Dubrovnik Annals 13 (2009) 101 whereas the innovations in the conservation old port facilities are monuments of the past, not technology tend ed to change the consumers’ ignored but increasingly studied by foreign habits and taste (tuna was no longer exclusively experts of industrial archaeology. Tunere of the regarded as meagre diet, ice also became northern Adriatic are rare colourful examples available to the lower strata). Although periods of more systematic Croatian concern, while of war hindered more intensive fishing and many other monuments simply disappear before thus contributed to the regeneration of the fish our eyes, especially the non-material cultural population, wide usage of dynamite nearly heritage of the fishing customs. exterminated the sea life. Examples abound, A wide range of topics in the volume Fishing some of which provide the reader with interesting and Industrial Heritage points to the value and historical verticals: while fishing guaranteed diversity of the fishing heritage. Authoritative food for the inhabitants of the Dubrovnik region and insightful, it represents a departure from the under recent occupation, in the more distant nostalgic myth of the Mediterranean that never past, however, it was a valuable food resource was. for the invading armies who, otherwise, would have had to transport the food rations from afar (e.g. during the Turkish siege of Malta in 1565). Nella Lonza This volume should primarily be credited for boldly dispelling the myth on the until recently rich fish resources of the Mediterra- Sonia Wild Bićanić, British Travellers in Dal- nean and the Adriatic, allegedly threatened matia 1757-1935 Plus a Little Bit More About by overfishing of a relatively recent date, the Dalmatia Today, Zaprešić: Fraktura, 2006. fishing being done by ‘the others’. By contrast, Pages 171. evidence on the problems and controversies related to fishing date from as early as the The book provides the accounts of several nineteenth century: demand exceeding supply British travellers to Dalmatia from the eighteenth on the local market contributes to its constant to the twentieth century, the author’s personal imbalance, state politics between stimulation insights into the history of Dalmatia and her and protectionism (fixed prices, concessions, comparison with the history of Great Britain. bans), fishing as a part-time job. The nets One chapter is devoted to the impressions of trawling the sea bottoms are no news, and Dalmatia viewed by Ann Bridge in her novel neither is the conflict between the old and new Illyrian Spring. The last chapter recounts the technology—large scale deep sea vessels have island of Vis and its connections with Great long been viewed as competition to smaller Britain. The author’s comments on all the ac- fishing boats, while the advent of acetylene counts derive from her own travel experience lamps (today rarities and nostalgic items) had of an Englishwoman born in Kenley, Surrey caused quite a stir among the fishermen who in 1920. After leaving school she gained an fished in a more traditional way. exchange scholarship for a year in an American Today the delicate balance between man and college. She returned to Britain in 1939, the year the aquatic environment is principally viewed the Second World War broke out. In 1941 she through ecological threats, from oil pollution to joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) excessive use of medicaments in aquaculture and from 1942 to the end of the war worked in and negative impact on the biodiversity. This the Army education service. In London she volume on the history of fishing reminds us of met Rudolf Bićanić, a Croatian economist, and the huge cultural heritage, which we (in Croatia) in 1945 she married him and went with him seem to care little about. Sardine factories and to Croatia, where she has lived ever since. fish markets, lighthouses, buoys or parts of the After graduating from the Zagreb Faculty of 102 Dubrovnik Annals 13 (2009)

Philosophy, she gained a PhD at Oxford Uni- Venice. This expensive folio-edition was dedi- versity and joined the Department of English cated to King George III. The first copy, pres- at Zagreb University, having lectured in the ented to the king himself, is now in the British Culture and Civilisation of Great Britain, along Museum. It is assumed that 500 copies were with many other courses in English and Ame- originally printed. rican literature. In 1999 she published her Chapter Two is a brief historical survey of memoirs in Two Lines of Life (in Croatian and Dalmatia. ‘What country, friend, is this?’ asks English), and in 2001 was awarded for bringing Viola of the ship’s captain in Shakespeare’s closer British and Croatian cultures. Twelfth Night when they are cast (like Richard The book under review is divided in seven the Lion Heart) upon the shore after a terrible