languages have both interpreters and compilers, but usually one method of use is dominant based on the language's design. For example, many interpreted languages have a command such as Perl's eval, which takes programming language text as data (which can be created at runtime) and executes it, something that requires a language interpreter at runtime. Languages designed for compilation, on the other hand, may have features like allowing inline assembly. Neither of these features provides a strict requirement for distinguishing "interpreted languages" as such, however, since eval can alternatively be implemented by invoking a compiler and dynamic linker at run-time and assembly can be emulated or invoked from within an interpreter...''

It's just ... wrong. And I see no way to cure it. Neither of those features has anything to do with being 'interpreted' - it even says so in the paragraph itself. Lisps are most commonly compiled, and all have eval. Nothing stops anyone from treating inline assembly as a part of the language syntax, and interpret it (or even compile it, while interpreting the rest of the program!). I don't see how this paragraph is useful for anything other than confusing people. --Lament

Right. The part you removed cannot be right above all. I rewrote entirely and it seems better now. The problem is writing not the existence of an article -- Taku 20:52 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

-

From the article:

'' Interpreted languages give programs certain flexibility in run-time over compiled languages. While it is theoritically possible that compiled-type language supports them, in practice the language has to be interpreted in some way in rum-time. Such a feature may include (but not limited to)

* platform independece (Java's byte code, for example) * dynamic evaluation of code (e.g. eval function) * ease of debugging * small program size (Since interpreted languages have flexibility to choose instruction code) * interactivity ''

This is still wrong. C is quite portable, and compiled. Lisp has eval, and is compiled. Smalltalk has good debugging, and is compiled. Assembly has small program size, and is compiled. The term "interactivity" is semantically void.

Of course, it is generally speaking. Don't you agree it is easier to achive features above by interpretation? -- Taku 21:14 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

 * I agree with that. I disagree that "While it is theoritically possible that compiled-type language supports them, in practice the language has to be interpreted in some way in rum-time". None of the languages I listed are particularly impractical, and all implement the required features while being compiled. If we define "interpreted" as "being easier to interpret than to compile", then most languages are interpreted, anyway.

It seems to me that the problem is a definition. I will rewrite again. See it then give me a comment. I think we should have this article because people use interpreted language in conversation, therefore we have to cover it. -- Taku 21:22 Jan 24, 2003 (UTC)

 * I think it's much better now, but I'm removing this sentence: "The term is vague due to the fact that the terms compilation and interpretation are vague." (they aren't). Thanks. -- Lament

Really? I think the terms compilation and interpretation are used vaguely. For example, syntax analysis (or parsing) is a part of compilation or a part of both compilation and interpretation? I think the reason why it is difficult to differentiate interpreted language and compiled language is that is not clear that what is compilation and what is interpretation. For example, some compiled language may interpret regular expression in run-time. But it may cache the result like a compilation. What do you think? It may be interesting to mention about this kind of point. -- Taku 01:04 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

 * A compiler converts a program in one language into a semantically equivalent (well, mostly) program in another language, which can be executed repeatedly. An interpreter executes a program. That's all there is to it. Parsing is effectively compilation, but it is as internal stage that we're not interested in. Regular expressions are a sub-language; what matters is that the whole program is converted into another language. -- Lament

Right. Your definition seems concise and correct. Thanks -- Taku 01:15 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

 * So by your (Lament's) definition, a just-in-time compiler is an interpreter ? --FvdP

 * Yes. (Lament)

The confusion comes perhaps from the fact that no program is truly interpreted. Almost every language (except perhaps Javascript) is converted to an intermediate form before being executed. That conversion may be mere tokenization (Applesoft Basic ?), native-code compilation, or anything in-between... Plus, what's the difference between interpretation and just-in-time compilation ? Frontiers are blurred. In that sense I concur with Taku. But I agree with Lament's main argument: the notion of interpreted language doesn't make sense. An implementation can be an interpretor. --FvdP

About this:
 * Nowadays, many languages are compiled at run-time, before the start of execution. Examples include Perl, and Ruby. Some languages are compiled to bytecode, which is executed by a bytecode interpreter; examples include Python and Java.

I disagree. I don't see the difference between Perl and Python. As I wrote in an edit comment, the Perl article states that Perl is compiled to bytecode (at least, up to Perl 5). That's no different from Python. And I guess Ruby works the same. --FvdP 01:13 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

 * From what I know about Perl, it is compiled to bytecode anew at every execution. Python, like Java, is not. I might be wrong about Perl. -- Lament
 * OK, I had not read the "at run-time" in your text, sorry, so I got the whole interpretation wrong (thinking you were saying that Perl was more "compiled" than Python). To continue with the concept clarification process, you appear to count the syntax-tree-building process of Ruby (described by Taku hereunder) as a compilation process, right ?
 * That was my point, what is the border between compilation and interpretation. But I think Lament's definition perfectly makes sense. Syntax tree is not an another language, but bytecode can be seen as an rudimental language. So I believe Ruby is not a hibrid but a true interpreted language -- Taku 01:41 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

 * Perhaps you mean that Perl modules are compiled once for all, while Python modules are compiled when loaded ? That's only partly true. Once compiled, a Python module is not recompiled unless it changed. And Perl scripts may also be compiled on the fly, I guess. --FvdP 01:18 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

About Perl you are right, but you are wrong about Ruby. Ruby code is never converted into bytecode but merely a syntax tree. I am good at the source code of Ruby interpreter, so I am pretty sure. Sorry but this is just a simple clarification. -- Taku 01:19 Jan 25, 2003 (UTC)

I removed the following sentence because I can't any sense of it. Could somebody please clarify?
 * On the other hand, some languages took advantage of interpretation. For example, Smalltalk are designed to be interpreted in run-time. It allows the structure called object in programs dynamically interact each other, which is so-called Object Oriented Programming.

I've done my best to reinterpret it-- please see the article-- though I'm not sure I really hit the nail on the head.

Also, what's dynamic scooping? Is this supposed to be Dynamic scoping? Dachshund

Added Java to the list of commonly interpreted languages. What determines whether a language is interpreted is whether it requires a VM or not. If it does, it's interpreted (by the VM). In the case of Java, what's interpreted is bytecode, but it's still interpreted. If someone wants to call it compiled because of the creation of bytecode, that's fine by me, but it is always interpreted. --BK

The above paragraph is false. The fact that a VM is required cannot possibly define a so called "interpreted language". Many, many interpreters are written in a host language (not a VM). Take Racket for example. Further more just because what Java compiles to is interpreted doesn't mean it's interpreted. After all x86 machine code is interpreted by the chip. Is C, therefor interpreted? No. Machine language and bytecode are. Java and C are not. At least not in these examples. Could you write a Java interpreter? Probably. But all of these misunderstandings people are having here is further evidence that the phrase is meaningless and perpetuating misunderstandings. -MM

Ok. Java is compliled. into Java bytecodes, that is. Java bytecode is an instruction set for an imaginary processor. this processor is actually a piece of software called a virtual machine and this virtual machine is the only thing that runs directly on the hardware. An interpreter is simple becuase it is just a loop that retrieves a bytecode then ececutes the sequence of native instructions to accomplish the bytecode's task. it retrieves the next one and so and so forth. interpreters are slow because they have to execute the looping and retrieving and bookeeping in addition to executing the bytecode equivalent instructions. They average roughly around 1/10th the speed of an eqivalent program running directly on the cpu. Nowadays, most big-scale java virual machines improve upon the speed of interpreters by compiling the bytecodes directly to navite instructions and then executing those navtive instruction sequences. those are JIT virtual machines. they have a greater overhead in that they have to act like a compiler but once they translate the bytecodes, it runs much faster. Sun's HotSpot JVM is a hybrid VM cause it has both a JIT compiler and an interpreter. It is supposed to combine the best of both worlds. It interprets everything the first time it gets executed but then on subsequent passes, it JITs the bytecodes. Methods that are very seldom if ever run dont waste the JVM's time by getting JIT'ed. Only if the method, or piece of code, that gets executed more than a few times gets JIT'ed. HotSpot even counts how often a particular method gets run and optimizes it more and more as it runs more and more. In other words, the java program actually becomes more optimized and faster as time passes. After many exectuions, a method can, as Sun claims, become as fast and effecient as an equvalent program in C. Perl, on the other hand, i have no idea.

