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Baroque Routes - 2016 1 FEATURES: Malta – The Splendour of its Baroque Architecture International Conference: The Visual Power of Military Architecture in the Baroque Age Tomaso Maria Napoli: A Dominican Prior’s Contribution to Military Architecture in the Baroque Age Journal of Baroque Studies Volume 1 No. 3 2015 2 Baroque Routes - 2016 Contents International Institute for Baroque Studies 2 - Contents Since its foundation in 1996, the International 3 - Foreword Institute for Baroque Studies has been involved 4 - International Conference: The Visual Power in a range of activities that support its mission to of Military Architecture in the Baroque Age disseminate multidisciplinary knowledge about the 6 - Malta – The Splendour of its Baroque Baroque heritage of mankind, and to promote its Architecture by Denis de Lucca appreciation and conservation for posterity. 16 - Tomaso Maria Napoli: A Dominican Prior’s This objective has been taken forward through Contribution to Military Architecture in the teaching activities at undergraduate and Baroque Age postgraduate levels, as well as through extensive 18 - Review of Journal of Baroque Studies, research work which has formed the basis of Volume 1 No. 3 2015 various publications and theses. The Institute has 20 - Programme of outreach lectures 2015-16 also performed consultancy services concerned 23 - IIBS MA Graduates 2015 with aspects of the Baroque heritage of the Maltese 24 - Lines of Defence - Fortification Drawings of Islands which is linked to the Hospitaller Knights of the Baroque Age at the National Library of the Order of St John the Baptist in the 17th and 18th Malta centuries. On an international level, the Institute has enhanced its teaching activities by actively participating in academic conferences at universities overseas, and has also taken the initiative to organise international seminars in Malta. The Institute assumed a pioneering role in the foundation of the Baroque Route Network of the Council of Europe, on behalf of which the Institute still regularly publishes a newsletter. The Institute’s publications as well as its courses offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, reflect the interests of the academic staff members in the political, military, religious, social, philosophical, scientific, literary, artistic and conservation aspects of the Baroque age. The Baroque world is approached as a holistic cultural entity which embodies the two contradictions of the age: the abstract mathematical and methodical aspect on the one hand, and the rebellious, emotional and exuberant aspect on the other, which are both manifest in the architecture and art forms of the great Baroque capital cities of The website of the International Institute for Baroque Europe. The enduring residues of this eminently Studies can be accessed at www.um.edu.mt/iibs. European cultural expression bears witness to an It contains information about the Institute’s aims age of learning, discovery, brilliance and splendour and objectives, its members of staff, as well as which continues to attract the attention of many an overview of its past and on-going projects, scholars and poses a formidable challenge for them programmes and courses. The website also to provide answers to a host of yet unanswered contains information on the seminars, study tours, questions, and to use archival research to identify research and consultancies undertaken by the and disseminate new knowledge about the Baroque Institute as well as information on the publications, achievement. dissertations, and long essays produced by the students who attended IIBS courses. Contact Address Visitors to the website can now also download issues International Institute for Baroque Studies of the Baroque Routes Newsletter in PDF format University of Malta directly from the site. Msida MSD 2080 The new website also offers detailed information Tel / Fax: 00356 - 21333919/21316619 on the various postgraduate and undergraduate E-mail: [email protected] courses offered by the Institute and provides facilities Director: Prof. Denis De Lucca Andre P. DeBattista for online applications. Administration: Newsletter: Dr. Petra Caruana Dingli and www.um.edu.mt/iibs. Dr. Stephen C. Spiteri Baroque Routes - 2016 3 The third issue of the Institute’s Journal of Baroque Studies was published, ably edited by Foreword Frans Ciappara. This contains eight articles on a variety of topics including St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, the architect-engineer in 18th-century Malta, and the poetic travelogue of the German The activities of the International Institute nobleman Ludwig von Anhalt-Kothen, as well as for Baroque Studies – teaching, research and studies on Baroque painting and music. publications – continued energetically over A recent publication by Denis De Lucca focuses the last year. The Institute also organised an on the work of the Dominican prior Tomaso Maria international seminar, and another series of public Napoli and his contribution to military architecture lectures at different venues outside campus, as in the seventeenth century. This study reveals part of its outreach programme. how, besides the Jesuits, the Dominican Order One of the main recent events of the Institute was also deeply involved in the study and was the launch in May 2016 of the new publication teaching of the art of military architecture. Lines of Defence: Fortification Drawings of the Visiting lecturers to the Institute over the Baroque Age at the National Library of Malta, last year included Marcello Fagiolo from the in collaboration with Malta Libraries. This large- Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Michele Virol, and scale volume will surely serve as an invaluable Maria Giuffre. The public lectures of the Institute resource of information on military architecture were organised in collaboration with various for scholars and other readers. It contains other cultural entities, including the St John’s the eighteenth-century plans and elevations Co-Cathedral Foundation, the Istituto Italiano di of the fortifications built and projected by the Cultura, Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum, Hospitaller Knights of St John in the Maltese and the Alliance Française Malte Mediterranée. Islands held by the National Library, together This issue of the Baroque Routes newsletter with explanatory commentaries. The authors of also features the text of a lecture on Malta’s the work are Denis De Lucca, Stephen C. Spiteri Baroque architecture delivered by Denis De Lucca and Hermann Bonnici. at the European Cultural Days 2015 programme Another highlight was the international organised by the European Central Bank in symposium ‘The Visual Power of Military collaboration with the Central Bank of Malta, held Architecture in the Baroque Age’, organised by in the Deutsches Architekturmuseumin Frankfurt, the Institute in October 2015. Talks were delivered Germany. by scholars from various European universities and cultural institutions, exploring the manner in which architects, designers and military planners introduced elements of aesthetic appeal into Petra Caruana Dingli their works of military architecture. International Institute for Baroque Studies The International Institute for Baroque Studies launched a new Pre-Tertiary Institute Certificate course in Baroque Architecture at the Gozo Campus of the University of Malta in 2015/16. 4 Baroque Routes - 2016 The Visual Power of Military Architecture in the Baroque Age An International Symposium organised by the International Institute for Baroque Studies, University of Malta 9th October 2015 National Library, Valletta This symposium on a relatively unexplored aspect of military architecture was the first of several public activities organized by the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta during the academic year 2015/16. It set out to explore and discuss the manner in which architects, designers, and military planners of works of military architecture during the Baroque age, sought to bring together architecture, engineering, technology, urbanism, and art in researchers engaged in the study of military their defensive works in an attempt to endow architecture and military urbanism, to provide them with aesthetic appeal. The seminar a platform for an exchange of scholarship and gathered together eminent scholars and research in this fascinating field of study. Baroque Routes - 2016 5 The event took place in the prestigious and beautiful hall of the National Library in Valletta, on 9th October 2015 from 9.00 to 5.00 pm. The activities concluded with a preview of a prestigious large-format book entitled Lines of Defence, which brings together the collection of some three hundred fortification drawings held at the National Library in Valletta. This book is a collaborative effort between the Institute and the National Library and contains a foreword by the Rector of the University, Professor Juanito Camilleri. Participants from overseas included Professor Maria Giuffre (University of Palermo), Professor Fernando Cobos-Guerra (Alfonso X University, Madrid), Professor Michele Virol (University of Rouen), Dr. Emilie d’Orgeix (University of Bordeaux-Montaigne), and Dr. Margherita Taveres (University of Lisbon). Participants from the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta, included Professor Denis De Lucca, Dr. Stephen C. Spiteri, Architect Hermann Bonnici, Architect Claude Busuttil and art historian Dr. Theresa Vella. The symposium was supported by Mapfre Middlesea