Original scientific paper
Traditional and innovative register in Alberto Fortis’s Saggio d’Osservazioni sopra l’Isola di Cherso ed Osero
Smiljka Malinar
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The Paduan scientist Alberto Fortis, who gained renown throughout Europe for his discovery
of the Morlachs and the publishing of «Hasanaginica» in his most famous work,
«Viaggio in Dalmazia», began his career as a travel writer with a report on a scientifi c
journey on the islands of Cres and Osor, «Saggio d’Osservazioni sopra l’Isola di Cherso
ed Osero», published in 1771. Fortis was primarily interested in geological phenomena,
with which he wanted to refresh certain scientific theories. But he also recorded his observations
about the island’s economy and the way of life and customs of its inhabitants.
In Italy during the second half of the eighteenth century there was much lively debate
about the language of scientific texts. Traditional complex and periphrastic forms of
literary origin were used in opposition to the economy and directness of French prose.
In this article, selected examples from Fortis’s travelogue are investigated to determine
to what degree that champion of «modernity» and rerformist on the intellectual and
social level, by the linguistic structure of its text, realized the corresponding innovative
principles, and how much he remained indebted to his own traditionally imposed
education and the environment in which he spent his early years.
Keywords
Alberto Fortis; travel literature; Cres and Osor; geology; verbs of perception; scientific vocabulary; syntactic structure
Hrčak ID:
40451
URI
Publication date:
26.5.2009.
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