GEOGRAPHICAL BASIS OF NAVIGATION ALONG THE VELEBIT CHANNEL ACCORDING TO 1639 SENJSKI PELJAR

U radu se analizira Senjski peljar iz 1639. To je prvi plovidbeni priručnik sastavljen na hrvatskom jeziku, a ujedno i prvi pomorsko-geografski opis podvelebitskoga obalnog područja od Senja do Novskog ždrila. U Senjskom peljaru pomorcima je jezgrovito dan pregled osnovnih geografskih značajki relevantnih za planiranje terestričke navigacije uz obalu Velebitskog podgorja. Istraživanjem izvornika toga plovidbenog priručnika, komparativnom analizom s opisima Velebitskog kanala u drugim starim peljarima te sa starim kartografskim prikazima Velebitskog kanala utvrđeno je značenje pojedinih podvelebitskih uvala koje su omogućavale sigurno zaklonište te važnost koja se u vrijeme nastanka Senjskog peljara pridavala pojedinim prirodnim resursima u opskrbi i pomorsko-trgovinskoj razmjeni. Ključne riječi: pomorstvo, geografija, Senjski peljar, Velebitski kanal, Velebitsko podgorje

However, Senj never developed into an important Adriatic port because its hinterland was economically undeveloped and its traffic connections depended on poor quality roads characterized by great slopes and poor technical characteristics until the second half of the 18 th century when the Jozefina road was built (Pejnović, Vujasinović, 1998).
Bora wind was especially negative navigation factor for sailboats and boats with oars sailing along the Velebit Channel.It is a wind that frequently blows in these waters and develops great speed and strength (Lukšić, 1975;Yoshino, 1976;Penzar et al., 2001), complicating or completely disabling even the most simple navigation tasks like maintaining course and sailing speed and length planning.Besides, since the late 15 th century the area was exposed to permanent confrontations between the Habsburg Monarchy, the Ottoman Empire and the Venetian Republic which made seafarers exposed to military and pirate attacks (Bracewell, 1997;Grünfelder, 2001;Novak, 2004).
Local seamen had no problems in dealing with the aforementioned conditions in the Velebit Channel waters while foreigners (especially Venetians) avoided them.Since the Channel was, as already determined, geographically unfavourable navigation basin of less trading importance, very little information about it was published in pilots and maps written by European authors until the 17 th century.The pilot written in Senj in 1639 represents a turning point.Since it was not given a title or signed by an author, in this paper it is simply referred to as Senjski peljar.The book offers many interesting geographical data about the coves, fishing and logging areas, fresh water sources, military conflicts sights, fortifications, sacral buildings, etc., and is therefore a first-class historical and geographical source recognized in this Geoadria 17/1 (2012) 45-71 kanalom, preciznije obalnim pojasom od Senja do Novskog ždrila.
The goal of this research is to determine the significance of individual Velebit Littoral sheltered coves, and the importance the area's natural resources had in terms of supply and sea trading at the time the pilot was written.Research results are based on the analysis of a 1639 pilot book first published without any additional scientific analysis by R. Lopašić (1885).In addition, the paper offers a comparative analysis of the pilot and Velebit Channel descriptions in other old pilots and cartographic depictions, establishing the significance Senjski peljar had on the development of geographical knowledge regarding this part of the Croatian coast.
Denotation of geographical objects mentioned in Senjski peljar was done based on the comparison with modern nautical charts made by Croatian Hydrographical Institute in 1:100,000 scale (Split, 2010) and topographic maps scaled 1: 25,000 made by State Geodetic Administration (Zagreb, 1997).Analysis of geographic contents in the pilots and on the maps was accompanied by field researches.Accordingly, the text of Senjski peljar and the research text contain both modern toponyms and original toponyms written in brackets in italics.The research has determined that the author(s) of the pilot did not follow geographical sequence of ports and coves from NW to SE, presumably because the exploratory voyage undertaken for the purpose of creating the navigation guide probably did not occur in geographical sequence but depended on momentary hydro-meteorological conditions or various subjective circumstances.Therefore, the authors of this paper have complemented the original sequence by ordinal numbers referring to the actual geographic sequence of ports and coves mentioned in Senjski peljar in the brackets.
i Starigrad-Paklenica (Argiruntum).Depiction of the Velebit Littoral on Tabula Peuntigeriana from the 4 th century is not better (Kozličić, 1995).Of all the settlements in the area it shows only Senj (Senia) with a separate toponym for its port (Port.Senia), apparently an important intersection of maritime and inland routes which connected that part of the Liburnian coast with the hinterland over the Vratnik Pass.
