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The Adriatic Travelogue by Pietro Casola
Marinko Petrić
Abstract
The travelogue by the Italian priest Pietro Casola to the Holy Land in 1494 is one of the most extensive and most interesting pilgrim travelogues from the 15th century. Along with the descriptions of areas, towns, people, the visited churches, he also described very picturesquely the life on a galley, travel difficulties and frequent weather troubles that they experienced.
Casola described our coast on departure from Venice and on the way back from the Holy Land. Of larger towns he included Poreč, Zadar, Hvar, Korčula and Dubrovnik, which were described in a wide range of interest - building appearance, town architecture, fortresses, churches, relics, works of art. He also noted and described many smaller coves and shelters where the galley came to anchor due to bad weather conditions. As an Italian he understood the language of the crew well, so he had an easy access to many interesting information. Therefore, he described some places and churches that he hadn’t seen in person, and he also listed some details on local customs and the way of dressing. He also noted some interesting facts on economic, military and political circumstances of the time, all the way to our coastal toponyms. Being perceptive and both extensive and skilled in descriptions, he left us one of the most documented and meaningful descriptions of our coast in the 15th century.
Casola’s travelogue was described to Croatian language only in shorter or longer quotes of descriptions of several our bigger coastal towns. We discovered the real and authentic experience of our coast in the 15th century only in complete Casola’s descriptions of the journey, which is brought here according to English translation by Mary Margaret Newett’s Canon Pietro Casola's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the year 1494 (University press, Manchester 1907) and translated to Croatian by Ivančica Schrunk.
Keywords
Pietro Casola; Italian pilgrims; travelogue; Eastern Adriatic coast; pilgrim galley
Hrčak ID:
284086
URI
Publication date:
9.9.2022.
Visits: 1.008 *