Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/yl4okf8dx9
Adriatic islands in the General isolario of all the islands of the World by Alonso de Santa Cruz
Josip Faričić
; Department of Geography, University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
*
Ivana Lončar
; Department of Hispanic and Iberian Studies, University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
In the General Isolario of All the Islands of the World (Sp. Islario general de todas las islas del mundo) by the 16th-century Sevillian historian and cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz, the Croatian islands are described and mapped in two chapters. The objective of the study is to present an early modern source with data on the Croatian islands, which had until now been relatively unknown in the Croatian scientific publicist writing. Therefore, Santa Cruz’s text about the Croatian islands was translated from Spanish into Croatian. Moreover, a historical-geographical and historical-cartographical analysis was carried out based on the comparison of Santa Cruz’s geographical content with the ones of other relevant sources, with spatial data of the same or a similar genre. It was determined that the author based his text on the Croatian islands on ancient geographical sources and the works of the Renaissance authors such as G. Benincasa, F. Berlinghieri, and B. Bordone. However, his compilation of these sources was not always adept. Consequently, his geographical descriptions and cartographic representations of the eastern Adriatic islands are deficient in comparison with other older and contemporary works of the same type, such as isolarios, which used to function as a kind of cosmographic encyclopaedia of the islands. Despite these shortcomings, Santa Cruz’s work underscores the interest of the Spanish maritime and scientific circles in the Adriatic area, recognizing its significance within the broader maritime-geographical system of the Mediterranean.
Keywords
Alonso de Santa Cruz; isolario; cartography; Adriatic Sea; Croatia; Adriatic islands; 16th century
Hrčak ID:
325033
URI
Publication date:
18.12.2024.
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