After this scarce information that emphasizes the windiness of the channel and adjacent waters and mentions only the most important ports, mainly Senj, there was not any concrete information about the area for centuries to come.
The silence of geographical and cartographic sources was interrupted by the Arabian cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi.Honouring the Sicilian king Roger II, he prepared his comprehensive work Geography, i.e.The Book of Roger (Kitab al Rudjar) and a world map (Tabula Rogeriana) in which, among other, he described the Adriatic Sea (Halig al Banadika) and Croatia (Bilad Garuasia) in detail.In the Velebit Littoral area he described and mapped Senj (Sena), Starigrad (Kastilaska), Karlobag (Maskala), and Vronjak near Karlobag (Armas) 2 .M. al-Idrisi also gave interesting observations about these places.For Senj he said it was an interesting town inhabited by Croats, i.e.Slavs who had a great number of vessels at sea while Starigrad and Vronjak had smaller number of ships (Marković, 1993;Kozličić, 1995).It must seem unusual that an Arabian cartographer had such great knowledge about the Velebit Littoral compared to numerous later geographers and cartographers.It is probably the result of the fact that either himself or an unknown traveller he took the information from travelled across the mainland or along the mainland coast, as indicated by the absence of descriptions of island settlements along the usual sailing route between Pula and Zadar.
2 Although M. al-Idrisi in his Geography mentiones Zaton (Satou) together with Karlobag, stating "it belongs to the Dalmatians and has ocean-going ships", this probably does not refer to the settlement of the same name situated in the Velebit Littoral, as assumed by M. Marković (1993), but to Zaton near Nin which had the role of Nin's main port.According to al-Idrisi, Nin was a "big town" (and thus it was only logical it had ocean-going ships).Generally, toponymy of many places presented on al-Idrisi's map so far is questionable and a thorough revision of the existing historical and cartographic works which analyze this famous medieval cartographic work should be carried out.
Prema reprodukcijama izvornika objavljenim kod M. Kozličića (1995.),među geografskim objektima imenovani su samo Senj i Sv.Juraj.Tako su primjerice, Senj i Sv.Juraj prikazani na portulanskoj karti Jadrana Pietra Vescontea iz 1318.(signa i s. ti georgy; Sl. 2.), portulanskoj karti Europe Abrahama de Cresquesa iz 1375.(segna i san zorzo), portulanskoj karti Europe Nicolasa Passqualinija iz 1408.(segno i s. zorzi), portulanskoj karti Jadrana Jachobusa Giroldisa iz 1426.(segna i s. to çorçi), portulanskoj karti Jadrana the Velebit Littoral was schematized, generalized and distorted.According to reproductions of original maps published by M. Kozličić (1995), the only named geographical objects on such charts were Senj and Sveti Juraj.These objects were depicted on, for example, 1318 portolan chart of the Adriatic by Pietro Vesconte (signa and s. ti georgi; Fig. 2 After the aforementioned ancient and medieval works, the first relevant nautical and geographical source is the so-called Rizo Pilot.Its original title was Portolano per i naviganti composto per un Gentiluomo Veneziano but it is known by its shortened title Rizo Portolano named after its publisher, Bernardino Rizo, who published it in Venice in 1490.Although the author of the pilot was not named but only described as "a Venetian gentleman", it is assumed that it was an alias of a Venetian seaman Alvise Ca' da Mosto (Muljačić, 1971).Kretschemer's issue of the pilot from 1909 begins the description of navigation on the Eastern Adriatic with Venice (Venexia), i.e. point 193, and ends with point 208, which describes the Island of Corfu (corfu).Navigation between the Kamenjak Cape (polmontore) and the Raša Bay (porto longo de larsa) and further to Crna Punta (chauo ziraflor) is described in point 199.The distance between the Kamenjak and the Merlere (merlere) Cape is 6 miles, and there are 10 more miles to Budava port (porto bado).The