chapters, preceded by a preface in which the storm, upon which she is told, ‘It is Illyria, lady’. author explains her reasons for writing this And since then a number of Shakespearean book. It is intended for visitors to Dalmatia and scholars have tried to show what part of the the Adriatic coast who want to know different Dalmatian coast Shakespeare had in mind: things from what most guidebooks offer, based eastern Mediterranean or east coast of the on the accounts and experiences of the British Adriatic, known as Illyria in ancient times. This travellers from the late eighteenth to the early chapter is divided into several subsections: twentieth century, interwoven with more recent Roman Dalmatia, The arrival of the Croats, information by the author herself. Rise of the Republic of Venice, The advance of Chapter One is concerned with the work and the Ottoman Turks, French interlude and recollections written by a Scot Robert Adam Dalmatia within the Habsburg Empire, The (1728-1792), one of the most famous architects, position of the Croats, Re-emergence of Illyrian brilliant decorator and furniture designer— ideas, and The first and second Yugoslavias. In hence originator of the eighteenth-century Adam writing this fifteen-page historical note on Dalmatia, Sonia Wild Bićanić mostly drew on style. His book The Ruins of the Palace of the the information and data written in English Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia, by Gardner Wilkinson, T.G. Jackson, and Ivo London, 1764, is an account of his travels to Goldstein (Croatia, A History, London, 1999). Dalmatia in 1757 to study the ruins of the Emperor Diocletian in Split. Before visiting The following chapter is devoted to Sir John Split, Adam made a Grand Tour of Italy, where Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875), a respected he had gone to widen his knowledge of classical Egyptologist and a Fellow of the Royal Society, architecture. His tour included Rome and later and his two best-seller volumes of Dalmatia Florence where he was introduced to the French and Montenegro With a journey to Mostar in artists and art historian Charles-Louis Cléris- Herzegovina and Remarks on the Slavonic na- seau, who was well known for his drawings of tions, The history of Dalmatia and Ragusa, antique ruins and his knowledge of classical the Uscocs &c&c&c, London, 1848. Travelling architecture. Clérisseau provided most of the to countries ‘not generally known or visited’, illustrations for Adam’s book, today of outstand- Gardner Wilkinson focuses his attention on ing documentary value and an excellent record people and customs, history and language, of the city in the eighteenth century. Adam’s showing great sympathy for the Slavs and sister was married to William Robertson, one animosity towards the Turks. He started his of the leading Scottish historians of the day, voyage down the coast, sailing round the Istrian whom Adam entrusted with the publishing of peninsula from Trieste to Rijeka (Fiume), his his book upon arriving home in 1759. However, first real stop. He describes the old castle of his Ruins of the Palace of Diocletian in Spa- Trsat, property of the Irish Count Laval Nu- latro in Dalmatia was not printed until 1764 gent (1777-1862), Austrian Field Marshall and in London, and a translation the same year in Croatian patriot. His remarkable military and Dubrovnik Annals 13 (2009) 103 political position brought him into contact with Ruđer Bošković). His list also contains the name the outstanding Croats, including the partisans of the humanist and writer Marko Marulić. The of the Croatian National Revival, and later with figure that had caught his special attention was the Ban Josip Jelačić. Nugent became the owner that of Marc-Anton de Dominis (1560-1624), a of considerable property in Croatia, besides the humanist and scientist descended from a noble Trsat Castle in Rijeka, three more castles, which family of Rab, whose work was recognised by he had restored and in one of which he died. The Isaac Netwon. De Dominis has added inter - steamer route took Gardner Wilkinson past the est for the British, as he resided for a time in islands of Rab and Krk, recalling the history of England, was received at the court of King the famous yet infamous Uscocs of Senj, brave James I, and was for a time Dean of Windsor. sailors who acted against the great powers of His scientific experiments, coupled with scep- Venice and the Ottoman Empire. His interest in ticism concerning the Church doctrine, led him them was probably part of his general interest i nt o c o n f l i c t w it h Va t i c a n. P r e s u m a bly p oi s o n e d, in the resistance of small power against great he died in prison in 1624. ones, remembering the feats and conquests of The island of Hvar was where Gardner Wil- the British sailors against the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. Gardner