Original scientific paper
Descriptions of the Croatian Adriatic Coast in the Travel Accounts of the Swiss Dominican Felix Fabri (Schmid) Recorded in 1480 and 1483/84
Stjepan Krasić
Abstract
On his voyage from Venice to Palestine and the Near East in 1480 and 1483/84, Felix Fabri (Schmid), a Swiss Dominican, visited a number of places along the east coast of the Adriatic- the towns of Poreč, Rovinj, Pula, Osor, Zadar, Biograd, and Dubrovnik; and the islands of Prvić, Hvar, Šćedro, and Korčula. In an attempt to provide his readers with plenty of useful facts about the regions he traveled through, the author filled the pages of his diary with information ranging from geographical particularities to political conditions, along with detailed accounts of what he may have witnessed, heard, or experienced. A testimony of a most eventful journey, these accounts impress the reader with absorbing descriptions of the people he encountered, their language, customs, monuments, curiosities, inns, churches, relics of saints, etc. Fabri’s travel accounts reflect the author’s particular interest in the climate, the flora and the fauna, the means of sea transport, including the elements of navigation. The genuine value of these or any other travel accounts does not merely lie in the fact that they describe actual events but that they also illustrate how much others knew or may well have known about us. Over the centuries, accounts such as these represented practically the only source of information on the Croats and their lands in the countries of western Europe.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
11752
URI
Publication date:
19.6.2001.
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