A few good cites
These might be good to incorporate into the definition: A nuanced definition of interpreted and an argument that languages are interpreted unless they compile to assembly code  Antonrojo 17:13, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

ActionScript
I think we should set a few things straight about ActionScript here.

ActionScript has always been some kind of a strange breed when it comes to the distinction of interpreted an compiled languages, since it always had to be compiled first to be run. For as long as there's been ActionScript, there has always been an Actionscript Virtual Machine in the Flash Player.

In ActionScript 1 and 2, code was translated to the prototype-based ActionScript 1 anyway and compiled dynamically, and thus I consider labeling ActionScript as interpreted language as precise enough, though the list item should be renamed to "ActionScript 1.0/2.0".

With the advent of ActionScript 3.0, though, ActionScript is compiled into a different kind of bytecode (although it is still jammed into a file with the .swf extension) which is JIT-compiled by the Flash Player AVM2.

IMO this qualifies ActionScript, although by definition still based on ECMAScript, to be mentioned alongside Java in the section "Languages usually compiled to a virtual machine code".

Best regards, Cathness (talk) 06:22, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

PHP
PHP is certainly not compiled to bytecode before execution. It is parsed,compiled, and executed at runtime by the php interpreter. I assume that "Languages usually compiled to a virtual machine code" means at compile time. there is no such thing compile time in php. see (http://www.derickrethans.nl/files/internals.pdf) for description of php internals.YoCmos (talk) 11:29, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Poor description
This article gives a very poor description of what an interpreted language is. In fact, you could easily gain the impression from reading it that an interpreted language and a compiled language are the same thing!

It really needs a major rewrite IMO. Gatoclass (talk) 13:07, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I did a small rewrite to the definition. Certainly a definition of type "is a language whose implementation is ..." is not descriptive enough.YoCmos (talk) 16:12, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Definition
I combined these two defintions to make it readable for readers who are not familiar with high level terminology. Although the old defintion is technically more precise, the new one is more descriptive. A person who doesn't know what the phrase "main language implementaion" means, will never understand the subject. Pages where this defintion was used: [] [] YoCmos (talk) 10:34, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Merge into Programming language implementation
I don't know if there's a talk page concerning this but both this and Compiled Language really should be moved to Programming language implementation.

It's not a very useful approximation to consider a language "compiled" or "interpreted" and as this talk page exhibits, it seems to confuse more often than not. Compilation or Interpretation are properties of a languages implementation, not usually a property of the language.

I propose Taking both Interpreted Language and Compiled Language and moving them to sections of Programming language implementation (which is currently quite smile) and having the links redirect to sections there.72.71.243.114 (talk) 22:55, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

 * Why not to merge with Executable in the first place? Executable and interpreted are one and the same thing, after all. --Javalenok (talk) 10:21, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

COBOL
COBOL as a rule is not interpreted. You may find some implementations, but these do not represent the 99.99% of the lines of code in production today. COBOL is compiled, pure and simple, and enjoys easy integration with C and C++ for precisely that reason. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.176.80.245 (talk) 07:23, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

I agree: when I search for COBOL interpreters, I cannot find any. Who added COBOL to the list of compiled languages? I am taking it off. Just in case anybody wants to complain about it: I took COBOL off the list. You can argue with me about COBOL being an interpreted language, or about atheism being scientifically accurate, whatever suits you. DonaldET3 (talk) 04:06, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

List Merge Needed
There already exists a list of interpreted languages in List of programming languages by type. The corresponding section should be merged, then deleted and replaced with the link here in either the end of the intro or the "see also" section. There are complications, however. That page does not include sub-bullets to indicate the ancestry of languages. Furthermore, the list is not alphabetical, which will be a pain. I will post this note on the other page. AllenZh (talk) 01:12, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

Directly/Indirectly
The article starts with the words "is a programming language in which programs are 'indirectly' executed ("interpreted") by an interpreter program. This can be contrasted with a compiled language which is converted into machine code and then 'directly' executed by the host CPU." Contrary to this definition, interpreted programs are executed directly, without any intermediate compilation. Might be you are looking from the target machine point of view. But, why not the original program perspective? Interpreters interpret the original program, not machine code, after all. I can think of a machine that executes the program directly, without any compilation. Interpreter is actually such a machine. Though normally virtual, you can always make it phisical. Actually, any physical machine executes instructions immediately. The machine language interpreter is a basic interpreter, therefore, as it does not involve any compilation (only little men in the processor know how to execute an instruction). So, interpreter executes instructions directly. Which indirectness are you talking about? --Javalenok (talk) 15:08, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Java, bytecode, C#, CIL
I read the following: "While Java is translated to a form that is intended to be interpreted, just-in-time compilation is often used to generate machine code. The Microsoft .NET Framework languages always compile to Common Intermediate Language (CIL) which is then just-in-time compiled into native machine code." This has appeared in the [edit], which seems ok. Now, the first part is also ok. It says that Java workflow consists of compilation, followed by interpretation. The latter may be optimized with second compilation. Nothing mentions bytecode, despite we have the "interpreted languages" title. This creates an impression that it is java, which is interpreted, which is wrong. Java language was designed with the bytecode to be compiled into. Secondly, they say that .NET is different because it (always) compiles into CIL. That is, Micorsoft workflow is different because it is the same! Might be you suppose that the difference is in the bytecode interpretation: Sun designed bytecode for interpretation whereas MS targets JIT-compilation? It is not clear at all and cannot be true because microsoft has nothing to do at all with our topic, interpretation. Might be, by introducing such unimportant details in such entangled manner, somebody wants to hide the fact that .Net is MS's clone of Java. Replaing C# with ".Net multilanguage" marketing hype confirms that. But actually we know that both Java and C# both languages are always compiled into IL (aka bytecode). It is this language that may be interpreted or JIT-compiled. And, there are more languages compiled into java bytecode than into CIL. You cannot say that Java bytecode is Java-limited after that, right? So, I just revert this edit. Furthermore, see in the Interpreter (computing) that interpreter can have the "translate source code into some efficient intermediate representation and immediately execute this" strategy. This is the strategy used by CIL and it is therefore nonsense to say that it CIL is compiled rather than interpreted. --Javalenok (talk) 19:40, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

