https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/140254 Sat, 11 Jul 2026 08:10:38 GMT 2026-07-11T08:10:38Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145802 Title: Golden age and Roman land surveying Authors: Takács, Levente Abstract: Starting from Hesiod, the myth of an earlier, happy and untroubled period of mankind, the Golden Age, was evoked and rewritten several times in ancient classical literature. All these descriptions of the Golden Age include topoi already present in Hesiod’s work: in fact, the poets of the subsequent period reorganized and reinterpreted the same topoi. In the Golden Age, there were no wars and no discordance, people suffered from no diseases, autotelic profit making was non-existent and, therefore, commercial shipping did not evolve either. There was no need for that anyway because land yielded everything without cultivation, and according to certain hypotheses, it even yielded copiously multiple times a year. [excerpt] Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145802 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145783 Title: The ‘lost’ 1751/52 and 1752/3 Collegio romano lectures of Carolo Benvenuti, SJ Authors: Gatt, Jurgen R. Abstract: Carolo Benvenuti (1716–97) was a Jesuit scholar, a professor of mathematics, physics, metaphysics, and liturgy at the Collegio Romano, who published a series of monographs dealing primarily with mathematics and physics. He was a student of the prolific polymath Ruđer Bošković (1711–81) who also thought mathematics at the Collegio from 1740 to 1750 and again from 1752 to 1760. In 1751/2, when Bošković was involved in measuring the Rome-Rimini median, Benvenuti lectured mathematics in his place. In 1751 too, Benvenuti published his Italian translation of Clairaut’s textbook, Elementi di Geometria, perhaps for the benefit of his students. [excerpt] Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145783 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145703 Title: From Skyros to Paris : the dialectic between the individual and the collective in art influenced by the Graeco-Roman world Authors: Zammit, Gabriel Abstract: This essay will investigate the movement of artistic motifs out of the Classical era into Renaissance and Modern art with the intention of examining the possibility of a Platonic root at the source and wellspring of the artistic act. My contention is that artists function towards an absolute located outside historical contingency and rational knowability which is most productively interpreted in a Platonic register. The curvature of this invisible guiding principle becomes apparent when one acquires a synoptic view of the manner in which artistic motifs move through time and are drawn upon in different historical moments. [excerpt] Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145703 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145695 Title: The parish archive of Żebbuġ Gozo : a speech delivered on the occasion of the publication of a new book by Prof. H. C. R. Vella Abstract: Today, with a great sense of satisfaction, the Parish of the Assumption of Żebbuġ is presenting to the public two volumes which bring together every type of documentation that it possesses. These books, which carry the name of L-Arkivju Parrokkjali taż-Żebbuġ t’Għawdex are the result of the extraordinary dedication of Professor Horatio Vella, who has been living in this village for a good number of years. [excerpt] Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/145695 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z