Prikazi plovila u jadranskim izolarima 16. stoljeća
Portrayals of vessels on the Adriatic isolarii of the 16th century

Summary/Abstract: Isolarii, as a scholarly/travelogue genre of the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern era, are a vital source to study maritime affairs on the Adriatic during this period. In this regard, those cartographic materials which, besides depictions of the coast, islands and wider seaboard as the fundamental content, also show various maritime vessels of the time are particularly important. The portrayals of vessels from sixteenth-century isolarii are covered herein, since it was precisely during this period that these sources achieved considerable progress not only in the geographic sense but also in terms of the portrayal of ancillary content on the plates. The introductory section contains a review of the features of isolarii as cartographic sources and the applied techniques used to make the plates. The middle section of the work consists of an analysis of the portrayals of ships with several plates from the most important isolarii of the sixteenth century. Among the images of ships, various types of galleys have primary importance, first and foremost as warships that were used to secure Venetian dominance on the Adriatic Sea. Besides galleys, other types of ships, primarily cargo vessels, were also encompassed in the analysis, which is logical given the importance of the eastern Adriatic as a component of maritime mercantile routes of global significance. Among them, the most successful portrayals are those of the ships that were also the most typical of the maritime trade of the time: carracks and marsilians. Certainly the character of the plates as situational portrayals contributed to the fact that considerable attention on them was accorded to the small vessels of Senj: the oar-propelled veslarice and the gajete sail boats. The appendices contain images of the charts on which the vessels analyzed in the work are depicted.

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