ASP is not a language
ASP is not a language but a framework by Microsoft where the two languages VBScript and jScript can be used. Other compliant frameworks exist where other languages are also supported. --DotnetCarpenter (talk) 12:27, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Authentic Definitions
An interpreted language is one whose ORIGINAL design is meant to be run without the need of compilation. Python, Ruby, Javascript and the like are designed like this. The programmer did not need to "compile" any code to run them, even if such is possible now. "Compiled" languages, on the other hand, refer to those languages that were ORIGINALLY designed to be converted to some intermediate form before running. This includes C, C++, Java, Rust, etc. The fact that we can compile any of these languages or run them in a virtual machine is meaningless in comparison with the original intent. You might as well say an image file is a software program simply because you can write an interpreter for its bits. By looking at the original intent of the design of the language (which is usually (but not always) apparent based on its syntax), you can easily classify these languages. VastNova (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:17, 8 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Can we get a source for this? Plokmijnuhby (talk) 10:45, 6 August 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Interpreted language


text:
International Refugee Organization

The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was an intergovernmental organization founded on 20 April 1946 to deal with the massive refugee problem created by World War II. A Preparatory Commission began operations fourteen months previously. In 1948, the treaty establishing the IRO formally entered into force and the IRO became a United Nations specialized agency. The IRO assumed most of the functions of the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1952, operations of the IRO ceased, and it was replaced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Constitution of the International Refugee Organization, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 1946, is the founding document of the IRO. The constitution specified the organization's field of operations. Controversially, the constitution defined "persons of German ethnic origin" who had been expelled, or were to be expelled from their countries of birth into the postwar Germany, as individuals who would "not be the concern of the Organization." This excluded from its purview a group that exceeded in number all the other European displaced persons put together. Also, because of disagreements between the Western allies and the Soviet Union, the IRO only worked in areas controlled by Western armies of occupation.

Twenty-six states became members of the IRO and it formally came into existence in 1948: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Republic of China, Chile, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Liberia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. The U.S. provided about 40% of the IRO's $155 million annual budget. The total contribution by the members for the five years of operation was around $400 million. It had rehabilitated around 10 million people during this time, out of 15 million people who were stranded in Europe. The IRO's first Director-General was William Hallam Tuck, succeeded by J. Donald Kingsley on 31 July 1949.

IRO closed its operations on 31 January 1952 and after a liquidation period, went out of existence on 30 September 1953. By that time many of its responsibilities had been assumed by other agencies. Of particular importance was the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, established in January 1951 as a part of the United Nations, and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (originally PICMME), set up in December 1951.

Filmography

 * The Search by Fred Zinnemann (1948): The IRO helped the producers to make this story about children refugees, in 1945 Germany.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: International Refugee Organization


text:
IRO

IRO, Iro, or iro may refer to:

Organizations

 * Institution of Railway Operators (Chartered Institution of Railway Operators since October 2021)
 * Internal Revolutionary Organization, Bulgaria
 * International Refugee Organization, a United Nations agency 1946–1952
 * International Search and Rescue Dog Organisation
 * Jewish Industrial Removal Office, an agency assisting European Jewish immigrants to the U.S. in the early 20th century

Given name

 * Iro Haarla (born 1956), Finnish jazz musician
 * Iro Ilk, German Luftwaffe pilot; recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
 * Iro Konstantopoulou (1927–1944), Greek resistance member during World War II
 * Iro Tembeck (1946–2004), Canadian dancer, choreographer, and dance historian

Surname

 * Andy Iro (born 1984), English footballer
 * Edgar Iro (born 2000), Solomon Islands swimmer
 * Hapilyn Iro (born 1992), Solomon Islands weightlifter
 * Kayal Iro (born 2000), Cook Islands rugby league footballer
 * Kevin Iro (born 1968), New Zealand rugby league footballer
 * Tony Iro (born 1967), New Zealand rugby league footballer and coach

Places

 * Iro (South Sudan), a mountain
 * Iro Lake, Chad
 * Iro town in Obafemi Owode, Nigeria

Other uses

 * Birao Airport (IATA code)
 * Inland Revenue Ordinance, a tax law in Hong Kong
 * Japanese oiler Irō, an Imperial Japanese Navy fleet oiler 1922–1944
 * Mohawk hairstyle or iro

title: IRO


text:
Talk:Irrealism in music

As someone who has studied irrealism as a theory in (academic) metaphysics, I would be very interested to learn how, exactly, one might apply that theory to music--I suspect "irrealism" means something entirely different in the field of music, eh? --LMS

Well, the actual music (in terms of notes) may not reflect irrealism -- it is the lyrics that espouse it.

Daniel C. Boyer

Do you think I (or you) should edit the "irrealism" and "irrealism in music" pages to make this clear?

Daniel C. Boyer

Fascinating. So some rock band (or more than one?!) actually thinks irrealism is so interesting as to write rock lyrics around it? Why aren't they writing about sex, drugs, crime? Just kidding. Yes, definitely you should edit the article to make this clear. An example of the lyrics would be good, too. --LMS

Please see talk:irrealism. Maybe you could post an example of the lyrics. The irrealism article, besides, implies that there's some way to "put irrealism into practice" other than, e.g., badly paraphrasing philosophers in rock lyrics. --LMS

title: Talk:Irrealism in music


text:
Isabella d'Este

Isabella d'Este (19 May 1474 – 13 February 1539) was the Marchioness of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure.

She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion and her innovative style of dressing was emulated by many women. The poet Ariosto labeled her as the "liberal and magnanimous Isabella", while author Matteo Bandello described her as "supreme among women". Diplomat Niccolò da Correggio went even further by hailing her as "The First Lady of the world".

She served as the regent of Mantua during the absence of her husband Francesco II Gonzaga and during the minority of her son Federico. She was a prolific letter-writer and maintained a lifelong correspondence with her sister-in-law Elisabetta Gonzaga. Isabella grew up in a cultured family in the city-state of Ferrara. She received a fine classical education and she met many famous humanist scholars and artists. Due to the vast amount of extant correspondence between Isabella and her family and friends, her life is extremely well documented.

Early life
Isabella was born on Tuesday, 19 May 1474 at nine o'clock in the evening. Isabella's mother, Eleanor of Naples, wrote a letter to her friend Barbara Gonzaga describing the details of Isabella's birth in Ferrara. Eleanor was the daughter of Ferdinand I, the Aragonese King of Naples, and Isabella of Clermont.

One year later, on 29 June 1475, her sister Beatrice was born, and in 1476 and 1477 two brothers, Alfonso and Ferrante, were born. In 1479 and 1480 two more brothers were born; Ippolito and Sigismondo. Of all the children born into the family, Isabella is believed to have been the favourite.

In the year of her brother Ferrante's birth, Isabella was among the children of the family who travelled to Naples with her mother. When her mother returned to Ferrara, Isabella accompanied her, while the other two children remained in Naples for many years: Beatrice was adopted by her grandfather, and her little brother Ferrante was left under the tutelage of their uncle Alfonso.

Education
Due to her outstanding intellect, she often discussed the classics and the affairs of state with ambassadors. In addition, she was personally acquainted with the painters, musicians, writers, and scholars who lived in and around the court. Besides her extensive knowledge of history and languages, she could also recite Virgil and Terence by heart. Isabella was also a talented singer and musician, and was taught to play the lute by Giovanni Angelo Testagrossa. In addition to these accomplishments, she was also an innovator of new dances, having been instructed in the art of dance by Ambrogio, a Jewish dancing master.

