/library/oar/handle/123456789/43182 2025-12-21T07:56:37Z 2025-12-21T07:56:37Z Freller, Thomas /library/oar/handle/123456789/43185 2019-05-17T01:28:45Z 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: ‘Eyes on Malta’. Fresh Light on Fiction and Reality behind Some Characters in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Die Jesuiterkirche in G. Authors: Freller, Thomas Abstract: In 1816 one of the most popular authors of the German Romantic movement, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, published the novella Die Jesuiterkirche in G. Its central figure is a Maltese connoisseur of the arts who is presented as a very strange and rakish character. He shows the principal character of the novella, the painter Berthold, a new track to see and perceive his environment and to express personal sentiments in his works. This very much parallels the then avant-garde concepts of Romantic art. Literary historians have not investigated the figure of this mysterious Maltese. What were Hoffmann’s sources and stimulations to create this character? The investigation of the genesis of Die Jesuiterkirche in G. leads to an intriguing story and to the famous Maltese eye-surgeon and arts connoisseur Dr Joseph Barth.

2019-01-01T00:00:00Z Abela, Sylvan Casha, Owen Agius, May /library/oar/handle/123456789/38676 2019-05-16T11:54:42Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Development of an augmentative and alternative communication app for the Maltese language Authors: Abela, Sylvan; Casha, Owen; Agius, May Abstract: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) embodies all methods of communication, serving to augment or function as an alternative to speech. Maltese children having complex communication needs use various AAC devices on a daily basis. Their conversation skills are mainly limited by two key factors. The fact that AAC users communicate up to 20 times slower than those who use regular speech is the first of these two limiting factors. The second one is the unavailability of an AAC app for the Maltese language. This paper presents the development of an AAC app targeted for the Maltese language, which provides an intelligent word suggestion mechanism to improve AAC rates. The app is based on a trigram language model which is able to predict the subsequent word by considering the previous two. The model was trained by means of a specifically created corpus and uses the Interpolated Kneser-Ney Smoothing technique to correctly resolve contexts which were not observed during training. The app enables users to retrain and update the language model, such that it may provide additional personalised word suggestions. The app was evaluated by a number of clinicians and educators who regularly work with AAC users. They remarked that it will be potentially helpful in aiding Maltese children during intervention sessions in view of its effective features. The underlying language model features an average perplexity of 90.47 when tested with non-similar training and test data and an average perplexity of 3.61 when evaluated for highly similar training and test data. The low perplexity values suggest that the language model employed in this app is remarkably accurate and is effectively performing as other trigram language models reported in the literature. Description: Also published in Symposium Melitensia Vol. 15 (2019) p. 1-16

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z Mifsud Bonnici, Sandra /library/oar/handle/123456789/38642 2019-05-16T11:56:47Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Bernini breaking barriers – sensuality sculpted in stone Authors: Mifsud Bonnici, Sandra Abstract: This paper will attempt to demonstrate that with his virtuosity, the Baroque sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini managed to challenge the barriers which the medium he worked with, namely stone (marble) offered, to produce dynamic, lifelike and realistic works that also managed to express a previously unknown element in sculpture, that of sensuality. It will try to highlight how the spiritual and physical could come together in his works. The first masterpiece that will be focused upon will be the portrait bust of Bernini’s lover Costanza Piccolomini, a private work Bernini sculpted when he was thirty-nine years of age, chosen to represent the passion and worldly love that he felt for this woman. By way of contrast, the second masterpiece studied in this paper is the figure of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, one of his last works, chosen to represent Bernini’s concept of the culmination of spiritual love that also incorporated a sensual element. The third and final masterpiece is the ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila found in the Cornaro Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, considered by many as his greatest work, as an example of how mysticism also has a sensual element to it. Description: Also published in Symposium Melitensia Vol. 15 (2019) p. 101-114

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z Gatt, Suzanne /library/oar/handle/123456789/38581 2019-05-16T11:56:12Z 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The impact of technology on economic, political and social spheres: the transition from sail to steam in 19th century Malta Authors: Gatt, Suzanne Abstract: Nowadays, we are aware that technology determines and affects our daily lives. We also acknowledge its impact on national political, economic and social development as well as its central role in contemporary globalisation. However, back in time when technology was still affirming its prominence, its impact on society was not yet so discernible. In the study of Maltese history it has often been relegated to secondary importance. One example is the research carried out on the advent and dissipation of the 19th century economic boom in the Maltese Islands. Malta went through a golden age of commerce, followed by a terrible economic slump. Whilst many hailed the entrepreneurial genius of the Maltese, the dominance of British trade and the opening of the Suez Canal, little or no credit was attributed to the new technology of steam propulsion. Adapting to a transition from sail to steam, Malta became a primary coaling station, basing its economy on bunkering and servicing of steam ships. The working population flocked to the harbours in search of making a fortune. The consequent slump, a few decades later, was often explained as a natural recession, with little reference to the fact that it was also the result of the sharp decline in visiting steam-ships, due to further advances in steam technology and the way the Maltese had dealt with this new technological breakthrough. My research delves into this transition from sail to steam: dealing first with Britain’s supremacy in the technological evolution of steam and then with the impact of steam shipping in Malta. Breaking barriers in academia proved edifying. British dominance at the time, combined with the response of Maltese commerce to the advent of the steam ship, provides a context of opposing interests which shaped the history of Malta for half a century and contributed to its future political, social and economic development. This study primarily exposes the centrality of steam technology in the unfolding of 19th century Maltese history.

2018-01-01T00:00:00Z