Wilkinson’s first kinson stopped next, followed by Korčula, the long stop was in Split, under Austrian authority island of the celebrated traveller Marco Polo. at the time yet friendly to foreigners, especially After Korčula, he went to Dubrovnik, a city British. He dedicates more space to Trogir, one much longer known in travel literature pub- of the oldest settlements in Dalmatia, originally lished in Britain than any other place on the a Greek colony, and its monuments. During his eastern Adriatic coast. Dubrovnik-born Ruđer excursion into the interior, until recently Turkish Bošković was one of those names on Gardner territory, he travelled up the river Krka to Knin Wilkinson’s list that he had underlined twice. and Sinj, and returned to Split via Salona. One Mathematician, physicist, astronomer and phi- of the stages of his journey was the Franciscan losopher, Bošković was a scholar of European Monastery of Visovac, where the monks greeted reputation. Apparently, his only portrait was him with great hospitality. Gardner Wilkinson made in England. Sonia Wild Bićanić draws was interested in the economy of the regions on the book of Rudolf Filipović Englesko- through which he passed, and with his Egyptian hrvatske književne veze / English-Croatian lit- background, he was aware of the importance of erary connections, Zagreb, 1972. She cites some water management and drainage. In this respect, of the first accounts of Dalmatia, particular- he criticizes the Austrians for doing little or ly Dubrovnik, published in Britain: Richard nothing in improving the agricultural conditions Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voiages, of this backward inland region. In Sinj, Gardner and Discoveries of the English Nation, London, Wilkinson attended the Sinj Alka, a horseback 1589. tournament marking the victory over the Turks Chapter Four depicts the arrival of Alan A. in 1715, still held every August. Apart from the Paton, geographer, historian and informal ad- actual travel accounts, this British traveller viser to the British government of the nine- showed interest in the ‘distinguished natives of teenth century, in Dalmatia. Unlike Adam and Dalmatia’, who had played an important part in Wilkinson who reached Dalmatia by sea, Paton wider historical, scientific, political and reli- came by land across Velebit. The purpose of gious life than just of their own region. Paton’s trip was to study the material resources Gardner Wilkinson provides a list of thirty of the Austrian Empire with which Britain had distinguished natives of Dalmatia, including recently entered a trade agreement. The results two Roman Emperors (Claudius Gothicus and of his visit to the Austrian ports on the shores Diocletian), two popes (St Caius and John IV), of the Adriatic were published in a four-volume St Jerome, two scientists (Marin Getaldić and work Hungary and Transylvania, Dalmatia and 104 Dubrovnik Annals 13 (2009)

Croatia, Servia and Bulgaria, London, 1861, city. Paton imagined a different future for each its second part being entitled Highlands and city that he visited, saying that Dubrovnik, from Islands of the Adriatic. After his dramatic drive its literary tastes and cultivated manners ought down Velebit, Paton went to Šibenik where he to be the seat of a university and learning. Paton did not stay long before taking the steamer down continued his journey through the Neretva val- the coast. As a geographer, Paton is interested ley, Opuzen, Metković, and back to Split, com- in the ‘operation of the currents and winds’ in pleting his travels with an excursion to inland the Adriatic, which he describes in his account. Dalmatia–Klis, Sinj and Vrlika. He finally de- On his way down the coast Paton made short scended to Zadar. stops at Split, Hvar and Korčula. Paton fell in The fifth, most extensive chapter is devoted love with Korčula. He brings enchanting de- to Sir Thomas Graham Jackson (1835-1924), scriptions of the island’s luxuriant landscape architect, painter and restorer, who visited Dal- and vegetation. matia several times, Zadar in particular. He il- Paton’s accounts include a considerable lustrated his three-volume work Dalmatia the amount of economic information, which was Quarnero and Istria. Before its publication in the original reason of his visit, as well as the 1887, he gave a lecture on Dalmatia before the descriptions of the cultural and social life of Royal Institute of British Architects, illustrating the places he visited. Unlike Adam or Gardner it with his own sketches and drawings. The latter Wilkinson, wherever he went, Paton made a lot were recently exhibited at the gallery of the of local friends and included the information Croatian Embassy in London, occasioning the launching of a new edition of Jackson’s travel obtained from his ordinary conversations. accounts: Recollections–The Life