Betrothal and marriage
In 1480, at the age of six, Isabella was betrothed to the eight years older Francesco, the heir to the Marquess of Mantua. The Duke of Milan requested her hand in marriage for his son, Ludovico, two weeks later. Instead, her sister, Beatrice was betrothed to Ludovico and became the Duchess of Milan. Her dowry amounted to 25,000 ducats. Although he was not handsome, Isabella admired Francesco for his strength and bravery; she also regarded him as a gentleman. After their first few encounters she began to enjoy his company and she spent the next few years getting to know him and preparing to be the Marchioness of Mantua. During their courtship, Isabella treasured the letters, poems, and sonnets he sent her as gifts.

Ten years later, on 11 February 1490, at age 15, she married Francesco by proxy. By then, he had succeeded to the marquisate. Besides being the Marquess, Francesco was captain general of the armies of the Republic of Venice. Isabella became his wife amid a spectacular outpouring of public rejoicing and a grand celebration that took place on 15 February. She brought the sum of 3,000 ducats as her marriage portion, as well as valuable jewelry, dishes, and a silver service. Prior to the magnificent banquet which followed the wedding ceremony, Isabella rode through the main streets of Ferrara astride a horse draped in gems and gold.

Relations with Milan
In 1491 Isabella went with a small entourage to Brescello and from there to Pavia, to accompany her sister Beatrice who was married to Ludovico il Moro. On this occasion she saw Galeazzo Sanseverino again —- as she had known him as a child in Ferrara —- with whom she began a large, and at times humorous, exchange of letters. However, his identity is not certain and could be the almost homonymous Galeazzo Visconti, Count of Busto Arsizio, a courtier also dear to the dukes. Between the two immediately ignited a dispute, destined to last for months, on who was the best paladin, Orlando or Rinaldo: Galeazzo supported the first, the sisters d'Este the second. Galeazzo, who exercised a strong fascination, soon managed to convert them both to Orlando's faith, but Isabella, once back in Mantua, returned to prefer Rinaldo, so that Galeazzo remembered her as "I alone was enough to make her change her mind and cry out Rolando! Rolando!", invited her to follow her sister's example and swore that he would convert her a second time, as soon as they met again. Isabella jokingly replied that she would then bring a frog to offend him, and the dispute went on for a long time.

On 11 February, speaking to her about the amusements he had with Beatrice, he wrote to her: "I will also strive to improve in order to give greater pleasure to the S. V., when I come for her this summer", and lamented the lack of "his sweet company". Isabella's presence was in fact much desired in Milan, not only by Galeazzo but also by her sister, Ludovico and the other courtiers, however the Marquise was able to go there a few times, as her husband Francesco was wary of sending it to her, judging that in that court too many "madness" were committed, and perhaps also out of jealousy of Ludovico. Despite the affection, Isabella began to feel envy for her sister Beatrice, first for the very fortunate marriage that had touched her and for the enormous riches, then for the two sons in perfect health who were born to her a short time later, while she seemed unable to have children, and in this aroused the concerns of her mother Eleonora, who continually exhorted her in letters to be as close as possible to her husband. A certain hatred can also be seen in a letter to his mother dating back to his visit to Pavia in August 1492, when, speaking of Beatrice, he wrote: "she is not a greater than me, but she is much bigger!"; in a similar way she also expressed herself to her husband, not being able yet to know, perhaps, that the sister's coarseness was due to the incipient pregnancy (she was at the fourth-fifth month). These frictions were perhaps also linked to the fact that Ludovico had initially asked for Isabella's hand, in 1480, and that this had not been possible because, only a few days earlier, Duke Ercole had officially promised it to Francesco Gonzaga.

Despite everything, in 1492 she was very close to Beatrice in a difficult moment of her pregnancy, that is when she was suddenly struck by an attack of malarial fevers, and in 1495 she went again to Milan to assist her sister in her second birth and also baptized her nephew Francesco.

In the summer of 1494, on the occasion of the descent of the French into Italy, Beatrice invited her sister to Milan to kiss Gilbert of Montpensier and others of the royal house, according to the custom French. Secretary Benedetto Capilupi reported: "The Duchess says that when the Duke of Orliens came, she had to dress colorfully, dance and be kissed by the Duke, who wanted to kiss all the bridesmaids and women of account. [...] Coming Count Delfino or someone else of royal blood, the Duchess invites the S.V. to take these little kisses"In fact, it does not seem that Beatrice had any conflicting feelings towards Isabella, nor that she saw with a bad eye the complicity between the latter and her husband Ludovico. The Moro in fact, who was of generous nature, often gave Isabella even very expensive gifts: once he sent her fifteen arms of a fabric so precious as to cost forty ducats on her arm – an amazing sum – saying that he had already made a dress for Beatrice. After the death of his wife, which took place in 1497, Ludovico came to allude to a secret relationship with Isabella, claiming that it was out of jealousy of his wife that the Marquis Francesco played a double game between him and the Lordship of Venice. The rumor was however promptly denied by his father Ercole.

Others instead defined Beatrice's attitude towards her sister as "complexed second child" because in the letter of congratulations to Isabella for the birth of little Eleonora - who, being female, incredibly disappointed her mother - she added the greetings of her little son Hercules to "soa cusina", despite not having the child yet turned one year of age, something that historians such as Luciano Chiappini interpreted as a sort of mockery, of "refined malice", "a slap given with grace and grace". In fact, if Isabella was always the daughter most loved by her parents, Beatrice had been ceded to her grandfather, and only with the birth of the firstborn had she obtained her own revenge.

Other mischief between sisters dates back to the weeks immediately following the battle of Fornovo: Beatrice, who was at the siege of Novara together with the Marquis Francesco, wanted to see the booty stolen from the tent of King Charles VIII during the battle, booty that however Francesco had already sent to his wife in Mantua. He wrote to his wife to give it to his sister-in-law, but Isabella replied that she was not so willing to cede this honor to her sister and, with the excuse that she lacked a mule, begged her husband to invent some expedient. Beatrice replied that it was not her intention to steal the booty from her sister, but that she only wanted to see it all together and then return it to her. Meanwhile, it occurred to her to procure "a femina de partito", that is, a high-ranking prostitute, to Francis, saying to do it "for a good cause and to avoid greater evil", that is to say to preserve her brother-in-law and sister from the terrible malfrancese, but perhaps also to ingratiate herself with him. In October Francis wrote to his wife sorry that she was not there with them to see the army before it was disbanded, but it does not seem that he had urged her to come, probably because he had at heart his safety (the camps were dangerous places, where violent fights often broke out, and Beatrice herself had been saved on one occasion by Francis, when she risked being raped by a few thousand Alemannic mercenaries).

Moreover, Isabella had already had a mishap with some Genoese soldiers who, upon entering the city in 1492, surrounded her to appropriate her mount and harness, according to custom. So she later told her husband: "I was never more afraid; and they tore all the harness to pieces, and took off the bridle before I could dismount, despite the fact that the governor interposed him and that I voluntarily offered it to him. I lost heart, although among so many partisans I was afraid of some misfortune. Finally, helped, I freed myself from their hands ".

Having also received different educations, the two sisters were the opposite of each other: Isabella, more like her mother, was sweet, graceful and a lover of tranquility; Beatrice, more like her father, was impetuous, adventurous and aggressive. Beatrice loved to shoot crossbow, Isabella had "the hand so light that we cannot play well [the clavichord], when we have to strain it for the hardness of the keys". However, they were united by the desire to excel in everything.

