https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/12198 Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:43:55 GMT 2026-04-30T17:43:55Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101276 Title: Hospitaller Malta's communication system with the Mediterranean world in the early seventeenth century Abstract: Italics were used for words not in English. Square brackets were adopted when the spelling of original manuscript terminology was not clear, or to write letters omitted in abbreviated original text. When citing magistral correspondence, the surnames of the sender and the addressee were given throughout, except in the tables for reasons of space, while the designation (receiver, procurator) of the various Hospitaller correspondents was omitted due to the huge inconsistencies in the original documentation. The only exception was done in the case of Hospitaller ambassadors. The spelling of proper names in original texts was retained when possible, although the Italian version was generally preferred to the Latin one. In case of inconsistencies, one form was chosen and used throughout the dissertation. The term 'Regno' (an abbreviation for 'Regno delle Due Sicilie') was used to indicate Southern Italy and Sicily under Spanish Habsburg rule. Tables 1 to 4B list a selection of Hospitaller representatives and correspondents stationed outside Malta from 1601 up to 1621, Alof de Wignacourt' s last full year as grand master of the Order. Due to obvious constrictions created by the lack of space, separate tables - covering the years 1601-1611 and 1612-1621 - had to be created in order to fit in all the agents and correspondents throughout the entire period in question. In these four tables, multiple entries under one heading usually indicate a handover of the post within the same year in question, or a temporary deputy. Alternatively, they could indicate a division of tasks, especially in case of sizeable territories, as for Germany. Empty slots in these tables indicate years for which relevant data from the sources consulted is not available. In the vertical columns indicating the location in which these correspondents were posted, 'Priory of Lombardy' was preferred to 'Lombardy' since in Hospitaller jurisdiction the priory in question included also lands in present-day Piedmont. At times, throughout the dissertation, the terms 'Hospital' and 'Religion' were used for the Order of St John of Jerusalem, as is normal in Hospitaller terminology. Description: PH.D.HISTORY Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101276 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/70829 Title: ‘Autoréférence infinie’ : individual, community and history in Miquel Barceló’s works Abstract: The present dissertation has the primary goal of situating the artist Miquel Barceló within the contemporary critical debate, discussing his production during the Postmodern Era and demonstrating the affinity of his researches with Hypermodernity. The critical reconsideration of the artist is based upon the theoretical structure developed in the first two chapters, which provides a fundamental background for the analysis of Barcelό’s production. The study conducted in this thesis is particularly important in order to discuss the critical appreciation of the artist, who has, till now, been linked with the major movements of the Postmodern Era and whose fortune has lately been related to the Spanish socio-political conjuncture during the same epoch. The discussion of Barcelό’s primitivism, which opens to Vico’s idea of poetic wisdom and to Freud’s oceanism, provides not only a reconsideration of the artist’s production, but it also suggests a new way of approaching the question of the primitive, which is usually limited to the stylistic and formal analysis of the works. Similarly, the discussion of Barcelό’s production during the Eighties opens the discussion to the different major movements of the Postmodern Era and to their international relationship. The methods of research adopted in the gathering of the data vary from onsite analysis, archival study and oral interviews. The study of the unpublished material was mostly conducted at Barcelό’s private archive, which contains all the artist’s journals, but also his complete bibliography and printed versions of all the unpublished dissertations dedicated to the artist. The oral interviews were conducted through repeated discussions with the artist (included in the Appendices). The onsite analysis of Barcelό’s work was done on numerous journeys in several museums and institutions (such as the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Els Baluard Museum in Majorca, Fundaciό March in Majorca); temporary exhibitions (L’altro ritratto at the Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto); and churches (The Cathedral of Palma de Majorca). Moreover, the direct analysis of Barcelό’s works took place regularly during the four months that the author spent in Majorca, having daily access to his atelier. Throughout the comparison of Barcelό’s writings, declarations, and works, the study examines the artist’s autofiction, creating a connection between the artist’s hyperindividualism (which is discussed in relation to the Hypermodern Era) and an oceanic feeling. Description: PH.D.HISTORY Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/70829 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22090 Title: Hospitaller Malta’s communication system with the Mediterranean world in the early seventeenth century Abstract: The seminal idea for this project about Hospitaller Malta’s communication system goes back to the immediate months following the submission of my masters dissertation at the University of Malta way back in December 1996. In a half-hearted attempt to rekindle the fire for academic research, I was occasionally consulting documentary volumes of the Order of St John’s outgoing correspondence, trying to further my knowledge on the Knights’ affairs in Genoa, the core theme of my masters. In the process, patterns of systematic contacts and news transmission between early modern Malta and the Mediterranean world started emerging. Hence the concept