and Travels of Exploring the streets of Korčula around the a Victorian Architect, London: Unicorn Press, cathedral, he came upon the Arneri Palace. A 2003. As of recently, his illustrations have be- beautiful bronze knocker on the door caught his come the property of the City of Split. This attention, the same knocker for which Edward chapter is entitled: Dalmatia the Quarnero VIII, while sailing in the Adriatic with Mrs and Istria With Cettigne in Montenegro and Simpson, was ready to exchange for the knock- Island of Grado, in three volumes, Oxford, er’s weight in silver. Today the knocker is in the 1887. Jackson differed from other travellers. local museum. After Korčula Paton sailed to He visited Dalmatia more often (four times), Boka Kotorska and Montenegro, but eventual - stayed longer and left a permanent memorial ly returned to Dubrovnik where he spent a there in the form of the bell-tower of the Zadar considerable time, being introduced to a host of Cathedral, for which he provided the plans. He the leading personalities in society, scholarship, travelled with his wife, some of whose obser- the army and the Church. He became friendly vations he included in his books. Jackson with some of the old aristocracy still possessing provides most exhaustive descriptions and il- the old ‘palazzos’ and gardens, once ‘realms of lustrations of Zadar, Šibenik, Split, Hvar, Kor- literature’ and poetry. The author stresses that čula and Dubrovnik, the focus of this review the first collection of Dubrovnik sonnets in being on Dubrovnik. Thomas Jackson was Croatian was published in 1507, fifty years among the leading architects of the late nine- before the publication of Tottel’s Miscellany teenth century. He was especially influential in (1557), the first collection of Elizabethan son- Oxford, having provided the plans for restoration nets. During his stay in Dubrovnik, Paton vis - for no fewer than fourteenth Oxford colleges. ited the cave of Marin Getaldić, in which this He produced the first detailed guide to the ar- famous mathematician, astronomer and natural chitecture of the Eastern Adriatic, unsurpassed scientist of the seventeenth century performed to date. Considering it one of the most interesting his experiments. Unlike Ruđer Bošković, Getal- buildings in Dalmatia, he made a special study dić played an important part in governing the of the Rector’s Palace. Dubrovnik Annals 13 (2009) 105

Chapter Six describes the life and travels Indeed, smuggling from Vis to the Dalmatian of Ann Bridge, one of the most popular early mainland became a lucrative way of life. The twentieth-century English novelists. Ann Bridge Napoleonic naval commanders decided that the was actually the pen name of Lady Mary Dol- British must be driven out of Vis, and in Ancona ling Sanders O’Malley. She was the author of 17 an Italian naval squadron was assembled under novels, several of them bestsellers. Her Illyrian the French commander De Bourdieu to achieve Spring, London, 1935, reprinted several times, this goal. Since they were flying English flags, is being dealt with in this chapter. Ann Bridge the ships entered the harbour without opposition. was more like today’s visitors and tourists to They did a great deal of damage to vessels of Dalmatia. Her husband was a diplomat in Bel- all kinds lying at anchor, plundered the ware- grade and she travelled down the Dalmatian houses and took as prizes several ships with coast partly for pleasure and in part to write a valuable cargoes, but when three fishermen novel about it, as she did for a number of other entered the harbour bringing Commodore De places where her husband was appointed (China, Bourdieu the news that Hoste was seeking to Albania, Portugal, Hungary, and Poland). Like engage him and might appear at any moment, Shakespeare, Ann Bridge uses the ancient word the French re-embarked their troops and with- for Dalmatia–Illyria. From a sudden encounter drew to Ancona taking their prize ships with in Venice, the main characters of her Illyrian them. Thus ended the first act of the battle. Una- Spring, Grace and Nicholas, two artists and ware of the real balance of his forces in the nature lovers, drift down the Adriatic coast in Adriatic, Napoleon believed that he was strong search of freedom and artistic fulfilment. Most enough and demanded that the Franco-Italian vivid descriptions of landscapes and particularly navy should gain control of the Dalmatian vegetation with a scrutiny of a passionate bota- islands, beginning with Vis, which had by this nist fill the pages of this novel. Reproduced is time become an important British naval and Celestin Medović’s ‘Spring flowers beside the trading stronghold. When De Bourdieu saw how Sea’ in support of Ann Bridge’s insightful bota- small the enemy force was he decided not to try nical descriptions. and enter the harbour, but to attack the British. The