In the last two hundred years historians and writers were divided in preference for one or the other: many - such as Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri and Maria Bellonci - regretted that Ludovico had not, only briefly, married Isabella, fantasizing about the splendors that Isabella would be able to bring to Milan, in conditions of greater well-being than to Mantua, and how he could distract the Moro from his perverse policy. These judgments were not separated from a blatant contempt for the second daughter, as in the case of Alessandro Luzio, who writes: "The luck that made play of this Sforza, making him pass from the brightest heights to the darkest abysses of misery, had in April 1480 exchanged a beneficial star for a sinister meteor".

In truth, other historians, including Rodolfo Renier himself, Luzio's colleague, judged that Beatrice was the most suitable wife for Ludovico, since she knew, with her own audacity, to instill courage in her insecure consort, and acquired political depth already in her early youth, so much so as to be decisive in situations of greatest danger, while Isabella could boast a role in this sense only in the years of maturity. The different fate of the two sisters certainly weighed in these judgments: Isabella lived sixty-five years, Beatrice died at twenty-one. It was from this tragic loss, for which she proved inconsolable, that Isabella undertook to support her brother-in-law's cause with her husband Francesco, who was against him. So he continued to do until the fall of the Sforza, in 1499, when he suddenly changed sides and declared himself to be "good French".

Marriage
As the couple had known and admired one another for many years, their mutual attraction deepened into love. Reportedly, marriage to Francesco caused Isabella to "bloom". At the time of her wedding, Isabella was said to have been pretty, slim, graceful, and well-dressed. Her long, fine hair was dyed a fashionable pale blonde and her eyes were described as "brown as fir cones in autumn, scattered laughter".

Isabella's relationship with her husband over the years often proved to be tense, at times very tense, both for the political differences between the two and for the difficulty in procreating a male heir. In truth, Francesco for his part was always very proud of his daughters and never showed himself disappointed, indeed from the beginning he declared himself in love with the firstborn Eleonora, despite the absolute disappointment of Isabella who refused her daughter, who was then very lovingly educated by her sister-in-law Elisabetta, who because of her husband's impotence never had children. When in 1496 the second daughter Margherita was born, Isabella was so angry that she wrote to her husband, who was then fighting the French in Calabria, a letter in which she blamed him, declaring that she did nothing but reap the fruits of his sown. Francis replied that he was instead very happy with the birth of his daughter – who, however, did not have time to know, having died in swaddling clothes – and indeed forbade anyone to show discontent with it.

Only in 1500 their son Federico was born.

In his capacity of captain general of the Venetian armies, Francesco often was required to go to Venice for conferences that left Isabella in Mantua on her own at La Reggia, the ancient palace that was the family seat of the Gonzagas. She did not lack company, however, as she passed the time with her mother and with her sister, Beatrice. Upon meeting Elisabetta Gonzaga, her 18-year-old sister-in-law, the two women became close friends. They enjoyed reading books, playing cards, and travelling about the countryside together. Once they journeyed as far as Lake Garda during one of Francesco's absences.

Diplomatic missions
Isabella had met the French king in Milan in 1500 on a successful diplomatic mission that she had undertaken to protect Mantua from French invasion. Louis had been impressed by her alluring personality and keen intelligence. It was while she was being entertained by Louis, whose troops occupied Milan, that she offered asylum to Milanese refugees including Cecilia Gallerani, the refined mistress of her sister Beatrice's husband, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who had been forced to leave his duchy in the wake of French occupation. Isabella presented Cecilia to King Louis, describing her as a "lady of rare gifts and charm".

Lucrezia Borgia
A year after her 1502 marriage to Isabella's brother Alfonso, the notorious Lucrezia Borgia became the mistress of Francesco. At about the same time, Isabella had given birth to a daughter, Ippolita, and she continued to bear him children throughout Francesco and Lucrezia's long, passionate affair, which was more sexual than romantic. Lucrezia had previously made overtures of friendship to Isabella which the latter had coldly and disdainfully ignored. From the time Lucrezia had first arrived in Ferrara as Alfonso's intended bride, Isabella, despite having acted as hostess during the wedding festivities, had regarded Lucrezia as a rival, whom she sought to outdo at every opportunity. Francesco's affair with Lucrezia, whose beauty was renowned, caused Isabella much jealous suffering and emotional pain. The liaison ended when he contracted syphilis as a result of encounters with prostitutes.

Regency
Isabella played an important role in Mantua during troubled times for the city. When her husband was captured in 1509 and held hostage in Venice, she took control of Mantua's military forces and held off the invaders until his release in 1512. In the same year, 1512, she was the hostess at the Congress of Mantua, which was held to settle questions concerning Florence and Milan. As a ruler, she appeared to have been much more assertive and competent than her husband. When apprised of this fact upon his return, Francesco was furious and humiliated at being surpassed by his wife's superior political ability. This caused their marriage to break down irrevocably. As a result, Isabella began to travel freely and live independently from her husband until his death on 19 March 1519.

After the death of her husband, Isabella ruled Mantua as regent for her son Federico. She began to play an increasingly important role in Italian politics, steadily advancing Mantua's position. She was instrumental in promoting Mantua to a Duchy, which was obtained by wise diplomatic use of her son's marriage contracts. She also succeeded in obtaining a cardinalate for her son Ercole. She further displayed shrewd political acumen in her negotiations with Cesare Borgia, who had dispossessed Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, the husband of her sister-in-law and good friend Elisabetta Gonzaga in 1502.

"Devoted head of state"
As a widow, Isabella at the age of 45 became a "devoted head of state". Her position as a Marquise required her serious attention, therefore she was required to study the problems faced by a ruler of a city-state. To improve the well-being of her subjects she studied architecture, agriculture, and industry, and followed the principles that Niccolò Machiavelli had set forth for rulers in his book The Prince. In return, the people of Mantua respected and loved her.

Isabella left Mantua for Rome in 1527. She was present during the catastrophic Sack of Rome, when she converted her house the Palazzo Colonna, into an asylum for approximately 2,000 people (including clerics, nobles and common citizens) fleeing the Imperial soldiers. Her huge place was the only place safe from attacks, because her son Ferrante Gonzaga was a general in the invading army and she herself had good relationship with the emperor. When she left Rome, she managed to acquire safe passage for all the refugees who had sought refuge in her home.

Later years and death
Once Rome became stabilized following the sacking, she left the city and returned to Mantua. She made it a centre of culture, started a school for girls, and turned her ducal apartments into a museum containing the finest art treasures. This was not enough to satisfy Isabella, already in her mid-sixties, so she returned to political life and ruled Solarolo, in Romagna until her death on 13 February 1539. She was buried beside her husband in the Church of Santa Paola in Mantua, but the remains were stolen.

Appearance
Isabella’s appearance was frequently written about in her lifetime. Mario Equicola said that “her eyes were black and sparkling, her hair yellow, and her complexion one of dazzling brilliancy.” Similarly Gian Giorgio Trissino’s I Ritratti has a fictionalized Pietro Bembo describe Isabella’s “rippling golden hair that flowed in thick masses over her shoulders,” in a passage that, according to art historian Sally Hickson, identifies Isabella as the “living paragon of female beauty.” The real Bembo praised Isabella’s “beautiful and charming hand and pure, sweet voice” in a letter addressed to her. The alleged beauty of Isabella attracted the attention of the king of France, Charles VIII, who asked the chaplain Bernardino of Urbino about her features and attempted to arrange a meeting with her. However, this meeting never took place as shortly after he returned to France.

