https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/32901 2026-04-11T11:30:59Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101314 Title: Modern techniques for topographic surveys in the land survey unit Abstract: The introduction describes the equipment and software available presently, in the Land Survey unit, what the software can produce. It also explains the aim of this exposition. "Present Techniques Used", describes the techniques that are presently used, highlighting the problems encountered when applying them. The procedures used, for producing planimetric surveys are featured, and illustrating the need of introducing coding. "Introducing Coding", deals with a brief explanation of how one can create a code list with the software available in the unit. Although brief, it shows step by step procedures from creating to uploading codes in the total station. The commands used in this whole operation are tabled in this chapter. Stringlines are also mentioned and there importance. The chapter outlines the process in using the total station for field operation using codes. This is a slow process, but with time the surveyor will tolerate the time consuming process, as it will result in an accurate final product. Before processing a field survey using this software, the program has to be prepared in order for the software to recognize the codes that had been used by the operator using the total station. The importance of the Look Up table is highlighted and step by step procedures are illustrated. Downloading is clarified, picturing the dialog boxes that appears on the screen when using commands. Field coding allows the crew to become draughtsmen and the many field book sketches are eliminated. ''Three Dimensional Surveys''. With the system of recording and coding, using the same software, three-dimensional surveys can be produced. The topographic section can take a step further, i.e. creating digital terrain models from surveys that are carried out. Validation and modeling are featured in step by step commands for the DTM to be created. "Beyond 2000". Presently the surveyor sets out alignments by scaling mostly from 1 :2500 scale schemes or where available using 1 :500 scale surveys. With the introduction of setting out by coordinates in the near future, the problems encountered when scaling will be diminished. Another feature, which will be implemented in the L.S.U. in the future, is the use of G.P.S. (Global Position System) for complementing the technique, which will be used by the surveyor. Description: CERT.(Melit) 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101263 Title: A comparative lexical study of Qur'anic Arabic Abstract: The aim of this study is to conduct an empirical "mass comparison" exercise by which to assess the root-morpheme distribution in Arabic, Geez, Epigraphic South Arabian, Syriac, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, Ugaritic and Akkadian. The results accruing from such a task throw light upon the degree of intensity in the linguistic and historical links between these nine Semitic languages. For this purpose, Qur' anic Arabic has been adopted as the source for the lexical corpus. The first three introductory chapters, concerned particularly with past lexical studies of different Semitic languages as well as with the Qur' anic text, are followed by the lexical corpus in chapter 4. A considerable number of lexical cases are studied in chapter 5 which is dedicated to diachronistic semantic observations, followed by a general discussion (chap. 6) of the distribution patterns resulting from the lexical corpus and the lexical grid. This comparative study, confirms the high degree of lexical exclusivity in Arabic, whilst revealing its almost equidistant posture between North-West Semitic and South Semitic, with the hypothesis of its belonging to the southernmost flank of a "Central Semitic" conglomerate being greatly enhanced. Description: PH.D. 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/95852 Title: La letteratura di viaggio : analisi dei resoconti di scrittori Italiani e Maltesi dal cinquecento al settecento Abstract: Nel primo capitolo di questo studio, che serve come introduzione generale al tema del viaggio, si raggrupperanno i pensieri di vari studiosi di viaggio e si dara un panorama generale del viaggio (in Europa e in Oriente ), dalla fine del '500 a tutto il '700, sottolineando tappe importanti nella storia del viaggio come il viaggio culturale (Grand Tour), e il viaggio religioso intrapreso dai missionari nel lontano Oriente. Nel secondo capitolo si analizzeranno alcune teorie che vedono il testo di viaggio come fonte "non scientifica" per lo studio della geografia. Nel terzo capitolo, l' attenzione verra rivolta ai viaggi in Oriente da parte di quattro scrittori: due maltesi e due italiani. Nel quarto capitolo dedicato a Malta, si analizzeranno da vicino delle relazioni lasciate sull' Isola da parte di due viaggiatori diplomatici provenienti dalla citta di Venezia; nel quinto capitolo si riprendera il discorso su Malta, tramite l' analisi di un manoscritto del '700, la cui autrice e una nobil donna che racconta i dettagli curiosi del suo viaggio di nozze! Description: B.A.(HONS)ITALIAN 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/91039 Title: Dutch merchants and sailors in Malta in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Abstract: The present dissertation focuses on the commercial relations that the Dutch held with the Mediterranean, with special attention to Malta. In the Middle Ages the Mediterranean merchant, particularly the Italian one, was the commercial and cultural intermediary between the Levant and the West and between Northern and Southern Europe. The strategic position of the Mediterranean situated between three different continents, Europe, Africa and Asia was the central meeting point, and trade was an important link between these three areas. The Dutch tradesmen’s penetration in the Mediterranean was at first concerned with the provisions of everyday commodities, like grain; by the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch, among other Northerners, established an international trade which carried luxury goods from distant lands, like the Far East, to Europe and the Mediterranean. Because of this long-distance trade, the Northerners helped to bring about a change in the commercial and economic balance of the Mediterranean. By the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was the Northerners who took the lead in this long-distance trade, replacing the Italian merchant. What may have been the reason for the dominance of the Northerners was their excellent self-organization and their superiority over the Mediterranean merchants. The Dutch merchant had the incentive, the opportunity and the power to effectively organize long-distance trade as a profitable business, and by the seventeenth century they had 'made themselves the richest and most powerful in the world' . Chapter 1 traces these developments. Chapter 2 concentrates on what Malta had to offer to this 'new dynamic force in the Mediterranean' . Trade was vital for Malta's economy and survival, especially under the Order of St. John where the island's population increased rapidly. I concentrated my efforts on some local archives of the Order of St. John in an endeavour to provide a picture of the Dutch shipping movement in the Mediterranean and, more particularly, Malta in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The local manuscript sources that have been consulted include the Quarantine Registers, the ‘Libretti delle Prattiche dei Bastimenti con la nota del loro Equipaggio e Passeggeri’, the Archives of the Consolato del Mare, the Archives of the Inquisition, and the Archives of the Bishop's Curia. These sources provide a rich and detailed information about Dutch merchants and sailors; their life at sea; the adventures and dangers encountered on their journeys; and the merchandise and passengers they carried on board of their ships. Chapter 3 deals with the role of the Inquisitors to protect the Maltese islands from the influence which foreign heretical sailors and merchants could exert on local inhabitants. A number of 'Dutch' inquisitorial cases are recorded in the archives at Mdina. The majority of these are concerned with heresy and apostasy to Islam. The last chapter is about the Dutch sailors who asked the bishop's permission to get married and settle in Malta. Nothing, as far as I am aware, has ever been written on the Dutch in Malta in early modem times. The present dissertation offers a tentative approach to a difficult subject. Description: B.A.(HONS)HISTORY 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z