Raša Bay comes next but the text is damaged so the distance between Budava and Raša is not known.The author obviously presumed that one should sail through the Raša Bay to get to the mouth of the Raša River because it is the only way to understand why the distance between the Bay and the next navigation point is 40 miles.Besides, that part of the text gives the information about the distance between Venice and the Kamenjak Cape (130 miles).Thirty miles sail leads from Crna Punta to Vela Vrata (chauo di quarner), a dividing point between the Kvarner and the Rijeka Bay in which the 200 th point of the pilot begins.The distance between Crna Punta and Labin (albonia), actually, Labin's port of Rabac, is 20 miles.The distance between Labin (Rabac) and Plomin (fianona) was probably left out by accident.It is stated that Plomin is a good port (bon porto).Some eight miles east of Plomin is Porozina (faraxina) on the Island of Cres.The distance between Porozina and Rijeka (fiume) is 10 miles.Another two miles from Rijeka there is Martinščica (san martin), and 25 miles from it there is Bakar (bochari), situated in the bay of the same name.In its vicinity there are port of Kraljevica (porto re) and Kotor fortress (chotor), 10 miles away from the coast of Krk (uegla).The sailing route between the Bakar Bay and Senj (segna) was 15 miles long.Nekoliko važnih geografskih podataka o podvelebitskim lukama dao je osmanlijski pomorac i kartograf Pîrî-Reis u peljaru Kitab-i Bahriye (Ökte i dr., 1988.).U inačici toga peljara iz 1526., u dijelu koji se odnosi na Jadran, površno se spominju Senj (Sanya) i Jablanac (Yayigaca) (Novak, Mlinarić, 2005.;Novak i dr., 2005.).Pirî Reis, naime, navodi da su Senj (koji je dobra luka za ukrcaj i iskrcaj različitih tereta) i Jablanac luke pod mađarskom upravom.Ujedno spominje i Velebit (Lamurlaka) s kojeg u Veneciju dospijeva brodograđevno drvo, ali i drvo za izradu bačava.U kratkom opisu Kvarnera (Karnar) posebno ističe da vjetar "toliko puše da uništava brodove" (Ökte i dr., 1988.).
I na drugim portulanskim kartama 16. st.(prema reprodukcijama izvornika objavljenim kod: Marković, 1993.i Kozličić, 1995.) podno Velebita najčešće su prikazivani samo Senj i Sv.Juraj, a iznimno i Žrnovnica.Tako su, primjerice, na karti središnjeg i istočnog Sredozemlja Maggiola Vescontea iz 1512.prikazani Senj (segna) i Žrnovnica (moline), na karti Jadrana Pietra Coppa iz 1525.Senj (Segna) i Sv.Juraj (S.Zo...), na karti središnjeg i istočnog Sredozemlja Giovannija Andreasa Vavassorea iz 1539.Senj (Segna) i Sv.Juraj (Sanzorzi), a na karti Jadrana Dioga Homema iz 1570.Senj (Segna), Sv.Juraj (s.zorzi) i Žrnovnica (molini).interrupted at this point and continues with the description of Zadar (Zara e gran citade ed a bon porto).Hence, the whole area from Kvarnerić Bay to the Zadar Channel was left out.This means that point 200 of the pilot is no more than a sequence of notes about the rest of the eastern coast of Istria, Rijeka and Bakar Bays, and the northern part of the Velebit Channel.However, the main navigation route through the eastern Adriatic Sea is described in point 198, in which the relation Kamenjak -Susak (sansego) -Kvarnerić Gate is elaborated.In this sense, points 199-200 of the pilot are merely an excurse compared to the main Eastern Adriatic navigation route description, which provides basic information about the ports and distances between them in a part of the Kvarner Bay area.
Ottoman seaman and cartographer Pîrî-Reis gave some important information about the Velebit Littoral ports in his pilot Kitab-i Bahriye (Ökte et al., 1988).An issue of this pilot from 1526 mentions Senj (Sanya) and Jablanac (Yayigaca) (Novak, Mlinarić, 2005;Novak et al., 2005).Namely, Pîrî-Reis states that ports of Senj (suitable for loading and unloading various cargos) and Jablanac are under the Hungarian authority.He also mentions Velebit (Lamurlaka), which supplies Venice with timber for ships and barrels.In his short description of Kvarner (Karnar) he particularly points out that "the wind blows so hard that it wrecks ships" (Ökte et al., 1988).
