The gateway to honour a history of classics at the University of Malta from 1800 to 1979

Abstract

Joining a vibrant area within Classical Reception that explores the role of Classics and classical learning in a colonial environment, this thesis situates Classics in the educational and political history of Malta during the British era (1800-1979). While making use of a varied range of published, archival, and oral sources, it traces the history of Latin and Greek as academic subjects, primarily at the University of Malta, but also at other teaching institutions, in an island where Latin was essentially the domain of the Catholic Church. Both the bio-bibliographical account of the scholarly protagonists, and the analysis of the development of classical curricula and teaching methodologies, serve to fit Classics in the history of Maltese pedagogy within the socio-political framework of the times. Within this educational context, the study also seeks to investigate the interaction between Classics and politics in a period fraught with growing sentiments of nationalism and the struggle for a cultural identity. Encased as Latin was in the religio-cultural notions of Italianità, this thesis argues that seldom if ever did Classics in Malta manage to produce a real and explicit effect outside the purely educational environment. The situation provides a unique and interesting study in Classical Reception and the rise of modern nationalism in a small Mediterranean island with a long history.