Isabella herself frequently diminished her own appearance; commenting on his portrait she told Francia that he had “made us far more beautiful by your art than nature ever made us.” Likewise she told Trissino that “your praises of us far exceed the truth”, and said of Titian’s portrait that “we doubt that at the age he represents us we were ever of the beauty it contains.” In 1534, in the same year that Titian’s portrait was painted, Titian’s friend, Pietro Aretino, mocked her appearance, calling her “the monstrous Marchioness of Mantua, with ebony teeth and ivory eyelashes, dishonestly ugly and ultra-dishonestly tarted up.” Despite her desplays of modesty, Isabella was also known to lose herself infront of a mirror.

Isabella was worried about her weight from an early age. As an adult she discussed her weight with those close to her frequently. In 1499 she sent a portrait by Giovanni Santi to her brother Ludovico Sforza, complaining that it did not resemble her very much “for being a little fatter than me.” Ludovico replied that he liked the portrait very much of her and that it was very similar to her, although "somewhat more fat", unless Isabella had "grown fatter after we saw her." In 1509 she complained to her husband that “if she had more to do with running the state she would not have grown fat”, while in 1511 her sister Lucrezia complained about an early draft of the Francia portrait that made her look too thin.

Her face became damaged and prematurely aged by Venetian ceruse.

Legacy
During her lifetime and after her death, poets, popes, and statesmen paid tribute to Isabella. Pope Leo X invited her to treat him with "as much friendliness as you would your brother". The latter's secretary Pietro Bembo described her as "one of the wisest and most fortunate of women". The poet Ariosto deemed her the "liberal and magnanimous Isabella". Author Matteo Bandello wrote that she was "supreme among women", and the diplomat Niccolò da Correggio entitled her "The First Lady of the world".

Judgments less imbued with praise, indeed very harsh, were instead expressed by Pope Julius II, a man of corrupt morals, in disagreement with Isabella's conduct, even went so far as to call her "that ribald whore". A not dissimilar judgment had also expressed her husband Francesco himself who, now a prisoner of the Venetians, accused his wife of not loving him and of having indeed been the cause of his ruin, referring to her by letter as "that whore of my wife".

Cultural pursuits
Isabella d'Este is famous as the most important art patron of the Renaissance; her life is documented by her correspondence, which remains archived in Mantua (approximately 28,000 letters received and copies of approximately 12,000 letters written).

Art patronage
In painting she had numerous famous artists of the time work for her, including Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Mantegna (court painter until 1506), Perugino, Raphael, Titian, Antonio da Correggio, Lorenzo Costa (court painter from 1509), Dosso Dossi, Francesco Francia, Giulio Romano, and many others. For instance her 'Studiolo' in the Ducal Palace, Mantua, was decorated with allegories by Mantegna, Perugino, Costa, and Correggio.

In parallel she contracted the most important sculptors and medallists of her time, i.e. Michelangelo, Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi (L'Antico), Gian Cristoforo Romano, and Tullio Lombardo. She also collected ancient Roman art.

For what concerns writers, she was in contact with Pietro Aretino, Ludovico Ariosto, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione, Mario Equicola, Gian Giorgio Trissino, and others.

In music Isabella sponsored the composers Bartolomeo Tromboncino and Marco Cara and she played the lute. Unusually, she employed women as professional singers at her court, including Giovanna Moreschi, the wife of Marchetto Cara.

In the architecture field, she could not afford new palaces, however she commissioned architects such as Biagio Rossetti and Battista Covo.

She was also considered an icon of her time in fashion. Famous is her Balzo as headwear – documented as her invention in letters circa 1509 and visible several times in portraits of other ladies in the 1520s/30s.

Portraits

Despite her significant art patronage that included a number of portraits, there are very few surviving portraits that may be identified as Isabella, especially when compared to her sister Beatrice. It is known that the elderly Isabella preferred idealized paintings and even waived sitting as a model. However, it may be presumed that she insisted nonetheless on seeing her personal characteristics in the outcome. These few identifications are known as inhomogeneous (i.e. differing eye and hair colours as well as divergent eyebrows in two Titian portraits).

In 1495 she refused with absolute rigor to pose for Mantegna in the Madonna della Vittoria – where her figure was provided next to that of her husband – since in the past the painter had portrayed her "so badly done" – in a painting that in fact has not survived – "which has none of my similarities". However, the negative judgment of the Marquise was not due to Mantegna's inability to portray her similar to the truth, as she herself writes, but to the opposite lack: of not knowing how to "well counterfeit the natural", that is idealize. Her husband Francesco had to pose alone and Mantegna remedied the disturbance of the symmetry by painting, in place of the Marquise, St. Elizabeth, his eponymous saint.

In recent years several museums have withdrawn their few identifications of portraits as Isabella because of concern about possible misidentification.

The remaining three colourful portraits are still inhomogeneous (Kunsthistorisches Museum/KHM, Vienna):
 * Ambras Miniature, 16th century
 * Isabella in Red by Titian, c. 1529 (lost, known from a copy by Peter Paul Rubens c. 1605)
 * Isabella in Black by Titian, 1536

La Bella (now in Palazzo Pitti, Florence) has been discussed as an alternative to Titian's 1536 portrait in Vienna, because the commission from the 60-year-old patron was for a rejuvenated portrait; if La Bella were Isabella, eye colour, hair colour, eyebrows, and general appearance would homogenize in all known portraits, allowing potential links toward further identifications.

As of 2021, the 1495 medal by Gian Cristoforo Romano (several extant copies) is the only reliable identification because of the inscription created during Isabella's lifetime.

Idealised portraits still show characteristics of the person. The following characteristics can be derived (characteristics of the disputed Isabella in Black are excluded):
 * From her medal (Giovanni Cristoforo Romano) wavy hair, preferred hairstyle with sidelocks and a (small) double chin.
 * From the coloured depictions Ambras Miniature and Isabella in Red red-brown / 'medium-blond' hair and brown eyes under curved eyebrows.
 * Isabella preferred idealisation (ideal of beauty, rejuvenation, simplification etc.).
 * Additionally: The balzo was common in the 1530s, probably not yet in the 1510s.

Relationship with Leonardo and Mona Lisa theory

In the current catalogue raisonné of Leonardo da Vinci (2019), only Isabella d'Este is documented as a plausible alternative as the subject of Leonardo's Mona Lisa, usually considered a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. Lisa was the wife of a merchant in Florence and Giorgio Vasari wrote of her portrait by Leonardo, – in debate that persists about whether this is the portrait now known as the Mona Lisa. Evidence in favor of Isabella as the subject of the famous work includes Leonardo's drawing 'Isabella d'Este' from 1499 and her letters of 1501–1506 requesting the promised painted portrait. Further arguments focus upon the mountains in the background indicating the native origin of the subject, and the armrest in the painting as a Renaissance symbol used to identify a portrait as that of a sovereign. The Louvre's reservation is that Isabella would be a "blonde", a feature that exists only in the widely circulated but uncertain representation Isabella in Black.