In 1528, in Venice, Benedetto Bordone published his Insular (Isolario) with descriptions of all known islands in the world at the time.This and all later issues of Bordone's Insular (for example, the 1547 issue) bring both text and maps, including a map containing a depiction of Kvarner and some North Dalmatian islands.Along the Velebit Littoral the map shows only Senj (Segna) and two fortifications which could signify Sveti Juraj and Veća in Starigrad-Paklenica (Fig. 3).
Sedmovraće to the Zadar Channel and then to Zadar and further on (and vice versa travelling from Zadar to Venice; Kozličić, 2000aKozličić, , 2000bKozličić, , 2006b;;Kozličić, Faričić, 2004;Kozličić, Bratanić, 2006).Besides the lack of trading interest and the risk of the Uskok pirate attacks which kept them away from the Velebit Channel, the seamen also considered the meteorological conditions in the area to be a great obstacle for sailing.In this context, an observance by Fynes Moryson, an English traveller who wrote about his pilgrimage to Jerusalem between 1596 and 1597, is particularly interesting.After he came to Venice from England over the continental Europe in 1596, he travelled over the Adriatic, the Aeonian Sea and the eastern Mediterranean Sea to Christ's Tomb in Jerusalem.In 1597, he followed the same route home.Both times he travelled over the Adriatic Sea in late April, i.e. the middle of spring.During the return journey, on the night of 25/26 th of April Moryson wrote (according to his itinerary published in 1907 and its Croatian translation by Z. Levental, 1989) that they had "sailed across 30 miles wide strait between Dalmatia and Istria called Kvarner", and continued: "We passed through, but it was not dangerous, although there are rumours it is so dangerous that the Venetians who confront a seaman usually use the following insult: Cursed be the Kvarner for letting you pass (Maledetto sia il Cornaro che t'ha lasciato passare)".This insult reflects the fear of sailing through the Kvarner Bay and one cannot but wonder what the people from that period must have thought about the Velebit Channel where bora blew even more strongly and where the Uskoks from Senj were even closer to their base.It is interesting that the same perils were described by the English architect and travel writer Thomas Graham Jackson at the end of the 19 th century (Lokmer, 2009).
In conclusion, until Senjski peljar was written in the first half of the 17 th century, the majority of the Velebit Littoral was a terra incognita for European pilot and chart authors.Therefore, it can be justly clained that, with regards to its quantity and the quality of geographical data, the pilot written in Senj in 1639 represented a true turning point in this literary genre.

Senjski peljar from 1639
Based on transliteration of the original Senjski peljar published by R. Lopašić in 1885, made by Professor Zlata Derossi, and according to the naming of geographical objects in the original pilot published by the authors of this paper (applying the aforementioned methodology), the text of Senjski peljar is as follows: "This is the list of all big and small sea ports situated on His Highness the Emperor's border in Podgorje (Podgoriu) (the Velebit Littoral), from Senj (Segnia) to Dračevac (Fortice Draceuca) fortification, where the borderline between His Highness the Emperor and the Ottoman Military Border (Turskoij kraijini) is, with two Turkish towns by the name of Obrovac (obrouci).His Highness the Emperor's border (extends to) the peak of the mountain named Velebit (uelebih), (which is) ten Roman miles away from the sea.There is timber for all purposes along this border.
1. [1.]The first port from Senj (segnia) is Spasovac (sueti spas), with an abandoned monastery where hermit friars (suettoga Paula Paruoga Eremitae) used to dwell.The port is suitable for both smaller and larger ships.
5. [5.] Sveti Juraj (Suetti Iuraij) is good for large and small ships and for fishing.The port has permanent supply of quality drinking water.There are a monastery and a church and a few abandoned stone houses.The port is five Roman miles away from Senj (Segnia).
