Franz Petter and the encyclopaedic books on Dalmatia

Abstract

Following the Napoleonic wars the Croat province of Dalmatia ruled by the Emperor of Austria was a province ill-famed for its excessive heats. Franz Petter, who was a teacher of German first in Dubrovnik (Raguse) and then in Split was the first man of the post-war period who described Dalmatia as a pleasant country with a healthy, dry climat. He wrote subsequently a number of encyclopaedic descriptions on Dalmatia which still are considered to be the best, which we have from that period.