Issue
Together Isabella and Francesco had eight children:
 * Eleonora Gonzaga (31 December 1493 – 13 February 1570), married Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, by whom she had issue
 * Margherita Gonzaga (13 July 1496 – 22 September 1496)
 * Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (17 May 1500 – 28 August 1540), married Margaret Paleologa, by whom he had issue
 * Livia Gonzaga (1501 – January 1508)
 * Ippolita Gonzaga (13 November 1503 – 16 March 1570), who became a nun
 * Ercole Gonzaga (23 November 1505 – 2 March 1563), Cardinal, Bishop of Mantua
 * Ferrante Gonzaga (28 January 1507 – 15 November 1557), a condottiero; married Isabella di Capua, by whom he had issue
 * Livia Gonzaga (August 1508 – 1569), who became a nun

Household slaves
Correspondence exchanged by Isabella documents the Renaissance European tendency to perceive black African slaves as exotic. Isabella's pursuit of a black child as a servant is extensively documented. On 1 May 1491 Isabella asked Giorgio Brognolo, her agent in Venice, to procure a young black girl ('una moreta') between the ages of one-and-a-half and four, and twice in early June reminded him of the request, emphasizing that the girl should be 'as black as possible'. Isabella's household and financial records reflect that she already had a significantly older black girl in her service when she inquired after a younger black child. Records also reflect that she obtained a little black girl from a Venetian orphanage. She opened negotiations with a Venetian patrician household for the sale of a little black boy and purchased an enslaved little black girl from her sister.

Depiction in modern media
The artwork The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago features a place setting for Isabella d'Este.

Isabella d'Este was portrayed by Belgian actress Alexandra Oppo in the television show Borgia (2011–2014).

title: Isabella d'Este


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International standard

An international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Other prominent international standards organizations including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Together, these three organizations have formed the World Standards Cooperation alliance.

Purpose
International standards may be used either by direct application or by a process of modifying an international standard to suit local conditions. Adopting international standards results in creating national standards that are equivalent, or substantially the same as international standards in technical content, but may have (i) editorial differences as to appearance, use of symbols and measurement units, substitution of a point for a comma as the decimal marker, and (ii) differences resulting from conflicts in government regulations or industry-specific requirements caused by fundamental climatic, geographic, technologic, or infrastructure factors, or the stringency of safety requirements that a given standard authority considers appropriate.

International standards are one way to overcome technical barriers in international commerce caused by differences among technical regulations and standards developed independently and separately by each nation, national standards organization, or business. Technical barriers arise when different groups come together, each with a large user base, doing some well established thing that between them is mutually incompatible. Establishing international standards is one way of preventing or overcoming this problem. To support this, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Committee published the "Six Principles" guiding members in the development of international standards.

Standardization
The implementation of standards in industry and commerce became highly important with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the need for high-precision machine tools and interchangeable parts. Henry Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe in 1800, which allowed for the standardisation of screw thread sizes for the first time.

Maudslay's work, as well as the contributions of other engineers, accomplished a modest amount of industry standardization; some companies' in-house standards spread a bit within their industries. Joseph Whitworth's screw thread measurements were adopted as the first (unofficial) national standard by companies around the country in 1841. It came to be known as the British Standard Whitworth, and was widely adopted in other countries.

By the end of the 19th century differences in standards between companies were making trade increasingly difficult and strained. The Engineering Standards Committee was established in London in 1901 as the world's first national standards body. After the First World War, similar national bodies were established in other countries. The Deutsches Institut für Normung was set up in Germany in 1917, followed by its counterparts, the American National Standard Institute and the French Commission Permanente de Standardisation , both in 1918.

There are not many books that cover standards in general, but a book written in 2019 by Nicholas Rich and Tegwen Malik gives a very comprehensive overview of the history of standards, how ISO standards are drafted along with key ISO standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. A paper has been published explaining the differences between international standards and private standards.

International organizations
One of the most well established international standardization organizations is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations which was founded on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Union. The ITU was initially focused on the standardization of telegraph signals, and later evolved to include telephony, radio and satellite communications, and other information and communication technology.

By the mid to late 19th century, efforts were being made to standardize electrical measurement. An important figure was R. E. B. Crompton, who became concerned by the large range of different standards and systems used by electrical engineering companies and scientists in the early 20th century. Many companies had entered the market in the 1890s and all chose their own settings for voltage, frequency, current and even the symbols used on circuit diagrams. Adjacent buildings would have totally incompatible electrical systems simply because they had been fitted out by different companies. Crompton could see the lack of efficiency in this system and began to consider proposals for an international standard for electric engineering.

In 1904, Crompton represented Britain at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis as part of a delegation by the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He presented a paper on standardisation, which was so well received that he was asked to look into the formation of a commission to oversee the process. By 1906, his work was complete and he drew up a permanent constitution for the first international standards organization, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The body held its first meeting that year in London, with representatives from 14 countries. In honour of his contribution to electrical standardisation, Lord Kelvin was elected as the body's first President.

The International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA) was founded in 1926 with a broader remit to enhance international cooperation for all technical standards and specifications. The body was suspended in 1942 during World War II.

After the war, ISA was approached by the recently formed United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) with a proposal to form a new global standards body. In October 1946, ISA and UNSCC delegates from 25 countries met in London and agreed to join forces to create the International Organization for Standardization (ISO); the organization officially began operations in February 1947.

Global standards
Global standards are also referred to as industry or private standards, which are designed and developed with the entire world in mind. Unlike international standards, these standards are not developed in international organizations or standards setting organizations (SSO) which follow a consensus process. Instead, these standards are developed by private sector entities, like NGOs and for-profit organizations, often without transparency, openness, or consensus considerations.

title: International standard


text:
ISO 4217

ISO 4217 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines alpha codes and numeric codes for the representation of currencies and provides information about the relationships between individual currencies and their minor units. This data is published in three tables:
 * Table A.1 – Current currency & funds code list
 * Table A.2 – Current funds codes
 * Table A.3 – List of codes for historic denominations of currencies & funds

The first edition of ISO 4217 was published in 1978. The tables, history and ongoing discussion are maintained by SIX Group on behalf of ISO and the Swiss Association for Standardization.

The ISO 4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. In many countries, the ISO 4217 alpha codes for the more common currencies are so well known publicly that exchange rates published in newspapers or posted in banks use only these to delineate the currencies, instead of translated currency names or ambiguous currency symbols. ISO 4217 alpha codes are used on airline tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price.

History
In 1973, the ISO Technical Committee 68 decided to develop codes for the representation of currencies and funds for use in any application of trade, commerce or banking. At the 17th session (February 1978), the related UN/ECE Group of Experts agreed that the three-letter alphabetic codes for International Standard ISO 4217, "Codes for the representation of currencies and funds", would be suitable for use in international trade.

Over time, new currencies are created and old currencies are discontinued. Such changes usually originate from the formation of new countries, treaties between countries on shared currencies or monetary unions, or redenomination from an existing currency due to excessive inflation. As a result, the list of codes must be updated from time to time. The ISO 4217 maintenance agency is responsible for maintaining the list of codes.

National currencies
In the case of national currencies, the first two letters of the alpha code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code and the third is usually the initial of the currency's main unit. So Japan's currency code is JPY: "JP" for Japan and "Y" for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the names dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of countries, each having significantly differing values. While in most cases the ISO code resembles an abbreviation of the currency's full English name, this is not always the case, as currencies such as the Algerian dinar, Aruban florin, Cayman dollar, renminbi, sterling and the Swiss franc have been assigned codes which do not closely resemble abbreviations of the official currency names.