Although the pilot does not explicitly describe meteorological and oceanographic conditions, the seamen were able to conclude where to seek shelter by relying on numerous coves descriptions and listed anchoring possibilities.According to the pilot, anchoring is possible primarily in ports suitable for larger vessels and ports sheltered in all weather conditions.In addition, listing of a very large number of coves on relatively small segment of Croatian coast also points to refuge possibilities in cases of sudden storms or winds (especially bora).In fact, the pilot indirectly suggests that a ship could, if found in the Velebit Channel between Senj and Novsko ždrilo, take shelter in almost all of these ports.
Information about numerous fishing areas is economically important.The pilot mentions several coves abundant with fish and, therefore, suitable for fishing, in which seamen could supply their ships or catch fish to sell in markets.According to the pilot, good fishing areas can be found in Ujča, Vlaška, Grabove, Sv.Juraj, Rača, Žrnovnica, Lukovo, Anžina, Biluća, Klada, Vrulja, Zavratnica, Burnjača, Vranjak, Prizna and Cesarica.
The introduction to the pilot notes that the coast described is rich in timber "for all purposes".This obviously refers to the fact that seamen were able to find wood for their personal needs there (such as making fire for cooking, repairing ships, making tools for fishing and other purposes) but also for lumber trading, which was the most important economic activity in the Velebit Littoral at the time.The pilot notes that it is possible to find timber in Ujča, Klada, Vukotić, Grbačka, and Vlaka, and the trees can be cut in Jablanova, Rača, Anžina, Vrulja, Mošćina, Ognjilo, Črnika, Sedlenica, Kijac, Tvrda draga, Pržunac, Koromačina and Starigrad-Paklenica.These listings clearly evidence the importance of timber exploitation in the local economy which was the main reason for plant cover depletion on Velebit Mountain coastal slopes.Centuries of wood cutting and small stock grazing have formed a degraded landscape of vast rocky grounds with scattered forest oases (Rogić, 1975(Rogić, , 1976)).
Along with natural and socio-geographic contents, Senjski peljar also mentions more important fortifications and sacral buildings in the coves or in their vicinity.According to the pilot, fortifications are located in Jablanac, Veća and Dračevac, and there is also an abandoned fort in Starigrad-Paklenica.In Sveti Juraj there are several abandoned stone houses.The pilot also notes an old ruin overlooking Modrič.Moreover, the text also lists numerous sacral buildings and monasteries such as the monastery and church in Sv.Juraj, a big church in Rovanjska, the abandoned monastery of hermit friars in Spasovac, and abandoned churches in Cesarica, Sv.Marija Magdalena and Tribanj.All the above-mentioned objects could have been used for orientation in terrestrial navigation and for emergency shelters, especially in cases of enemy attacks from the sea.Special attention was given to Dračevac fortification which represented a contiguous point along the Habsburg -Ottoman boundary in the Velebit Littoral and also a final point in the description of relevant geographic objects located along the coast of the Velebit Channel.
Thanks to all the aforementioned data, it can be determined that Senjski peljar was a comprehensive source of basic knowledge about the Velebit Littoral coves, very usable in organizing civil and military maritime affairs.Therefore, it is not unusual that the text was later on translated into German with minimal additions.The German version of Senjski peljar was included in a report by Martin Stier, who was instructed by the War Council in Graz to visit, describe and map all military objects in the Military Border between 1657 and 1660 (Marković, 1993;Krmpotić, 1997).
It is not known where Seller collected the material for his pilot from, but it can be assumed that he used portolan charts and geographic maps drawn by Venetian and other European cartographers, which, as time passed, depicted the Croatian Adriatic region better and better.Among these numerous cartographic depictions, the map of West Croatia printed by Stefano Scolari in Venice in the first half of the 17 th century particularly stands out.The author is not known but L. Lago (1998) assumes that the map followed Giacomo Gastaldi's cartographic tradition.In other words, the map was made by an unknown author who used geographic data and followed depiction methods of Venetian cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi.The map printed by S. Scolari depicts, from NW to SE, Senj (Segna), Spasovac (S.Saluador), Lukovo (S.Lucca), Klada (Cleda), Sv.Jakov (a church in Starigrad near Senj; S. Giacomo), Stinica (Steniza), Jablanac (Lablanaz), Cesarica (Chesariza), Karlobag (Schriza), Lukovo Šugarje (La Luca), the churches of St. Nicholas (S.Nicolo) and St. John (S.Zuanne), Tribanj (Triba) and Veća (Vecca), a fortification in Starigrad-Paklenica (Fig. 5).
