Prof. Joseph M. Brincat delivered a lecture on "Gli odonimi di Valletta: quattro secoli, quattro bandiere, quattro lingue", showing how the street names of our capital city changed from Italian to French, to English and to Maltese, as a result of Malta's political power changes over four centuries. Built by the Knights, the streets were given names in Italian, mostly dedicated to symbolic saints. When Napoleon came he banished the saints and introduced revolutionary names in French, although the only surviving name on the wall below the Bibliotheca (Strada dell'Eguaglianza) shows that they were still written in Italian in public spaces. The British, in an effort to establish good relations with the Church, brought back most of the saints, added others, but kept some of the landmark names (like Merchants' Street). With independence, street names changed to reflect our freedom, and with the Republic Strada Rjali became Triq ir-Repubblika.

He also explained why the Italian names kept the ancient term Strada (instead of the modern Via as used all over Italy) up to 1927 and in informal conversation among the inhabitants of the city to this day. Gorizia, a frontier town in north-east Italy, passed through various dominations, and various languages were spoken and/or written: Friulan, Slovenian, German, Hebrew and now Italian, but no studies have been carried out on the influence of power on street naming.

Prof. Brincat has led a project on Onomastics within the Italian Department, studying the multilingual character of surnames, first names, and the names given to houses, shops, and car number plates in Malta and Gozo thanks to Honours, Master's and Ph.D. students who wrote original dissertations.