last chapter is entitled Vis and its spe- Orders were issued from his flagship but the cial connections with Britain. Vis or Issa proba- wind made the exact reading of the flags bly was the first Greek colony in the Adriatic. difficult. The only order that the French were T.G. Jackson also described the island, while able to understand was to proceed under full Paton left a stirring account of the battle of Vis sail, which they did in a totally disorganised in 1811. At the beginning of the nineteenth fashion, entering the battle one after another. century Napoleon’s hold on Europe still seemed The British sailed in close formation and this absolute, including on the western and eastern made their victory decisive. shores of the Adriatic. But in 1805 the Battle of The British decided to take permanent pos- Trafalgar, which the British navy under Nelson session of Vis and in April 1812 a strong force, so decisively won, greatly altered the balance of including men-of-war, transport ships and gun- power in the Mediterranean. One of the British boats, sailed into the harbour, bringing with flotillas fighting the French and Italians in the them as military and civil commander Governor Mediterranean was commanded by William George Duncan Robertson. They set about for- Hoste, a young man of barely 28 years old, tifying the island with barracks for a permanent who chose Vis for his base of operations in the garrison. The corner stone was laid for Fort eastern Mediterranean. Thus under the protec- George (after the English king) at the western tion of the British navy the island became not entrance of the harbour, the small island at only a strategically placed naval port, but also the entrance was named Hoste (and still is). an important European trading centre to east On other locations towers were built and call - and northern Europe for goods from Britain. ed after Bentick, commander of the British 106 Dubrovnik Annals 13 (2009)

Mediterranean fleet, and governor Robertson. Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean played an important On the eastern side Wellington fortress con- role here, which he described in his book The trolled an important sea passage. The work went Balkan War. Sonia Wild Bićanić adds that the very quickly and these fortifications were com- allied troops and the partisan fighters managed pleted in 1813. British control of the island lasted to find time for recreation, playing football until 1815, when Napoleon was defeated and by or waterpolo. The Split Hajduk football team the Treaty of Berlin Austria became ruler of treasure a photo of their match against the Dalmatia and the British handed Vis over to Queen’s Regiment, which they won 7:1, and with them. The years of British rule were sometimes which the book is illustrated. After the war referred to as the ‘British Years’, and were ex- ended Vis for many years was off bounds to any tremely prosperous. In a letter to his mother but the Yugoslav army. There were a number Hoste wrote that if he remained in the Adriatic of British graves on the island and one of the two more years, he could save enough money to duties of the British Consul General in Zagreb ensure a pleasant life for his whole family. was to visit these regularly, which he did under Supplemented in this chapter is a drawing of considerable escort. Not until Croatia became Captain Hoste from the Croatian History independent was Vis once more open to the Museum in Zagreb. In merely two to three years public. The author notes that the present-day the little settlement of Vis, with one thousand British in Vis have a good reputation in reno- vating and restoring the old houses, better than inhabitants, grew into a town of 12,000 people. any others who buy property on the island. Out of this number as many as 7,000 were foreigners, mainly merchants, attracted by the This book is a welcome reading for those most varied colonial goods from all parts of the studying English and English literature, litera- world, but also by cheap goods plundered by ture in general, history, architecture, art history, pirates and marketed on Vis in collusion with conservation and restoration, tourism, ethnology the British. and anthropology. A thorough knowledge of the historical and artistic heritage, literature and The next time a special relationship came civilisation of Great Britain, along with profound into existence between the British and Vis was respect and assessment of the historical and at the end of the Second World War. The Allies artistic heritage of Dalmatia have contributed to had been giving assistance to the Yugoslav this very valuable book on the British-Croatian Partisans led by Marshal Tito even before the connections. capitulation of Italy, and after the Italian sur- render in 1943, Vis became an important link in the Allied chain of command in the Adriatic. Lia Dragojević