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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 inhabi tants 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 show ing 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.

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