Geoadria, Vol. 31 No. 2, 2026.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15291/geoadria.5157
First-hand observation and compilation: André Thevet’s textual descriptions of the eastern Adriatic, 1554–1586
Josip Faričić
; University of Zadar, Department of Geography, Ulica dr. Franje Tuđmana 24i, 23000 Zadar, Croatia
*
Đurđa Šinko-Depierris
; University of Zadar, Department of French and Francophone Studies, Obala kralja Petra Krešimira IV. 2, 23000 Zadar
Tome Marelić
; University of Zadar, Department of Geography, Ulica dr. Franje Tuđmana 24i, 23000 Zadar, Croatia
Patrick Levačić
; University of Zadar, Department of French and Francophone Studies, Obala kralja Petra Krešimira IV. 2, 23000 Zadar
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This paper analyses the textual descriptions of the Croatian coast and islands in three works by the French royal cosmographer André Thevet: Cosmographie de Levant (1554), La Cosmographie universelle (1575), and the manuscript Le Grand Insulaire et Pilotage (1586). The research aims to determine the content and characteristics of these descriptions, to identify continuities, differences, and instances of textual borrowing through comparative analysis, and to distinguish information based on the author’s first-hand observation from that derived from earlier written and cartographic sources. The study is grounded in historical-geographical and comparative textual analysis, the critical evaluation of geographical information, and their comparison with classical sources and contemporary historical-geographical scholarship. Particular attention is devoted to toponymy, geographical descriptions, and the relationship between the textual and cartographic layers of Thevet’s oeuvre. The results demonstrate that all three works combine direct observation, compilation, and Renaissance cosmographical modes of interpretation, although the relative contribution of each varies according to the genre and date of composition of the individual work. Numerous verbatim borrowings between the texts were identified, together with substantial differences in content, spatial coverage, and the reliability of individual data. Ultimately, the analysis confirms that Le Grand Insulaire et Pilotage is not merely a pilot book but a multi-layered geographical work which, alongside Thevet’s other writings, constitutes a valuable source for investigating the formation of the European image of the eastern Adriatic during the second half of the sixteenth century
Keywords
André Thevet; historical geography; eastern Adriatic; Renaissance; cosmography; isolario
Hrčak ID:
352624
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2026.
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