to try and recreate Malta’s communication system with abroad started taking shape. The ambition from the onset was to adopt a holistic approach. The analysis of Malta’s overseas communications had to develop in unison with that of the prime reasons why such contacts had to be fostered in the first place by the governing elite of the island. In consequence, the whole study rests on the Order’s provisioning, fund transfer, and intelligence-collection policies, the three overarching activities necessary for Malta’s survival in an early modern Mediterranean conditioned by the Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry. Originally the intention was to study this communication system throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but the course of my research advised otherwise, as I risked being overwhelmed by the sheer breadth of such an ill-conceived task. Consequently, I progressively narrowed the temporal framework of the study, ultimately deciding to concentrate primarily on the first two decades of the seventeenth century. This period coincides with the magistracy of Alof de Wignacourt, an age of significant infrastructural changes in the history of our island, and one which still deserves more attention than it has been hitherto afforded. The ultimate aim of the study is to show how the coordinated management of the Order’s institutional activities involving communications between Malta and foreign territories was an inherent part of the island’s centenary gestation period conducive to statehood. As will be evinced by any trained eye in historical studies which affords even a cursory glance at this dissertation, considerable time and energy has been dedicated to the perusal of the Order of St John’s Italian outgoing correspondence. Ideally, any historical analysis of a certain breadth should be based on the consultation of the largest possible number of different primary sources from as many different archives as possible. However, logistics and the necessity to trace early modern Malta’s foreign contact-patterns, apart from the names of Hospitaller agents and correspondents stationed outside the island, conspired in unison to persuade me to dedicate a huge amount of time to the reading of these letters. This was done in the knowledge that no other kind of Hospitaller documentation provides the type of systematic inference I was looking for, without which this study would not have been possible. The benefits and inevitable lacunae inherent in this choice are evident in the tables listing the Order of St John’s agents and correspondents throughout Wignacourt’s twenty-year tenure, which are inevitably incomplete. Extensive research in the Notarial Archives of Valletta or the exhaustive consultation of the Order’s land registers and prioral visits, for example, could help to fill some gaps in these data collections, but this would take more than a lifetime of research, a luxury which, alas, I am denied. It is hoped, however, that this study can constitute a solid platform for further analysis of Hospitaller Malta’s communication system with the Mediterranean world, many chapters of which still have to be written. Description: PH.D.HISTORY Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/22090 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/13888 Title: The 'Universitas Gaudisii' under the Order of St. John, from the mid-seventeenth century to 1700 Abstract: The following dissertation is an analytical examination of the municipal Università of Gozo (Universitas Gaudisii) between the mid-seventeenth century and 1700 whilst the Maltese islands were under the governorship of the Order of St. John. The principal primary sources utilised for this study are the numerous registers which form part of the Universitas Gaudisii archives which are retained in the National Archives (Gozo Section). Through the research and consultation of these documents, the many facets which contributed to the composition, build-up and purpose of the Gozitan municipal institution were defined. Chapter I acts as an introduction, detailing a historiography of the Maltese islands, the Mediterranean and Europe during the Order’s rule of the islands (with particular focus on the seventeenth century and how the Gozitan Università (and its Maltese counterparts) fit in the wider picture). Further details include years prior to the arrival of the Order in Malta and Gozo and its final years at the end of the eighteenth century. Chapter II relates to the structure and office functionality of the Gozitan municipality and includes details on the officials appointed within the institution and their required roles. More so it incorporates comparisons with the Università of Gozo, its sister counterparts in Malta and the Università of Palermo. Chapter III covers the various revenues and expenditures which the municipality received, spent and calculated. It also includes explanations on the different accounts and depositories used by the Università and further compares financial implications with that of Malta. Chapter IV encompasses the relationships the Gozitan Università retained with the population and the Order of St. John, and also includes references to the functionality between itself and its Maltese counterparts. It further includes the relevant enforcement procedures, governing methods and supportive measures utilised on the population and its accord with the Order itself. Chapter V comprises of and details the defensive structures and armed forces utilised within Gozo and the responsibilities of the municipality and the Order in its relevant maintenance and upkeep. Fortifications such as the Castello (Citadel), coastal towers and guard posts and military forces such as the militia, and Musketeer and Calvary Regiments are all included and explained within. Chapter VI acts as a general conclusion which sums up and analyses the varied aspects mentioned throughout each of the previously mentioned chapters, with the further inclusion of final notes and concluding remarks. Description: M.A.HISTORY Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/13888 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z