Information about the Kvarner published in A Journey into Greece (Part I.A Voyage from Venice to Constantinople) from 1682 by George Wheler may serve as a picturesque addition in analyzing the information published in Seller's pilot.The work is, in fact, an expanded edition of Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et du Levant published by Wheler and his fellow traveller Jacob Spon, a physician, in Lyon in 1678.In early June 1675 the two men travelled from Venice to Greece and then to Istanbul.On their way from Pula (Pola) to the Islands of Cres and Lošinj they were supposed to sail across the southern part of the Kvarner (Quarner), which was, according to Wheler, 30 miles wide.After they had travelled between 20 and 30 miles, and were only about 10 miles away from secure waters of Cres and Lošinj, they noticed a "severe storm" was forming and it caught up with their ship "four miles off shore with such ferocity that we gathered the sails immediately.It was a hurricane, a twister", which nearly overturned the galley.The wind was accompanied by such thunder, lightning and rain, as if "all the forces of nature" had conspired to destroy the ship.In addition, the sea was so rough they could not sail or even paddle.The reason for često dolaze tako snažni naleti vjetra koji mogu biti "pogubni za lađe koje tuda moraju proći".Zacijelo se radilo o nastupu hladne fronte, popraćene razvojem kumuliformne naoblake i jakim udarom bure.Upravo je ciklonalna bura pomorcima najnepoželjniji prirodni čimbenik navigacije kojeg su se s pravom bojali.all this, according to Wheler, is the Učka Mountain (Caldiera), situated northward, at the bottom of the Kvarner Bay, from which often come gusts of wind so strong they can be "fatal for the ships that must sail through there".It was probably a case of a cold front accompanied by cumuliform clouds and strong bora development.This very type of cyclonic  Najbolji prikaz hrvatske obale među europskim kartografima 17. st.dao je Vincenzo Maria Coronelli.On je pola stoljeća nakon Senjskog peljara, i to 1688., priredio voluminoznu zbirku karata Mari, golfi, isole, spiaggie, porti, citta, fortezze, ed altri luoghi dell'Istria, Quarner, Dalmazia, Albania, Epiro, e Livadia, u kojoj je dao sintezu svekolike njemu dostupne kartografske građe o istočnoj obali Jadrana: od geografskih karata sitnog i krupnog mjerila, do plovidbenih karata, planova i veduta (Kozličić, 1995.) , golfi, isole, spiaggie, porti, citta, fortezze, ed altri luoghi dell'Istria, Quarner, Dalmazia, Albania, Epiro, e Livadia, in which he synthesized all the cartographic material regarding the Eastern Adriatic coast he could obtain: from big and small scale geographical maps to nautical charts, plans and panoramas (Kozličić, 1995).Along with the maps, Coronelli also gave short descriptions of certain parts of the Adriatic coast.One of them is the description of "The Kvarner Bay and its islands" which contains interesting meteorological and geographical observations.Among other geographical navigation factors, Coronelli particularly emphasized bora.He looked upon the Kvarner waters as a whole with regards to bora and divided it in three parts: the first, which consisted of the Rijeka and the Bakar Bay; the second, the Velebit Cannel, which he refers to as the "Bay of Senj" (Bocca di Segna); and -according to him "more renown than the first two because of the strong wind" -the third part -a long sea belt between the Kvarnerić Bay and Pag, Nin and Ljubač Bays.Consequently, this Venetian geographer directly points to dangers caused by bora in the Velebit Channel.In Coronelli's times another great peril that had threatened Venetian ships in the Velebit Channel until the 1617 Treaty of Madrid -the Uskoks from Senj -had already been forgotten.The Venetian cartographer had the need to victoriously write a note saying: Popoli gia detti Uscocchi destrutti dalla Republica di Venetia all along the Velebit Littoral.The Venetians could sail these waters more freely after 1617 which, besides other things, resulted in new geographic material and better quality maps.Thus, it is quite logical that several ports and fortifications in the Velebit Littoral are mentioned even on small scale maps such as Premda geografski podaci na Coronellijevoj karti Dalmacije ne čine niti jednu trećinu onoga što je spomenuto u