In some cases, the third letter of the alpha code is not the initial letter of a currency unit name. There may be a number of reasons for this:
 * It is considered important that the code of a completely new currency be highly mnemonic if possible. An example is the assignment of the code EUR to the euro. ISO 4217 amendment 94, which created this code, states "The code element 'EU' has been reserved by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency for use within ISO 4217 where 'R' has been appended to make an acceptable mnemonic code." Here the R comes from the third letter in the word "euro".
 * The currency in question is replacing another currency of the same name, due to revaluation. So that the two currencies have different codes, a different third letter must be chosen for the code of the new currency. In some cases, the third letter is the initial for "new" in that country's language, to distinguish it from an older currency that was revalued; the code sometimes outlasts the usage of the term "new" itself (for example, the code for the Mexican peso is MXN, reflecting its 1993 revaluation). Another solution to a revalued currency having the same name as its predecessor is to choose a third letter which results in a 3-letter code with mnemonic significance. For example, the Russian ruble changed from RUR to RUB following a revaluation, where the B comes from the third letter in the word "ruble".

X currencies (funds, precious metals, supranationals, other)
In addition to codes for most active national currencies ISO 4217 provides codes for "supranational" currencies, procedural purposes, and several things which are "similar to" currencies:
 * Codes for the precious metals gold (XAU), silver (XAG), palladium (XPD), and platinum (XPT) are formed by prefixing the element's chemical symbol with the letter "X". These "currency units" are defined as one troy ounce of the specified metal.
 * The code XTS is reserved for use in testing.
 * The code XXX is used to denote a "transaction" involving no currency.
 * There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, e.g. XDR is the symbol for special drawing right issued by the International Monetary Fund.
 * The codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit (ECU), had the code XEU.

The use of an initial letter "X" for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO 3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned.

The inclusion of EU (denoting the European Union) in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list allows the euro to be coded as EUR rather than assigned a code beginning with X, even though it is a supranational currency.

Numeric codes
ISO 4217 also assigns a three-digit numeric code to each currency. This numeric code is usually the same as the numeric code assigned to the corresponding country by ISO 3166-1. For example, USD (United States dollar) has numeric code 840 which is also the ISO 3166-1 code for "US" (United States).

Active codes (list one)
The following is a list of active codes of official ISO 4217 currency names. In the standard the values are called "alphabetic code", "numeric code", "minor unit", and "entity".

According to UN/CEFACT recommendation 9, paragraphs 8–9 ECE/TRADE/203, 1996:
 * 8. In applications where monetary resources associated with a currency (i.e. funds) need not be specified and where a field identifier indicating currency is used, the first two (leftmost) characters are sufficient to identify a currency—example: US for United States dollars for general, unspecified purposes where a field identifier indicating currency is present. (A field identifier can be a preprinted field heading in an aligned document or a similarly-agreed application in electronic transmission of data.)
 * 9. In applications where there is a need to distinguish between types of currencies, or where funds are required as in the banking environment, or where there is no field identifier, the third (rightmost) character of the alphabetic code is an indicator, preferably mnemonic, derived from the name of the major currency unit or fund—example: USD for general, unspecified purposes; USN for United States dollar next-day funds, and USS for funds which are immediately available for Federal Reserve transfer, withdrawal in cash or transfer in like funds (same-day funds). Since there is no need for such a distinction in international trade applications, the funds codes have not been included in the Annex to the present Recommendation.

Historical codes
A number of currencies had official ISO 4217 currency codes and currency names until their replacement by another currency. The table below shows the ISO currency codes of former currencies and their common names (which do not always match the ISO 4217 names). That table has been introduced end 1988 by ISO.

Minor unit fractions
The 2008 (7th) edition of ISO 4217 says the following about minor units of currency: "Requirements sometimes arise for values to be expressed in terms of minor units of currency. When this occurs, it is necessary to know the decimal relationship that exists between the currency concerned and its minor unit. This information has therefore been included in this International Standard and is shown in the column headed 'Minor unit' in Tables A.1 and A.2; '0' means that there is no minor unit for that currency, whereas '1', '2' and '3' signify a ratio of 10:1, 100:1 and $1,000$:1 respectively. The names of the minor units are not given."

Examples for the ratios of $100$:1 and $1,000$:1 include the United States dollar and the Bahraini dinar, for which the column headed "Minor unit" shows "2" and "3", respectively. , two currencies have non-decimal ratios, the Mauritanian ouguiya and the Malagasy ariary; in both cases the ratio is 5:1. For these, the "Minor unit" column shows the number "2". Some currencies, such as the Burundian franc, do not in practice have any minor currency unit at all. These show the number "0", as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value.

Code position in amount formatting
The ISO standard does not regulate either the spacing, prefixing or suffixing in usage of currency codes. The style guide of the European Union's Publication Office declares that, for texts issued by or through the Commission in English, Irish, Latvian and Maltese, the ISO 4217 code is to be followed by a "hard space" (non-breaking space) and the amount:
 * a sum of EUR 30

and for texts in Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish the order is reversed; the amount is followed by a non-breaking space and the ISO 4217 code:
 * une somme de 30 EUR

As illustrated, the order is determined not by the currency but by the native language of the document context.

USD, USN: two US currency codes
The US dollar has two codes assigned: USD and USN ("US dollar next day"). The USS (same day) code is not in use any longer, and was removed from the list of active ISO 4217 codes in March 2014.

Currencies without ISO 4217 currency codes
A number of active currencies do not have an ISO 4217 code, because they may be: These currencies include: See Category:Fixed exchange rate for a list of all currently pegged currencies.
 * (1) a minor currency pegged at par (1:1) to a larger currency, even if independently regulated,
 * (2) a currency only used for commemorative banknotes or coins, or
 * (3) a currency of an unrecognized or partially recognized state.
 * Abkhazian apsar
 * Alderney pound (1:1 pegged to sterling)
 * Artsakh dram
 * Cook Islands dollar (1:1 pegged to the New Zealand dollar)
 * Faroese króna (1:1 pegged to the Danish krone)
 * Guernsey pound (1:1 pegged to sterling)
 * Isle of Man pound (1:1 pegged to sterling)
 * Jersey pound (1:1 pegged to sterling)
 * Kiribati dollar (1:1 pegged to the Australian dollar)
 * Maltese scudo (1:0.24 pegged to the euro )
 * Real Time Gross Settlement dollar (ZWL occasionally used)
 * Sahrawi peseta (pegged to the euro), sometimes given the code "EHP" but this has not been assigned by the ISO
 * Somaliland shilling (state of issue is viewed as de jure part of Somalia, exchange rate not fixed)
 * Transnistrian ruble (state of issue is viewed as de jure part of Moldova)
 * Tuvaluan dollar (1:1 pegged to the Australian dollar)
 * Zimbabwean bonds

Non-standard codes
Despite having no presence or status in the standard, three letter acronyms that resemble ISO 4217 coding are sometimes used locally or commercially to represent de facto currencies or currency instruments.

The following non-ISO codes were used in the past.

Unofficial codes for minor units of currency
Minor units of currency (also known as currency subdivisions or currency subunits) are often used for pricing and trading stocks and other assets, such as energy, but are not assigned codes by ISO 4217. Two conventions for representing minor units are in widespread use:
 * Replacing the third letter of the ISO 4217 Code of the parent currency with an upper-case "X". Examples are GBX  for penny sterling, USX for the US Cent, EUX  for the Euro Cent.
 * Replacing the third letter of the ISO 4217 Code of the parent currency with the first letter of the name of a minor unit, using lower-case. Examples are GBp for Penny Sterling, USc for the US Cent, EUc for the Euro Cent.

A third convention is similar to the second one but uses an upper-case letter, e.g. ZAC for the South African Cent.

Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies have not been assigned an ISO 4217 code. However, some cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges use a three-letter acronym that resemble an ISO 4217 code.

title: ISO 4217