Anna Dulska, ICS researcher, has made a stay at the University of Malta to research on the historical identity of the Order of Malta.
The researcher has delved into the history of the maritime policy of the order during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries thanks to a financial aid to the mobility of professors and junior researchers José Castillejo
FotoCedida
/Researcher Anna Dulska during her stay in Malta.
15 | 01 | 2025
Anna Dulska, researcher of the group 'Vínculos, Creatividad y Cultura' of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra has completed a 14-week stay at the University of Malta in the framework of a financial aid to the mobility of professors and junior researchers José Castillejo of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. The University of Malta is the center of reference in the history of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem / Order of Malta, a fundamental factor in explaining the value of this place for its research, which has focused on explaining and analyzing the history of the maritime policy of the order during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when it was in Rhodes.
Can the insular state administered by the Order be classified as a thalassocracy (a power based on the control of the sea)? Can the Order's maritime policy and naval strategy be defined? The research seeks to answer these questions by focusing on the 14th and 15th centuries. For researcher Anna Dulska, these questions contain an important value today in addressing the identity of the Order as it is an identity turned to the sea. In this sense, this research offers a possibility to rescue a whole heritage lost in the seas, which was the place where the Order carried out its life. Rescuing this historical heritage has the difficulty of the seas, where exploring it is much more difficult than exploring the land. Therefore, this underwater research has sought to understand how the Order procured and maintained its ships, how they decided where to position their vessels strategically, to examine what they knew about shipbuilding, types, markets and their lifespan, and to investigate who the admirals were: their origin, degree program, skills and experience, and to explore the heritage value of underwater archaeological remains related to the Order.
The researcher will publish articles on knowledge dissemination to detail the impact of her work and the results following her programs of study.