Senjskom peljaru, ipak pokazuju postupno upoznavanje europskih geografa i pomoraca s tim dijelom hrvatske obale.No s obzirom da su tijekom kraja 17. i većeg dijela 18. st.Coronellijeve kartografske prikaze hrvatske obale europski kartografi reproducirali tek uz manje preinake (uglavnom metodološke, a manje sadržajne naravi), tako je i percepcija Velebitskog podgorja, uz rijetke iznimke (primjerice topografska karta Dalmacije iz 1718./Sl.7./ i karte Pietra Santinija, Antonija Grandisa i Frane Zavorea nastale na temelju toga predloška), ostala gotovo neizmjenjena sve do prve sustavne i cjelovite hidrografske izmjere Although the geographical data on Coronelli's map of Dalmatia make up less than a third of what is mentioned in Senjski peljar, it still shows a gradual introduction of European cartographers and seamen to this part of Croatian coast.However, considering that in the late 17 th and much of the 18 th century other European cartographers reproduced Coronelli's cartographic depictions of the Croatian coast with only minor modifications (mostly methodological rather than substantive), the perception of the Velebit Littoral remained mostly unchanged until the first systematic and comprehensive hydrographical survey of the Adriatic Jadrana koju je obavio Vojno-geografski institut iz Milana.Ta je izmjera rezultirala objavljivanjem zbirke pomorskih karata Carta di Cabottagio del Mare Adriatico disegnata ed incisa sotto la direzione dell' I. R. Stato Maggiore (Milano, 1822(Milano, . -1824.).), te pratećeg peljara Portolano del Mare Adriatico koji je priredio Giacomo Marieni 1830.(Kozličić, 2006a;Faričić, 2008Faričić, ., 2011.).).S time je velebitski podgorski prostor s pripadajućim akvatorijem bio istražen te opisan i prikazan sveobuhvatnije i preciznije, a s time i kvalitetnije u odnosu na Senjski peljar iz prve polovice 17. st.
Sea carried out by the Military and Geographical Institute in Milan, with only rare exceptions (for instance, the topographic map of Dalmatia from 1718 /Fig.7/ or Pietro Santini's, Antonio Grandis' and Frane Zavoreo's maps based on that template).The survey resulted in publication of a collection of nautical charts called Carta di Cabottagio del Mare Adriatico disegnata ed incisa sotto la direzione dell' I. R. Stato Maggiore (Milan, 1822(Milan, -1824)), and the accompanying pilot, Portolano del Mare Adriatic, edited by Giacomo Marieni in 1830 (Kozličić, 2006a;Faričić, 2008Faričić, , 2011)).Thus the Velebit Littoral and its waters had been explored, described and illustrated more comprehensively and precisely, that is to say, with more quality compared to Senjski peljar from the first half of the 17 th century.
Adriatic navigation routes, then the absence of major ports, fear of natural (bora wind) and social hazards (the Uskoks), etc.
Senjski peljar mentions and briefly describes 79 coves.Along with their basic characteristics regarding the (im)possibility to dock and anchor ships of various sizes, it also provides numerous information regarding natural resources that could have been used by seamen (water supplies, fishing, logging, etc.) and information about more important fortifications and sacral objects which could have been used for orientation in terrestrial navigation or as shelters in case of danger.Although the pilot, given the geographical scope of the described area and the language in which it had been written, was primarily intended for local seamen, it had great significance for organizing efficient control and resource management in this unstable area in immediate vicinity of the Triplex Confinium between the Ottoman Empire, the Venetian Republic and the Habsburg Monarchy.This is why Senjski peljar was translated into German, the official language of the Habsburg military administration in Croatia.
Comparative analysis shows that, with regards to the quality and quantity of geographical data, descriptions provided in Senjski peljar were the best description of the Velebit Littoral, i.e. the Velebit Channel coast until the systematic and comprehensive survey of the Adriatic Sea in the first half of the 19 th century.

Slika 6 .
Figure 6 Coronelli's depiction of the Velebit Littoral on the map of Dalmatia, 1688 Source: State Archive in Zadar, Sign.II.A*
The description of navigation in the Rizo Pilot is Zadra (Zara e gran citade ed a bon porto).